I look back down at Clarissa and tilt my head as she turns back, rolling her eyes. She pats my chest, looking away from my eyes, contemplating how to explain. I wait patiently, wanting to hear what she has to say but already feeling uncomfortable about it.
“Kyle was my choice,” she says, looking up at me with her big eyes. “I love him, always will, but I cannot spend the rest of my life sitting there, on my Ma’s porch, staring out at every single sunrise and sunset, hoping that my heart doesn’t explode. The world will continue to move forward, with or without me, and if it’s going to be one of those, it’s going to do it without those scumbag lifeless ass holes that killed my husband.”
“Wow,” I reply. “I don’t like that at all.”
“See,” Sebastian says. “I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a bad idea.”
“BUT,” I reply holding up my hands. “I do know what it feels like to lose the person you love the most, to want to have revenge, to want to set the world straight. I don’t like it, Clarissa, but I will help you in any way that I can.”
“Oy,” Sebastian scoffs, throwing his hands up in the air.
“See?” the brown hair girl says. “The big man knows how to be a good friend.”
“Thank you,” Clarissa mouths to me, reaching up and kissing me on the cheek.
Her touch always makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
She is so beautiful, so pure and being around her again feels good. Still, I know she is hurting, and this isn’t like the last time. We can’t fight over her heart because it already belongs to someone else. Sebastian turns back to the brown-haired girl and
begins to talk to her pointedly. Before Clarissa can walk back, I reach out and pull her to the side.
“Do you want to talk to Kyle?” I ask.
Her eyes get big and fill with tears almost instantly, but before answering, she lets out the air in her lungs and shakes her head.
“I think first I need to find his killers,” she says. “Avenge him first, and then I can talk to him. I don’t want to spend that time arguing over my choice, and I know he won’t be happy.”
“I understand,” I reply. “Now, who is that?”
I point to the girl arguing with Sebastian, getting on his last nerve and laughing the entire time. Clarissa giggles and motions for me to follow her. We approach the two and I stand, my arms crossed over my chest, unsure about someone new in the circle.
“Penny,” Clarissa says. “I want you to meet Theo, he’s a—”
“Bear of a man,” she says smiling and shaking my hand. “Get it?
BEAR of a man. I kill myself with this.”
“Nice to meet you.” I chuckle. “But what are you doing here with us?”
“Oh,” Clarissa says. “She has some information that should help us find the killers.”
“That’s right,” Penny says, grabbing a metal rob from a pile in the corner and turning toward the wall. “Clarissa, Theo, Rover, if you would all join around.
”
Sebastian shakes his head and walks over, throwing me a glance. I watch as Penny begins to draw on the wall, focusing on the intricate details of a symbol of sorts. When she is done, she stands to the side, her face no longer smiling, her demeanor more serious. The crest was similar to that of the council’s, a shield with the different species of Primal, only with this one, the Cat was the largest, centered, two snakes at its feet, a crown on its head.
“This is the symbol, the complete symbol I told Sebastian about,”
she says. “The short symbol is this.”
She quickly draws a box on the wall, putting two large eyes in the center and an “X” below it. I have to admit, I have never seen anything like it before, but from the look on Clarissa’s face, she has. I reach forward and put my hand on her shoulder as she shakes her head, her hand over her mouth.
“That was at the body,” she says quietly.
“I know,” Penny says in a caring tone.
“But who does it belong to?” Sebastian asks.