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“How do you know?” I asked, spinning around to face her. I balled my hands into fists.
“Becauseyouboughther, remember? It’s not like she chose to come after you. Besides, a rabbit hasn’t existed in centuries, maybe even a millennium. I doubt the demon got its hands on one just like that. Besides, there’s no trace of dark magic on her, and if a demon commissioned her, I would have picked up something.”
I let out a breath. Uma was right. Damn it, I was too paranoid.
“I’ll see what else I can find out,” Dagger offered. “About how she killed the panther, and why.”
“I can damn well ask her,” I said, irritated now, not only with the situation but with my paranoia. An alpha wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“She’s not going to tell you anything,” Dagger said.
“And she’s terrified of everything right now,” Uma pointed out.
They were both right.
“We’ll figure it out,” Dagger said. “You’re not in any danger right now, and it’s going to stay that way. You’ve figured it out the past two centuries.”
I nodded. Dagger was right, but that didn’t change the fact that I was a target for a demon to finish his mission. Demons lived forever—they belonged to the Underworld and lived eternally, so this promise he’d made to take me out wouldn’t die with him. It couldn’t.
Fuck my dad for doing this to my family and fuck him for doing it to me.
“I need a drink,” I said, walking toward the bar area that had a deck overlooking the valley.
“Sure, have your drink,” Dagger said. He didn’t have to add thatalcohol won’t make your problems go awaybecause he’d said it often enough, and Iknewthat.
“It’s going to be fine,” Uma said. “We’ll figure this out.”
“I hope we do,” I said gruffly. “I’m sick of this bullshit.”
“Who knows,” Uma added, “maybe the rabbit is an answer.”
I didn’t answer her, because I didn’t know if it could be. All I knew was that more and more things were spinning out of my control, and I hated it.
7
KINLEY
Iblinked my eyes open to a ceiling that was starting to become familiar. This room in the “cabin” wasn’t home by any means, but the last couple of days I’d been here, I’d felt safe, and that was a big deal. I’d been on my own for so long, always having to watch my back with no one there to look out for me. My foster parents had done what needed to be done—they’d fed me and raised me, but that had been it. The big stuff—the emotional stuff—I’d had to do by myself all my life.
I hadn’t exactly felt safe since I’d shifted into my rabbit form for the first time.
When it had happened, I hadn’t been able to talk to my parents about it. We’d never been that close, and they would have shunned me immediately, told me I was crazy. I’d grown up in a human home, and it had meant that my whole life had been around humans.
Until the night shifters had attacked me, I hadn’t even known there were others out there. It had been a rude awakening to find out the way I had, but everything had changed since then.
I got out of bed, stretched, and walked to the enormous bathroom. I turned on the hot water and stripped off my pajamas before I stepped under the waterfall shower. The water surrounded me, and I closed my eyes.
My rabbit was frustrated. She wanted to get out and run, but I wasn’t allowed to do that. I’d gone against Uma’s advice and tried to escape. When the night had been at its darkest on the first night I’d been here, I’d climbed out of my window, shifted, and run… only to slam up against an invisible force field that threw me back and hummed through my body like I’d been electrocuted.
Electrocuted by magic.
Uma had been serious about the spell, which fae could do, apparently.
Icouldask permission to leave, Uma had said, but that only made me feel like the prisoner I really was, and I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want someone to stand by my side, to watch me like a hawk to make sure I didn’t run away. I couldn’t be treated as a possession.
I’d shifted a few times in my room, bouncing around—the room was bigger when I was a tiny rabbit, and space wasn’t an issue—but it wasn’t the same as being out in the forest, feeling the mulch under my feet and the fresh air ruffling my fur.
Being between shifters should have made me feel less alone now that I knew I wasn’t the only one, but all my current situation had done was make me feel lonelier than ever.
