Free Cast in Faefire: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Mage Craft Series Book 3) by S.M. Reine Page B

glossy sheet over her shoulders, long and straight.
    Without being able to see her face, Rylie almost looked like the girl he’d met at summer camp back when she’d been just fifteen years old. Right after she had been bitten by a werewolf.
    She straightened slowly, as if aware she was being watched. Her head tipped back.
    Rylie was smelling the air.
    He heard the quick intake of her breath. He saw the way she went still, as if afraid to move and break the moment.
    Then she twisted. The face peering at him from the rocks was a little rounder, a little more lined, but still hers .
    “Seth,” Rylie whispered.

    * * *
    “ D oes it hurt ?” Rylie asked. It was the first thing she’d managed to say in five minutes.
    Seth let the hem of his shirt drop, concealing the wound left by the Hounds. “Yeah.”
    “Oh, Seth,” she said, still barely above a whisper. It was strange to hear the Alpha talking like she couldn’t breathe.
    She hadn’t seen him in ten years, aside from the moment at the summit, but he’d seen her in glimpses. Always on the news or on the back jacket of her autobiography. Every time, she’d been in leader mode, her most glorious persona. After the years she’d spent struggling to take ownership of her power as Alpha, it was incredible to see that come to fruition.
    Now she was a teenage girl again, uncertain in the face of painful changes.
    This girl was no “girl” anymore. She was in her forties and looked every inch of it. She was also every inch as beautiful as the lake that they sat beside, right next to each other, the way that they used to as kids.
    Gorgeous.
    Except for the fact she looked so horrified.
    “That’s why I need your help,” Seth said.
    “What did Genesis do to you?” Her forefinger traced the corner of his eyes, the space between his eyebrows, the edge of his lips. The exact places where Rylie’s skin was getting its deepest furrows.
    “It wasn’t Genesis. It was Elise,” Seth said.
    She lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Six of one…”
    “I’m like her,” Seth said, lowering his voice. He knew that the shifter kids playing on the beach were too far away to hear—shifter senses didn’t develop fully until puberty—but he couldn’t help it. “I’m like both of them. The third.”
    Rylie’s lips parted. She exhaled slowly. “ Oh . Another triad.”
    There had been three gods before Genesis too. Adam, Eve, and Lilith had represented the three major factions: gaeans, angels, and demons respectively. The three of them had never gotten along. Those personality clashes had been what ultimately led to Elise killing them, and Genesis in general.
    “It seems like the universe needs a triad,” Seth said. “Guess which one I am.”
    “You’re like Lilith, round two.” Rylie leaned her head against his shoulder. And she said again, “Oh, Seth.”
    The sympathy felt better than he would have expected. “Not exactly like Lilith. I seem to be mortal for the moment.”
    “You came to Earth as an avatar.”
    “Is that what it’s called?” Another thought struck him. “How would you know that?”
    “I’ve been in contact with Elise and James since Genesis. We’ve talked about a few things.”
    “Through Marion?” Seth asked.
    Rylie’s eyebrows crimped. “Yes, through Marion.” What little composure the Alpha had began to crumble. “Why would you have come back to talk to her? Why not me, or your brother, or Abram, or… anyone ? We thought you were dead!”
    “She found me first. I wouldn’t have talked to anyone if I could have avoided it.”
    “Marion told me what you’ve been doing in Ransom Falls.” Rylie bit her bottom lip hard enough that the teeth left dents. “You could have told me. I wouldn’t have bothered you.”
    “I had reasons to hide.” He patted his chest. “Speaking of which, I’m still hiding. Don’t tell anyone I’m around.”
    “I never speak to Elise directly, so you don’t need to worry about