Page 32 of Truthfinder’s Promise

12

Jensen could tell he’d hurt her by the way her head jerked back. Then her face went calm, so expressionless he couldn’t read a thing.

“Whatever you may think of my kind, I’m not a monster. Even if I didn’t know you, I would try to convince you not to do this on your own. But I do know you. I liked you, Jensen. I’d rather you weren’t dead.”

He blew out a breath. “Okay. If you want to help, I’d be an idiot to say no. But if we’re doing this, the odds of my people not finding out your involvement are slim to none, and I don’t want your death on my conscience.” He threw out the possibility of her death casually, almost cruelly, because the alternative was to face the truth of just how hard her death would hit him. He was already having to face the possibility that he wouldn’t find Nat alive. He didn’t want to contemplate another person he cared about dying.

Why had he had to fall so hard for Meredith? He barely knew her. Why did she have to turn out to be Aspect Society? He’d gotten himself through some of the rougher points of his captivity by remembering her. By imagining that he could get out and find Natalie and, once his sister was safe, he could come back here and find Meredith.

Come up with some bullshit excuse to explain why he’d been gone, and see if they could pick up where they’d left off. If she’d been a Null, it would have been fine. Shifters didn’t have a law against dating Nulls. It wasn’t even unheard of for Shifters to marry Nulls. But if they did, most of the time they had to move out of their enclave and keep Shifter existence a secret, in which case they couldn’t have children because Shifter blood always ran true.

There was a second option. One way in which it was acceptable for a Shifter to reveal their true existence. They could bring their Null significant other into the enclave and show them what Shifters were. The Null was given a week after that, during which they were under constant guard, to accept what they’d seen and agree to be bound by magical oath never to reveal it.

Few Shifters took that option because if at the end of the week the Null didn’t agree, they didn’t leave the enclave alive. Only one Shifter in Jensen’s enclave, Keelie, had ever gone that route. Her Null fiancé had taken the oath to save his life. Then he’d left and never spoken to her again. That had been three years ago and she was still broken up over it.

If Meredith had been Null like he’d thought, Jensen would have taken the first option. But Meredith was Aspect. He didn’t have the first option. The oath was the only thing that would protect her. The respect his people had for that bond would convince them to hold their claws long enough for him to make them understand she wasn’t a threat. Now he just needed to get her to agree to it.

“There’s one way my people will forgive you knowing what we are. I need your oath that you will never speak of Shifters to anyone who doesn’t already know about us. That you will accept my people as you would your own. In return, I give you that same oath.”

She hesitated. “You do understand that being a Truthfinder doesn’t mean I can’t lie? If you think any promise I make is binding because of my Aspect, it isn’t so.”

“I don’t want you to promise. I want you to make an oath.” His words did nothing to alleviate her skepticism, so he added, “A magically binding oath.”

Her voice turned harsh. “I don’t engage in blood magic.”

“I’m not suggesting we cut our palms and shake on it.”

“Then how does this magic work?”

“It just…does. I make a promise. You make a promise. Magic seals the bargain.”

She frowned. “How?”

“How what?”

“How does magic seal the bargain?”

“I…don’t follow.” Magic was magic. Shouldn’t Aspecters know that better than anyone?

She groaned. “Please tell me you aren’t proposing to use magic you don’t understand the basic mechanics of.”

“It’s magic. Not science.”

“In all ways that matter, magic is exactly like science.”

“If you say so.”

She rubbed at her temples, as if he was giving her a headache. “Is this particular magic used often among your people?”

“Yes.”

“Are there ever any adverse side effects?”

“Only if someone breaks their oath.”

“Have you ever personally used this magic before?”

“No.”