Phantom Hollow We're only about twenty miles from Ravenscar here.

His response jarred her. It wasn't the swearing—she would hardly bat an eyelash over coarse language, even if she didn't employ it much herself—but the defensiveness hot on the heels of his self-deprecation rattled something within Meerkat.

She looked at him carefully, critically. Reyes still looked the part of a regretful father who'd made a terrible mistake. But then he said something underhanded about Towhee. His tone was openly accusatory. Meerkat felt her knee-jerk sympathy shriveling.

"You know," she began, her own voice a little ticked. But then Meerkat took a breath and shook her head. "Never mind," she said, losing her interest and her nerve alike. She did not intend to start a confrontation with her mother's former(?) mate.

She opened her mouth to tell him she had to go, then clapped it shut. Meerkat gave him a long, unreadable look, but said nothing else before simply leaving.