“I thought you only had one of those,” she said and pointed to his neck as he straightened.
He froze again and looked at her hard then shrugged.
“Whose souls are on that one?” she asked.
“My family’s.”
“Interesting. Can I have it?”
Gabriel gave her a harried look, one that said his patience was at an end. He withdrew a dagger and sliced it free of his neck then tossed it to her. She caught it. He rifled through his bag and prepared a dagger to sharpen.
“You’re not going to threaten me about losing this one?” she asked after a pause.
“Don’t lose it,” he said.
She studied him, not understanding why the necklace with his family’s souls was worth killing her for one day and not a concern the next. The one he’d given her was tucked safely against her skin.
“I think you should get some sleep,” he added. “We might have to fight our way into the palace tomorrow.”
Katie almost protested his abrupt dismissal then rolled so her back was to the fire. Something was really off about Gabe. She fingered the gems on the new necklace. Although they were the same shape, they were lighter, like comparing plastic beads to glass ones. The leather-like necklace itself contained the stiffness of something new, rather than the well-worn suppleness of the one around her neck.
It felt fake. Her sense of danger grew more heightened at the thought that something had happened between the time Gabe originally gave her his necklace and now.
Ully. She recalled how a demon in Kris’s castle had taken on Ully’s appearance, down to his goofy grin. The guise had been almost perfect, except for Ully’s hands, which had been bony with sharpened nails rather than Ully’s human hands. She was about to roll over and check Gabriel’s hands when she recalled he always wore gloves.
“Gabe?” she said.
He sighed in frustration.
“Do you think my son will have Rhyn’s powers?”
“He might have some of them. I don’t know what your human blood will do, dilute or enhance his abilities.”
She squeezed her eyes closed at his response. The real Gabriel had been the one to tell her that the child she carried was a girl.
“I guess we have to wait and see,” she forced herself to say and added silently, I hope you’re safe, Gabriel, wherever you are.