Page 78 of A Skirl of Sorcery
Tiddles twitched her nose then she blinked at me and sat down.
‘Unbelievable,’ Thane huffed. ‘You know that trow is here? He’s asleep in the spare room. I can hear him snoring.’
‘You should be sleeping, too.’
‘It’s daylight.’ He squared his shoulders. ‘I don’t need to sleep. Let’s wake Bin up and find out where this magic-stealing bastard lives.’
‘Let him sleep. Bin has already done what we asked of him.’
Thane’s green eyes widened. ‘Great. What are we waiting for? We can go now. I’m ready – I feel good. We can take care of this bastard and retrieve my wolf magic, Keres’ voice and every other poor bugger’s powers.’
I tilted my head. ‘Uh…’
‘We shouldn’t delay, Kit.’
I removed the backpack I’d taken from Jimmy Leighton’s house from my shoulders, opened it and took out the bone box labelledLone Wolf. I held it out to him.
Thane stared at me. ‘You’ve already done it.’
‘Yep.’
‘You’ve saved the day, retrieved the magic and…’
‘Killed the bad guy.’ I nodded. ‘Yep.’
His shoulders dropped. ‘Oh.’
I understood his disappointment because I’d have felt the same if I were him. He ran a hand across his head and managed a wry smile. ‘I never thought I’d be the one in distress who needed rescuing by a fair maiden.’
‘Stick around,’ I said cheerfully. ‘I’m sure you’ll get to return the favour one of these days.’
A low growl rumbled in his chest. ‘You can bet every curl of your purple hair that I’m sticking around.’
‘Good.’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘You’re not moving in, though.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘There won’t be marriage. Or a ring.’
Thane held up his hands. ‘Kit, I get it. I’m the same as you. Independence is to be cherished – but I’ll still be close by for as long as you want me.’
I was beginning to suspect that would be for a long time.
He looked at the box in my hands. ‘Can I have my wolf back?’
I handed it over. ‘Wait until I’m out of the room – Tiddles too – then open it. That’s all you need to do. Your wolf magic will find its way into your body. It knows where it belongs.’
The relief in his expression was stark but there was still a question in his eyes.
I was fully aware of what he needed to know. ‘There were many more boxes. Several were labelled as belonging towerewolves. It didn’t say which pack they were from but…’ I took a second box out of my backpack and held it up. ‘I left most of them where they were for the MET to deal with, but I took this one.’
Thane gazed at the neatly printed label. ‘Alpha wolf,’ he said. He swallowed. ‘You think that box contains the wolf magic belonging to Ashina Barrow? To my mother?’
‘It seems likely.’ Suddenly I felt as if I were on shaky ground and my voice dropped even lower. ‘You know I’m very capable of being a hard-arsed bitch when the situation calls for it.’
Thane looked at me and I looked at him. Several seconds passed before he responded. ‘Yes,’ he said eventually. ‘I know.’
Chapter
