Judah’s smile seemed tight around the edges. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Something on your mind, Paladin Whitlock?”
“No. Yes. I don’t want to talk about it.” He scuffed his boot on the pavement.
Nathan swayed a little closer and nudged him with his elbow. “Come on. You can talk to me about anything.”
“Anything?” he asked, raising his head to look imploringly at him. His hazel eyes were big and hopeful.
“Absolutely.”
Judah blew out a breath, and the words began to tumble out of him with increasing speed. “Okay. I just… you don’t think we’ll be ordered to go after Hawk and Morgan, do you? I worked the sign-in desk a lot, and I knew those guys, and they’re not bad people. I just really don’t want to have to choose between following orders and hurting them. Surely Commander Sloan wouldn’t order us to hurt human beings? That’s not what we’re supposed to be doing here, is it?”
“Okay, okay, slow down.” Nathan patted his shoulder. “I… I don’t know what Commander Sloan is going to have us do in the future, to be honest, and it’s not something I want you to worry about right now. I’ve reached out to them, those who’ve defected from the guild, and we’re working to build a truce between our groups. I hope that my efforts will assuage the anger that some in the guild harbor toward them.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Judah asked fretfully. “What if it doesn’t get better? What if?—”
“Shush, now,” Nathan said kindly. “You can’t think like that. You have to have faith.”
“In the guild?”
“In God, Paladin Whitlock,” Nathan said. “Above all else, above even the guild. Institutions come and go, but God is eternal, and He has a plan.”
Judah blinked at him like Nathan had said something particularly surprising. “I’ve never heard anyone in the guild so much ashintthat it would be anything but everlasting.”
Oh, that. “Well. I…”
“No, no. It’s refreshing. I think you’re right. Obviously things are changing. Two paladins have left the guild for halflings. I know people want to think they’ve gone rogue or turned evil or something, but I actually feel like it might be the opposite?”
“What do you mean, opposite?” Nathan asked. They turned down an alley between two tall buildings. Besides a couple of maintenance vehicles, the area seemed deserted, and the cloak of darkness would be ideal for monsters to hide in. Nathan absentmindedly turned on his lapel light, and Judah did the same.
“I think maybe it means the halflings aren’t as bad as we originally thought. They used to be human, right? And humans aren’t all good or all evil. Maybe halflings are the same.”
Nathan wondered if he would still think that if he knew that the black-eyed halflings like Talon weren’t halflings at all, but leviathans who’d never been human. Nathan didn’t want to disabuse him of the notion, however, so he held his tongue. Judah seemed far more open-minded than some of his older counterparts, and the defectors needed all the allies they could get.
“I think you’re right,” he said after a moment. “Especially after having spoken with some of the halflings that Alex and Luke are friends with. I just wish others in the guild thought so.”
“Yeah, we’re not really known for our open-minded—” Judah stopped, pointing at something ahead of them. “Uh. What’s he doing?”
Nathan followed his gaze. Ahead of them on the sidewalk, a young man stood like a statue. He wore a backpack and a college hoodie. His head tilted to one side like a wolf listening for prey. It was unnerving, but maybe Nathan was seeing a threat where there wasn’t one. Perhaps the guy was eyeing them distrustfully, two unfamiliar men meeting him in a darkened alley with no one else around. Perhaps he felt threatened by their approach.
“Just… keep your distance,” he said carefully, pressing closer to Judah so they could both give the stranger a wide berth. “Don’t mind us,” he said as they drew even with him.
He hadn’t moved at all, hadn’t even turned to watch them pass. Was he having some sort of medical emergency? Should they stop and see if he needed help?
“Mister?” he asked, pausing beside him. “Sir, are you okay?”
His head jerked toward Nathan so hard that he heard the bone pop. Beside him, Judah startled. The stranger’s face was shadowed, but when his body turned, each limb jerked like a marionette, a twisted imitation of human movement. Adrenaline barreled through Nathan’s veins. This wasn’t natural.
“Nate,” Judah said nervously.
“Sir,” Nathan said, raising a hand. “Sir, stay back.” God, he didn’t want to have to hurt him. There was still apersoninside this thing, right?
A low, snarling growl tore from his throat, and he lunged at them. Nathan caught his wrists, but his momentum sent them tumbling to the unforgiving concrete.
Judah depressed the button on his radio. “Behind the science building, help now, over!”
“Get him—get him off me!” Nathan shouted, struggling to push him away. His fingers, hooked into claws, hovered just above Nathan’s eyes. Horrid sounds spilled from his mouth, unnatural gurgles and hisses that Nathan wouldn’t have thought possible from a human mouth.
