The Watcher tilted her head. “You’ve seen what Anna can do,” she said. “Imagine a male child, with the full power of a Bellati, and the seduction abilities of a Satyr, in Isobel’s hands.”
It be enough to send a tremor through me. “But they don’t have a male child.”
“I am not so sure of that,” Cara stated.
I met her gaze. Her tapping fingers stilled.
“What be you referring to?” Hellfire. The question burst from me before I could stop it.
She rose from her boulder. “If you are determined to hide on Elandriel, what I think no longer matters. I have kept you from your busy new life for long enough.” Her voice dripped sarcasm.
Sardding hell, the woman be arrogant. Dangling intrigue before me and then withdrawing.
I pulled myself up tall. “Have a good trip back,” I growled at her.
She smiled, turned, and walked away.
62
Anna
I woke up in Matt’s arms.
I still suffered from a sense of unreality about it. But it was the nose buried in my hair that was the greatest miracle. Talakai always slept like that, with me resting partly across his chest, and his head bowed close so he could breathe me in. He claimed it kept the nightmares at bay. I expect the sword and knife mounted over the beds helped too.
Sandwiched between them, I should be sheltered from the world. But we went through our nights, and our days, longing for the one who was missing.
I glanced down at my hand. A stylized Dragon wound from my knuckle to the first joint of my index finger, linked by a glittering chain to my bonding bracelet. The blue, crystal eyes sparkled.
But the ring finger remained bare.
We’d returned to the classes at the academy, but although I’d applied myself over the last month, my heart ached. While Talakai, Matt, and I grew ever closer, the fourth component of our quad remained stubbornly elusive. The Bellati wouldn’t even respond to my efforts to communicate. And we were walking wounded without him.
As I did every morning, I shoved the pain deep down and stretched. Talakai awoke instantly, blinking at me with his beautiful metallic eyes. Matt mumbled a protest and buried his face in my neck.
We’d rearranged the room, pushing the beds together and putting the dressers along the far wall. Mari now had the other room entirely to herself, and she’d done the same thing, giving her an ogre-sized bed.
But we were about to get company. I sensed her walking down the hall to our room.
Talakai, always aware, sat up and put his legs off the edge of the bed. He never used the covers, and his big body generated furnace-like heat all night long. The Dragon reached down and snagged my tights and tee shirt, which had at some point been thrown to the floor.
As I wiggled into them, he looked down at our bedfellow. “The Watcher pays us a visit.”
Matt had buried his head in the pillow. “What?” he blurted, alarmed. An arm thrashed free to yank the quilt over his naked self.
“Just grow your scales,” Talakai said.
“My scales do little for a morning stiffie.”
“Amateur,” the Dragon rumbled, rising to stand along the wall.
“It’s a simple matter of size—” Matt countered.
I ducked the morning dick-measuring contest, sat back down on the bed, and called to the one who waited outside the door, “Come on in, Cara. It’s not locked.”
The Watcher entered. Trix exploded off the dog-sized mattress we’d made for her—she now considered our bed too active for her tastes. She wiggled all over Cara.
Cara regarded us. “Good morning.”
