4
NESS
In the mall food court, I wiggled my fingers and thought about the spark that had jumped from me to Ryder Callahan. I knew almost nothing about arcana, and I wasn’t about to head back to Bad Moon Café to ask Cerri. Though my friend might be able to tell me after a bit of research, I didn’t want to ruin her day with my presence.
The soda shower was evidence that the pack was more determined than ever to harass me. Alvin and Harvey thought they were breaking me. If anything, my hound gnashed her teeth and begged for a chance to fight. I couldn’t bring that kind of energy back to Bad Moon Café because I would most certainly start a fight if Harvey tracked me down there.
I figured hanging out at the mall’s food court was the next best thing. At least there were enough human witnesses here, so the pack would hesitate before trying anything shady. And, if that didn’t work, this mall was large enough to get lost in. There were three floors of shopping and an extended wing of new shops.
I picked at the tray of fries in front of me, sad that I couldn’t get an iced hazelnut mocha here. Ahead, the famous carousel spun lazily. Once upon a time, this mall had been named after that carousel. For whatever reason, they’d changed the name to Destiny USA, which sounded cheesy as hell to me.
Lost in my thoughts and nose-blind from the fast-food stalls, I didn’t notice Connor until he dropped into the metal seat across from me. I stiffened, heart racing while my hound went on full alarm.
“Don’t freak out,” he said, quickly. He pushed a strawberry lemonade in my direction.
I gave it a wary stare. Connor sighed.
“You know I don’t have a reason to trust you, right?” I sat up straighter in my seat in case I needed to bolt.
When I looked at him in his human form, I saw the pre-teen that had been my friend. Since then, Connor had grown into a man. Lanky arms had bulked out into bulging biceps barely contained by his sleeves. His cinnamon hair hung over his brow. He lifted gray-green eyes up to meet mine.
I crossed my arms over my chest and met his gaze without hesitation. Connor wasn’t Alvin. He couldn’t intimidate me.
“I just wanted to say hello and bring you a drink. If you have fries, you should have a drink.”
I cocked my head. Connor’s sudden kindness set off alarms in my head. My hound didn’t trust this either. It wasn’t that Connor had ever hurt me physically—emotionally was another matter. He hadn’t sought me out since my first shift. And, when I’d gone to him, he’d always been surrounded by his new friends.
As if my thoughts summoned them, a group of shifters with Harvey at the head broke out of the crowd. Kelsey and Haylee, a pair of female shifters that could have been my friends, stuck close behind Harvey when he came over and slung his arm around Connor’s neck. Harvey tightened his grip, making Connor wince.
My hound’s hackles rose. A growl vibrated in my throat. Even if Connor was a spineless fuck, that didn’t mean I wanted to watch Harvey abuse him and call it friendship.
“I was wondering where you’d gotten to, today.” Harvey grabbed a fry from my tray and popped it into his mouth. “I didn’t think I’d find you here. It seems that Kelsey and Haylee had the right idea to go shopping.”
Behind Harvey, Kelsey mouthed an apology. That small gesture told me that she might have suggested shopping as a way to keep Harvey away from me. She hadn’t meant for this to backfire.
She flinched when Harvey narrowed his eyes at her. Her visceral reaction made me wonder how many times Harvey had laid his hands on her in anger. Rage curdled my stomach. As much as I resented the others for their cowardice, I didn’t think about what they might have been enduring behind the scenes.
“How about you join us?” Harvey suggested.
I didn’t swallow my laughter in time. It came rushing out of me so fast, I nearly spit all over Connor and Harvey in the process. They would have deserved it.
Harvey’s expression changed. His cocky demeanor fell away, and his eyes turned cold. “That wasn’t a suggestion.”
I smiled, despite my situation. “Is that how you frame demands? Then, how about you choke on a wiener?”
I watched Harvey’s jaw clench. There would be hell to pay for this when I left the safety of the general public, but I was having too much fun. Turning the tables on Harvey filled me with a high I didn’t get to experience very often.
“Watch your words, Blackmaw. You’re going to come with us. If you behave yourself, I won’t accidentally shove you off the rope bridge in the Canyon.”
There had to be at least thirty feet of empty air between the rope bridges and the tile floor in the Canyon. It was hard to tell if Harvey was joking anymore. If I accidentally died, then there would be no prophecy to worry about. Alvin might even reward his son for murder.
Would a thirty-foot fall onto a tile floor kill a shifter? I had no idea, and I was not keen on finding out.
I lurched out of my seat and snatched the strawberry lemonade that Connor had brought. I lifted it in salute to him before trying to escape. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Electricity crackled in the air around me.
“Where do you think you’re going, Ness?”
The command in Harvey’s voice made me stop in my tracks. The arcana in his voice grabbed ahold of my skeleton and trapped it. I could barely let out a whimper. When had he learned how to do this? Had Alvin taught him? If Harvey had learned how to do this on his own, I would be surprised.