“Why should we believe him?” Aiden asked, searching her face. “He told you this freely?”
“Right before he asked me to slit his throat.”
A long silence followed that pronouncement. Christian was the first to speak. “I, for one, say we leave him. If we can restore the wards well enough to handle the extra power he’s pouring into them, eventually he’ll wear out. We can’t trust the word of a Vanir criminal.”
Lois nodded emphatically, but Aiden didn’t seem to notice. His attention shot immediately to his wife.
“You know what I think about it.” Grace seemed braced for a fight, and Raquel wanted to warn her to back down. Husband or no, it was a bad idea to challenge the Odin, particularly in front of the senior members of the hunt. Particularly when you weren’t even a member of the hunt. Grace hadn’t been raised clan. What if she didn’t know the rules? “We don’t leave people behind.”
Some of the ice thawed from Aiden’s eyes. “He’s not our people, sweetheart.”
“He’s not a demon either,” she said softly. “He saved Hallie’s life. Mine too.”
Aiden closed his eyes for a beat and then gave a slight nod. “I trust Grace’s opinion, and she’s had the most contact with Kamis. I trust Rane’s judgment as well.”
Christian looked as if he wanted to argue with Aiden, but he turned to Rane instead. “If the Vanir—”
“Kamis,” she corrected.
A muscle ticked in Christian’s jaw. “If Kamis didn’t hurt you, who did?”
A shadow crossed Rane’s delicate features. “A pack of midlevel demons. They caught me when I tried to help Kamis escape.”
She didn’t say more and no one pressed her. Raquel shook her head. “I don’t understand. What do the jotunn hope to accomplish? If the wards fail here, yes, they can cross into Midgard. But they’ll only destroy this one town. They can’t survive here long enough to reach any of the other clans on this side. If the distance from the fault doesn’t kill them, then the humans will.”
“It’s personal.” Rane looked at Grace. “The demon you killed was Surtr’s consort. He wants revenge on you personally and all of us by association. It’s not safe for you to cross into Asgard again.”
“It’s not safe for any of us,” Christian said.
“I have to go back,” Rane said. “I’m not going to leave him trapped like that regardless of what the rest of you decide.”
“Will the fault hold for now?” Christian asked. To Raquel’s surprise, everyone turned to her for the answer.
She nodded. “Until we can replace the wards, yes. It’s stable at the moment. I...adjusted for the imbalance caused by the extra energy.”
“Aiden,” Grace said. “We can’t leave him like that. I can find him—”
“You heard Rane. You’re not going over there again, especially now.” It came out harshly. Aiden winced and softened his tone. “Not this time. Please, Grace.”
Some silent communication passed between them and Grace gave a stiff nod.
“I’ll try to contact him then. I was able to reach Hallie when she was trapped on the other side. I might be able to reach him too.”
“Do that. The more we understand about the situation the better. I’ll alert the other clans. Kathy, will you stay to help Raquel and Lois with the wards?”
Kathy’s daughter, Jen, was five years older than Raquel and capable of taking Kathy’s place for the time being. Someday, Jen would take Kathy’s place permanently. “Of course.”
Raquel looked up to find Christian watching her. He gave her a small, tight smile that was not remotely reassuring. He’d defended her to his clan, to his Odin. He was a good man, and she wished more than anything that things could be different. Except in order for things to be different between them, she’d have to become somebody else, somebody she didn’t want to be. She needed to talk to him. Alone. Soon.
It had been a long day. Fen never did come back to the house, and she never did manage to get Christian alone. Christian was still speaking with Aiden when Raquel’s mother handed her the car keys and shooed her out of the house, insisting she needed to rest. Her mother stayed to help Grace contact the other clans. She knew many of the leaders personally whereas Grace was still viewed with some suspicion, having been raised in the human world.
Audrey drove them home, for once mercifully quiet. Raquel didn’t care whether it was out of kindness or because she was still angry that Raquel had experimented with the runes without waiting for her and Fen. If Audrey wanted to kick her ass over that, she could get in line.
“Who’s that?”
Audrey put the car in park and Raquel looked up, groaning when she recognized the skinny figure sitting on the porch swing.
“That’s Julian. One of Lois’s coven.” Audrey must have heard something in her tone. She waited expectantly until Raquel sighed. “The one who stabbed me.”
“The little twerp. Want me to get rid of him?”
“No. The little twerp saved my life, probably the whole town. I’ll talk to him.” She climbed out stiffly. “Give us a few minutes.”
Audrey nodded and went on ahead to open the door. Julian stood awkwardly at the edge of the driveway until Raquel reached him.
“Are you...okay?” His gaze darted to her chest as if he expected to see the knife still there.
She patted him on the arm. “I’ll be fine. A little rest and I’ll be back to normal by morning...well, as close to normal as I get anyway.”
A few minutes later they were sitting at the island, him with a glass of cocoa, her with ice water and a bottle of ibuprofen. Yesterday, she’d concocted a natural headache remedy at Lois’s shop but hadn’t brought any home with her. Wouldn’t Fen be amused that she was popping pills?
Finally, Julian worked up the nerve to look her in the eyes. She expected an apology. Instead, he said, “A wise woman once told me to always have someone double-check my work, because everyone makes mistakes and mistakes can kill you.”
She snorted. “Oh yeah? What happened to her?”
He turned the mug in his hands. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Have you been waiting here all day for this?”
“No.” His smile faded. “I won’t apologize for what I did. I’m sorry I had to do it but not that I did. And it’s not the reason I came.”
She nodded for him to continue.
His gaze slid away, and he stared down at the cup in his hands. “I should have stopped you.”
“You did stop me.”
He shook his head. “Sooner. I should have stopped you sooner. I didn’t think...I didn’t
This day was never going to end.
“You couldn’t have stopped it. The runes wouldn’t have had that affect if the wards were functioning the way they were supposed to. There’s nothing you—or anyone—could have done to prevent it. It would have happened sooner or later with or without my help.”
“I had a dream.”
She stilled with her glass half raised to her mouth. Carefully, she set it aside and leaned on the counter. “What kind of dream, Julian?”
“
