An uncomfortable feeling rippled through me, and I desperately tried to make it go away as I planted a smile on my face I hoped didn’t look as bizarre as it felt. My stomach was jumping all over. Maybe the eggs had been bad, because I thought I might vomit.

Zayne’s head swung in my direction, and I stiffened, realizing he was picking up on my emotions through the bond.

Dammit.

I started thinking about...llamas and alpacas, how they looked so alike, like a cross between fluffy sheep and ponies. Alpacas were like cats and llamas were like dogs, that was—

“When I heard you were injured, I had to come see you.” Stacey stepped back, but then punched him on the arm with the weakest fist I’d ever seen. I stopped thinking about llamas and alpacas. “Especially since I haven’t heard from you in forever. Like forever.”

“Sorry about that.” He turned back to her. “Things have been crazy busy lately.”

Stacey cocked her head. “No one in this world is so busy they don’t have five seconds to send a text that says Hi, I’m still alive.”

She might have a weak punch, but she also had a point, and that made me think of Jada. What excuse was I going to give her for not returning her calls?

“You’re right.” Zayne led Stacey to the rest of us. “That’s a lame excuse. I won’t make it again.”

“You better not.” Stacey reached the end of the island, and she was now close enough I could see her features. Chin-length brown hair framed a pretty face, and then she was staring at me in the way I imagined I was staring at her. Not with outright hostility, but definitely with a healthy amount of suspicion. “So, this is her.”

I jerked and my tongue came unglued from the roof of my mouth. “Depends on who you think her is.”

“Yes, this is Trinity.” Layla stepped in. “She’s the girl we told you about. She lived in one of the larger Warden communities in West Virginia and came here to find a friend of hers.”

My gaze swung to Roth as I wondered what else they’d told Stacey. Like what I was. If so, we were about to have a big problem. Maybe I’d have to silence Stacey. I started to smile.

Roth winked one amber-hued eye at me.

My smile faded into a frown. I looked back at Stacey. “Yep, that’s me.”

“Sorry to hear about your friend,” Stacey said after a few seconds, and there was a genuineness in her tone. “That really sucks.”

Uncomfortable because I was just plotting her death and smiling about it, I muttered, “Thank you.”

“They told me that you’re trained to fight like this big guy.” She lifted an elbow at Zayne. “That’s pretty cool. I didn’t know Wardens trained humans.”