Page 33

It’s not Godric. Ulara, the female shifter with catlike green eyes, peers down at me with what I can only assume is judgment.

“Get up,” she says. Her tone is stern but kind. At least, as kind as a shifter can sound. “You’re late for evaluation.”

My legs tingle as I force myself to stand.

Seventy-five percent, I repeat to myself. I don’t know if Arwan’s estimate is accurate now that I took matters into my own hands.

But I have a feeling I’m about to find out.

CHAPTER 9

If I thought the silence in the tent had been deafening, Ulara’s march across the encampment is a thousand times worse.

And I never did find my vials. Which is not good.

The panic doesn’t sit with me very long. It’s not like I plan on using any of my magic tonics anyway. If I die today, it’s going to happen with or without them.

I finally can’t take it anymore and ask the first question that’s been burning on my tongue for the past ten minutes.

“Are you going to tell Godric?”

She comes to a stop, but not because of my question. We’ve reached a crowded intersection with shifters bustling through close-knit wooden structures. Many have logs on their backs that look to be three times their body weight, some have bags of grain, and others are toting carts filled with goods.

Something is going on. I’m just not sure what.

Where is Godric, anyway?

She doesn’t answer me but instead grabs my wrist and drags me through the crowd. Everyone parts around her and no one bumps into us, betraying that they know exactly who she is. Ulara has earned respect in the Blood Moon Pack.

She doesn’t speak until we’re alone again.

“That I found you half naked on the floor with your guards incapacitated outside? If I tell him that, he’ll kill us both,” she says without looking at me.

She’s paused again, likely because I’m unable to keep up. I’m a lady from the Magic Sector in the Elite City, which is why she’ll assume I’m out of shape. That excuse should hide my physical disabilities for a while at least.

I curl my fingers over my knees and buckle over as I draw in air. “It’s not… what it looked like,” I tell her as I regain my breath. Ulara seems to have sway when it comes to Godric, and if she feels safe enough to keep a secret from him, then I very much want to get on her good side. “Arwan paid me a visit, but he didn’t do anything to me.”

My divulgence of information must surprise her, or maybe it’s who came to visit me that catches her off guard, but she drops her jaw before shutting it again. “No one would believe that, so I suggest you don’t go spouting that around the camp if you value your pretty neck.”

I grin. “You think my neck is pretty?”

She rolls her eyes. “We’re running late. Are you able to keep walking without passing out, or am I going to have to carry you?”

Straightening, I brush off invisible dust from my dress. I could have opted for pants, but Ulara wouldn’t give me privacy, and if I did manage to somehow find my vials, I planned on putting them back on quickly and discreetly. So a dress was my only option for today.

Hopefully, that doesn’t bite me in the ass.

“I’m okay now,” I say.

My goal had been to tell Ulara the truth, and now she has another secret that only I know. Without even realizing it, Ulara has already become indebted to me twice over.

That might be enough to get Ulara to gift me the favor I have in mind.

Assuming I survive this evaluation.

After a few turns around bands of stone houses, I jerk and look up at a massive structure I had wrongly assumed was a tree lit by the sun.

It’s gleaming because it’s made of steel.