“Ma’am,” a young woman called from a shattered window. “Stay where you are, and I’ll come get you.”
That sounded like a good idea to me, so I didn’t budge except to sit and wait.
“Well, well, well.” A familiar outline filled the doorway as soon as it was clear. “Look who we got here.”
“Long time, no see, Marty.” I blasted him with a fake smile. “What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood.” He scanned the wreckage. “Saw the smoke and came to investigate.”
Marty wasn’t the type of guy who shouldered extra burdens, so I doubted his cameo was that innocent.
The restaurant was owned by a paranormal family and staffed with them too. That guaranteed Black Hat would generate a case file. Especially since the compound was within spitting distance of the restaurant.
But Marty as first agent on the scene? Nah. I wasn’t buying it. My luck was bad, but not this bad.
“Look at you, being all civic-minded.” I shifted my attention to the nice human who began examining me. “Who called it in?”
“Not sure.” She ran through the standard battery of tests. “You with that guy?”
Without specifics, I wasn’t sure who she meant. “The sexy one, yes.”
A laugh spluttered out of her as she picked glass shards from a cut on my shoulder.
“The suit over there?” I hooked my thumb toward Marty. “I’m his boss.”
The lovely mottled red his face turned before ripening into purple was worth pulling rank.
“Oh.” Her steady hands failed her. “You’re FBI too?”
“Yeah.” I peeked over her shoulder to find a baffled Asa receiving basic medical care. “We all are.”
With the y’nai absent from their posts, the EMTs could sweep his hair behind his shoulder away from his wounds without suffering instant retribution. His instinctive flinch at their touch made it obvious he was uncomfortable with strangers acting so freely with him.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” She finished up and bandaged me. “We’re waiting on another ambulance and another set of hands before we move him.” She gathered her used supplies. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back, and we’ll take you and the others on a ride to the hospital to get you checked out.”
Part of the magic animating a golem twisted the perceptions of humans to show them a dead body if the golem’s shem was smudged or destroyed, leaving it vulnerable until its master or kin came along to fix it.
As soon as she turned her back, I picked my way to Asa. “Got an elastic?”
“Always.” He fished out one, though it took him two tries, and handed it to me. “They’re really gone.”
The twist of regret and relief on his face told me who he meant.
The y’nai, who had been a constant in his life, had cut their ties too.
“I, for one, won’t miss them or their constant tattling to Stavros.”
Moving into position behind him, I finger combed his poor hair then worked it into a tight French braid. I watched the tension melting from his shoulders before I had even finished tying off the end with a snap.
“Thank you.” He took my hand, kissed my wrist. “I’m still processing.”
To say you wanted nothing to do with your family, or their legacy, was one thing. For the reality you had really, truly severed those ties to punch you in the face? That hurt. Not because you wanted to reclaim what you had lost, no, that had been the whole point, but because it forced you to see yourself in a new light. To ask who am I without the burden of familial expectation pressing down on your shoulders.
Losing the y’nai was a wake-up call for him, for me too, though I had been assigned mine only recently.
Asa would bounce back, he just needed a minute while his worldview realigned.
“Where’s Marita?” I had lost track of her after the EMT set to work on me. “I don’t see her.”
“She stepped outside to make a few calls.” He searched my face. “Are you okay?”
“Ask me again once we get Clay reanimated.” I sat beside him. “And Marty is in our rearview mirror.”
“We need to clear out the humans.” He touched his side, winced. “Before they take Clay to a morgue.”
“Marty is here.” I heard doubt in my tone. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and he’ll actually do his job.”
“Just how hard did you hit your head?”
The unexpected voice jolted me, and I twisted to find a daemon carving a path toward me.
“Isiforos?” I was surprised how glad I was to see him. “How did you…?”
Jase Isiforos was one of my lieutenants, and a Miserae daemon who fanboyed over Asa and Blay.
“Marita.” He held up his cell. “We exchanged numbers in New Orleans.” He put it away. “I was already local, so I booked it over here.”
As sweet as my relief had been, I couldn’t stop it from twisting into bitter suspicion.
“Last I heard, you were in Baltimore.” I tuned in to his heartbeat. “What are you doing here?”
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump.
Slow and steady. He was calm. His hands, I noted, were also empty.
“I watched the broadcast.” His smile flashed, and it was blinding. “You were phenomenal.”
When Stavros decided to broadcast the match against Asa for the throne of Hael, he hadn’t anticipated I would become the star of the show. Neither had I. But when Stavros cheated, gravely wounding Blay, I went supernova on the whole arena. I had no regrets. Except that I hadn’t been faster, both to save Blay pain and to prevent Stavros from escaping. The coward.
“She was,” Asa agreed, his lips twitching. “Although I had to watch a recording to see it for myself.”
As much as I wanted to keep my cool, I was losing it fast. “That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“Doesn’t it?” He chuckled then hit one knee, pounding his fist over his heart. “Asa is my chosen sovereign, and I will do everything in my power to protect him. That includes dumping my caseload into my team’s lap and catching a flight to help any way I can.”
Chosen sovereign?
No, no, no.
Kings weren’t elected by the people. Each left crimson footprints up the dais to their new throne.
If you wanted a crown, you bled for it. You didn’t plaster the neighborhood with Vote for Asa posters.
That was not how this worked by any stretch of the imagination.
“This is not good.” I dragged a hand down my face. “Please tell me you’re the only one.”
“No can do.” He rose and dusted off his knees. “Asa has more support now than ever.”
“Daemons respect power,” Asa mused, lowering my arm. “You impressed them with your strength.”
“This was not the plan.” I balled my fists on my lap. “We didn’t sacrifice Aedan so—”
Clicking my teeth together, I kept myself from outing our plan to put my grandmother on the throne.
“Your fan club will be disappointed to hear you’re not interested in the crown.” Isiforos rubbed his nape. “I saw Dad last night, and he was using his Cricut to make Asa for King shirts to give his friends.”