Page 19 of Alan

“I can’t blame you,” she replied with a sad smile. “I made such a mistake, not at least keeping you in the loop. I guess I hoped you would be happy for me and move on. I don’t know.” She looked away from me for the first time, her eyes moving to the side when she did.

I had seen that expression way too many times, ever since we were kids. Whenever she did or said something she felt guilty about, something she knew was stupid in hindsight.

“Why did you do that, though? What did you find out here?”

“Tamhas. His family.” She still wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“What are they? A cult? You make it sound like a weird secret-type thing.”

She frowned. “Not a cult. Don’t make it out to be like that.”

“I’m not. You are. Just tell me who they are, and it won’t seem so flipping weird that you won’t come out and say it.”

“You’re going to have a tough time with it. I mean it sounds absolutely impossible.”

I rolled my eyes. “Once again. The impossible has found me. My possible/impossible line has blurred a lot today.”

“I guess so. I felt the same way when I first saw them.”

I was either going to explode or smack her. “Saw who, already?”

“Ladies.” Selene’s voice echoed through the cave and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. My hands clenched tighter than ever over Keira’s.

We stood, and I couldn’t help feeling guilty again. Like she had caught us at something. There was a motherly feeling about her—that had to be it. Anybody could see she was in charge of the witches, and that she kept them in line pretty efficiently.

To keep a bunch of powerful witches in line. How much more powerful did she have to be? It boggled the mind.

She was smiling warmly as she approached, walking across the big, open room. It wasn’t my imagination: the torches burned brighter with her there.

Iris, Hecate, Callie, and Electra followed her.

None of them looked at me—no, they were focused on Keira. What were they thinking about her? I wanted to stand in front of her, to protect her, but she didn’t need my protection. She was just as fierce as them, even if she couldn’t create magical fire or make cups of water appear out of thin air.

Didn’t they remind me of her when I first met them in the woods?

“You came here to find your friend, did you not?” Selene asked, coming to a stop just on the other side of the invisible wall.

“Yes, I did. Why did you take her captive? She did nothing to you.”

“She trespassed on the land we’ve shared with the clan for hundreds of years.” Selene’s gaze landed on me for just a second. “We mean no harm to the human, but she now knows entirely too much.”

“She knows nothing.”

“You expect us to believe you told her nothing?” Iris asked. She sounded ready to start a fight, as always.

“Iris, please.” Selene didn’t have to look her way to make the witch back down—though she wasn’t happy to do it, judging from the scowl on her otherwise beautiful face.

I felt like the ugly friend, standing in a room full of supermodels.

“She knows no more than what you’ve shared with her,” Keira insisted. “In fact, there is not much I could tell her, since there is so little I’m clear on. It’s all a mystery to me right now.”

Selene frowned. “They did not tell you who you are? I had expected them to do so.”

“I know who I am—I think,” she whispered, glancing at me from the corner of her eye. “I would like to keep my friend removed from this, if possible. Can we discuss it elsewhere?”

“Don’t even think about it.” I turned to her. “I’m in this now. You can’t keep me in the dark.”

“Em. You can still get out of this.”

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