Page 85 of The Turning of the Tables

Let me tell you, it’ll be a big deal when I bite your face off.

I put my face in my hands. I needed to get myself under control. I wasn’t this prone to wild emotions. This was the shifter part of me that was causing the mood swings, the hair-trigger temper.

I hated it.

I hated me.

My phone buzzed. It was Quincy, of course.

My throat was still incredibly sore—a combination of lingering Arcana symptoms and the fact that I screamed through most of my shifts. Talking was something I could do, but I didn’t particularly want to. But it was Quincy.

“’Lo,” I managed.

“Oh, shit, Mays. You’re—Are you okay?”

“No,” I rasped.

“You sound terrible,” she told me. “Is that because…”

“Still sick,” I croaked. “Getting better.”

She was quiet a moment. “Does talking hurt?” she asked, and I could hear the hope in her voice. But I didn’t have it in me.

“Yeah,” I told her.

“Oh, Seth, I’m sorry.” She used my first name, which meant she really did feel sorry for me. That made me feel worse.

“Me, too,” I managed.

“I’ll let you go—but I miss you, and I can’t wait for you to be well enough to come home. And back to work,” she rushed to continue, “but we’ll have to get coffee or ice cream or something even before they clear you to come back.”

“I’d like that,” I told her. The ice cream would feel good on my throat.

She said goodbye and hung up, then texted me a line of heart emojis. I sent her one back, then flipped to my conversations with Elliot and texted him, my fingers still not working very well.

SETH MAYS

Sorry

Took me in it was bad

ELLIOT CRANE

Are you okay now?

Dunno

Hurt everywhere

Youshifted?

Yes

Wolf?

Yes

Is Noah there with you now?