“My what? Do what?” I was seething too.

“It’s a journey you take into the Fyrge desert and discover what your ability is.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling that what he said was true. “But not if your kind killed us all. I read the history. That was what the Locanis wanted. To destroy all Vaktare, to take Hiraken for themselves. I thought my kind were all dead.” I knew it wasn’t true even though I’d said the words. Obviously there were more Vaktare alive than my parents first believed. Still, I didn’t know what to do. I watched Adam silently, my fingers gripped in fists, but the position felt awkward.

So I walked away.

Adam swore. “Most of the Locanis wanted to kill all Vaktare, that’s true, and we nearly succeeded. But what’s also true is that most Vaktare wanted the Locanis to continue to be their slaves.” He stopped in front of me. “Slaves, Beatrice.”

I blinked and backed away.

He went on, “They thought of us as lesser creatures because we weren’t given an ability.”

I closed my eyes, and wrapped my arms around myself. “Where did my mom and dad stand on the matter?” For some reason the answer to that question was very important to me.

“Lenora was completely against enslaving us. Fisher was next in line to be king. He’d been raised by his tyrannical father, but . . .” Adam sighed. “I don’t believe he wanted to treat us the way his father did. I believe he would have been a much better king.” I opened my eyes. Adam’s face had softened. He was watching me. “I call him a coward because he didn’t stand up to Kevoney. He didn’t stand up for what was right. He was too afraid.”

“Did you ever think he ran away not because he was afraid to stand up for what was right, but because he wanted to save his wife and daughter?” I didn’t know what Adam’s deal was, but I needed answers, and he was finally giving them.

“What about the pendant? My dad said you stole it from him.” I moved over to the window. It was starting to get dark and I wanted to see the moon.

“When Fisher jumped realms, my claws caught hold of the pendant. I took it and more.” His face fell. “I took his ability as well.”

So it was Adam who stole my dad’s powers. I remembered the black cat saying something about that the night he tried to kill me.

“Why would you do that?” I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t.

Adam sighed heavily. “That wasn’t my intention.” He came to stand beside me. “I don’t know how it happened. Needless to say, being a werewolf with the ability to cast spells has made me the topic of a lot of conversation. In fact my ability ended the war. I thought it would be a good thing. That perhaps the Vaktare and Locanis could truly become equals once again.” He laughed but it was without joy. “Some even believed I was the one your medicine woman spoke about. He shook his head. “When it became apparent I wasn’t, I was reassigned to the position of glorified assassin. It seemed the new King believed that was all my powers were good for.” He blew out his breath, frustrated. “After nearly ten years a few of the lower Vaktare and some Locanis formed a secret society.”

“What kind of society?”

Adam smiled. “They are called the Society of Believers. They stole some of our most intelligent scientists, giving them access to Vaktare and Locanis victims with the sole desire to do what I did by accident—take abilities from the Vaktare and implant them in the Locanis?”

I gasped. “Has it worked?”

He shook his head. “Knock on wood, they haven’t found a way . . . yet.”

“So if you want nothing to do with it, why did you agree to come here and kill my family and me?”

Adam stuffed his hands in his pockets. “They have my sister. She wasn’t killed during the last war, but they’ve sworn to kill her if I don’t murder the last of the Cavanaughs.”

My heart sank. That was sad. “So why didn’t you kill me?”

His teeth ground together. “The first day I met you, I knew I could. I wanted to. You were . . .” He paused, shaking his head with a chuckle. “Not the kindest person. You reminded me a lot of your grandfather.”

I hung my head. “I know. I was a total bitch. The only reason I agreed to hire you was so I could make you suffer.” I laughed bitterly. “I wanted you to become as beastly as I was.” I winked. “Guess I’m too late. You’re quite beastly all on your own.” For some reason that made me laugh hard so hard I started to cry, which was weird, but totally what happened. “Anyway, sorry. Was it my sparkling personality that changed your mind?”

Adam pulled me to him. His eyes smoldered and kept going from my lips and back to my eyes. “That was part of it. Mostly it was your hot body.”

I smacked his arm.

Adam chuckled. “Ouch.” His fingers caressed my cheeks. “When I showed up the next day, you were different. Then I found out your enchantment had somehow been removed and I was finally meeting the real you. Right away I knew you were different, special, spectacular.” He lifted my face to his. “Once upon a time there was a dog that fell in love with a cat.”

My face burned. “Love?”

Adam’s lips caressed mine. He wrapped me in his arms, pulling me against him, his lips capturing mine tenderly. I clutched his shoulders, in too much shock to do anything more than enjoy every second. But the Vaktare and Locanis weren’t supposed to procreate. It was one of the laws I read about in the history book my parents wrote. According to them any children created between the two species would be considered demon spawn. Still, Adam and I weren’t procreating, we were kissing, and the kissing was amazing.

Our kiss intensified. His hands left my waist and went into my hair. It was a mess, I knew. I hadn’t brushed it in I didn’t know how long, but at that moment, with his fingers twisting the strands and tugging near my scalp, it filled me with desire.

My emotions were a whirlwind of need and want and longing. As the seconds passed, a small wind began to blow around us. It lifted the edges of my hair, soft and billowing. At first. But the more entangled the kiss I became the stronger the wind blew until Adam paused.

“Are you doing that?”

The curtains whipped and knocked a picture off the wall. Adam’s eyes grew big. “It is you. It’s your ability. You can control the elements.”

I nodded, feeling a small surge of excitement that was immediately eclipsed by fear. “That’s great but how do I make it stop?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. It was your mom’s ability too. If she were here she could tell you.”

My body started to shake. The wind was getting stronger and a dark cloud began to form. In the room! “How do you stop your ability?” I had to shout against the strong wind.

He yanked me back into his arms and whispered against my ear, “Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Think calming thoughts.”

A shiver ran down my spine and it started to rain. Freaking rain, inside the hotel room.

Adam kissed my cheek. “Beatrice, you need to calm down. Use the animal part of yourself to control the ability. They are connected, one helps balance the other out.”

I wanted to tell him that it was his touch, his breath in my ear, his lips on my cheek, and the way his body curled with mine, that were putting my emotions into a passionate frenzy. I couldn’t though. All I could think about were his hands roaming my body, his lips on my neck, and more. For the first time in my life I wanted to go all the way, and even though I knew I shouldn’t I couldn’t stop what I wanted.

“Beatrice.” His voice was tinged with worry now. He let go of me and tried to step away, but I didn’t want him to stop touching me. As soon as I had the thought that he should put his hands back on my body, Adam obeyed. His eyes went from amused worry to serious uneasiness. “Did you do that?” He tried to pull his hands from me, but they wouldn’t budge.