Page 27 of A Deeper Blue
“You don’t have to make fun of me!”
“I’m not,” he said, pulling her in close. “Not much. I promise. I just like hearing about young Azure.” He didn’t want to say that he liked all things Azure. Instead, he held her close and kissed her so she would know that if he laughed, it was with her, not at her.
She smiled as she leaned back, her arms sliding around his neck, but then her smile faltered. He twisted around to see what she was looking at. The moon hung fat and full in the quickly gathering dusk.
“It’s the full moon,” he said. He looked back at Azure, and this time she forced a smile. “What does that mean?”
“It’s time to get on the road,” she said, pulling away.
“Azure?”
Hadn’t she asked about the full moon before?
“Azure what—”
She had asked. The morning after their first night at the motel.
“You said you didn’t look,” he said.
“What?”
“You said you didn’t look at your future,” said Rafe. “But you know what happens next, don’t you?”
Azure licked her lips. “I don’t look on purpose. Sometimes I get shown things.”
“OK, so what happens next?”
She hesitated. “We get on the road to Oregon,” she said.
“Azure! Don’t lie.”
She looked frustrated. “What I see doesn’t have to happen.”
“Then tell me what you saw.”
For a moment, he thought she wouldn’t say anything.
“We get in a fight,” she said. “Because you have been lying to me.”
“No, I haven’t,” said Rafe.
Azure sighed. “Why are the Warlocks following us?”
Rafe opened his mouth to speak and found he couldn’t. His father had told him not to trust anyone. This was pack business, and if he succeeded, there was still the hope that maybe his father would take him back. He had to admit that it was a faint hope, but he thought there might be Christmas cards, or at least he could stop having to sneak around to talk to his sister and her kids. But Azure wasn’t a wolf, and his father would never accept her. Rafe shook his head. He needed to give up on his pipe dreams, but was he willing to give up on the small hope of rejoining his family for a human who would be gone too fast?
“You lied,” she said. “You said you didn’t know why they were after us. But you do, don’t you?”
“I should never have brought you with me,” he said, realizing his mistake.
Azure’s eyes filled with tears, and the sight stung like nettles.
“OK, yeah, I lied! I know why they’re after me. There it is. You can’t trust me. I never should have taken you with me in the first place. You should leave now! Just go!”
The tears trickled down her cheeks.
“You can call Milo back and go with him. You have to leave now before you get hurt.” He tried not to sound like he was begging, but that’s what it was.
“Too late,” she said, wiping at her cheeks.
