The human town looked smaller than Aria remembered human places being.
It was all low brick buildings and narrow streets, the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else’s business and pretended not to. Cars nosed along slushy roads. Neon buzzed weakly above a bar sign. The cold here was different from Nightfall’s — damp, laced with exhaust and old cooking oil.
“Remind me why we’re doing this on foot,” Lena muttered beside her, breath fogging the air. “We have a perfectly good truck.”
“Because the truck roars like a dying bear and every human in a mile would stare,” Aria said. “You wanted to blend, remember?”
“I wanted to not freeze my tail off,” Lena replied. “But yes. Blending is nice.”
Rowan walked on Aria’s other side in a dark coat and jeans that made him look almost human, i
