Chapter 15
Evelyn
Metal clanged against metal in the distance.
A pot, maybe? Noises were still fuzzy, the world around me not yet in focus.
Wherever I was, it was warm, and I was wrapped in comfort.
It smelled like something mundane, but fruitier scents wafted in from the doorway.
I felt safe, and I wasn’t ready to leave.
Voices stirred me to life—ones I didn’t recognize. A young girl’s voice floated to the room I had yet to identify. “But why is she in your bed?”
My eyes snapped open.
“My friend wasn’t feeling well. She’s just recovering.”
I knew that voice. It was soft and low and reassuring. I’d heard that tone when we spoke of magic on the ferry.
Why was I waking up to Ambrose Yarrow’s voice?
Scenes of last night flashed through my mind. The park. The clearing behind the bushes. Too-big Ambrose taking up too much space within it. Shifting. Fighting desperately for control with my veil cat. I winced.
I must have passed out. Carefully, I pushed myself to a seated position. The soft and warm comfort in which I had found myself moments earlier was, as the young girl described, Ambrose’s bed.
It was large, but it looked like I’d taken up the entirety of the space. The bedroom was a bit sparse, but that didn’t surprise me for Ambrose. The bedside table held a single book. The rest of the room featured light, neutral colors, mostly grays and whites. It reminded me of his wolf.
“Mom says sometimes when we don’t feel well, we’re just hungry.”
This kitchen conversation was becoming increasingly confusing. Who was this girl? Ambrose couldn’t possibly have a child, could he? My cheeks heated as I remembered how I’d reacted to his presence in the clearing—the worst possible time for attraction to strike.
“Sasha,” his voice was so gentle. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him use that tone before. “Mom is right, but in this case, my friend just needed rest.”
Now I felt like I was intruding. I pushed myself out of the bed and tried to decide if I should make noise to alert them that I was awake.
“I’m going to help Timothy get ready. Will you be over with breakfast soon?” Sasha must have accepted his words as true. However, she didn’t sound old enough to be wandering the streets by herself. She already knew I was here. I might as well make myself known so that Ambrose could go with her.
I cleared my throat as I took careful steps out of the room and down the hallway. Thankfully, even in the state I was in last night, I’d shifted back to my half-fae form fully clothed. Although I questioned my self-preservation instinct, since I’d shifted in front of Ambrose Yarrow.
I paused my steps as I considered what that meant.
He knew I could shift.
That isn’t that bad. I knew he didn’t believe my lies yesterday.
He knew I couldn’t control my shift. That much had been obvious.
He also knew I was a veil cat shifter.
How would he use this information against me? Why had he brought me here?
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back as everything else rushed in.
We were still competing for the position of Vesten historian.
We were bound by blood magic—a mistake I’d made.
I was supposed to have worked on the solution to that particular problem last night.
Instead … I glanced around … this had happened.
I needed to get to the library. Sasha spoke of breakfast. It must be morning.
The deep breath I pulled in through my nose stood no chance of calming me with all of this racing through my mind, but I attempted it anyway.
I scanned the kitchen and living space as I exited the hallway. The little girl, Sasha, looked just like Ambrose. Her hair was a brighter red than his auburn, but they had matching aquiline noses and full lips.
“She’s awake!” Sasha jumped for joy at my arrival. I was taken aback, having never been shown such enthusiasm for my simply existing.
Ambrose met and held my gaze. It might have been a trick of my eyes, but he seemed to move a little slower than he had moments before—as if afraid to spook me if he did something too fast.
He stood over a stove, a spatula primed in his hand over an iron skillet. A white mark of what I could only assume was flour smudged the side of his nose and splattered across the light blue apron he wore. It was oddly adorable.
That couldn’t be right. My spine snapped straight as I tried to pull myself together. I shouldn’t ogle Ambrose Yarrow on a typical day, for a whole host of reasons. If he also was partnered and had a child, that was an entirely different side of the coin I didn’t need to deal with.
“Good … morning,” I said hesitantly.
His hazel eyes hadn’t left mine. He nodded in reassurance, even if I wasn’t sure what he was reassuring me about. That it was alright that I had exposed my secret to him? That I was intruding on his family’s morning?
“Good morning, Evelyn,” he said.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up,” Sasha said, making sure we didn’t forget about her, even though the way Ambrose snared my attention made that a challenge.
I can look away at any time.
Reminding myself of that fact didn’t seem to help.
My veil cat felt like a house cat curled up in front of a fire, which was the exact opposite of how my half-fae body was processing this experience.
There was a rightness to this place, to my proximity to Ambrose and the unexpected domesticity of this moment.
It felt warm, like I’d popped one of those hard red candies Ambrose had shared on the ferry yesterday.
Except I hadn’t.
Reason slid back in. These must be symptoms of the blood magic. It wanted us to grow together. I needed to get to the library to figure out how to break it.
“Sasha was just going home,” Ambrose seemed to remind her.
“Oh, yes.” Her eyes widened as if surprised she’d forgotten. She moved to the counter to grab a stack of pancakes on a plate. “I’ll take these. Bring the rest when you’re finished.” Turning on her heel, she walked to the door.
“Ambrose, do you need to…” I gestured toward her, the girl who couldn’t be more than six, who he seemed ready to send out into the city on her own.
