Chapter 10. Lantern Night

Wren POV

In the morning, Tessa made pancakes and acted like nothing had happened.

She hummed. She burned the first batch. She signed Sleep okay? across the kitchen with a spatula in one hand, and when I signed back Fine, she smiled and turned around, and her shoulders were stiff the whole time.

Dom had already gone.

I could have asked her. I could have typed the word mating on my phone and held it up in front of her face and watched what happened to it.

I didn't.

Because if I asked about her secret, she might ask about mine. And mine had teeth.

"Saturday," she announced, sliding a plate in front of me. "Lantern Night down by the river. Food trucks, a band, those paper lanterns everyone sets loose on the water. It's the best night of the whole fall. You're coming."

Crowds, I signed.

"I know. We'll stay at the edges. Dom's coming." A tiny pause. &quo