Page 92 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

“Hi, Cali! It’s so nice to see you! I’m glad you made it to the middle of nowhere in the freaking badlands okay!” Cali said in a deep voice with an exaggerated, husky tone that I assumed was supposed to be me. I narrowed my eyes at her as she continued. “Why, thank so much for asking about my welfare and greeting me so nicely, Sam!”

Roth sighed. “So, Cali hasn’t changed at all then?”

I snickered as Cali leaned to the side to peer around me at where Roth was still seated at the table. They’d never hated each other the way Alaric and I had, but it was hard to find people who were more polar opposites than Cali and Roth.

“Oh.” Cali’s wings deflated a little. “Hi, Roth.”

I rolled my eyes “Hi. I’m glad you’re okay. Sorry for not saying that right away, but your fancy new shadows threw me off.”

Cali shrugged, and I marveled at how well I could see the movement right down to the muscles flexing in her arms. “Just been practicing and fine-tuning a bit is all.”

My brows started to furrow, but I forced them to smooth out. There was something Cali wasn’t saying.

I didn’t know if it was because Roth was here or because she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. All I knew was that even though this seemed harmless, it would be yet another thing that made Cali terrifying to everyone else. Especially to the other Furies.

“Did you find anything useful?” I asked, trying to focus on the problem at hand. Cali could explain her upgraded shadow form when we were alone, and damn it, shewouldexplain it to me.

“Not at the human settlement. There was very little left of it, and with how exposed it was to the elements, it’s hard to say if the wraiths had been there and picked it over or not.” She glanced over her shoulder, eyes focusing on something I couldn’t see before turning back to me. “But I found something else. While I was flying back, I passed an old temple that had been built into the side of a mesa. I’ve seen it before and explored it a little when I was a kid. Pretty sure it was built by the Unseelie.”

“You know of an Unseelie temple?” Roth suddenly came to life like a monster smelling blood in the night. “And you didn’t tell anyone?!”

“It’s in the badlands.” Cali rolled her eyes. “If I told someone, they would have made me lead an expedition there, and I checked it out. There’s nothing there. Or… at least… I didn’t think there was anything there…”

Roth looked like they were contemplating how one would go about murdering a shadow, so I quickly asked, “Did you see something there this time?”

Cali dipped her head slowly in a deep nod. “There are wraiths there, but not like any wraiths I’ve ever seen before. They’re more solid and they look…” She paused, again looking over her shoulder. “Sam, they looked like Fae. At least like the sketches I’ve seen of them in books.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed out as my eyes snapped to Roth. “You were right.”

“Right about what?” Cali said quietly but urgently.

“Cali,” I said slowly. “Where are you right now?”

“On top of the mesa.”

“Get the fuck away from there!” I snarled. “We don’t know what they’re capable of! You can’t be there by yourself!”

“They can’t fly,” she said dismissively before tilting her head. “I don’t think they can, anyway. The wraiths only glide. Could the Fae fly?”

“I’m going to slap the shit out of you next time I see you,” I growled. What the fuck was with all my friends taking unnecessary risks all of a sudden?

Seeing that I was genuinely freaked out and pissed off, Cali reached out and placed her hand on my arm, and I felt it. She yanked her hand away, but it was too late.

“What the fuck?” I whispered in shock.

Cali’s shadow form could never physically interact with anything or anyone, but I’d felt her hand on me just now. It’d only been for a second… just like how wraiths could only become corporeal for a few seconds at a time.

“Something’s happening to me,” Cali said quietly. “It’s been happening for a while, but being around these wraiths… or Fae… whatever they are… my magic is changing.”

“How?” I asked, trying to stay calm and not have the proper freak-out like I wanted to. “How is it changing? Are you…”

Losing yourself?I couldn’t say the words out loud. As if saying it would make it real.

Cali moved closer to me, her hands hovering over mine. “I’m not losing myself,” she promised. “Like I promised youand Rynn all those years ago. You both hold my heart, and I will never leave you.”

My throat was too tight for me to say anything, so I jerked my head in a nod.

“Whatever is happening to me, we can sort that out later,” she said calmly. “Right now, I think we need to figure out what the hell these wraiths are up to and why they look the way they do.”

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