him. She refused to leave her home and her husband. “You’ve every right to be angry.”
“Oh, that’s fine, then. I’m entitled to my anger, so that’s fine.” She stopped, faced him. “He doesn’t get visions about himself. He doesn’t even get hunches, usually, not about his own welfare.”
“I know.” It was a common blind spot for precogs. They were much more likely to get hunches about others, or about the grand sweep of events. Now and then a precog might have a feeling he shouldn’t cross a certain street at a certain time, but most of the time a precog was as likely as anyone else to step blithely into the path of an out-of-control car.
Deborah shook her head as if to shake off some troublesome thought. “How do you do it? Lily was injured last month, just like Ruben. She’s a target still. You have to live with that. How do you do it?”
What could he say? That his wolf wasn’t prone to worry? That the man was, so he wrapped as much protection around Lily as she’d allow? Neither of those options was available to Deborah. “I fell in love with a cop. She’s always been a target. The danger is greater now, but she hasn’t changed. I can’t ask her to.” He paused. “It helps when I can run as wolf. Does digging in the earth help you?”
“Sometimes. Lately it hasn’t been enough.” She started walking again, her head down. “You and Lily are partners in this—this secret war. You aren’t pushed to the sidelines, to the sit-home-and-wait role.”
Rule was uneasily aware of being drawn too close to the explosive intimacies of someone else’s marriage. Probably he should shut up. He didn’t. Her distress was too real. “Have you been pushed?”
“No.” She brushed her hair back impatiently. “I opted for the sidelines years ago, as far as Ruben’s job goes. I didn’t see a place for me there, and I had my own place. Teaching matters to me. That way worked for both of us for a long time. It isn’t working now.”
“Hmm.”
“Not that I know what I can do. I’m not a cop, not a lupus or a trained witch or a spy or—or anything useful.”
“You don’t have to be a warrior to be part of this fight. You do have to want and intend to oppose her. You can’t join the Shadow Unit as a form of marital therapy.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m making you uncomfortable.”
“This is a conversation you should have with Ruben, not me.”
Her sudden smile woke the dimple in her cheek. “I’m making you uncomfortable.”
He had to smile back. “Yes, you are. You seem pleased by that.”
“I feel quite daring. I’m used to worrying about what others think, or what I think they might think, or what I think about what I think they think. That doesn’t seem to matter right now. I wonder why?”
“Perhaps because it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“That might be it.” She was quietly delighted. “That might just be it. Would you like some coffee? Or something else to drink?”
They’d reached the back door. “Coffee would be lovely.” He knew from previous visits that Deborah made excellent coffee.
“I’ll bring some in. It will just take a few minutes. Ruben should be in his study.”
Apparently she no longer felt the need to escort him personally to her husband. Rule smiled wryly as he made his way to the book-lined room. He spoke before he reached the open door so Ruben would know it was him. Humans could seldom identify someone from the sound of their footsteps. “Deborah let me in. She’s going to bring us some coffee.”
“Ah. Good.” Ruben was at his desk with his laptop in front of him. He moved it to one side, but didn’t rise, which meant he wasn’t feeling well. “Thank you for coming. Do sit down. I was just reading an interesting article about a new synthetic polymer they believe may make a good insulator against magic.”
“Really? I thought plastic was transparent to magic—as are most synthetics.”
“Apparently this is more akin to rubber than plastic, but has different properties than rubber.”
“Cullen will want to hear about that.” They continued to discuss the various approaches different corporations were taking toward developing an inexpensive magical insulator for tech. It made an interesting and innocuous topic while they waited.
Deborah arrived with a tray holding two steaming mugs and a sugar bowl. Ruben took his coffee sweet. She reminded Ruben of a doctor’s