Page 33 of Shadow Weaver
I was glad Carlo and I had managed to avoid the pack.
We set off toward the barracks at a steady pace.
“He’s just giving you space, you know,” Carlo said.
Huh? “What?”
“Brady.”
My neck heated. “How much do you know?”
“Ooh, there’s stuff to know?”
I sighed. “Carlo, just answer the damn question.”
“We know that he’s taken a shine to you. Lloyd told me he offered to share his room with you?”
“Yeah, at the fortress.”
“And that he fed you from his plate at the fortress.”
“Yes, I know what it means now. I didn’t at the time.”
“So, would you have rejected his offers if you’d known?”
The question threw me. If I’d known what the little things meant would I have pulled away?
The thought of not sharing cocoa with Brady, not lying above him and listening to him sleep, not being close to him opened an empty place inside me.
But this was Carlo feeling me out to find out what I thought about Brady, and I wasn’t ready to go there … yet. Things were still raw after Hyde. Too raw for not much having happened.
“I don’t know.” I smiled wanly. “But I don’t regret it if that makes sense.”
Carlo shot me a sideways glance. “Yeah, it does.” He frowned as his gaze slid past me. “Hold up. Lookie here. What is this?”
I followed his gaze to see a solid wooden post sticking out of some gray shrubbery. Weird. We got closer, and Carlo moved the shrubs out of the way to reveal a hole in the ground. A hole that had steps.
“What the fuck?” Carlo muttered.
Critters didn’t need steps.
We exchanged glances.
“What do you want to do?” Carlo asked.
Maybe this was a test, or maybe he was genuinely asking my opinion. It didn’t matter because I knew what I wanted to do. “Radio it in and then investigate.”
He pouted in consideration. “Yeah. I’ll go down a little way. Make sure it’s clear. You stay up here.”
Urgh. “Really?”
He clicked the radio. “Lloyd, we found a hole in the ground with some steps.” He unclipped the tiny holotab attached to his belt and then rattled off coordinates.
It never failed to impress me how feytech and the old ways combined to make our jobs easier.
“On our way.” It was Brady’s voice, and my ears perked up. “Justice okay?” he asked.
“She’s doing good,” Carlo said. “Wanna speak to her?”
