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“Selene?”

“Kane, hey,” I say as I close the door to my room, caught off guard by his low, gravelly voice. A large part of me wasn’t expecting him to answer the phone considering that today is the final day of the Sacred Seven. I imagined he’d be out in the woods in his animal form.

“How are you doing?” he asks. “I meant to reach out. I heard about…the arrest the other night.” The one he warned me about. “I’m sorry.”

I shake my head, even though he can’t see it. “It’s fine. They released me and cleared my name.”

“Yeah, I heard about that too. I was relieved to hear it.”

Goddess, but there’s nothing like casually talking about being a murder suspect with your former—current?—crush to really make things awkward.

I clear my throat. “Anyway,” I say, “that night, you mentioned that your pack wanted to speak with me about the night I found Cara.”

“Yeah, we’d love to talk to you about that. I’d need to check with my pack’s alpha, but I could probably call a meetingtomorrow if that works for you? I know there’s sometimes festivities following Samhain, so we can always push it?—”

“Tomorrow works,” I say. I can prioritize celebrations another year, when supernaturals aren’t getting bonded and murdered around me.

“Great,” he says, his voice growing a little less gravelly. “Then assuming the pack approves the meeting, I’ll wait for you at the boundary line between our properties at five p.m. tomorrow.”

“All right. I’ll see you then.”

Kane hesitates, then admits, “And in case you forgot some of our call that night, I would still like to see you again.”

My breath catches. Ihadforgotten, but not in the way he assumes. The memory got buried under everything else I had to deal with in the last three days.

“I still think about that night I came over to your place,” Kane continues, his voice deepening with the admission.

He can’t possibly be referencing the night Memnon tossed him out my bedroom window.

“I’m still so sorry about that?—”

“I shouldn’t have left you after the officers came,” the shifter interrupts me. “I should’ve stayed.”

My heart thunders at the thought, but I shake my head. “I wouldn’t have let you.” Memnon was all too willing to hurt Kane.

He’s probablystillall too willing.

“That asshole doesn’t scare me.”

I think of the legions of soldiers who lay slaughtered on long-ago fields of wheat, all of them killed by Memnon’s power. I think of the way my former husband took a palace—and the kingdom that came with it—on whim alone. And how dizzyingly easy it was for him to force me to capitulate to his demands. He was raised to be a warrior, and his magic has only made him more lethal.

“Heshouldscare you, Kane. He really should.”

I spend the afternoon in the Everwoods with Sybil and my other coven sisters, setting up the decorations for the festivities tonight. We all either grow or move hundreds of pumpkins along the edges of a makeshift pathway. Though it’s not obvious to the naked eye, a ley line runs along this path. Fairies and spirits often travel these magical roads, and tonight, we’re inviting them onto coven land as honored guests.

Once we’re finished with the pumpkins, we spell lanterns to float in the air above the path, the candles inside each one still unlit.

After the last of the items has been positioned, I dust off my hands and back up.

Sybil skips over to me, her butterfly wings fluttering behind her.

“So remind me again what’s going to happen later?” I say as she links her arm through mine.

She shakes her head. “No way am I going to ruin the surprise tonight. You’re just going to have to see it firsthand.” Sybil glances at the growing shadows. “C’mon,” she says, tugging my arm in the direction of our house. “We should eat and get you changed.”

“Getmechanged?” I say uncertainly.

“Babe,” she says, pulling on my skeleton suit, “you’re not going to want to wear this.”