“Um…why did you stop to speak with me?” I gesture around to all of the girls who are clearly avoiding each other. “Not that I mind, I just –“ “Oh, I really like your wolf!” she says, visibly brightening as she gestures towards Anton, who lifts his head, clearly proud and pleased to be acknowledged
“I’ll leave you here,” Nic intones, dropping his hand from mine the moment the three of us materialize in the room. “Okay,” I say, turning towards him. “And if I need to go somewhere, what? I just call you and –“ “You don’t need to go anywhere,” he says, flat. And then he disappears. I scowl a
“Eh,” Anton says, and I turn my head to see him shrugging and smirking a bit. “I’m not so sure about that.” “What?” I press myself up to a sitting position, intrigued. “What are you talking about? I was such a jerk to him – it’s a miracle that he didn’t kick me out of the competition – I mean, I r
“Anton!” I groan, wiping my snarl from my face and flopping back on the bed, kicking out at him, embarrassed. As usual, he just laughs. “This is so ridiculous! That can’t possibly be true!” “It is, though!” “But how?” I ask, cuddling up in the comforter a bit, feeling weird and shy. “First, how
We’re silent for a moment, just looking at each other, before Anton slaps his hands against his thighs, clearly not wanting to dwell on it. “So!” he says, forcing a smile onto his face. “What I think you and I need is a plan.” “A plan?” I ask, screwing my lips to the side as I study him. “Yup,”
“Okay, so,” Anton says, idly swinging his feet as he sits on the counter next to the sink while I brush my teeth. “First we go to Laila’s for breakfast, hopefully getting some information about what the hell is going on, and then we…” he hesitates here, not knowing precisely how to fill in that blan
But suddenly her words fall away when she turns her head and looks up into Anton’s face, her own the picture of shock. “Anton!” I gasp, realizing that Laila was expecting a glowing white and blue wolf and standing in front of her is a white and blue boy. “You weren’t supposed to shift!” “Oh god
“I wasn’t quite brought from home,” Anton says with a little shrug, smirking at Laila and clearly enjoying himself. “But I wasn’t called up, either.”“Then where did you come from?” Laila asks, looking at him with her wide eyes. Her dark brown irises, I note with curiosity, are larger than mine or a
“Juniper, could you…could you maybe visit my mom?” he whispers. “Tell her…I don’t know, in a way that she understands, what to expect when the next kid is…exactly the same as me?” I laugh a little and nod, grinning at him. “And…please ask her not to name me Redman,” he whispers. “It’s such a wei
“If…if it were possible,” Blythe says, still looking down at his feet. “I’d like to be reincarnated…soon. I don’t want to go back to the Dead place – I don’t think I was really…there. And I don’t want my memories, if you please. I want to…try again. Start fresh.” Life hums, considering, and then n
This world – it will be as I will it. It is mine. And if she wants to keep her place here – her beautiful beacon city in the Darkness – then she will recognize my right to rule as well as my demands. Or else I’ll go to war with her as well. And I’ll win that one too. My wolf snarls, deep a
Orion sighs, dropping his face into his hand, shaking his head. “June…” he sighs, probably trying to warn me away from a fight with a Goddess. I ignore him, all of them. If Anton has had a mother out there all of this time, he deserves information! And she was sending Faiza to actively tell him to
“Yes,” Laila says, grinning and nodding eagerly to me. “And me too! He really is our Selkie Prince!” I beam at her in turn, quite pleased to be reminded of that and have my boy welcomed into so many family circles. “Yes,” Life says, stepping closer to me, watching as Orion and Anton laugh and pa
“Oh, you did grow up handsome, didn’t you?” The Goddess of Life says, laughing lightly and slipping her hands over Anton’s face, turning it up to hers as she smiles. “I was so hoping you would.” He laughs a little in turn, shrugging, modest. I can’t help but grin, thinking that Life is understatin
“Her,” he whispers, his finger tracing over the veil that marks her as a nun – the highest level of dedication. “Please,” I whisper, my eyes locked on the image. “Help me understand.” “It’s…her,” Anton whispers before he sinks to his knees, moving his face closer to stare at the image. “She’s…mi
Anton glances down at me for a moment before turning his eyes back to the carvings on the wall, a frown taking his lips. “What are you talking about, June?” “Tony,” I whisper, a little bit of a frustrated growl in my word as I wrap my hands around his arm, pressing myself close to his side. “Is an
I nod, moving along with him, and together we walk slowly along the wall, studying the images drawn there. As we walk along the length of the wall, I at first assume that the images are simply decorative. The Goddess of Life is in most of them, doing magnificent things. I see some of her standing