Lupi 04 - Night Season

she’d never know. Edge was about halfway into the Night Season now. If things went well, she’d be heading home as soon as the Dawning arrived and the gnomes could open a gate to Earth. If things didn’t go well, no one would see the Ka in daylight again.
    She didn’t see much point in thinking about that, so she didn’t. Mostly.
    Just ahead of the barge, a huge, pale shape rolled to the surface and exhaled, sending a spume of air and water from its blowhole. Cullen said the blowhole made the sea ox more like a whale than a manatee, which it resembled, because it breathed when it decided to.
    He was such a knowledge magpie. She had the idea he’d been collecting facts all his life—all sorts of facts, not just those relating to magic. But he’d been around twenty-four years longer than her, hadn’t he? Maybe by the time she was fifty-nine, she’d know a lot more than she did now.
    God, she hoped so.
    Of course, she’d also look fifty-nine. He didn’t. He probably still wouldn’t twenty-four years from now, either.
    The sea ox wore a vestlike halter with a big metal ring on top that attached it by a chain to the barge. Clinging to a strap on that halter was the sea ox’s rider, his scales gleaming wetly in the light from the ship, the moon, and the stars.
    The triton looked over his shoulder, saw Cynna watching, and grinned. He called out something in his language that sounded like bat screeches. She grinned back. “You know I don’t understand a word you say.”
    He laughed, waved, and sank below the water again as his enormous mount dived, its flat tail flipping up in what looked like its own parting wave.
    â€œFlirting with your aquatic admirer again?”
    She turned.
    Cullen looked like an extra in a biblical movie in that long woolen dress. His feet were bare. He hadn’t shaved, of course. None of the men could shave. The Ekiba didn’t use razors.
    On him, beard stubble, skirt, and bare feet looked good. On him, everything looked good. So did nothing, as she remembered very well.
    Not just from having enjoyed that nakedness up close and personal, either. She’d seen him dance. He called himself a stripper, and it was true he danced naked—or all but, since the law insisted on a G-string. But what he did wasn’t as crude as stripping. Carnal, definitely. But not crude. More as if the music had come alive so it could celebrate itself…“He is kind of cute.”
    â€œHe’s four feet tall and an excellent representative for Barracudas ‘R’ Us. Lots and lots of tiny, sharp teeth.”
    â€œGuess I won’t French him, then.”
    â€œGood decision.” He draped an arm over her shoulders. “Warm enough?”
    He’d been doing that a lot the last two days—no, the last two sleeps. Whatever. He kept touching her. Not sexually, which was just as well, since there was no privacy on the barge. The sanitary facilities consisted of a damned chamber pot used in the meager shelter of the shack at the rear, then dumped overboard.
    But lupi were touchy-feely types, weren’t they? Physical contact came naturally to them. It was probably her own fault that all those casual touches kept her hormones churned up.
    Unless, of course, he was doing it on purpose. “Are you doing that on purpose?”
    â€œWhat?” His expression was all innocence. His fingers were skimming along the side of her neck…lightly, oh, so lightly.
    â€œYou are.” And she really ought to make him quit.
    â€œAs a friend, I consider it my obligation to distract you from time to time so you don’t wear yourself out with all your brooding.” One finger dipped into the hollow of her throat. “I’m good at distraction.”
    â€œI don’t brood. I’ve had a lot to think about, that’s all.”
    â€œMmm.” He stood with her in silence a moment, forgetting about his distraction duties. “You think you’ll know him?”
    Cynna didn’t have to ask who he meant. “How could I?”
    The Ekiba they’d traveled with had passed on news of their arrival to Ekiba in the City. Word had come back that Daniel Weaver was eager for her arrival. That he was excited about meeting his grown daughter. “I was three years old when he left. I don’t remember him at all, but…I’ve got a picture of him. I guess I’m expecting him to look like