Lupi 04 - Night Season

her to suit him. That turned out to be laying her head and shoulder across his chest, which rose and fell with the slow ease of his breathing.
    For a while Cynna lay there in silence, amazed by survival and the beauty of lying here with him.
    â€œYou going to miss Edge?”
    She snorted softly. “I like cars a lot better than horses, and hardly anyone tries to kill me back home. I can’t wait for them to get a gate up. But…”
    â€œYour father.”
    â€œYeah. Though maybe…Aduello kept me with him a lot. I think that was part of the whole glamour business, keeping me nearby to keep the effect strong. But I was able to talk to Dad sometimes. He thinks he might get to visit. The gnomes are going to need someone to handle their trade stuff, right? Someone with a trace of tact and maybe a bit of a charisma Gift. Unlike poor Bilbo.” She sighed. “I didn’t like him, but he had courage. And Tash…” She blinked quickly to get rid of the dampness.
    â€œTash is alive. She’s on her way back to the City.”
    â€œWhat?” Cynna lifted her head to stare at him. “How do you know? How do you even know what happened to Bilbo, for that matter?”
    â€œKai and Nathan have been trailing us ever since we arrived. They came upon the inn and found…the remains of the battle. Tash was injured, but alive.” He grinned. “She says she has her father to thank for that. Praised his skill. It seems he was one of the warriors Chulak led, and he mercifully slid his sword through her chest right where an Ahk heart would be—but hers is located higher, like her human mother’s. Then he conked her on the head, knocking her out. She was unconscious, with a hole in her chest where they expected her heart to be. They assumed she was dead.”
    â€œSon of a bitch,” Cynna said, amazed.
    â€œShe won’t remember Hunter and Kai,” he warned her, “so don’t mention them. Hunter had to adjust her memories. No one except sidhe are allowed to know that the Winter Queen meddled here.”
    â€œI’m not sidhe. Last time I checked, you weren’t, either.”
    â€œBut I’ve got shields,” he said smugly. “Even Nathan can’t get through them. And we aren’t staying here, so he’s settling for us taking a vow of silence on the subject. But, ah, your father…I’m afraid he’ll have to adjust Daniel’s memories a bit. He’s staying here, and his allegiance is to the gnomes.”
    Cynna didn’t like that. She didn’t like knowing anyone could do that. “So I’m not supposed to mention Kai or the hellhound guy to him?”
    â€œYou can mention them, but what he’ll remember is that Rohen and Leerahan acted together to, ah, solve the problem of Leerahan’s liege, who’d clearly been driven insane by the medallion. He’ll remember Hunter vaguely as a wandering mercenary we brought with us, and Kai as his female companion.”
    â€œWith a big cat. Who sometimes looks like a woman. I didn’t imagine that part, did I?”
    â€œHer cat is…well, they wouldn’t tell me what she is,” he admitted. “Whatever Dell’s species, though, she’s Kai’s familiar.”
    â€œKai’s from Earth. How could she get a whatever-it-is for a familiar?”
    â€œHow did she get hooked up with a hellhound?” Cullen shrugged. “Apparently Hunter’s spent a lot of time on Earth. He met Kai there. I don’t know about Dell.”
    â€œShe and Hunter are a team?”
    â€œThey’re lovers, Cynna.”
    Something in his eyes made her heartbeat pick up. She licked her lips. “How did you know the glamour wouldn’t stick?”
    â€œIt didn’t stick to me.” His eyes were intent. Telling her things. “I knew it wouldn’t stick to you, either.”
    â€œBut why?”
    â€œI think you know,” he said softly. His words, his voice, sounded certain. His eyes…wary, watchful. And open. Vulnerable.
    â€œI’ve heard stories,” she began. And had to stop and swallow. Her heart was going crazy. “Old stories about how the glamour can’t stick if…if…oh, I can’t.” She punched him on the arm. “Why do I have to say it? You say it.”
    His eyes were very dark. His lips quirked up at one side, but his eyes stayed so dark. “I’ve been