Conall shook his head firmly. “She talked with him before their wedding and as far as I can tell, that’s all fine now. No, this is...” he shrugged, looking over at the couch where Gizelle’s bare feet suggested she couldn’t hear anything outside of her earphones. “It’s getting hard to hear,” he said thoughtfully. “The background noises she hears are getting worse. It’s like being surrounded by a hundred radios playing different stations that are mostly tuned to static, and they’ve all gone up a notch lately.”
“The voices of more shifter animals,” Scarlet suggested. It had been a surprise to the staff when Conall revealed that Gizelle could hear their animals. Conall had been quick to explain that it wasn’t anything that could be considered eavesdropping—only when she touched a shifter did their animal’s voice come into focus.
“Sometimes I think it’s more than that,” he said reluctantly. “It’s been getting... louder? Clearer? There are more voices, even though there are no more guests? It’s hard to pinpoint. And...” Conall looked uncomfortable. “She’s been talking about the end.”
“Death?” Scarlet glanced at Gizelle’s feet, her fragile toes flexing. “It’s a concept she may only be starting to understand. There are so many things that she’s never faced before.” She had a pang of empathy. “It’s a big world and there’s so much I wish she could be sheltered from.”
Conall frowned at her mouth and Scarlet wondered if she would need to repeat herself until Conall shook his head. “She doesn’t seem to be fixated on death, she seems very matter-of-fact that the end—her end—is coming, and she talks about things that are her fault, and how she’s got to figure out how to fix things. Her fugue states are happening more often lately, like they’re getting harder for her to ignore.”
Scarlet frowned in sympathy. “There’s so much we don’t understand about her.” She finished her water. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Conall shook his head and stood to gather their glasses. “I will read over the revisions and let you know if I have any changes after I’ve conferred with my lawyer,” he promised.
Theirs was an efficient friendship, Scarlet thought with amusement as she stood. They didn’t tend to waste words, but their mutual affection for Gizelle gave them a broad common ground that they had built a sturdy companionship upon. She was grateful for that friendship, even as it left her craving for something deeper.
Her thoughts returned without bidding to Mal—Mr. Moore.
She stood, dismissing her thoughts fiercely. Mal Moore was a thorn in her side, a problem to be dealt with, not danced with. “Thank you. Let me know if you have any concerns.”
As she walked past the couch, Gizelle suddenly slipped off her headphones and fixed her with a wide-eyed look as she righted herself. “Do you know about sonic booms?” There was a physics lesson paused on her tablet.
“A little,” Scarlet said. Physics had never been a topic of particular interest, but she had slogged through a few years of study. “It was a long time ago.”
Gizelle was happy to explain, bouncing to her feet. “All the sounds want to go fast but they can only go one speed, the speed of sound, and they get all backed up in one wave that hits you at once and it’s like a great big explosion.”
“It really is fascinating,” Scarlet agreed. Gizelle’s enthusiasm was contagious.
“Can people make sonic booms? They’re all trying to go so fast, but can only go the one speed through time. Will they get all backed up and explode, too?”
Scarlet looked at Conall helplessly, but Gizelle was speaking obliquely and he couldn’t read her lips.
“I have no idea,” Scarlet said. “But it certainly paints a vivid picture.”
“No,” Gizelle said thoughtfully. “Not a picture, a song.” Then she scolded, “Oh, Sweet One, no!” because the kitten, startled out of sleep, had slipped down onto the couch and was extending a paw at the headphone cable. “Conall has already bought me three of those!”
Scarlet chuckled as she slipped out of the door; she had already gone through at least a half dozen of her own various cables thanks to Sweet One’s sister, Tyrant. It had amused everyone when the cream-colored cat had attached herself to Scarlet instead of Gizelle, and Scarlet was grateful for the companionship, even
while she sometimes found herself frustrated by the creature’s destructiveness.
Outside of Conall and Gizelle’s cottage, Scarlet turned her feet to the central path running up the resort and she allowed herself a moment of pride looking up over the resort. White columns and glossy tiles graced the gorgeous central buildings of the resort and everywhere, verdant green trees and flowering bushes cast cooling shadows and provided pockets of privacy.
She’d done well, she thought.
The resort was finally thriving, and—her heart squeezed—it was finally almost hers, outright. It was a safe place, the haven for shifters that she’d always imagined it could be. It was just the right touch of luxury and practicality, beauty and durability.
Mal’s presence here... surely that was just some final bluster before the sale was finalized. He couldn’t stop her, he didn’t have any legal leg left. And if he was hoping to come win her with his admittedly considerable masculine charms, he was about to find out exactly how practiced she was in ignoring the desires of her body.
Chapter 5
Mal pivoted on a wingtip and flew over the crescent of golden sand beach, then followed the edge of the sea on the west coast of the island.
He extended his senses, the runes etched into his scales momentarily flaring with light.
The flow of power was as bad as he’d feared coming in the night before. It was like looking at a bad light ballast in a dark room, dim and flickering. The spell he had come to renew—a spell that should be steady for decades more—was failing.
Another little white beach opened up, a tiny half-circle bisected by a river that snaked from a beautiful waterfall. Cliffs on all sides isolated it. Under other circumstances, Mal might have been tempted to stop and bask in the warm sunlight.
But worry drew him on, the island rising to his right, the ocean stretching to his left, as he flew north. The dock for Beehag’s compound appeared and Mal swung inland and rose into the air with powerful wingbeats, following the steep, winding road.