Page 34 of A Resistance of Witches

“Because your English is perfect and your French is awful. Plus, you’re a lousy liar. Doesn’t seem like you’d make much of a spy. I’m still trying to decide what youareexactly, but…”

“What Iam?” Lydia raised an eyebrow.

She kept waiting for him to come out with it, but he never did. Eventually she took pity on him.

“You’re wondering how I left my body yesterday, when you were blocking my path. How I could be standing in front of you one moment and behind you the next.”

She almost said,You’re wondering if that was me in your bedroom last night, but didn’t. Henry looked at her and said nothing.

“Come now, Mr. Boudreaux. From what I understand, I’m not even the first of my kind that you’ve met.” Henry flinched. “She was a friend of mine, by the way. Kitty. Your shape-shifter.”

“Is that her name?” Henry looked like the memory unsettled him. “That was just about the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. One second, I think I’m looking at René, a man I’ve lived with for three years. A man who’s like a father to me. The next second, he…well he’s not even a he anymore, he’s…Kitty? Just about the strongest damn woman I’ve ever met in my life, by the way, who kicks and bites and screams like a banshee, then disappears before my very eyes.”

Lydia smiled, picturing it.

“I think I socked her pretty hard. She okay?”

The pain was instantaneous, like an electric shock. Lydia took a moment to catch her breath. “No. She’s not. But through no fault of yours.”

Henry looked surprised. “What happened?”

“A Nazi witch murdered her.”

Henry seemed at a loss. He inspected a groove in the table, worrying it with his finger. “A witch.”

“Yes.”

“So, then Kitty…”

“Was a witch. Yes.”

Henry looked at Lydia. “And…you?”

She smiled. Henry stood and refilled his cup with shaking hands.

“Henry, I know this is difficult, but I need to know. Where is the book now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Henry—”

“No, I honestly don’t know. When René took it away, I told him I didn’t want to know where he was going. I figured your friend Kitty probably wasn’t the only person looking for it. If someone else came around, I wanted to be sure they wouldn’t be able to find out where he’d taken it.”

Damn.“Where is René now?”

Henry exhaled. “I don’t know. He said he would write after he’d hidden the book to let me know he was okay. That was over a month ago. I haven’t heard anything since.”

He was in pain. The love for his mentor sharpening into a weapon, pointed at his own heart. Lydia understood. “I’m sorry.”

He nodded, but didn’t look at her.

“Henry, yesterday you said that it felt like the book was whispering to you. What did you mean by that?”

Henry stared into the fire. Lydia waited. He said something under his breath, so softly she couldn’t make it out.

“Henry?”

“It wanted me to read it. Out loud.” He looked at her. “I don’t know how I know that. I just do.”

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