“This.”
“Is.”
“My.”
“Gift.”
“To you.” Rebecca shook her head and looked around.
Gabriel’s eyes immediately went to Rhys, who stared back at them with the same blood-red eyes.
“Some gift,” Salsiby scoffed. “Kill him,” he ordered.
Baron gripped the sword hilt at his waist and hesitated.
“You are under orders, now kill him!”
Gritting his teeth, Baron drew his sword and held it in both hands in front of him.
Rhys, oblivious to what was going on around him, began to sway back and forth gently.
“Do it!” Salsiby screamed.
Behind them, faintly at first and then growing louder, the sound of singing filled the streets. The children were singing “Silent Night” inside the diner. Connor looked around, and the entire scene took a turn to the macabre.
Salsiby was reaching for Baron’s sword when Rhys opened his mouth. What emerged had everyone rooted in place. He tilted his head back and his throat worked, as golden note, after golden note lifted effortlessly into the night air.
Rhys’s song floated through the street until the singing from the children quieted and the door to the diner opened. Ma and Pa stepped out, looking enchanted. From behind them, people left the diner to listen to the man kneeling in the snow.
“Baron!” Salsiby yelled.
“Wait!” Gabriel exclaimed, stepping forward.
Rebecca and Ashby began to laugh and hug one another.
Baron stepped around Rhys and looked down. His face broke out into a grin.
Connor looked back to Rhys to see two brilliant green eyes looking out at them. As the song ended, Rhys sat back on his heels.
“Baron! If you won’t kill him, I will!” Salsiby grabbed the hilt of Baron’s sword. With an annoyed look on his face, Baron calmly backhanded the small, rodent-like man.
“You hit me! You hit me unprovoked in Arkadia! I demand this man be banned from coming back here,” Salsiby screeched from the ground, blood pouring from his nose.
“Technically, I was defending an innocent Arkadian townsperson.” Baron grinned at Connor.
“That’s right. You were about to kill an innocent man.” Connor stepped forward.
“He is a monster!”
“It seems we have a different idea of what is a monster, here in Arkadia,” Rebecca said, stepping forward.
Salsiby turned to Gabriel.
“You still can’t feed him. I know you have been checking for a supplier of shifter blood and came up empty. It’s only a matter of time before he kills.” Salsiby was helped to his feet by one of the wolf shifters he had brought.
Rebecca frowned. “He lives in a town full of shifters, why do you think getting shifter blood will be an issue?” she asked sensibly, looking around.
“I never wanted the townspeople to think we thought of them as food,” Gabriel admitted.
