Page 106 of Truthfinder’s Promise

“Then let’s get passports.”

“And how far do you propose we allow this countries analogy to run?” Kait Silver asked. “Are we to consider allowing permanent residence? Dual citizenship?”

Elizabeth, her voice amused, said, “What horrifies you more? An Aspecter wanting to live in your territory, or the opposite? Or,” she continued before Kait could respond, “is your true fear that?” She pointed at Meredith and Jensen.

“If you have something to say, spit it out.”

“I’m saying that your bigotry drove my parents from the Silver enclave to Temple. If you can’t even handle a white man marrying a Black woman with the objectivity a leader should have, how are we to expect you to have any objectivity when it comes to the possibility of a Shifter marrying an Aspecter?”

“Of course. Cry racial discrimination at the first available opportunity. Am I supposed to trip all over myself to make amends for your perceived slight?”

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. It was a good arched eyebrow, conveying the perfect amount of bored disdain. Someone had taught her well. “This isn’t about me.”

“No, it isn’t. But since you brought it up, let’s consider the issue marriage poses. What happens when we have half-breed children littering the landscape? Is an Aspecter to understand what a Shifter child needs? Is a Shifter parent to nurture the foul development of Aspect in their child?”

“Enough.” Darren Archer’s deep voice said he’d had it. “People raise children from two different backgrounds all the time. How you feel about it is your personal issue. Shifters don’t have laws about who you can and can’t marry. Do Aspecters?”

“No,” Siren answered.

“Good. Then let’s not get bogged back down in the squabbles Ms. Townsend is valiantly trying to drag us out of. I propose a two-hour recess. The Shifters will put together a set of rules we feel are necessary to maintain successful open borders, and Aspect will do the same. We meet and come to an agreement on a combined set. Then we vote to accept it or go with closed borders. Objections?”

Kait opened her mouth, but the combined displeasure emanating at her from the rest of the room caused her to shut it.

“Excellent.” Darren swiped up his notepad—which looked suspiciously as if it might also contain doodles. “Two hours.”

The vote for alliance passed, with Kait as the single holdout. Fortunately, Shifter society only required a majority vote to pass new measures. They agreed to establish outposts in each Shifter or Aspect controlled territory. Anyone visiting was required to check in at the outpost to announce their presence, and be briefed on local laws. The outposts would also serve as short-term lodging to any visitors who might feel more comfortable there than seeking accommodations elsewhere, and would be staffed with a Liaison from the territory in which the outpost resided.

Any confrontation between Aspecters and Shifters that required legal arbitration or punishment would be overseen by a joint committee between the two societies. Children born to an Aspect/Shifter union would indeed have “dual citizenship.” There were a handful of other agreed-upon rules, but those were the important ones as far as Meredith was concerned.

She had offered her house as the Seclusion outpost. It was something useful to do with a property she didn’t want, and she’d already bought enough supplies for the Shifters currently staying in it now that it was practically set up as a hotel already. It would need staffing, and someone to serve as the Aspect Liaison, but those were decisions for Siren to make.

They’d gotten the best outcome they could have hoped for. So why didn’t she feel relieved?

Because Jensen disappeared as soon as the ink was dry.

The enclave protectors were already packing up to take their people back home. Was Jensen doing the same? Was he even planning on saying goodbye, or was she just going to wake up to an empty house tomorrow?

I would have asked you to be mine. Sure he would have. Was he here right now, asking her?

You know what? Screw it. He didn’t get to just disappear on her. If nothing else, he still owed her a damn divorce.

Unfortunately, her plan to corner him and demand he speak actual words to her was thwarted when Siren and Val stepped into her path. She tried her diplomatic smile. “I would love to talk, but at the moment—”

“Porch,” Valkyrie ordered. “Now.”

Ugh. That was Valkyrie’s I-will-pick-you-up-and-carry-you-if-I-have-to voice. Since being picked up and hauled somewhere by her best friend was undignified, she gave the stairs to the Shifter floor a longing look before walking outside.