His attention hadn’t left me. “She’s alright. She’s just going down the hall. You can watch her if you feel more comfortable.” He tapped his nose. “I can scent if anyone else is in the hallway on her walk.”
So Sasha didn’t live here. That still didn’t quite explain who she was. I opened the door since her hands were full with the plate of pancakes. As I was already at the door and didn’t want to continue to stare at Ambrose like an idiot, I watched Sasha.
He was right, of course. She walked down two doors and opened the unlocked door on the opposite side of the hallway. She announced her entry and the arrival of breakfast with glee.
The noises in the kitchen behind me quieted. Ambrose must have finished his work. I turned to face him, finding him close.
I couldn’t hide my jump, though I managed to keep the inevitable “yeep” in my mouth.
Ambrose’s lip tilted into an almost-smile. “I know. A bell. I’ll get one.”
His familiar words left me wanting to smile in return, but I couldn’t. I was in Ambrose’s home. He knew too much. I needed to get away from whatever this was.
He opened his mouth to speak again, but I didn’t want to hear whatever he’d say.
“Who is Sasha?”
His brow furrowed, then smoothed as he scratched the back of his neck. “My little sister.”
My shoulders sagged in relief, and I didn’t mull too long over why that might be.
“Your family lives down the hall?”
He nodded. “My mother travels quite a bit for work. And father could use the help with the twins.”
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but that was not it.
A hundred other questions filled my mind, each one more invasive than the last. Ambrose didn’t make me ask any of them.
He simply continued speaking. “My father’s eyesight is severely impaired.
I just like to help when my mother is traveling.
Twins can be a handful no matter the circumstances. ”
This time, I didn’t stop the slight curve of my lip, even though there was still a list of reasons I should.
Another thought occurred to me, making me wince. “Let me guess, you also get them to school?” That was why he was never as early to the library as I was.
“I do.” He paused as if realizing why I asked the question. “They go early. I come into the library later because my father always has a hundred questions about what I’m doing with blood magic.”
My head tilted automatically at the mention.
“Did he … work with blood magic when he was at the library?” As I finished the sentence, I felt like I was sliding across ice while it was fracturing beneath me.
Something in the back of my mind yelled danger, but it was far too late to stop. I was already halfway across.
Ambrose sighed, not making eye contact, but continued to speak. “Blood magic is what affects his eyesight. It was a research project that didn’t go as he anticipated.”
I sucked in a breath. More puzzle pieces of Ambrose Yarrow snapped precisely into place. “Did he…” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“Did he test on living things? Yes, I suppose he did at one point. He certainly doesn’t now. Some would say he championed the practice of only testing on inanimate objects as a safety measure. Most of the time, he’s trying to shut down all research on blood magic.”
“I see.” And I did. I had always assumed Ambrose was raised with a love of learning, of testing.
Those attributes were always so clear in him.
I thought the constant poking at my experiments was reserved only for those whose methods he didn’t trust. Was it possible that his incessant questions, his caution that implied irresponsibility on my part, were attributes he was raised with?
How did his father feel about his current projects? I didn’t have to wait to find out.
“He likes to review the experiments being conducted in the library. The documentation is public for Vesten.” He scratched the back of his neck. “He has concerns with nearly all of them—with the safety risk they present.”
Then my cheeks heated. Were his nagging questions misplaced anxiety? I didn’t want to know that. This felt too private all of a sudden. I didn’t want to know more about him and his family’s history with blood magic. My veil cat uncurled in my head, perking up as if to say liar.
I needed to get a grip. I needed to get to the library. I needed to know what Ambrose was going to do with the information he had obtained last night.
“About—” I started.
“We should—” he said.
He gestured for me to go first.
Suddenly, I wasn’t sure what to say. I took a deep breath and searched for words I was sure didn’t exist. Should I thank him? Threaten him? Ask him what he was going to do now that he knew about my veil cat? About my lack of control? My indecision must have been written plainly on my face.
“I won’t tell anyone about your shift.” He ran his hand through his hair in a way that was oddly comforting. “I’m not sure why you keep it a secret, but no one will hear it from me.”
A breath escaped my lungs. Was it that easy? My brow furrowed. “Why?”
He raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “I know what it’s like not to understand your shift.” He paused as if unsure how to proceed. He decided on something. “Do you want to know what works for me?”
“What … works … for you?”
I was confused. Were we really not talking about the fact that I was a veil cat shifter? A mythical animal? Was he offering information about shifting to me with no strings attached?
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Are we not going to talk about the animal I shift into?”
He shrugged. “I told you a few days ago, it’s not as crazy as you seem to think. If the Vesten Point can do it—most would see it as a sought-after shift.”
I mulled that over. “And you don’t want to be the one to point out that another veil cat shifter exists?”
“Your secret is safe with me, Evelyn. I don’t know how else to express that.” He held my gaze until I was the first to look away.
“I have to go. I’m sorry about whatever happened when I shifted, and that it meant I didn’t spend the time working on this blood magic bond between us. I think it’s putting more stress on my shift than usual.”
He rubbed the back of his neck again. A blush tinted his cheeks.
“Evelyn, we need to talk. I tried to tell you last night, but I don’t think you heard me before you shifted.
” He gestured to the table between his kitchen and living space.
“Will you have breakfast with me? I need to explain something about the magic binding us. You seem to think it’s entirely your fault. I assure you, it isn’t.”