Page 24 of Alan

“This is unimportant at the moment, and something the two of you can settle later,” Selene announced.

I turned to her, and just like that my tears were nothing but a memory. “I’ve had about enough of you,” I spat. What did it matter that she was powerful and could probably shut me up permanently with a wave of her hand? I almost wished she would, since there was nobody left in my life. I had no one left.

Her sapphire eyes widened. “Pardon me?”

“I thought you could read thoughts, right? Why do you need to ask me what I said?”

“All right,” Iris snarled, taking a step toward the cell. “You might ask me to hold my tongue toward one of our own, but I will not allow a pathetic human to speak to you this way.”

Keira stepped in front of me. “You’ll have to go through me—and in case you forgot, it took four of you to drag me in here.”

“I don’t need you to protect me.”

Keira turned around, and my heart ached at the pain on her face. “What are you saying?”

“You heard me. I don’t need you right now. You can be whoever it is you are. You don’t need to look after me—we’re not kids anymore.”

A crashing noise from down the widest tunnel of them all, the one we had entered through, took all of our attention. Even the witches seemed surprised, throwing worried glances at each other before falling into fight stances.

“What’s happening?” Keira asked.

Selene drew a deep breath as she squared her shoulders. “It seems we have additional company.”

“How did we not know they were coming?” Iris demanded as the sound of pounding feet grew louder.

“Remember: when the connection to the clan disintegrated, we lost the ability to track their presence,” Selene explained, stepping out in front of her witches as more of them poured into the room. “The only reason we were able to sense Keira’s presence was her blood ties to us.”

“You don’t have to worry,” Keira whispered over her shoulder. “They’ll protect you.”

I was too busy trying not to pee myself to be mad at her, even though I didn’t know for sure why I was. “Who?”

“Tamhas’s family.”

That didn’t comfort me. Something told me we were about to get into even bigger trouble.

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