“Except for you,” Gen said, her gaze keen on Stella. “You are as serene and poised as ever.”
Maybe not. Maybe she hadn’t been as reasoning as she thought, repudiating Jak like that. If so, she owed him an apology. Except… things were better this way, even if he hated her now.
“I bet it’s the sorcery side of you,” Gen added, wiggling her fingers in the air, making Stella smile. “Come on, let’s go exploring. I want to see this lake creature! If I can. The outing will do you good. You seem down today. Are you worried about Zeph and Lena?”
“No. Everyone healed fine.” Stella stood and walked the short distance to the water. “I’m dying to hear their story, however.”
“Me too. And I want to hear how Astar suddenly just grabbed dragon form. I didn’t know he’d been working on it.”
“He hadn’t,” Stella replied. “But it was always in him, waiting to be released.”
“Figures,” Gen muttered.
“Do you mind?” Stella asked. She knew the answer, felt Gen’s frustration over it, her disappointment with her life in general. Gen’s mother Zynda was the only other shapeshifter to attain dragon form, and Gen had long been trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Stella privately thought Gen didn’t need to follow anyone else’s path, but she was willing to listen if Gen wanted to talk about it.
Gen made a face at her. “I’m sure you can sense that I mind. I’m envious, but I’m also happy for Astar. A good swim will work out the green meanies.” She waded into the water. “Moranu this water is cold! I should’ve become a bird and then shifted over deeper water. This wading in for a deep-water form is miserable.”
“You still could,” Stella pointed out, waiting politely. Sea-lion form would let her shift on the beach, then wade in. Cold water wouldn’t bother her then.
“My boots are already wet,” Gen said philosophically, “but I’m going for a fish first, or I’ll never make it. Guard my back?”
“Always,” Stella said with a smile, and became the sea lion, taking her clothes and the Star with her. Keeping an eye on fish-Gen, she plunged into the water. A good swim would work out her own sad mood.
Who knew what they would find?
~ 3 ~
“Nothing,” Gen declared, shaking back her glossy chestnut hair, waving her fork in the air emphatically. “Not a Moranu-blessed thing in that lake. How is that even possible?”
Jak regarded her with amusement, grateful for Gen’s presence at their cozy dinner. Stella wasn’t exactly avoiding his gaze, but she also wasn’t acknowledging his existence in any significant way. She had that remote, faraway look to her, like she did when she’d had enough of being around people and was heavily protecting herself from their emotions. He doubted that was the case, however, since only the three of them sat around the small table by the fire in the smaller dining room. Zeph and Lena had apparently both awakened, as had Astar. Everyone had heard him roaring at finding her gone.
Good thing Jak had crashed into his own bed with his pants still on, because he’d been in the hall, blades in hand, before he fully awakened. By the time he figured out there wasn’t an actual attack, Astar had carried Zeph back to bed—and not to sleep that time.
Lucky guy. But Astar deserved it, if anyone did. Zeph was certainly pleased with herself.
Fully awake after that false emergency, and feeling considerably restored, Jak had washed up, dressed fully—and found himself still kicking his heels alone. Lena had eaten and gone back to sleep, in a new room, leaving hers to the still-sleeping Rhyian. Or the apparently still-sleeping Rhy. Jak had his doubts there. Astar had gotten the same knockout treatment from Stella, and he’d woken up after a few hours, but if that was how Rhy wanted to handle things, then so be it. Better for him to sulk quietly than subject everyone else to his undoubtedly foul mood.
There’d been no sign of Gen or Stella until the pair of them returned from exploring the forbidding lake. Good thing dusk fell early this far north in winter. Jak might’ve lost his mind pacing around and worrying about them if he’d had to wait much longer. Not that he’d let on to Stella, who’d greeted him with her usual polite distance, her only sign of concern a formal question about his ribs.
Normally he didn’t mind not being a shapeshifter. He fell in with those who were perfectly happy having one skin and keeping it in place. But it was Danu-cursed frustrating to be left behind. Also something he wouldn’t let on to Stella. If she was going to be eavesdropping on his emotions, then he’d give her ones he chose. Carefree and happy Jak was the order of the evening.
“You saw nothing in the lake?” he teased Gen. “No rocks? Not even a bunch of water?”
She glared at him, mouth set mulishly. “You are not funny, Jak. I meant no fish, of any size. And certainly no lake creature,” she added with glum disappointment.
“Maybe the lake creature ate all the fish,” he suggested, gaze wandering to Stella—who seemed entirely focused on her meal. She always ate slowly, as if not entirely convinced she’d like the taste by the time she put it in her mouth. Not like him, who’d been raised by two warriors with the ethic that time spent eating was an opportunity for an enemy to put a blade in your back.
“Maybe,” Gen said, the kind of maybe that meant I think you’re an idiot but I’m too polite to say so.
Jak kicked his chair back onto two legs and toasted her with his whiskey glass. At least he could get drunk on Groningen’s excellent liquor supply. “Are you sure there are no fish at all? Surely you two didn’t canvass the entire lake.” Though he addressed the question to Stella, too, she didn’t look up, dark hair falling in a curtain, obscuring most of the pale oval of her face.
“True enough.” Gen swirled her wine thoughtfully. “It’s an enormous lake, and deep. So deep that not much light penetrates beyond a certain level, and even my orca vision failed. Much as I wanted to see Stella’s creature, I was also wary of falling through one of those rifts. What if they’re in the water around here, too? Nilly might sense it, but I don’t know that I would.”
“Oh, it’s Stella’s creature now?” It would be nice to get some reaction from the silent Stella.
“Well, she was the first to see it,” Gen explained. “This morning.”
His chair came down with a thud. “You saw it? When this morning?”
Stella—finally—lifted her gaze to his, gray eyes calm as winter morning. “After you went inside. It rose up from the water, right in front of me.”
He fought a myriad of emotions, worry wrestling with aggravation. She’d been in danger, and she hadn’t called him back. “You promised,” he said softly, the lethal anger giving the mild words a keen edge. “Not moments before that, you promised to call me if you needed help.”
“I didn’t need help,” she replied smoothly, but he caught a shadow of defensiveness in it. “Besides, I knew you would be already asleep, which you needed to complete the healing.”
“Aha!” He kicked his chair back onto two legs again, balancing there. “I get your reasoning: the promise is conditional. Thus, if I decide it’s better for you, then I don’t have to keep my promise either.”