were placed just so, told me all about it. “The sunshine does you good. First form, again. Concen-trate, Elizabeth.”

She rolled her eyes and turned away.“Wish you’d just call me Liz.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He sounded just the same—half-mocking, light and sarcastic. But something in his tone made me

look at him, and just for an instant his face was naked. The aspect was on him, fangs touching his

lip and his hair dark and slicked-down.

Christophe stared at my mother like he wanted to eat her.

But my mother had looked up at the destroyed roof of the chapel. Her tone had turned soft and distant, like she didn’t even remember he was there with her. “I mean it. I want to go home.”

“You are home.” He dismissed it with three words, and why was he looking at her like that? It was

almost indecent.

“She hates me.” A quick, sideways grimace. “You don’t get it, Chris.”

He straightened. Stepped to the very edge of the wall’s shadow. Anger crackled around him. But his

face didn’t change, and his tone was just the same. “Her hatred means less than nothing.”

“You train me out here so she won’t see it. Because you’re her steady.”

“I’m not her steady. It’s useful for her to think so, though. First form, Elizabeth.”

If he wanted her full attention, he’d gotten it. She actually frowned at him, and I remembered how

she used to look when something wasn’t going right. When she smiled, the world lit up, but when

she looked serious, almost grim, her beauty was more severe. She shifted her weight uneasily.

“How can you be so cold?”

Christophe folded his arms. “First form, Elizabeth.”

“The girl’s crazy about you, youngblood.”

For once, Christophe actually looked puzzled. “Youngblood?”

“God, you’re such a goon. She thinks you’re a fox.” My mother laughed, and the sunlight got

brighter. “But you are, right? Reynard.”

A long pause, while he watched her. She swung the malaika, but halfheartedly.

Finally, he stepped back into the shade. “This is serious business. You have a gift for these, and—”

“Forget it.” She dropped both of them with a wooden clatter and hopped down off the square block

of stone in one coordinated movement. “Every day it’s the same thing. Why don’t you just go back

and play with Anna instead? I’m sick of all these games.”

“It’s not a game. It’s deadly serious, and the sooner you—”

“Bye.” She waved her fingers over her shoulder as she stalked away toward me. My heart swelled

to the size of a basketball inside my ribs, and a burst of that static went through the entire scene.

NO! I wanted to yell, but couldn’t make my lips work. The buzzing roared through me. I forced it

away. I want to see!