Page 108 of Truthfinder’s Promise

Starting over somewhere new. Tell Hel I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye. I still don’t like you. But I wish you nothing but the best.

“You too,” she whispered. She tucked the note into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Jensen still hadn’t answered her texts, and he didn’t pick up when she called. After a moment’s hesitation, she knocked on Natalie’s door.

“Who is it?” a small voice called.

“It’s Meredith.”

She heard the shuffling of feet and then the door opened six inches and Natalie peered out. Shifter magic and all the food money could buy had filled out some of her body’s gauntness, though not to the level Meredith would have expected. And it would take more than food to lift the haunted look from her eyes.

Meredith hadn’t spoken to her much. The girl hardly left her room, and Meredith hadn’t wanted to pry. She didn’t know Natalie, didn’t know if Jensen wanted her to know his sister. If he had, surely he would have officially introduced them.

Natalie waited for her to speak. Meredith cleared her throat. “Is your brother here?”

“He said he was going for a walk.”

Which meant he could be anywhere. Now she had to decide if it was worth the risk to walk the grounds in search of him when doing so came with the potential of getting run through the testing mill by every Shifter she ran into.

“Thank you.” Something stopped her from just walking away. Maybe it was the way Natalie lingered in the doorway instead of shutting it. “Do you need anything?”

“No.” But as Meredith turned, Natalie blurted out, “Jensen said you’ve been through shit. Really bad shit. Like us, but worse.”

“I don’t know how to gauge what’s worse, but…yes. I’ve ‘been through shit.’”

“Could you…do you want to come in?”

Oh boy. Meredith stepped inside. Natalie closed the door behind them and started to pace, her skinny arms hugged around herself.

Meredith was so not cut out for this. Whatever Natalie needed from her right now, what if she couldn’t give it? What if she said the wrong thing and she screwed the girl up even worse? And yes, Meredith had a laundry list of issues a mile long but she hadn’t been through what Natalie had. Hadn’t been stolen away from her home and everything she’d ever known. Shouldn’t Natalie be talking to the other Shifters who’d been taken?

“The others blame me,” Natalie said, so quiet Meredith almost didn’t hear it. She wondered if the girl had plucked Meredith’s thoughts right out of her head, but then she realized that this was what she’d wanted to talk about.

“Blame you for what?”

She stared at her feet. “For getting the others captured. For the auction. For everything.”

“Natalie, look at me.” Meredith waited until she did, rage simmering under her skin. Natalie was a sixteen-year-old kid. She needed support, not blame. “That is bullshit. What happened is not your fault, and anyone who says otherwise can go to hell.”

Natalie’s eyes widened. “They’ll hear you.”

“Good. I’ll say it again.” She raised her voice. “Anyone who blames you for what happened is the same sort of short-sighted asshole who wants to let rapists off because the victim ‘asked for it’ or ‘didn’t object strenuously enough.’”

Natalie shook her head. “But it is my fault. I knew Julian was Aspect and I didn’t tell anyone.”

“And did you meet him, and immediately tell him you were a Shifter, and then write him out a long list and say, ‘Here, here are some other Shifters, please go kidnap them?’ ”

“No! It wasn’t like that. I didn’t tell him what I was, he already knew.” She slumped down on the bed and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

“How?”

Natalie shrugged. “I don’t know. I worked at this coffee shop and he used to come in on weekdays when it super slow. He seemed nice and I was bored and we’d end up talking, you know? Then one day we were talking about cats and he asked if I had the urge to groom when I was in my snow leopard form.

“I answered without thinking. He asked it so natural, and I was so comfortable with him I forgot that he wasn’t supposed to know. When I realized what I’d said I tried to take it back, but he said it was okay. He said it would be our secret. That he had a secret too. And then he did magic.” her face took on a wondrous expression. “He made this ball of light. Right there in the shop, like it didn’t matter.”

Meredith sat on the bed next to Natalie and lifted her hand, palm up. “Like this?” She summoned a ball of witchlight.

“Yeah.” Natalie looked at it longingly. “I always wanted to be able to do magic.”

Meredith let the witchlight fade. “You shift into a snow leopard. That’s pretty damn magical.”