Page 185 of Change

The stone Kathleen had given me lay in the center of my table, a shiny white that almost shone in the shadow. I wasn’t sure why, but it felt necessary to bring along, so I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed it, shoving it into my pocket before leaving my bedroom.

My footsteps sounded faintly as I walked barefoot down the hallway. Once outside of the library, I placed my hands on the oak double doors, quietly gathering the strength to go inside. The argument was louder than ever now, but nothing registered.

It didn’t matter what they thought, whatever they decided wouldn’t be relevant anyway.

Without a second thought, I pushed the doors open, albeit with more force than I’d even anticipated, and they swung inward, the sound crashing through the room.

“The hell?” Damen stood at the head of a desk, mouth open and eyebrows raised.

Everyone else was scattered throughout the room: Titus was leaning against a bookshelf with Julian beside him. Miles sat rigidly in one of the deep, leather reading chairs, his face frozen in a surprised expression. My adoptive parents were there too, with my mother taking up another armchair with my father behind her. Bryce, Brayden, Gregory and Dr. Kohler were grouped in another corner.

Well, it seemed like everyonewashere. Excellent.

And everyone, other than Titus, seemed rather surprised to see me.

In fact, Titus was smirking as his green eyes flashed over me, but that probably had little to do with the current situation.

I wondered how far this mind-reading trick of his worked.

“Bianca?” Finn stepped over from my left side, having been hiding out of my direct line of sight. “What are you doing out of bed?”

Oh, good. He was here too. I hadn’t even heard him earlier, but that didn’t matter.

“I am sick and tired of people telling me what to do.” I pressed past Finn, ignoring my adoptive parents as I moved toward Gregory. “I understand you’re trying to help, but if you don’t knock it off, I’m going to have Titus whisk me away to some remote island where I don’t have to deal with any of you ever again.” But then I frowned—there might be a small glitch in that plan. “Actually, I’m not sure, but I think he probably has an island.”

“I have an island,” Titus replied. Now he sounded positively gleeful.

“See!” I waved my hand in Titus’s direction. “He evenhasan island!”

“You’re talking again.” Uncle Gregory’s relief quickly masked over into boredom, he appeared to be undisturbed by my anger as he frowned. “You can’t run away with Mr. Ducharme. Then everyone will start to suspect you two are mates.”

“Let them find out. I don’t care anymore.” I growled, looking past the shocked faces of the others. “What’s the council going to do about it, attempt to kill me again? Let them try. They can’t do anything worse than what I’ve already been through.”

“No…” It was Julian who moved between the two of us, pulling me back from Uncle Gregory and holding my hands in his. “The council is acompletelydifferent issue. Don’t tempt them. You might not care, but I do.”

“We’re not tackling the council right now,” Damen agreed, still standing regally behind the desk. He scrutinized me, heavy and heated, and the wake of his attention left me with the most puzzling sensation.

What in the world was his problem?

“There are other issues to address first,” he added.

Other issues.

I turned to my brothers, biting my lip. Bryce was watching me, body tense, as he was seemingly waiting for what I might do next. And then there was Brayden, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. There was amajoroutstanding issue I’d been avoiding for quite a while.

“Maybe you’re right.” The edges of my anger began to dull as the clarity of their argument reached through my chaotic thoughts. I couldn’t very well tackle thecouncil without first facing some of the smaller things in my life.

I held Brayden’s eyes, and he stopped fidgeting. Without words passing between us, he knew what I was going to say. His expression lightened from tense nervousness to excitement, and he sucked in a breath.

“I’ll do it,” I told him. Saying it out loud made everything more real.

“Really?” he said, a slow smile breaking over his face. “You’ll come to dinner?”

“Sure, why not?” How bad could it be? At least the food was bound to be good. From my experience thus far, everyone had good taste. Even Uncle Caleb, in his own warped way, seemed to have a refined, yet snobbish palate.

And any meal provided by the fae was bound to be a memorable experience.

“You knowhe’llbe there, right?” Brayden continued; his voice was threaded with caution. Almost as if he was afraid to allow himself to get too excited, lest he be disappointed. “That’sliterallythe point; he wants to meet you.”