Page 51 of A Trial By Blood

“Yeah, it happened a short time later.”

Iris looked to Wills. “Scrying?”

Wills nodded slowly, deep in thought. “That’s what I was thinking.” She looked at me. “Have you had any other visions like this?”

“No.” I’d heard of scrying, of course, but I didn’t know much about it, honestly. There’d been no need for me to study and practice magic, not when I’d been too weak to use it.

“Scrying nearly always comes from looking into a shiny object. If you have the gift, you can get messages or visions, and not only of the future. We’ve had a few seers in coven Thornheart, but not for a very long time,” Wills said.

“It’s obviously been sitting dormant, unable to grow to its full potential while you were sick.” Iris smiled. “That’s awesome, Roe.”

Hope filled me. “You really think it’s here to stay?”

“I do, but I guess we’ll know for sure if it happens again.”

“Good morning, Rose,” a deep voice said behind me.

I spun around, and Ronan stood in the doorway. My heart immediately exploded to life in my chest. He was dressed in his usual dark trousers, but instead of a white shirt, he wore a black one. It was undone at the throat, and my mouth instantly watered. I was due to feed, and as soon as I saw him, my belly gripped tight, and not just with hunger for his blood. It was another kind of hunger altogether.

“Hey, Ronan.” Could he hear the way my heart pounded?

“Christ,” Mags muttered under her breath. “I need a knife to hack my way through all this tension.”

I ignored her and stood, and his gaze slid over me from head to toe, then that square jaw tightened. I was wearing jeans again, they hugged my legs, and I’d pulled on a pair of black leather boots. This time, my sweater was a deep blue. I thought it brought out my eyes. My hair was down, and it had a bit more wave to it this morning.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Um, yeah, sure.” I’d been hoping he’d have some blood for me. But he didn’t have anything with him. Was he not going to feed me anymore? Did he think I could handle that side of things myself now? He didn’t mention it, so I grabbed my bag and slung it over my head, said goodbye to my sisters, who were watching our exchange avidly, then strode out, Ronan right behind me.

He pulled on his long black woolen coat hanging by the door and I did the same.

“So I thought we’d go visit Mr. Reptile Shifter this morning,” I said, since Ronan wasn’t saying anything at all. “But this time we’ll knock and see what information we can get from him.”

We walked out, and he opened the car door for me. “All right.” He shut me in and strode around to the driver’s side.

When he got in, tension filled the car instantly. Did he feel it as well, like I had last night? Or was it only me? He pulled out onto the street, and we headed toward the outskirts of town and the house we’d broken into last night.

“So, how was your evening?” I asked, to fill the silence. I glanced at him again, and his jaw was doing that thing where it got all tight.

He looked at me, then away. “I stayed at the clubhouse.”

“You’re not going back to the knight’s compound?”

He shook his head. “I prefer the clubhouse.”

“Did you hang out at the bar…or…?” I wasn’t sure what to ask, but I wanted to keep him talking.

His hands gripped the wheel tighter. “I spoke with Relic, then showered.”

An image of him naked filled my head like a total perv. Jesus, I’d gone from feeling nothing even close to desire ever to being a total horndog, and I had no idea what to do about it. “Me too,” I said. “The shower part, I mean.” Why the hell were we talking about showering? This was ridiculous. We’d talked more when I was sick, before Ronan regained his emotions, and I missed it.

“Then I went to the pits and fought.”

I glanced his way, at those roughly spoken words. “You were in the pit again.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”