Because nearly all of the SOA agents in the field Tuesday night had been from the Rapid Response Division. Patrick didn’t have a permanent partner, but he’d worked with a few of them over the years when their cases crossed paths and he’d been brought in as backup on others.
“Maybe. I’ll get you a list.”
As if she didn’t already know the names of the dead, which meant he’d probably known one or more of the agents who died. “Okay.”
“They’ll all be awarded posthumous commendations for bravery in the line of duty.”
And funerals with all the pomp and circumstance the agency could muster beneath the glare of media cameras. Patrick knew Setsuna wouldn’t be above using their deaths to engender sympathy toward the SOA and the danger its agents operated under. Patrick hated politics with a passion, but he knew how the game was played.
“What about Lucien?”
“Sticking around,” Nadine said. “Whether for a few days or a few weeks, he won’t say.”
“And you?”
Nadine’s mouth curved into a slight, lopsided smile. “I am being formally reprimanded for agreeing to liaise without permission while on vacation, without the proper paperwork done up, and for not informing my superiors of my intentions or the threat at hand. The PIA will also be giving me a commendation for bravery in the field.”
Patrick laughed a little. “Of course they will.”
Setsuna cleared her throat. “Special Agent Mulroney, I’d like to speak with Patrick alone.”
Nadine got to her feet without argument. “I’ll go find the doctor and let her know you’re awake, Patrick.”
She left the room, the silence ward reforming after she was gone. Setsuna approached the bed and set her tote bag on the chair Nadine had vacated. She withdrew his dagger from it, and Patrick didn’t realize how tense he’d been until he got eyes on it again. Setsuna passed the dagger over, and he practically snatched it out of her hand.
“Thanks,” he said.
Setsuna folded both hands over the top of her cane, her fingers curling over the gates of the Shinto shrine. “What did you do in that circle?”
“I’m not talking about it with you.”
“Then shall I make an educated guess? Because your soul reaches for another when it never has before.”
“Iknow.”
The sound of his heart rate monitor beeping louder caused Patrick to rip the electrodes off his chest to silence the damn thing. He glared at Setsuna, clenching his jaw so hard his teeth ached. He knewexactlywhat he’d done to Jono and just how illegal that action was.
Souls were supposed to be off-limits.
Patrick had strived for his entire life to never become like his father, and that had all changed on summer solstice. He’d done the unthinkable, and he didn’t know how tofixit—because the bond tying his soul to Jono’s felt permanent.
Setsuna regarded him with an unreadable look in her brown eyes before she nodded, more to herself than to him. “I set a forgetting spell on the healers and witches who are responsible for your care. Your actions regarding this particular problem will be kept out of all official reports. That won’t stop Mr. de Vere from needing to be interviewed.”
Patrick bit his tongue at that admission. Her actions, as illegal as they were, didn’t make him feel any better. But they would keep him safe, whether he liked it or not. As for Jono…well, Patrick doubted he’d have to remind Jono to keep his secrets.
“The SAIC position here in New York City will be filled on an interim basis for eventual permanent placement by the Assistant SAIC out of California,” Setsuna continued.
“I take it you can’t trust the one here?”
“The entire upper management in the New York City office is under investigation. The office in California is clean of any hidden threats.”
Patrick had to think hard for a few seconds on why that was before he remembered who headed up the SAIC post in San Francisco. “Maybe you should put a witch with an affinity for mind magic in every office.”
Former Major Veronika Federova was years out of service with the Caster Corps within the US Department of the Preternatural. Her penchant for doing everything by the book andknowingwhen people were lying, even through shields, meant the ranks below her operating out west were clean. Patrick knew she wouldn’t like giving up her Assistant SAIC, but whoever was transferred to New York from that office would be trustworthy.
“It will be a tough sell to make the general public trust our office here again. A transparent investigation will go a long way toward helping with that.”
Patrick eyed her dubiously. “You hate transparency.”
