Free The Ascension by Kailin Gow

one wasn’t uncomfortable. On impulse, Rio reached out and kissed Gem, meeting her lips almost tenderly. Almost. They stayed like that for several seconds before Gem broke away.
    “So,” she said, a little too brightly, “how did you end up as a werewolf, anyway?”
    Rio hid the brief moment of disappointment he felt at that as wel as he could, though it took a strenuous effort to do it.
    “I guess… I guess it must have happened in Anachronia. We fought so many wolves then, and if one of them turned out to be a werewolf, it would only have taken a smal bite. At least, I hope that’s how it happened.”
    The alternative, that he might always have been this and simply remained oblivious to it, seemed a lot worse. What if Tomas was the same, for one thing? What would Rio do if it turned out that he had to look after his little brother as he went through the same terrifying first transformation that Rio had?
    “So you’ve changed before this?” Gem insisted. Rio shook his head.
    “That’s why I was so exhausted by it, I think.
    I’ve known that something has been happening to me, but I have been fighting it as best I could.”
    “You didn’t say anything about it back at the castle.”
    “What should I have said?” Rio demanded.
    “Sparks had just given his big speech about being fol owed by some fairy or other, and al I had to add was that I felt weird and was hairier than usual. You wouldn’t have listened.”
    “I would,” Gem insisted, but Rio knew better than that.
    “Gem, do you want to know why I final y lost control? I was angry. Al right, angry and probably a bit drunk, thanks to that fairy juice. That didn’t make things any better, but neither did watching you with Sparks, seeing you hang on every nuance of what he said and completely ignore me.”
    Gem stepped back from him.
    “So it’s somehow my fault that you’re a werewolf?”
    “That’s not what I mean.” Rio paused trying to work out exactly what he did mean. Why did everything he felt always turn so nebulous around Gem? Rio stepped forward, raising his hand to Gem’s cheek and tracing the soft smoothness of it.
    He wasn’t sure if he would get the chance again.
    “What I’m saying is that right now, you seem to be content feeling something for him and for me. It just isn’t fair, Gem. One of us always ends up on the outside looking in, and al too often, it’s me. I’m not saying that you need to choose between us right saying that you need to choose between us right now, but sooner or later you do need to choose. We can’t just go on like this.”
    Rio stopped, but in the silence that fol owed, Gem didn’t say anything. He’d gone too far, he knew it, but it had stil needed to be said. Suddenly, the interior of the tent seemed far too cramped for both of them.
    “I… I’l go and find somewhere else to sleep tonight.”
    Rio turned from Gem, stalking back into the vil age. He’d said that she needed to make a choice.
    Of course, the fear pumping through him as he walked away from the tent, eating at the back of his mind with every step, was that she already might have.

Chapter 9

    Gem crept from the tent in the early light, having aborted her attempts to get back to sleep.
    There was no sign of Rio, and for the moment at least that seemed to Gem to be a good thing, because it meant that she could defer the moment when she would final y have to talk to him again. She stil didn’t have a clue what she was going to say when she did, so Rio’s continuing absence was a reprieve .
    Of course, it wasn’t a permanent solution, or even one likely to last beyond breakfast, but at least it gave Gem time to think. Not that al the time she’d had last night had helped much. With a sigh, Gem looked around until she found a group of werewolves eating the remains of the previous evening’s feast for breakfast. She joined them, savoring the taste of the cold meats and washing it down with cool water.
    Gem didn’t ask how the