“It’s too risky,” Sarge said. “Considine has been starved for days, and you were wailed on by a dragon shifter a few hours ago.”
Hazel cleared her throat. “I hate to enable Jade’s sacrificial tendencies, but…with the two of them working together, I think they could clear the House Tellier wizards.”
“What my darling wife means to say is: they’ll rip through those wizards like tissue paper,” Killian drawled.
Sarge gave Killian and Hazel a look that said if they weren’t a member and protegee of a member on the Midwest Committee of Magic, he’d make them write a several page paper detailing the Curia Cloister’s safety procedures and precautions.
Hopeful, I turned to Captain Reese. She didn’t look any better. Rather, she was fixing Hazel and Killian with a look of frustration. Knowing her werewolf loyalty, she likely didn’t appreciate the couple potentially risking her people.
How could I possibly convince them?
“You trust me, don’t you?” I asked impulsively.
Captain Reese and Sarge looked at me with confusion.
“Before Considine, you always assigned me a team with the intention that I would lead them, right, Sarge?” I asked.
Sarge unhappily nodded. “Yes.”
“And Considine and I have proven our competence—even before we were partners when we took down that giant snake, right?”
Looking even more grudging, Sarge snarled. “Yes.”
“We can do this,” I said. “At the very least we can get in and retrieve the oracle.”
Sarge scowled so deeply his handsome face turned stormy, but Captain Reese sighed. “Fine.”
“What?” Sarge swapped his safety-paper-assigning look from Hazel and Killian to Captain Reese.
Captain Reese held up her hand to silence him. “But we must lay some ground rules. If the two of you doubt for even a second that you won’t be able to do it, you retreat immediately.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“I’m not done.” Captain Reese’s blue eyes seemed extra intense as she stared me down. “If either of you are injured—even the smallest scratch—you retreat.”
“Agreed,” Considine said.
“Finally, you don’t try to take on every wizard—you’re just going in to free the oracle and get out as fast as possible. Understood?”
“Yes, Captain,” I said.
Considine gave her a breezy, “You got it!”
Sarge looked generally murderous as he peered back and forth between Considine and me. “If I didn’t think you two would turn vigilante, I would fire you both to avoid this.”
I let go of the fence to start checking my gear—slayer protocol before entering battle. “I’ll probably have to quit anyway,” I grimly said. “Since I called a vampire stake I have to be available to leave at any moment to help the families who answered my call.”
“Nonsense,” Captain Reese said. “The department is flexible enough. We can work with you, even if you have to skip out last minute on shifts.”
“What the captain means to say is you are too valuable an asset for the department to lose, particularly since Considine is a package deal with you,” Killian said.
“We’re not discussing this now.” Sarge said. “Vale. These two are going to try to breach the premises. Any advice for handling the oracle?”
Vale strolled up to us—he was the only one of the entire group who had no snow gathering on him. Instead snowflakes swirled around him, briefly brushing against him like a cat asking for cuddles.
“They’ll have the oracle contained in quarters as small as possible, with very few comforts,” Vale said. “To limit her ability to prophesy a way to break out.”
My stomach soured, and I had to work at keeping my jaw loose so I didn’t clench my teeth.
