Page 28 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Meredith checked that her Aspect shield was firmly in place and inched closer to the kitchen knives. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t Jensen. So what if Memory Readers—beings who could pluck memories from a mind and make a person see them—had been extinct for over a hundred years? It was still a more plausible explanation than a werewolf.

“Jensen wasn’t—isn’t—part of the magical world. He owns a construction company for goddess’ sake.” She sounded like a bad actress in an action film where a woman discovered her husband was really a super spy. No, you’ve got it wrong. Dan isn’t a secret agent, he’s a sales consultant.

“I do owna construction company.” Jensen’s voice took on a distinct soothe-the-crazy-person tone. “I’m also a Shifter.”

“I’ve never heard of Shifters.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What happened to the pretty speech you gave Random about being certain that things existed you didn’t know about?”

Oddly enough, that statement made things easier for her to understand. Everything he’d done so far—from how he’d acted to who he looked like now, to throwing her own words back at her—followed a pattern of being curated to her expectations, playing into things she’d foolishly told him when he’d looked like a dog and she’d been grateful for his company.

“Oh, I’m certain it’s still true. I’m certain I don’t actually know what you are. I’m also certain I can’t trust a word you say, and I don’t have the time or the inclination to get the truth out of you.”

So what if her Aspect had stopped saying lie now that he’d taken human form?

“I have to go. I have no interest in harming you, but since you’ve clearly recovered, I also have no interest in leaving you in my house. You can follow me out and we’ll go our separate ways.”

She stepped forward. He didn’t move.

“I can’t let you go meet him,” he said softly.

“You can’t let me? You don’t let me do anything. No one lets me do anything. I do things. I control my life. Not you and not anyone else.” Not anymore. Never again. “Now get out of my way.”

He winced, and in that moment he looked so much like Jensen she almost believed her Aspect telling her it was him. “I’m sorry, those weren’t the right words. My human side’s a little rusty. But I need you to talk to me. That guy on the phone? He gave me to Elijah. He kidnapped my sister. I have to find her if it’s not too late and I need your help for that. So please, talk to me.”

Meredith was pretty good at telling when people were lying, even without using her Aspect. It came part and parcel of living life as a Truthfinder, and all of her instincts, in addition to her magic, were telling her that Jensen wasn’t lying. But instincts were fallible, and powerful magic could trick almost anyone. His ability to fool everyone around her except for her and Random was proof enough of that.

But if he wasn’t lying… Jensen had looked haunted the entire time she’d been with him, as if some dark burden weighed on him and he only found brief moments of lightness when he was with her. She’d felt the same way about him. It was part of what had drawn her to him. Had that weight, that darkness, been a missing sister?

He must have marked the chink in her resolve because he said, “Your magic—it has something to do with truth, right? That’s why my glamour didn’t work on you? Can’t you use it now? Tell I’m not lying?”

I already am, and I don’t like what it’s telling me. If she made the physical connection lesser Truthfinders needed to tell truth at all, there would be no doubt to what her power told her.

Wisdom dictated she send him on his way. But in the end, she didn’t have it in her. If he really was Jensen, she couldn’t just throw him out and tell him to deal with his problems on his own. Especially not if Julian had been responsible for those problems.

“Alright,” she said, sounding steadier than she felt. “But first thing’s first. You need pants.”

Somehow, in the midst of this crazy, he found an amused smile. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“Which is why we’re covering it up. I know exactly how distracting it is.” The words just fell out of her mouth. Dear goddess, what was wrong with her? She fled the room for the basement. Walking through the apartment-like space hurt. She didn’t usually go in. Lurking in the doorway and reliving painful memories was more her speed.

They clawed at her now, begging her to remember, remember, remember.

Remember leaping off the stairs, one-hundred percent certain her father would catch her. He had, even though he’d been on a business call. He hadn’t been mad, and he hadn’t made her leave, just held her on his hip and walked around with her as he talked.

Remember sneaking down here when she’d had bad dreams and wondering why Daddy didn’t live upstairs with her and Mom. Thinking how much nicer things would be if he did.

Remember—

Remember his screams the night he’d died, and how long they’d gone on before she’d had the courage to come down here, and by then it had been too late. Remember him smiling through the pain she was all too intimately familiar with. Remember him saying, “I love you, baby girl,” before his heart gave out.

“Meredith?”

She jerked. Jensen stood at the top of the stairs. How long had she been standing lost in the middle of this room, if he’d come to check on her?

“Are you okay?”