Page 37 of Bear Protector
“Coco. Did you hear what I just said? I did not summon you. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I heard you. You said my name with your mind.” Coco took on her human form and wrapped herself in the robe she had left on the chair in the corner of the room. “Let us talk this out, now that you have practically dragged me from what I was doing.”
Kiera slammed her book shut and glared across the room at her familiar. “Oh,nowyou want to figure it out? I begged you to stay yesterday morning and you wouldn’t speak to me!”
“It was not safe to talk.”
“Why not? It was only the three of us in the room.”
“And there is one weak link.”
“What are you saying?”
“We cannot afford to trust anyone anymore…not even Aleena. I am not suggesting that shecan’tbe trusted, but you have to remember she is not a witch. She cannot block her thoughts from the Chancellor. It is bad enough that she knows you have been secretly meeting Xander. If you had said anything about sleeping with him that night, who knows if you’d be alive right now.”
“Wait. You know? That we were… intimate?”
Coco pursed her lips into a tight, mischievous smile. “You were way more than just intimate with the guy, Kiera. You gave him all the goodies. Of course I know. I am your familiar. I want all the scandalous details, but before we get to that, tell me what else has been different since you gave it up for Xander?”
Kiera contemplated the question. “Different how?”
“You’re getting stronger, Kiera. Let’s start with how you just summoned me.”
“I told you. I. Did. Not. Summon. You.”
“Okay, let me try to put it a different way. Think back to about ten minutes before I flew in here. Did my name cross your mind? Even for the smallest, most insignificant notion?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Try to remember. What were you doing ten minutes ago?”
“Reading.” Opening the book, she flipped back a page. “Oh…yeah… you did cross my mind.”
“What exactly were you thinking?”
“I was checking out an old spell that called for a puffin feather.”
“What the hell do I have to do with a damned puffin?”
“No no, that’s not the way I made a connection to your name. I remembered I could not complete the last spell that called for such a feather because the birds are extinct…in our region, at least. Then I wondered whether you had seen one all those years ago.”
“That’s what you were thinking? Are you sure?”
“I’m positive, dear. Then I flipped a few pages to see whether there was another spell or incantation I could use…oh…right…”
“What?”
“That was when I wished you would come back here and talk to me.”
“See I told you! You did summon me!”
“I wished you were here. That is not a summon, last time I checked.”
“Well, it is now. You’re getting stronger. Let me show you something. One second.” She rushed out of the room, returning with her notebook a few minutes later. “Okay. Brace yourself. I’ll go through a list of supernatural mental abilities one by one, and I want you to tell me if you have experienced any of them in the last twenty-four hours.”
“All right.”
“Cosmic awareness or precognition? Wait. Don’t bother. The answer is yes. You knew when the destroyers were coming nine years ago, so you already had that ability…Next is telepathic reception. You know, memory navigation, or sometimes referred to as psychic navigation.”
