fire?”
“Only Asher’s connection to Lexie,” I countered.
“Are there any other suspects?” Uma asked.
I blew out a long breath. I knew she was going to ask that. “Yeah, but he’s pretty stupid.”
“Perhaps it was him, perhaps not,” she said. “What about the woman, three tables down behind me?” she whispered. “Look without looking.”
I kept my eyes on her and focused on seeing the woman she mentioned out of the corner of my eye. “I got nothing.”
Uma nodded. “That’s because she’s a witch and her barriers are up. She’s hiding that she’s a witch too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone has an aura,” she said as she got to her feet.
I picked up my cup as I joined her.
She took my arm and started us down the street. “If someone doesn’t, it’s because they know about auras and are hiding something. That means witch, psychic, or some other kind of sensitive.”
We moved through the crowd. The hair on the back of my neck rose. “You think she works for Jadis?”
“Uh-huh. And she’s following us.”
“What do we do?” I whispered.
“We’re going to duck into the alley and you’re going to run to the car,” Uma said in a low voice.
“And leave you here?” I scowled up at her.
“I’m a full-grown witch, Isaac,” she hissed as she put the car keys in my hand. “I’ve got this covered. However, if they get their hands on you, Lexie will tear the world apart looking for you. Remember the lengths she went to in New Orleans?”
Oh yeah, I remembered. Lexie had used herself as bait and jerked some poor guy’s soul to the Veil before threatening to kill him. My girlfriend could be scary as hell. “Good point.”
“Once we turn the corner, run,” she whispered. “Get the car running.”
She steered me into the alley. I took off in a sprint. Heart pounding, arms pumping, I did as she said and hauled ass down the trash-strewn alley.
A fireball whooshed past me. I ducked my head a little and kept running. Curses and Latin filled the alley as I turned the corner and headed for Uma’s car. A loud bang, like a gunshot, echoed through town. People ducked as I ran past. The small sedan came into view. Hands trembling, I unlocked the door and slid into the driver’s seat. I had the car running by the time the passenger side door opened and Uma slid calmly into the seat.
“Go,” she ordered.
I pulled out onto the road and started toward Miles’ house as fast as I could without getting a ticket. Fuck. We couldn’t even go into town now? “What the hell were they trying to do?”
“Either take you or follow us back to the house.” Uma looked over her shoulder out the back window.
“Then let's lose them.” I pressed down on the accelerator.
Lexie
I had just walked into the house when I was brought up short. Hades was waiting in the foyer. Miles hurried past us and into the long hallway without a word, heading back to the conservatory.
I sighed. “What now?”
He shook his head. “You are still upset with me.”
I sighed. “Yeah, Hades. Me not liking what you did isn’t just going to go away.”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand. I did my job. I protected you. Why are you angry?”
I drug my hand through my hair. “It’s not that you did your job, it’s how you did your job.”
He blinked at me. “You don’t like the way I’ve done my job?”
“Bingo.” Finally, we’re on the same page.
His jaw clenched and unclenched as he stepped closer and lowered his voice. “My job is to protect you at all costs.”
“I know.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t believe you do understand. You are the only person who can stop whoever accessed the Veil the first time. Without you, the world might have fallen apart.”
I swallowed hard as his words sunk in. Okay, yeah, I was important. But still … “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I want you to understand what my job is, and to accept that I have to protect you.”
“And I don’t want you to kill people!” I snapped. “Don't kill. Is that so freaking hard for you to understand? Do I have to order you to stop protecting me to make you understand?”
His jaw dropped. “You’d rebuke me?”
“I don’t even know what that means!” I lost it. “You’ve never explained how this works!”
“It means, you’d fire me from being your familiar,” he rasped. “Could you really do that?”
I shook my head, at a loss