“Of course I do! I’m just—I’ve been anxious about you. I know you’re not a kid anymore, but I feel like I’m abandoning you.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “Come on. You wouldn’t be abandoning me. I mean, I’m already doing my own laundry, right? And besides, we could still hang out.”
Lisbeth looked relieved. “Of course. I mean, I’d still work here, if your mom’ll let me. I just wouldn’t live here.”
Claire grabbed her empty basket. “You should do what you want—I’m going to be fine. Really.” She stared hard at Lisbeth, trying to get her to see that she meant it. “You should go talk to Mom.”
Lisbeth grinned. “Maybe I will.”
At exactly midnight, Claire met her mother in the hall.
“Ah, thank you for being on time,” her mother whispered. Her face looked drawn.
At first, Claire thought it was just because she was so thin from her time in the cage, but there was something else. She studied her mother out of the corner of her eye. She’s nervous. The realization startled Claire. Why would her mother be nervous now? Is she afraid I’ll screw up, or something?
“So, what’s happening tonight?” Claire murmured.
“I’m not telling you. But it’s nothing to be worried about, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Then why are you tense?”
Her mother stopped and stared at Claire. “My goodness, chérie, you certainly have come into your own. I had no idea you’d become so observant.”
The compliment glowed in Claire’s chest, but she crossed her arms, waiting.
“Still not telling you.” Her mother pulled open the back door and stepped out into the yard. “Surely you have twenty minutes’ worth of patience in that young soul of yours?”
Claire tried to relax, but the idea of seeing Beatrice made her skin crawl. No matter what her mother said about the laws and traditions of werewolves, Claire still thought Beatrice had done the wrong thing. She hadn’t even listened before she made her decision. She hadn’t cared that Claire might have a better way, or more information. She’d just taken the easy, safe, mother-killing way out of the whole thing.
And now Claire was about to go submit to her. Again. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus on staying close to her mother as they made their way to the clearing.
They ran through the forest together, and the smell of the growing things, the scents of earth and night filled Claire’s nose. The moon hung full overhead, its belly swelling with light. A tiny shock of excitement shivered under Claire’s skin, pushing aside her bad feelings a bit. This time she would be able to completely change. She would be able to join the hunt. And she would be a full-on member of the pack, able to say what she wanted. The anticipation of it made her toes tingle.
Claire and her mother had loped all the way into the clearing before Claire realized that something was off. There’s no fire. She looked at her mother, the question poised on her lips.
“Tonight, we arrive first.” Her mother began dragging dead wood out of the forest and piling it in the center of the clearing with remarkable speed, even for a werewolf. She dropped a third limb on a pile she’d made near the kindling before she looked at Claire and put a hand on her hip. “You could help, you know,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Claire gathered an armful of smaller branches and placed them on top of the kindling, followed by the big logs her mother had piled up. Marie brushed a leaf out of her hair and surveyed the arrangement.
“Oui. C’est parfait. Stand back, Claire, and I will light it.”
Claire stepped back to the edge of the clearing and watched as her mother knelt down in front of her, her back to Claire. She was still so thin that her shoulder blades poked out of the back of her shirt, like wings.
Her mother muttered a chant that was too quiet even for Claire to hear. As the first tendril of smoke rose from the wood, Claire’s mother raised her hands over the logs and circled them three times. On the final circle, the first flame leapt out of the center of the fire, licking at the smaller branches nearby.
Claire rubbed the back of her neck. Damn. I can’t wait until I can do that.
Her mother stood and brushed the dirt from her knees. She looked at the expression on Claire’s face. “Perhaps, after things are finished here tonight, I could teach you how to create fire?”
Claire nodded, unable to stop the smile that crept across her face. “I’d like that. A lot.”
“Good. Well, then, we are ready for the others.”
Chapter Twenty-two