She noticed Blair, who looked like someone was chewing on his tail, which wasn’t likely because he was in human form. Then she forgot about the Wolf when she spotted Julia and Marie Hawkgard coming out of Chocolates and Cream, licking ice cream cones.
Had she ever tasted ice cream? She wasn’t sure. But she knew she’d never experienced eating an ice cream cone. And Sam hadn’t had ice cream in years, if he’d ever had any when he was a little puppy. They would go over to Chocolates and Cream, and she would buy ice cream cones for both of them. And Skippy too, so he wouldn’t be left out.
She looked at Sam. “Would you like to get . . .”
The harsh buzz began in her chest, quickly spreading to her left shoulder.
“Get what, Meg?” Sam tugged on her arm. “Meg?”
Meg looked at the Market Square. Crowded place. Too many people, too little room to move, to escape.
The Market Square looked familiar, but it didn’t feel familiar anymore. And the certainty that she needed to escape grew stronger the longer she stood there.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered. She patted the right cargo pocket in her shorts. Empty.
How could it be empty? How could . . . ?
She pressed her hand against the left pocket and felt the shape of her folding razor. She’d put it there—and buttoned the pocket—so that the razor was with her but harder to reach.
“Meg?” Sam whined as he tugged on her arm again.
Meg worked to steady her breathing. She should turn around and walk away from the Market Square, walk back to the Green Complex or as far up the road as she needed to go until the painful pins-and-needles buzz under her skin stopped.
She looked at Sam and Skippy, intending to tell them they had to leave.
But what if the prophecy was about one of them? Could she take that risk? Could she live with the pain if either of them got hurt?
Be sure, she thought. The last time you didn’t walk away, you upset so many friends. You hurt Nathan. And Simon. Be sure.
She hurried away from the Market Square, intending to reach her office and call . . . who? Simon was at the stall market with Jenni Crowgard and her sisters. Nathan, Vlad, Henry, and the human pack were with them. Except Theral, who was working at the medical office this afternoon because she didn’t want to go to a crowded place where her ex-lover might look for her.
Could Theral be the reason for the prickling? There had been no sign of that man since the flowers arrived as a way to confirm that Theral could be found in the Courtyard. But no human could reach Theral in the medical office. Especially not today with so many of the terra indigene gathered in the Market Square.
Crowds and the sting of sharp, unpleasant smells. Pushing and shoving. Shouts and screams. No room to escape if . . .
“Meg?” Sam said. “Where are you going?”
She ran to the Liaison’s Office. Get inside and call . . . Blair, the Courtyard’s dominant enforcer. No, he was in the Market Square, close by. She would call Nyx. The Sanguinati would help her.
She stopped, barely able to breathe.
The buzzing had gotten worse, not better. She was moving toward the reason for the visions building in her skin, not away from it.
Can’t cut when I’m not in control. Can’t frighten Sam the way I frightened Nathan. Can’t. But the danger is here. I know it’s here.
Meg looked around, focusing on the buildings that surrounded her as she turned in a slow circle. The garages that stored two BOWs and also held various tools and equipment for seasonal work. The Three Ps and the access way that provided egress to the Main Street entrance to the Courtyard. The back of the Liaison’s Office and Henry’s yard. The back entrances to Howling Good Reads and A Little Bite.