Page 253 of Hunters and Prey

Wisest Of The Gods

THEY INSTRUCTED ME to sit at the head of the fire.

It felt like sitting at the head of the whole building, since I sat directly across from the only door I’d seen in or out of the lodge.

Of course, that door was probably the length of a football field away from where I sat, cross-legged on the smooth stone.

Even so, it still felt strange to sit there, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. It felt somewhere between sitting at the head of the table and on the opposite side of a parole board hearing, or a really stressful job interview.

I was relieved to see no one sat in the space directly across from me, at least.

Before I could fully relax into that thought, however, two ancient-looking seers were leading someone around the fire to that very spot.

I think I knew who it would be, even before I felt his light––or saw his face.

It was Black.

He sank down gracefully when they motioned for him to do so, landing lightly on the stone, then taking a few seconds to arrange his body and legs.

In the end he sat in almost the exact same position I did.

His back straight, legs and feet crossed in a half-lotus, he looked strangely Native American to me in the flickering light of the fire that burned between us. His cheekbones looked higher, the lines of his face more striking, his lips and mouth more perfect in shape.

He still looked unreal to me almost.

His beauty caught my breath at times, even when I didn’t want it to, like now.

Remembering how he’d been looking at that gray-eyed seer’s wife, like I wasn’t even there, I felt my light close down a few layers more.

I wished I could just blow it off as no big deal, like I knew I was supposed to.

I wished I could compare it to something similar I did, but truthfully, I didn’t really notice other men like that anymore, other than in an objective, categorizing kind of way. I wasn’t blind, but I genuinely wasn’t interested, either.

Feeling eyes on me, I turned, and found Revik, Allie’s husband staring at me, his narrow mouth hard, his expression close to angry.

His expression confused me.

Before I could decide if that anger was aimed at me, his mind rose in mine, blunt.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be, sister,he sent, his mind as strangely silent as he was outside the Barrier. You’re not viewing it wrong. And you’re not “supposed to be” okay with it. That’s human bullshit.

I felt him hesitate, like he wanted to say more.

After a long-feeling pause, where he glanced at his wife, he didn’t.

He still felt annoyed.

I no longer worried that annoyance might be aimed at me, though.

Truthfully, I was more than a little surprised at the depth of the anger I felt there.

Allie’s husband had always been polite to me. He’d cooked for me, hung out with me and Allie for hours while the three of us talked… but I’d thought of myself more as Allie’s friend than his, and not only because Allie was significantly more talkative than he was, whenever I stayed at their house.

Now, looking at the tall, angular-faced male, it occurred to me that I never would have been allowed to stay under their roof if he hadn’t decided he liked me, too.

The two of them didn’t make decisions apart from one another.

Moreover, they didn’t have many houseguests, especially not overnight, living in their attic and playing with and babysitting their kids.

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