see if he’s willing to offer anything.” He made a beckoning gesture toward me. “Disaster, a word outside? You two, have another go at stirring loose a memory or two in our devourer’s head.”
Oh, this was obviously going to be a laugh riot of a conversation. Did the RV have an escape chute?
Even if it did, I wasn’t going to give our leader the satisfaction of thinking he’d intimidated me into pulling a runner. I’d managed to coax the big bad hellhound onto the dance floor last night. I’d kissed him and survived to tell the tale.
And there wasn’t anything he could say to me that would feel any worse than what was already going through my head.
Thorn shot me a look of mild concern, but I gave his arm a light squeeze in reassurance as I passed him. “Is this a super-secret meeting for discussing mortal strategies?” I said to Omen, following him out in the cooling evening air.
The hellhound shifter made a point of not only shutting the door but also stalking across the lot to give us distance as well. With more than a little trepidation, I walked after him to where he came to a stop outside a hair salon. Its broad front window was plastered with posters of individuals who, based on their ‘dos, needed to re-evaluate their personal style. A long-squashed shampoo bottle lying on the concrete walk outside gave off a soured honeysuckle scent. Way to set the mood.
I crossed my arms in imitation of Omen’s typical authoritarian stance. “What’s up? Was I not joyful enough that you finally recognized my genius?”
Omen rolled his eyes. “I’m just glad not to have you crowing about how you told me so.”
“Oh, don’t worry, that might come later. I’m waiting for my moment.”
“Sorsha.”
Something about the way he said my name, crisp and solemn, put a cap on my snark. When did he ever address me by my name and not “mortal” or “Disaster” or when he was having a particularly uncreative day, “you”? A chill tickled over my skin, but honestly, that was better than the flames I couldn’t seem to stop from leaking out.
“What?” I said, serious now. “I’m listening.”
He studied me for a little longer with a cool gaze incisive enough to cut into my skull. “You really are losing your handle on your powers, aren’t you? More than you’ve let on. It’s not just when you’re trying to use them. Something happened that startled your dragon just now, didn’t it?”
I couldn’t stop the cross of my arms from turning into hugging myself as I dredged up the answer. “I didn’t just startle him. I burned him—I hurt him. And no, I didn’t mean to do anything at all. I’ve tried to tell you a bajillion times already. There’s more fire in me than I know what to do with or how to contain, and sometimes it just bursts out. Even when I am fighting, it’s getting ahead of me.”
I hesitated, and Omen’s gaze sharpened. “What?”
“I almost fried a little kid in the museum,” I said, the words scraping my throat raw on the way up.
“That was a reaction in the middle of a battle. You can’t expect to be able to take the same care there.”
Oh, now he thought it was time to go easy on me? I raised my eyebrows at him. “Would you let yourself off the hook for messing up your control like that?”
But the shifter stayed impervious. “I wouldn’t be worrying about which mortals I took down, whatever their age, to begin with.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.” I let out a rough sigh. “I realize you find it hard to believe that I could have enough power to be a danger to anyone when I don’t mean to be. You probably still find it hard to believe that any mortal has powers at all. But I do have them, and—I don’t like the way it feels now. It isn’t a wonderous talent I can bend to my will. Sometimes the flames come out of nowhere, and I can’t shake the impression that they could totally explode. That I could flatten the whole city if I didn’t catch the fire in time.”
Omen didn’t retract his previous skepticism, but at least he didn’t argue with me. “It’s been hurting you when you’re using it—how often?”
“Most of the time, lately. And when I’m not, when it has those surges, too. But at least I heal from the burns quickly.” I