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To be fair to Orlin, he had the decency to look and act contrite when I got upset with him. Rasmus and Zara handled my hurt by offering a polite apology followed by an intellectual argument. They didn’t get that saying the words of an apologywas not the same thing as truly feeling regret. Both of them needed to learn that.

I walked a few steps in front of them as we made our way to the stables. A young demon caretaker was playing with the demon wolves. He looked like a typical teenager, even down to the irritated scowl he barely hid about our interruption.

“Hello,” I said, smiling at the boy. “This is Rasmus and Zara. They’re going to be regular visitors.”

The boy’s gaze zeroed in on Zara. I could tell Henry had gotten the word out fast to watch her.

“Should I leave and come back later?” he asked.

“That’s unnecessary,” I said, smiling at him again. “But ya could run and tell Gale that we’ll be having dinner in the dining room tonight. I promised to let her know. I won’t be feeding the wolves tonight so I’ll save that job for ya.”

“Sure. I can deliver your message. I can do that while you visit the wolves,” he said, nodding before he ran off.

I whistled and the wolves jogged over to us. I knelt and gave them both a good scratch. I also kept my voice low as I spoke to the humans inside them. “Don’t be getting too used to yer wolf forms. I may have found someone to help ya become yerselves again.”

Zara stepped around me to get a better look. She held out a hand over them. “You called them wolves, but these are not wolves.”

Since the wolves weren’t running away from her in terror, I stood up. “You’re right. They’re not wolves. They’re two young human females. I lack the skills needed to turn them back into humans. The person who did this to them planned to do this to all humans. She shared yer view about human evolution not happening fast enough.”

Zara drew her hand back and frowned. “It is not our place to decide something like this. Only the Creators can make this sort of decision. There are good reasons we don’t intervene.”

Up to now, I’d been trying not to lie to Zara. Now I could kiss that intention goodbye. “I’m not sure what kind of being she was. I only know what she thought. My discussions with her were enlightening, but I also felt very sorry for her. She was grieving the love of her immortal life and created these wolves for reasons I couldn’t adequately explain to anyone. Unfortunately, she never finished her work so they’re stuck in their wolf form with no hope of changing back. She did intend to give them the ability.”

Zara shook her head and took another step backward. Then she crossed her arms—or hugged herself—I couldn’t tell which. “I did this when I was possessed, didn’t I?”

I straightened to my full height. I didn’t weave the lie Zara was being forced to live. Rasmus would have to handle this one.

“Ya’ll have to talk to yer brother about who’s responsible for letting her do this. All I know is that these young, non-magickal women didn’t deserve to have their lives disrupted for the sake of some guardian scientist’s blind ambition. My ex-husband was part of a military group of human scientists doing this same thing to unwilling people, except they weren’t as good at it. I stopped him and if I could fix the wolves myself, I would.”

Zara didn’t respond. Instead, she turned and walked away. That was what guardians did when someone held them accountable.

“I should go after her,” Rasmus said.

“Ya should,” I agreed.

“Can we talk later?”

“Are ya planning to stay and hear me out? Or run off again?”

Rasmus sighed. “I had an important thought and needed to make a note of it.”

“And I had feelings of rejection and abandonment about why ya left like that. I’m not eager to keep experiencing yer rudeness over and over just because ya don’t understand what hurt feelings are.”

“That wasn’t why I left...”

I held up my hand. “I don’t carewhyya left. I care only that ya disrespected me. Actions speak louder than words, Rasmus. A superior-thinking guardian ought to understand how that works for us lowly humans.”

“I thought you were above petty emotions.”

“And I thought ya cared enough about my feelings not to be thoughtless. I guess we were both wrong.” I waved a hand toward the house. “Go. Take care of yer experiment. I appreciate yer attention to detail with her. She’s the same Zara but far less ambitious. Nice work, Mr. Scientist.”

“I can tell you’re being sarcastic. I will see you later to discuss this.”

“Yeah—yeah... I’ll see ya at dinner. But I’m having tea with Mulan afterward and ya’re not invited.”

Rasmus strode away muttering to himself. It was a good thing I couldn’t hear what he was saying or we might have had one of those magickal smack-downs they were always putting in paranormal movies. He had his memories back but I’d seen nothing to show all his powers had returned. Maybe I might win one for once. It would be fun to put a frozen statue of Rasmus in the foyer next to the one of Ezra.

Maybe I’d have Henry put them on each side of the staircase. Wouldn’t that jazz up the cover of some decorating magazine?