Page 50 of Wretched Thorns

Mel caught Jasper looking at her.

“You look tired,” she said simply.

Like they were talking about anything except the last twenty-four hours.

***

Dex was watching Jasper.

Not openly. The way a man measures another man across a room when he’s decided he isn’t going to be the one to break the look first.

Jasper let him.

He met Dex’s eyes and held them. Dex’s mouth moved a quarter of an inch. He looked back down at the table.

Callum, at the head, hadn’t said a word since Miss Delphine had looked at him. He was watching her watch him. Jasper knew the look on his brother’s face the way he knew the look on his own.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Miss Delphine didn’t look away.

Celie Toussaint cleared her throat.

“There’s work to do,” she said.

Mom looked at Eli.

***

Eli adjusted his glasses and pulled the Louisiana map closer, keeping the thicker stack of notes near his elbow closed.

“Marcus is somewhere south of New Orleans,” he said. “That’s as close as we have narrowed it down yet.”

He tapped the penciled circle near the coastline.

“We’ve had intermittent contact with Serena. Enough to know she’s alive.”

Tara went still at that, but didn’t interrupt.

“We also confirmed Marcus has ties to the Beaumonts,” Eli continued. “Old ones.”

That landed differently around the table.

Celie’s expression flattened slightly. Miss Delphine looked down at her folded hands. Mel went very still beside Rowena’s empty chair.

Jasper noticed all of it.

“How old?” Celie asked quietly.

“Old enough that Fillion knew the name immediately,” Eli said. “Old enough that Marcus expected it to mean something to us.”

Nobody said anything for a second after that.

The silence felt crowded.

Then Celie pushed herself up from the table with a soft exhale.

“Quarter hour,” she said. “Rowena and I need to compare warding before we decide our next step. Tara, baby, bring my box in from the truck.”