Page 46 of The Witch’s Daughter

Stop thinking about him.

“Hmm,” Gentry hummed to himself as he walked.

“What?” I asked.

He gave me a tired smile. “It’s just that if you want to go back home, I wouldn’t mind coming with you.” Gentry was full of surprises tonight.

I almost tripped over my own feet. But then I understood what he was saying. “How is Feyre anyway?”

We’d still been teenagers the last time I’d seen his mate. They had a traditional love story, finding each other when they were young and inseparable ever since. What every shifter dreamed of.

I rubbed the ache in my chest.

“I’m homesick for her,” Gentry breathed the words as if he’d been holding them too tight. “I didn’t realize it’d be this hard to be away.”

That was the reason Mom hadn’t come to the festival. She and Dad were joined at the hip, and non-magic wielders weren’t permitted to attend. It was a little ‘separationist’ if you asked me… but I didn’t make the rules.

“Why are you staying?” I had to know. The dreamer in me couldn’t bear to see two lovers hurt. “I’m sure Alpha Aiden would want you to come back too.”

“He would.” Gentry nodded. “But I can’t leave Jaxon here.”

“Why?” I asked.

“He didn’t tell you?” Gentry frowned, reading the answer on my confused face. “Jaxon told all of us to stay back and enjoy the festival until your Alpha arrived with news from the other packs, but he was going to Vincent’s trials to make sure no one got hurt. We couldn’t let him do that alone.”

I stopped in my tracks. The night breeze whipped around us, chilling me to the bone. Of course that’s what happened. Perfectly stupid, self-sacrificing Alpha.

I told you he wasn’t singling you out.

“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you that too,” Gentry said. When he saw I wasn’t walking, he paused. “Jaxon did say something. You didn’t listen.” He chuckled. “Gods, the both of you are something else.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered.

Gentry turned his face to the sky. “You two have always orbited each other and clashed in all the right ways. None of us can believe fate didn’t pair you up.”

His words cut, opening old wounds. The ones that came from a foolish girl who’d thought someone like Jaxon might love her, before I realized what I truly was to him.

How could someone that strong be paired with someone like me?

Ha. It was a cruel joke.

I wrapped my arms around my chest and took a step back. “I forgot something at the bonfire.”

Gentry looked longingly at the tents in the field. “Did you want me to walk back with you?”

“Absolutely not. You go to bed.” I started jogging. “See you tomorrow!”

Jaxon wasn’t at the clearing in the festival grounds. Neither were Calla or the twins. The bonfire had died down to embers, and some warlocks lingered, dousing the coals with water.

I must’ve missed them on the way to the tents somehow. That was for the best. I might’ve overreacted a bit during our fight earlier, but Jaxon was still the same suffocating Alpha that put everyone’s needs before his own. The best thing I could do for him was not be another problem.

I needed to save myself.

All the signs were pointing me here, to this moment. I glanced up at the sky and Halley’s Comet, feeling in my gut that it was fate. The moon was almost to its highest point.

Time to go.

To the witches you’ve never met. In the dark woods. For a potion to drink. My wolf closed her eyes and sighed.