I still hadn’t had a chance to let them know, and actually, we were just running out of time. Bayla was still out there somewhere, and she was in danger, even if Emely knew how to control herself at all times.  At the end of the day, she was as much of a monster as I was.

“Maybe the hair was too old?” Julie interjected questioningly.

“Naturalis don’t even lose their effect over centuries...and the magic was the same as always, too...” Grace sounded frantic, and I had no idea what this was about at all.

“Now you know why you shouldn’t always be so reckless, Vivienna!”

Grace had lost her temper and the clay vase on her desk shattered into a thousand shards.

I took a step back and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, veins showing on my arms.

Fucking magic.

Vivienna had jumped up, ready to fight like she had this morning, completely ignoring Grace’s accusation.

“Don’t do that, Julian!” she hissed in my direction.

“I can’t control that if you use your powers!”

Julie jumped up and retrieved the necklace Grace had so carelessly thrown away first and handed it back to her. Grace accepted it and hung it around her neck again.

“You should always have it on,” Julie said.

“I know…”

The two exchanged very serious glances, then Grace looked at Vivienna.

“He’s not a threat right now, let him be, he can help us track her down.”

“They’re all the same!” Vivienna eyed me suspiciously again. “We can’t trust them. Who knows what they did to that girl...”

My gaze began to fix on her, my veins standing out more.

“I didn’t do anything with Bayla. And I’m not one of the Copelands either.”

It made me mad as hell that everyone saw me as someone I wasn’t anymore. Like I was being robbed of any right to self-determination.

“It doesn’t matter if you want to be part of them or not, you’re all the same!” Vivienna turned to the Blair cousins. “Sooner or later, they will kill us all if we don’t do something about them now.”

Vivienna’s family was one of those who hated the Senseque the most and attributed the dark part of that ancient prophecy to them.

I knew they actually hated all of us, but this was going too far.

I took a step toward them.

“Let me tell you this. I don’t want to hurt you, even though you’re pretty much a pain in the ass. So, leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone, just like our families agreed.”

“Vivienna, leave him alone. He’s right.” Grace sounded serious.

“Vivi...” Julie sighed.

You could feel the Quatura’s tension so strongly that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Alarik had shown up straight away to defuse the next confrontation.

“You’ll see what you get out of trusting him.”

Vivienna had enough. She took a step back, gave each of us a withering look, and finally stormed through the open door of the room.

“I warned you!” she screeched loudly, then slammed a door.

“She’s always like this.”

“I know,” I indicated to Julie.

“You really couldn’t track her down, not even your friend?” Grace asked sharply.

I suppressed the urge to deny something again and moved closer to the girls.

“Their scents got lost in two different directions. I think Emely has returned to the Copeland estate.”

“Are you sure?” She looked at me searchingly.

“Yes. With Emely, I am.”

“Good, then at least Bayla wasn’t eaten.” Grace sat back down in front of her herb bowl and looked at Julie. “I never thought a human would cause us so much worry.”

“Bayla is not human.”

The Blair cousins wheeled around to me and looked at me startled, almost as if I had just told them I had joined the pack.

“What do you mean?” Grace asked with hesitation.

“Her mother moved back here with her a few weeks ago. They’re our neighbors...”

It almost slipped out that Ms. Adams had invited my family to dinner, and the last thing I wanted was for Ms. Adams to be cast in the wrong light. “Anyway, her mother is one of you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Grace jumped up and gathered her herbal stuff, but Julie didn’t give me time to answer. The reason, by the way, why I hadn’t told them yet.

“Of course...Bayla Adams...why didn’t I notice this earlier?” Julie said with a thoughtful look on her face. “She’s the daughter of Ms. Adams, the new Air Quatura.”

“She’s not in the Circle, Julie.” Grace paused and dropped all the herbal stuff back to the floor. “We have to report her.”

Julie rose and they both sped toward the door, but I interposed myself.

“Wait a minute...no one leaves here until you tell me what you’re up to.”

“Let us pass, Julian.” Grace looked up at me, annoyed.

When I still hadn’t moved, Julie said, “When you move into a new territory as a Quatura, you are obligated to join the predominant Circle there.”