“What the fuck?” I said, dropping the ruler and shoving against him with every ounce of strength I could muster. I quickly realized my hands were pressing against bare skin-that Peter was completely naked.

He rolled off me and moved to a sitting position. His leg was bent, hiding anything too shocking, but with the amount of bare skin revealed, I couldn’t stop myself from dropping my gaze to the floor.

My heart was pounding as if it might explode from my chest. Peter had turned into a lynx; my mind skittered trying to understand that.

I exhaled, no magic this time, just a way to release some of the confusion swirling inside me. “What…” I looked up, stared at his face. “What did I see?”

He moved one shoulder. “Me.” He tilted his head, studied me. He wasn’t even winded-looked cool and calm, analytical, even. “So, it’s true. Amazons don’t shift? You haven’t seen that before?”

I dropped my face to my hand, let my fingers drag across my skin as I looked back up. With them closed and still lying against my lips I answered, “No. I’ve never seen that before.” I’d planned to force him to reveal his skill, and I had, but it hadn’t been what I’d expected, not at all. A lynx hadn’t killed those girls, not that Peter couldn’t have other skills as well, but…I shook my head. I didn’t believe he was the killer, not anymore.

The corners of his lower lip pulled down; his head nodded. “That’s what I’d heard, but…” He shrugged. “We didn’t know for sure. There’s a lot about the Amazons we don’t know.” He walked over to where his clothes lay in a haphazard pile.

I couldn’t find the strength to follow him, to stand, to do anything but sit on the floor and stare at him. Too much adrenaline had shot through me, too many certainties proven false in too short of a time. I felt deflated, lost like a balloon blown away by the wind…floating.

“The sons can all shift, but not until after we get our givnomai. That’s one reason I thought it was so important for Harmony to have hers.”

“You think Harmony will be able to shift into her givnomai?” I couldn’t imagine, or worse-I could. I wanted to ask what tattoo he had given her, what animal I could expect to face the next time I banished her to her room, but I didn’t. A givnomai was personal. She’d tell me when…if…she wanted to.

It hit me then. I was beginning to accept the idea of Harmony with a givnomai, beginning to think of her as a young Amazon, and not just the little girl I’d spent the last ten years protecting from everything that even hinted of Amazon.

Peter had pulled on his pants, stood barefoot and bare-chested while he answered. The lynx on his shoulder seemed bigger now, impossible to ignore. I forced my eyes to look away.

“We don’t know, but since she’s second generation, we think it’s possible-or it might be a trait that’s gender based. There’s no way for us to know.”

Standing there, he was glorious, all male with his long firm muscles, even his tattoos had a masculine look that the same animal and scenery wouldn’t have had on a woman. I couldn’t put my finger on what the difference was, but it was there-and I was drawn to it, but I was still angry too, and wary.

“What other skills do you have?” I asked. I had to check.

His shirt bunched in his hand; he frowned. “I’m an artisan. I figured you knew that.”

“No…” I twisted my mouth to the side, not sure of my word choice; finally giving up, I went on, “Priestess skills?”

“Magic?” He lowered the shirt, frowned. “You have both, don’t you? And not just shades of both. You can truly use both-compete as either.”

He seemed fascinated by me again, watched me like I’d just shared some new pain-free technique for tattooing.

“Are you sure you don’t shift? Have you tried?” he continued. The expression in his eyes was so intense, I couldn’t help but place my hand over my givnomai. Even through my shirt, I could feel the power that had been put in the little creature pulse.

“No. I don’t shift and I wouldn’t even know how to try. I never realized…” I let the words drift off. I had never realized the possibility existed.

The creature under my fingers seemed to move, swish its tail. I curled my fingers over it, silenced it…or more accurately, my imagination gone wild.

Peter wanted to know if I’d tried shifting. He didn’t know how useless shifting into my givnomai would be. I wouldn’t gain any great strength or athletic prowess, but then…I’d be able to blend anywhere, hide out in the open.

Again, I wondered what Harmony had chosen.

“Did you tell her? Tell Harmony? Or does she think she just got a tattoo?” I asked.

He finished tugging the shirt over his head. “Just a tattoo. It’s not my place to tell her about the Amazons. I can’t imagine she would have believed me if I had. But I did tell her she had to keep it secret, that no one could find out she had one…that you could lose your business.”

I shook my head. Oh yeah, my daughter wouldn’t tell anyone she had a tattoo. I believed that. Obviously, Peter had no experience with teenage girls, especially one who would see a secret tattoo as some kind of victory over her too-protective mother. Which brought me right back to where I started. Harmony had a givnomai and there was a killer somehow connected to me, or drawn to me, who was collecting them.

Peter was dressed now, but his feet were still bare. He lounged against my desk, relaxed, apparently willing to stay there all day and chat. Seemingly unaware that he might have put Harmony in the path of any danger.

But then, while he knew about the killings, I didn’t know if he had realized the victims were Amazons. And he couldn’t know what I’d been hiding-their delivery to my door, or their missing givnomais. Couldn’t know unless he was the killer, and frustrating as the realization was, I didn’t think he had killed anyone. I really thought by giving Harmony a givnomai he believed he had been helping, doing what was right.

Not his choice to make for my daughter or my family, but I couldn’t fault his motives. Truth be told, Mother and Bubbe would have applauded his motives, maybe even his actions-if he hadn’t been a man.

Looking up at him was beginning to make me uncomfortable. I stood. “There’s something you don’t know.”

“There are all kinds of things I don’t know.” He shoved a piece of broken pottery across the floor with his foot. It came to a rest next to mine.

“The girls, the ones found dead near Milwaukee? They were Amazons.”

He looked past me, to a spot on the wall.

He knew.

“The girls on that site you showed me? The one of the tattoos? Two of them were the victims.”

Again, nothing.

I picked up the pottery shard and threw it at his feet. “What don’t you know? What else have you been doing besides tattooing my daughter and-” I clamped my lips shut before “tempting me” could come out.

“You asked why I came here. A big part was Harmony. We hadn’t been able to get close to her before, at least not as close as we wanted, and with her age and the need for a givnomai…well, when you advertised for an artist, we couldn’t let it pass by.”

“How did you know she didn’t have a givnomai?” Ugly scenarios were playing out in my head. My hand tightened on the tattoo machine I’d thrown earlier. This time I’d figure out a way to use it more effectively.

His brows lifted. “We didn’t for sure, but we’d been in your shop, heard the two of you arguing. It seemed pretty obvious.”

I pressed the tattoo machine against my leg, felt my heart slow a little.

“But after I was here, I noticed things. Things that worried me. That’s why I called in Makis.”

“Makis? The art teacher?” The art teacher…“The wheelchair? You don’t mean…?” The mutilations. They’d been horrifying enough when they’d just been in theory, something that had happened long ago, but to realize someone I’d met…“He’s a son,” I finished, unable to say more.