Андреа Кремер - Nightshade

Bryn rather than next to me. But even with Shay present, our entourage had a gaping hole.

“So, did you find Ren?” I asked Dax.

He made an affirmative grunt.

“And?” I frowned at his nonverbal response.

“And he’s fine.” Dax shoved a slice of pizza into his mouth. “You’ll see him tonight.”

I looked at Fey. She glanced at Dax, who shook his head. She turned to me and shrugged before becoming incredibly interested in her lunch.

I raised an eyebrow but decided to drop the subject.

By the end of the school day a gentle snowfall had developed. The pattern of swirling flakes behind the tall stained glass windows of Rowan Estate’s library made the jewel tones ripple.

Shay drummed his pencil on the notebook in front of him as I flopped down into a chair. “So, are you going to be okay tonight?”

I focused on digging in my own bag for a pen, but I nodded. “I hope so.”

“Calla.” His voice grew tense. “There’s something I need to say, and I’m only going to say it once. I really need you to listen.”

My fingers gripped the canvas bag tightly. “Shay—”

He waved off the warning note in my response.

“Sorry, but I have to. Please look at me.”

I lifted my gaze to meet his. Shay’s jaw was set.

“I know I’ve really pushed you about your feelings for Ren and your loyalty to the Keepers. What happened yesterday, with Flynn and then in chem class, made me realize just how much what I’ve been doing puts you and the others in danger. I don’t want that.”

He stood up and walked to the massive fireplace, staring up at the portrait of his parents. “So I’m backing off. After tonight I’ll leave you and Ren alone.

You’re going to be with him. I know that, and I know how much you have at stake now that you know the truth about the Keepers. I don’t want to put you at risk any more than you already are.”

“Shay, that’s—” I began.

“I’m not finished.” He stayed where he was, not looking at me. “You need to understand that in no way does this mean I’m—” I watched his shoulders slump. When he spoke again, his voice was thick, husky. “Conceding to him. You know how I feel about you. That won’t change.”

I pulled my eyes off him, faltering as my throat closed. “It’s true that you’ll keep us all safer by giving Ren and me some distance. Especially while you’re adjusting to your wolf instincts. As for the rest of it . . .” I could barely hear my own voice over the pounding of my heart. When I turned to look at him, he was standing right behind me, eyes filled with that warm spring-like glow.

“I belong to Ren,” I said, hating the words, wishing Shay could kiss me and make the rest of the world disappear. “There’s nothing I can do to change that.”

“You belong to yourself,” he said quietly. “And I can wait for you to figure that out.”

Shaken by his words, I pulled out the notes he’d given me that morning, not wanting to think about how little time we had left. He bent over my shoulder.

“So what did you make of that?”

“Nothing new.” I handed him the piece of paper. “Except what you’ve already said.”

“What do you think the ‘harvest child’ means?” He frowned at his own scribblings.

“I think it means more research.” I slid back my chair.

“Hang on,” he said, pushing a book along the surface of the table into my hands. “I thought you’d want to see this for yourself.”

I opened the cover and stared at the handwritten title page. Haldis Annals. The years inscribed below were the first five of my own life.

“Ren’s mother?” I murmured.

He nodded. I fell silent as I paged through the book until I found the entry. Shay sat quietly while I read, though he stirred when I closed the text, brushing tears from my cheeks.

“My parents were there,” I said. “The Keepers sent the Nightshades after the Searchers. But the pack didn’t know . . . no one knew what had happened to Corinne. The Keepers gave her to a wraith.”

“Calla—” He reached for me, but I backed away, shaking my head.

“I’ll be fine.” I headed for the spiral staircase that led to the balcony. “We have work to do.”

About twenty minutes later I returned with an armload of texts, dropping them on the table. I picked up the largest of the books, offering Shay a thin smile, and began to read.

We sat side by side, the silence of the library broken intermittently by the scratch of a pencil or the crackle of a turning page. Shadows poured into the room while the large grandfather clock in the corner chimed the passing of another hour.

I blinked at the paragraph I’d been reading about Sabbat rituals. “Hey.” I read it again.

Shay rubbed his eyes, yawning. “Find something?”

I scanned another page of The Great Rites. “Maybe. When’s your birthday?”

He didn’t look up from his reading. “August first.”

I clapped. The noise made him jump.

“What?”

I leapt to my feet, spinning in mini-celebration. “It’s you! You’re the harvest child. They’re interchangeable terms—the Scion and the harvest child are the same person.”

“What are you talking about?” he said. “My birthday is the middle of the summer; wouldn’t the harvest child have been born in autumn, when people are actually harvesting?”

“No.” My grin broadened. “This is where my research pays off. Since I was reading about Samhain, I decided to read about the other Sabbats. The first of August is the witches’ harvest in the Wheel of the Year. You are the harvest child; it has to be you. We finally found something!”

He blinked at me and then looked back at the crinkled page we’d been handing back and forth all afternoon. “So it’s all about me. This passage . . . whatever is supposed to happen at the Samhain rite.”

My smile faded at the sight of his worried face. “Yes, yes, it is.”

“Samhain,” he murmured. “That’s tonight.”

“Yes.” I chewed on my lip. “But nothing’s happening with you tonight. There’s no way. All the Keepers are focused on the union. That’s where they’ll be. It has nothing to do with the Scion—tonight’s ritual is only about the new pack.”

“Well, the prophecy just states the day, not the year,” he said. “And prophecies are about the future, right?”

“You think it’s a far-off event?”

“It must be.” He nodded, but his eyes were still troubled. “At least that’s some sort of progress,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Didn’t you say Bryn was coming over at five thirty to get you ready for your big night?”

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s six.” He turned the watch face toward me.

“She’s going to kill me.” I began stuffing my notes into my bag. “We won’t have time to hang out at Blood Moon.”

“I thought you were getting ready for the union.” He frowned.

“We are,” I said. “But the ceremony is near the site of the ball. Everyone involved gathers at Blood Moon to dance and drink for a couple of hours so they can all toast our health or something. But we’ll leave and go to the Samhain ritual while the humans are still distracted by the party.”

“I see,” Shay murmured.

I didn’t want to leave him, but there was nothing left to say. No shared laughter could dull this pain.

I pulled on my coat and he nodded. His smile couldn’t mask the sadness in his eyes. “Good luck, Calla.”

THIRTY-ONE

“THERE. THAT’S THE LAST ONE.” BRYN turned me around so she could make her inspection.

“Why are there so many buttons?” I asked, wondering how I would ever get the dress off again.

“They’re called embellishments, Calla. Your mother loves them.” She pointed an eye shadow brush at me. “Are you sure you don’t want makeup? I could at least do your eyes. Really make them pop.”