Chapter 6

I just lay there on the couch, hair still wet, eyes wide open until the sun came up.

My mind kept looping back to that day at the summit.

The Shadow Peaks Trials.

I can still see Lyra, screaming into the wind in the Old Tongue.

"Kyle and Selene! Mated for life! A bloodline that will never end!"

And Kyle glanced over at her, then howled back.

"Lyra and Selene! Friends and allies, forever!"

The eight o'clock bells snapped me out of it.

I grabbed my comm crystal. Typed one message to Kyle.

"The engagement is off."

A second later, I heard a key in the lock.

Lyra's voice, loud and teasing.

"See? This is your fault we're late.

Now Selene's favorite Sunrise Glaze Rolls are sold out."

"Excuse me? You're the one who spent an hour preening just to walk over here," Kyle shot back.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't kept me up all night—"

They walked in. Arms full of breakfast bags. Huge grins on their faces.

Then they saw me.

Just lying there on the couch.

The smiles died. The chatter stopped.

I knew exactly what that little argument meant.

Kyle kept his expression neutral,

setting the food down on the table with a casual laugh.

"My heart-link just buzzed. Let me see what my moonlight goddess sent me..."

He looked down at his comm crystal.

His face went white.

Lyra leaned right over his shoulder to read it.

Close enough that their faces were nearly touching.

Then her eyes shifted to me. My face still completely blank.

Her voice came out soft. Sweet. Almost playful.

"Selene, are you serious right now?

All this drama just because Kyle didn't come home last night?"

"If anyone should be upset, it's me.

I took a nasty fall last night and you didn't even check on me."

"And I still dragged myself out this morning to get you breakfast for your Ascension day..."

That's when every detail I'd never thought to question came rushing back at once. Since when were Sunrise Glaze Rolls from the East Side shop even my favorite?