Read Online Soul Whisperer by Jenna Kernan - Free Book Online

yet changed and so I did not have the aura of a Skinwalker. They found me, but assumed I was human and let me go.”
    â€œThat was lucky.”
    â€œLucky.” She gave a short exhalation and a half smile that seemed laced with hatred, as if she had also just recalled who and what he was. “I should go.”
    â€œNo.” He rested a hand on her knee and the depth of her loss rolled through him, cold as an ice storm. He drew back his hand, unable to bear it. “At least stay for supper.”
    Her nod was barely perceptible. He blew out the breath he’d been holding. He had her for a little while longer.
    She pressed her hands together and lowered her head for a moment as if praying. But he knew better. Bess was reining in her emotions. When she lifted her chin her face was placid, but her eyes were intent as ever.
    â€œWhy do you always take your women to Dominicos?” she asked.
    Now she was trying small talk. He appreciated the effort and responded with honesty that even surprised him.
    â€œCloser to my bed, I suppose, and impressive enough to get them there.”
    Her eyes rounded and she pressed her hand over the smile that had returned like the sun emerging from behind a storm cloud.
    â€œHonesty? Something I never expected from one of your kind.”
    â€œAnd you, Bess. What keeps you from boredom as the decades inch past?”
    â€œMy work you mean? I’m with the National Wilderness Coalition. Mostly on the coast, but I do travel domestically if there is a natural disaster that affects wildlife. It’s all about The Balance, for us, as you know.”
    To the point of making man extinct, he thought, but said nothing. The Skinwalkers made the most militant of animal rights groups seem like a litter of kittens by comparison. Still, he did not want to say anything that would add further cracks to their fragile truce, so he held his tongue.
    The waiter brought all Bess’s appetizers at once, as she requested. Cesar wondered if their discussion had spoiled her appetite, but she attacked the calamari with singular attention.
    â€œIt’s been so long since I’ve been in human form. I’d forgotten the pleasure of eating fried food.”
    Her comment reminded him of all the reasons that teaming up with a raven was a bad idea. Such a liaison would have consequences for them both.
    But he found himself saying, “Been a long time since I enjoyed a conversation with a fellow Halfling.”
    She lifted her gaze to his, her eyes searching his face for what was left unsaid. But he had years of practice and knew his expression revealed nothing.
    â€œI thought Niyanoka lived in tight groups. You must have many opportunities to converse.”
    In answer he lifted his wine and took a large swallow.
    She leaned forward. “They really won’t talk to you?”
    He lowered the wine and glared at her, heartily sorry he had brought it up.
    She flopped back in her chair, indignation making her cheeks turn an appealing pink. Did she know how lovely she looked?
    â€œThat cracks it. Only Spirit Children would make an outcast of one of their own and one who holds such a valuable gift.”
    Valuable? Now there was a word he had never heard associated with his ability. Nor was it a gift, but rather a curse.
    â€œI’m tainted by the dead.”
    Bess waved a dismissive hand, graceful as a conductor leading an orchestra. Then she used her fingers to pick up a piece of fried calamari, its brown batter-coated tentacles twisted in some representation of a dreadful second death in the fryer. She lifted it between them.
    â€œDead,” she said, and then popped it into her mouth. “And they are hypocrites unless they are all vegans.”
    â€œIt’s different.”
    She rolled her eyes and headed back to the bisque. It was both refreshing and maddening to have someone not understand how impossibly difficult it was tobe outcast by his own people. He