I was such a pushover. His opinion hadn’t mattered to me before, I had been too cautious to avoid negativity to invite more into my life, but I was grinning back at him. As much as I wanted to beat myself up over how quick I was to forgive his past rudeness, I understood its cause now, and I was done holding grudges against people who were willing to put in the work to atone. Life was too short to be petty.
“Not bad.” He crouched before me, shackling my wrists and flipping my hands palms up to examine them. “How do you feel?”
Guilt edged out pride when my first thought was I wished it had been Rían who witnessed me taming my flames. I ought to be grateful to have controlled them, period. No matter the audience.
“Woozy,” I admitted, allowing him to help me to my feet. “I’m good, though.”
“I would offer you a piggyback ride, but let’s not make it weird.”
“I can walk.” I wobbled a few steps as the horizon tilted ahead of me. “See?”
“Give me your arm.” He seemed to think better of it then cupped my elbow. “Let’s get moving.”
Though his grip was light, his height made my shoulder ache from the angle. Rían, who wasmuchtaller, was also much more conscientious. He paid attention to the space he occupied and moved through the world with awareness for others. Liam? Not so much. Still, this awkward handling was a huge improvement over my previous treatment, so I wasn’t going to complain. Out loud anyway.
“Any idea what happened to Becca?”
“None.” His jaw set. “I’m going to the emergency clinic to check on her as soon as I drop you off.” The muscles in his cheekflexed. “As soon as Burdock pins down the cause, I’ll update Rían. Since it involves you, he’ll take it better coming from me.”
“I couldn’t find any wounds.”
“She’s new to the enforcers. I don’t know her well enough to say if she’s got any preexisting conditions. Burdock will figure it out. He brought the full medical histories of everyone who came with us to Brentwood. She’s in good hands.”
“Burdock is the best. No worries there. It’s the timing that bothers me.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “We haven’t caught the person responsible for the car bomb that killed Mindy and now this happens.”
That person had already killed once, frominsideBrentwood, and there was no guarantee they had left after completing their mission. Until we found them, we couldn’t say for certain whether she had been their only target or if there were more deaths to come.
“There’s a wide divide between a bomb exploding and what happened to Becca. Without concrete proof this was another targeted attack, or a more widespread outbreak of symptoms, we can’t afford to slow the rollback at this stage.” He steadied me when I tipped to one side. “You just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Leave the rest to us. We’ll figure out what’s going on.”
A quiver in the air shivered over my skin, and I sucked in a sharp breath as a piercing screech rang out. I hadn’t heard a racket like that since the last tornado warning broadcast.
“That would be the clan-wide text.” Liam tugged his phone from his pocket. “Yep.” He flipped the screen toward me. “The wards are down, and the tech is up. That was fast. Looks like we couldn’t have stopped them from falling even if we tried.”
Subtle tension radiated through him that hadn’t been there before, and he scanned the streets as he ushered me towardGSG. The wards falling must have been what caused that peculiar sensation earlier.
“Without the magic barrier dulling my connection to Carmichael, I should be able to track him.” I fell into the same habit as him, searching for any hint of disruption. Part of me had been expecting Sartoris to swarm us the second they sensed an opening. I couldn’t decide if the absence of chaos was better or worse. Neither could I shake the fear Becca’s episode had been a more subtle opening salvo. “Do you think Rían will let me do it?”
“Rían trusts you to make your own decisions.” He sighed as if that fact was an inconvenience. “He won’t be happy about you putting yourself in harm’s way, make no mistake, but he won’t stop you from acting as your conscience demands.”
“I need this.” I wasn’t sure why I was explaining myself, but I felt compelled to unburden to him. “I won’t let Carmichael do to Rían and me what he did to my parents.”
“I understand,” he said softly. “I killed the ones responsible for my parents’ deaths.”
A lump wedged in my throat. “Oh.”
“It didn’t help, if you’re wondering. I didn’t feel better afterward. My parents were still dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t expect closure is all I meant.”
“What I need is to protect Rían and Goldie and everyone else in the clan.” I jabbed him with my elbow. “Even you.” I stared at the cracks in the sidewalk. “Carmichael is an active threat. He may have lost the bulk of his resources and his allies, but as long as I’m alive, he’ll keep coming for me.”
A buzz in my pocket prompted me to reach for my phone.
>>Who has two thumbs and 5G?
>>It’s me!
