“No, she wouldn’t.” Fear tightened around my ribs, a metal band compressing my chest. I hadn’t seen or spoken to my parents in years. That was about to change. “One crisis at the time,” I muttered to myself. “Let’s get Harlow corralled first.” I glanced at Dell. “We can solve the other mystery later.”

She dropped her robe into a chair and jogged down the steps onto the path leading back to the woods.

With a hitch in my step, I followed, Graeson at my side. His whine drew my attention, and I patted his head. “Any insight from the peanut gallery?” Palms slick, I dampened his fur with my touch, but his contribution to the discussion was a lick to my palm. “So we wing it.”

As though my words were the blast of a starting pistol at the beginning of a race, Dell launched herself toward the shade of the trees. Dread pounding in my heart at what we might find, I jogged after her.

Miguel had been wrong to doubt my staying power. Had I known a few hours ago what I knew now, I would have asked for more cookies, another glass of juice, done anything to avoid facing the reality that Harlow was here and every bit as dangerous as Charybdis himself, because she was no more in control of her actions than the kelpie had been.

Chapter 16

Night had fallen during our visit with the Garzas, and clouds hugged the moon, refusing to share even a single beam of her light. Yet I had no trouble tracking the gleam of Graeson’s tail as he bounded ahead of us. I should have stumbled or hesitated, but I didn’t. Magic thrummed in my veins, the swirl of Dell’s blood freshening my recall when I summoned my warg aspect to aid me, and the darkness kept no secrets from me.

I saw as wolves see and glided through the forest as silent as my companions. The hammering of my pulse in my ears deafened me to all but the most persistent crickets. Their song pierced my heart, and I wanted to join them, but I had no song to sing. I was a child of the moon, a creature of twilight, and not myself at all and yet more myself than I had been since the night the ocean swallowed half my soul and left the other half to drown in grief.

“Have you and Isaac been practicing without me?” The warm current of Dell’s voice flowed through my head without effort. “You’ve almost caught up to Cord.”

Running with my wolf flushed my system of fears and doubts and left room only for exhilaration. “Is this how it always feels to be a warg?”

“Reckless? Wild? Free?” She tilted her head back as if she felt the caress of the moon despite it being overcast. “Yes to all of the above.”