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It was all I could do not to groan. “Can’t I just go back to work and forget the past week ever happened?” That’s all I wanted—to forget and find Taland. Then, when I was with him, I could remember. I could think and overthink and hurt and cryand laugh—whatever it was that I needed to do, but not before. Definitely not today.

“Nope. The real world doesn’t give you breaks,” Cassie said. “That’s what my cousin always says.”

“Your cousin is right.” I felt like I hadn’t had a break since I was in school with Taland.

Taland-Taland-Taland,somehow it was always about him. Just about him.

Cassie laughed a little. “He’ll be happy to hear that, and if he was here right now, he’d tell you,Zachary Mergenbach is always right.”

My mind was elsewhere—onhim, of course, but I still noticed the way Cassie’s smile changed there for a second. I still noticed how she sat upright and raised her brows and that smile froze on her glossy lips—almost like she was waiting for me to say something else. To react.

And I wondered,did she make a joke I didn’t get, maybe?

But the moment passed quickly, and Cassie stood up and said, “Come on, let’s get you to Cameron.”

With my wallet intact and my phone halfway charged, I wore my leather jacket, certain that it would protect me if it came to a fight. Incredible how fast I’d come to think in terms of protecting myself even from the people I would have never suspected before the Iris Roe. Before my team leader tried to kill me. But those two experiences had showed me exactly what people were capable of, and I was never going to trust that I was safe ever again—which sucked, but it was better than to be caught off guard. Better than to be sorry later.

So, I zipped up my jacket and made sure I could reach my knives easily if I needed, then dragged my feet behind Cassie, hoping that Cameron had forgotten all about me and I could just get to my desk and start searching for Taland already.

Chapter 7

Rosabel La Rouge

Ashely Cameron had not forgotten about me at all.

“Agent La Rouge,” she said when her assistant told me to go into her office. Cassie remained outside, giving me two thumbs up as if she knew I needed the encouragement.

It still made no difference when the door closed behind me and I was all alone with Cameron.

“I was told you wanted to see me,” I said, expression neutral, hands folded in front of me where she could see them.

“I did. Come in, come in, come closer.Mi casa es su casa,” she said, standing up from behind her desk to come to me.

Please don’t,I thought, but I went to her anyway, every muscle in my body rigid.

It still surprised me that I didn’t hurt anywhere, that my stomach wasn’t growling—from hunger. I was plenty uncomfortable to be here, though, and the smile on Cameron’s face did nothing to make me feel at ease.

She was a very powerful Blackfire, one of the very few I’d come across who had light hair. Not blonde, but a very lightbrunette. Most Blackfire mages had dark hair and dark eyes. She was petite, too, a few inches shorter than me even wearing leather boots with four-inch heels on them. Her crisp black suit and silk shirt looked made for her, and she smelledrich,but the look in her eyes was almost the same as my grandmother’s—sharp, alert, and you just knew that she saw everything, even when she pretended she didn’t. The crooked smile on her face was fake, and in the two seconds that it took for us to meet in the middle of the room, I had no doubt that she’d scannedevery inch of me, just like I’d done her.

She carried guns around her hips—I could just tell she had a holster there under her jacket, and the energy emanating from her body could make anyone hesitate. Her frame might have been on the smaller side, but that would mean absolutely nothing when she used her magic, and she hada lotof power to spare. It was in her aura.

“Thank you,” I said, remaining perfectly expressionless when I took her hand and a small surge of electricity went through me.

“I imagine you’re tired, even if you were healed. But I’m glad you didn’t take more time away from us, Agent La Rouge. It’s good to have you back.”

She almost—almostconvinced me that she meant it. She was that good.

“It’s good to be back.” Not sure if I almost convinced her, too, but I wasn’t really trying to make that lie too believable.

“Come on, let’s sit down. We have some things to go over, you and I.”

“Of course,” I said and let her lead me to her desk, an oversized thing with folders and documents neatly piled at the corners, and a big black frame of two identical toddlers on her right with the same colored hair as her.

“My nieces. They just turned two,” she said—must have caught me looking.

“They’re adorable,” I said, and that at least wasn’t a lie.

Cameron beamed when she sat behind her desk and straightened her shoulders. “They really are,” she proudly said. “How are you feeling, Agent La Rouge? The Iris Roe must have taken a toll on you.”

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