In everything that had happened, I’d forgotten about one thing.

That dang horn. Not that I’d abandoned it or anything. It was carefully wrapped and hidden in the bottom of the deepest drawer of my dresser.

But I hadn’t exactly spared it any thought. Which was a shame. I could have used it on Her Ladyship. Nah.

I thought she was telling the truth. Certainly, the truce seemed to be holding for now. Enough that I was starting to relax a bit.

Which meant I did have time to think about the horn again. Mr. Otter hadn’t shown up asking for it again, and I rather suspected he was just waiting for the right moment. Or something. The man was quite the schemer.

Or he thought it would be useful to me. He wouldn’t hurt me intentionally. Thea’s words on the matter echoed once more in my brain. He had hurt me. He would hurt me again, I knew, because of the kind of man he was.

Now I pulled the horn out from its hiding place and examined it carefully. It looked much as it had, but it felt a little…heavier, somehow. A little more real. Tyr’s rune, for truth and justice.

Useful if I had to interrogate somebody. Not so much use for other stuff. The other kind of horn would have been more so, maybe, to call backup to my position.

I smiled a bit, my lips twitching at the thought. Yeah. Right. Backup. I couldn’t count on that, not always. Thea might not be able to stay – she’d hinted at other duties. Responsibilities that weren’t me, and I couldn’t expect her to babysit me forever.

Or to tell me the truth, which she clearly had no intention of doing. Not all of it. Even she walked around me with kid gloves. I entertained, for one brief moment, the thought of using the horn on her, then set it to one side. I wasn’t sure if it would even work on her.

I honestly was starting to wonder what Thea was. The other thought was trying to use it on myself. To see if I could interrogate my own subconscious. That too went to one side. And yes, I was beginning to wonder what I was.

I was beginning to wonder if I was human.