Page 104 of Hidden

It was Rafe. Her mouth went dry, as if she’d been drinking sand. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since the trial. “Hello.”

“Hello.” He smiled, and it was the first true, carefree smile she’d seen from him. There were dimples involved. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

She stuffed the tablet back in her bag. “No, not at all. How are you?”

“Fine. How are you?” He took a sip of his drink.

“Fine.” Hearing the bland politeness of their words, she stopped.

They had united, wolf and fae, in a desperate search for truth. They’d risked death for it. She owed it to him now.

“Actually, it’s been dreadful. I’ve had to introduce my mother and father to the modern world.”

“Parents,” he said, saluting her with his mug. A paper tag identifying his drink as English Breakfast hung over the edge of the mug.

“Siblings,” she countered. “Sala and her family have joined King Elroth in the woods. So did Ademar. I doubt I will see any of them for a while.”

“And you? Are you staying here?”

He asked the question lightly, but she heard more beneath it. This conversation—and everything that came after—depended on her answer.

She looked away, desperately uncertain. “I think so.”

“You aren’t certain?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. The fight with Farras shook me.”

That was a mild way of describing the nightmares she’d had since planting a tree through his body. She’d jolted awake too many times, covered in perspiration and utterly alone.

“I’m not surprised,” Rafe said. “No one with an ounce of sanity could easily shake that off. We’re still mourning our fallen kin.”

“I’ve wondered over and over again what made Farras like that. He was the last survivor of his own House when he arrived at court. Something bad happened to him, but I’ve never known what that was.”

“Did you find your other sisters?”

“We did, but not until the next day. They were wandering in the woods beyond the way station.”

Lila turned to the window, but she wasn’t seeing the street outside. Her older sisters had been shocked, bewildered, and terrified, but no longer gargoyles. Rosemund had a mane of curling hair that surrounded her like a cloak. Arabelle wore hers straight, but when they’d been found, they both looked as if they’d been rolling in a pile of leaves.

“The spell that bound them was broken,” she continued. “It failed when Farras was stripped of his power. Even so, they will not recover all at once. They are physically themselves, but they have not regained their power of speech. They may not remember much of what happened.”

Rafe set down his mug hard enough that it clicked against the glass tabletop. “Where are they now?”

She turned back from the window. “King Elroth took them. He has the finest physicians among the fae.”

He reached across, putting his hand over hers. “I’m glad they were found.”

She pulled her hand away. “You left without saying goodbye.”

She hadn’t meant to say it, but there it was. Regret flickered over Rafe’s face, but he quickly hid it.

“Your family wouldn’t have welcomed the intrusion. Not right then,” he replied sitting back in his chair. “And I knew I could always find you if you were in town.”

Of course, he could. He was a tracker. “So you did.”

And he was here now. That was something. She broke her croissant in two and pushed the plate across to him, keeping half for herself. He gratefully accepted the pastry and bit into it.

“So I did,” he said after swallowing the bite. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Whether my boon was doing any good.”

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