I found the water bottle I’d left on the floor, picked it up, and took a drink. Zay and Shame were far enough across the room I shouldn’t be able to hear what they were saying. But Hounding for a living meant I had good ears. There was a chance I’d be able to spring into action if Shame needed me to save his life or something.
“. . . ever throw ice at me again, I am going to beat you with that bucket. Do you understand me?”
“Oh, please. Like I should take you seriously. You haven’t raised a finger in two months.”
“Listen.” Zay paused, lowered his voice. “This is different than Chase and me. More than . . . that ever was.” He paused again. “I need you to respect what we have, or you and I are going to have real problems.”
“Respect?” Shamus asked, just as quietly. “I’m filled with envy.”
“Then stop being an ass.”
Shame snorted. “Better to ask the rain not to fall.”
“Rain,” Zay said, squeezing Shame a little harder. “Don’t fall.” He released his hold.
Shame got out of arm’s reach and shook his hand, probably trying to get blood back into it. Like I said, Zay played for keeps.
“Can’t remember the last time you and I had real problems.” Shame stuck his hand in the ice bucket and dug out another frozen chunk, popped it in his mouth.
“It’ll come to you.”
From Shame’s body language, I could tell it had. “Yes. Well. Let’s not go there again.”
Then Shame raised his voice, obviously talking to me. “Aren’t you going to ask why I came by?”
I shrugged the shoulder that didn’t hurt. “You need a reason to harass Zay?”
“Hell no. But I’m not here to talk to Zay. I’m here for you.” He strolled across the room toward me.
Zayvion paced over to where he’d left his water bottle. The man was so quiet that if I weren’t looking at him, I wouldn’t think there was anyone in the room except Shame and me.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Shame stopped and held out the bucket. “Ice?”
“We’re going to lunch, remember?”
“You were serious about that?” he asked. “Huh. Well, you might want to eat quick. My mum wants to see you.” He glanced at the clock on the wall behind me. “In an hour, the latest. At the inn.”
“Did she say why?” I asked.
“Officially?”
“At all.”
“There’s a storm coming,” he said, all the joking gone now.
Zayvion stiffened. I watched as the relaxed, laughing man I’d spent the last few weeks with was replaced by an emotionless wall of control, of calm, of duty.
“What kind of storm?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure what the answer would be.
“Wild magic,” he said. “And it’s aiming straight for the city.”
Dread rolled in my stomach. The last time a wild storm had hit the city, I’d tapped into it and nearly killed myself. Ended up in a coma. Ended up losing more memories than I wanted to admit. Like my memories of Zayvion.
“And what does that have to do with me?” My voice did not shake. Go, me.
Wild-magic storms were violent and deadly, and messed with the flow of magic that powered the city’s spells. But that’s why my father invented the Beckstrom Storm Rods. Every building in the city was outfitted with at least one storm rod to catch and channel strikes of wild magic.
“Maybe nothing,” he said. “She might just want to go over details from your last session with her.” He nodded toward the void stone necklace around my neck. “See that things are going right with you and all.”
Lie. Lie. Lie. Shamus knew more. Knew what Maeve wanted. Knew why I was being called upon.
I looked him in the eyes. Raised my eyebrows.
He just shook his head.
Okay, whatever it was, he wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me. It was hard to remember that Shame was a part of the Authority too. He reported to Jingo Jingo, and above him was Liddy Salberg. They all used Death magic, which was unknown to the average magic user, and for good reasons. Maybe Jingo had told him not to talk.
More likely his mother had told him to keep his gob shut.
I’d only taken a handful of classes with Shamus’s mother, Maeve, but she treated me like a cub who needed protecting from the other senior members of the Authority, people like Liddy; Jingo Jingo; Zay’s boss, Victor; and especially the leader, Sedra.
She was wrong to think I needed protecting. But over the