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avenge him. The hunters are all but gone now, and
Kaden’s people need his strength.” She sighed. “They’ve waited quite a while for
me to find a way to do it. Shouting at him didn’t work. I thought finding his
mate might make him remember that there are things worth fighting for even in
this world.”
    Tess stared at her, aghast. “That’s it? You want him to get up
and go home, so you...throw some unsuspecting human at him and hope he does the
right thing?”
    Morgan pursed her lips. “Well. I don’t love the description,
but that’s the gist, I suppose.”
    “Well, it backfired! He took his necklace and left! And those
hunters are out there looking for him...” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Wait
a second. Did you tell those hunters where he was?”
    Morgan rolled her eyes heavenward, then strode to one of the
display cases and fussed with the arrangement.
    “I thought it would lend a sense of urgency. He has to fight back, Tess. If I didn’t make the house
off-limits, he probably would have just dragged you back there. You’re meant for
one another, but that wouldn’t necessarily light a fire under him. Or in him,
rather. He’s lost so much of himself here. If he doesn’t regain it, here he’ll
stay.”
    Tess pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. “This is
some underhanded bullshit.”
    “Yes, well, some would say I specialize in that sort of thing.
My heart’s in the right place. Usually.”
    “Then help me,” Tess said. She stepped forward and put a hand
on Morgan’s shoulder. The power that sang through her arm nearly took her feet
from under her, a warning. Tess hung on, though, forcing herself to hold
Morgan’s ancient gaze and strengthening her grip. After a moment, the only power
she felt singing through her fingertips was her own.
    The witch—and Tess could now see that’s exactly what she
was—sighed.
    “Help you? You can’t save him, if he doesn’t wish to be saved.
The hunters will find him, or they will continue to chase him. Kaden will
continue to hide and insult the occasional well-meaning sorceress. Nothing
changes.”
    “He has changed,” Tess said simply,
words that finally prompted a flicker of a smile on Morgan’s beautiful face. And
as Tess said them, she knew they were true. In the short time she had known him,
Kaden had begun to awaken in more ways than one. Last night had simply been the
culmination. She didn’t know why he’d taken the necklace or why he’d run, but
she thought it was likely out of some misguided sense of honor, not a wish to
leave her.
    “He was a bit late,” Morgan said gently, “in taking that
necklace from you. Though in the truest matches, a necklace is never even
needed.” She lifted Tess’s hand away from her dress, and Tess looked, horrified,
at the black claws— her claws— that were already
retracting, turning normal once again.
    The fabric of Morgan’s dress was torn where Tess’s claws had
been.
    Tess stared at her hand. Her heartbeat pulsed in her ears.
Suddenly, all the strange things she’d been feeling physically made sense. “Oh,
my God.”
    Morgan studied her own nails. “Or Goddess, as it were.” She
looked up, new determination on her face. “Very well, Tess. I will help. Just
remember...whatever happens, whatever may come next, and whatever methods I
choose to use, you asked for this . Is that
clear?”
    The relief Tess felt canceled out any trepidation she might
have felt at Morgan’s words, or the odd glint in her catlike eyes.
    “Yes, anything you need to do, please. Thank you so much,
Morgan. I doubt he would have gone back to the house, but we could start
there...”
    “The thanks are premature, I assure you. Step outside to wait
for me,” Morgan said, and her voice, so compelling, swirled around Tess like
mist. She found her feet moving toward the door without another thought. She
caught a glimpse of Morgan spinning to glide away, back behind the curtain.
    Then she was outside in the