Page 92 of Radiant Shadows

My shoulders sagged slightly, my brow puckering. “I know.”

“I wish you had told me sooner,” she said.

“So you could lock me up in the house for the rest of my life like you practically already tried for a solid week there?” I snarked, sitting back down.

She put her hand on my knee. “I know I’ve been overbearing. My desperation to protect you has made me foolish and blind. But…if you had talked to me about all this before, I could have at least given you some guidance along the way.”

I crossed my arms, my sass slipping out of me. “Oh? You would’ve been fine if I told you I had the hots for an older shifter guy?”

She bristled at that, shooting the side eye to Caesar. “Heismuch older than you.”

I balked. “Hold on. You were totally fine with me being in love with avampirewho’s more than a hundred years older than me, but you have a problem with someone who’s only eight years older than me?”

“She has a point,” Aunt Janette interjected.

“Janie, I swear!” Gram hissed.

I shoved down my amusement at their exchange and continued pleading my case. “Besides, wasn’t Grandpa, like, eleven years older than you?”

“Thirteen, actually,” Aunt Janette said, then hopped off her perch just in time to avoid the whack of Gram’s palm. “And they met when she was fifteen, if I’m not mistaken,” she added once she was a safe distance away.

Gram grumbled under her breath and pinched her brow in a long-suffering gesture. “Okay, Shea, do you have any more secrets?”

“No. Wait….” I cast my gaze upward as I tried to mull over the mountain of secrets I’d been keeping. “Yeah, no. That’s everything.”

Gram sighed again, shaking her head, then leveled a tempered expression on Caesar. “Alright. You came here to inform Shea that you’ve been removed from your school. What do you need from us?”

I frowned in surprise at her offer. She was really surprising me the last few days.

“Well, I don’t really know,” Caesar said, seeming just as surprised as I was.

“We could use a place to stay,” Kai said. “As far as I know, we don’t have anywhere to go.”

Caesar seemed to blanche at Kai’s candor. “We’ll figure something—”

“You can stay with me,” Aunt Janette chirped. “I have a guest room that never gets used. And I wouldn’t mind the company.” The tone she used was heavy with insinuation as she winked at Kai.

Damn, Aunt Janette. What was it with her and shifters? Actually, okay, I didn’t really have room to criticize. But I never threw myself at Caesar the way she’d been blatantly hitting on Kai and a little bit on Tobias.

“That would be great,” Caesar said, bowing his head to her in gratitude.

I turned away from my drooling aunt to Caesar. “What do we do from here?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure just yet. We need to get a hold of Julian. I’ve been texting him all afternoon, but he hasn't responded. I’m actually a little concerned about that. And I don’t want to call him in case it puts him in a compromising position.”

I didn’t like hearing that. Julian not responding was not a good sign.

“I have a way to contact him,” I hedged. “A spell he taught me to speak to him over long distances. If he happens to be unable to talk, I’ll at least tell him to contact us asap.”

Caesar didn’t ask about this spell, just seemed to accept the information. He nodded. “Okay.”

“While they’re busy, why don’t I show you to the guest room?” Aunt Janette suggested to Kai. “I’m just a few houses down.”

Kai’s cheeks turned pink, and it was hilariously adorable. I could see why Caesar liked him. He didn’t stand a chance against Aunt Janette’s advances. She was going to eat the poor guy alive.

But I couldn’t worry about that. All that mattered right now was getting a hold of Julian.

I spoke the words that I now knew by heart and felt the connection take hold, but it was staticky.

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