Wary but freshened up, anxious and a little fearful, Emery stepped out of a Lincoln Town Car down the street from the Bankses’ house in the Garden District. He’d jogged through the Realm to a gate that would dump him out on the West Coast near Los Angeles, a place with mild weather where he’d experience no flying delays.

At the nearest coffee shop he’d charged his phone and called Darius, somewhat surprised that the vampire had used a lower-level assistant (not even Moss) to deal with the travel arrangements. Usually Darius treated Emery like an honored guest, or one of his prized assets. This break from normality was unsettling.

Not for the first time, Emery wondered if the situation with the Guild had already ramped up into a fever pitch. Something was surely going on, and if not that, Emery couldn’t begin to guess.

He smoothed his freshly pressed pants before slapping the roof of the car twice. The driver pulled away from the curb and continued down the street, leaving Emery behind.

Nervousness turned his stomach.

He’d originally planned to meet her face to face to assess the situation. That was what he owed her. But as he stood there, so close to the house where she was staying, he couldn’t stop thinking of what Darius’s assistant had mentioned in passing. Penny was heralded as a catch, and she’d caught the eye of a higher-level mage that had been hanging around her trainer’s house. Darius was subtle. He was probably warning Emery against any romantic expectations.

A surge of white-hot jealousy came out of nowhere from imagining her with someone else. His stomach curdled, and he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle it. He’d had no experience with this. No other woman had ever tickled his possessive side. Had ever made him want to turn around and take off with the fear she’d chosen someone else.

He ran his fingers through his hair.

Could he blame her? He’d told her to move on. He’d left her for good. A goddess like her, gorgeous and talented and kindhearted, would have no trouble getting any guy she wanted.

Of course she’d moved on.

He clenched and unclenched his fists.

He had to keep his head. Above all, he wanted her to be safe and happy. So no matter how much it twisted his heart, he would bear the situation with a smile. But maybe he needed a little longer to prepare…

He felt the tingle of watchful eyes dig into his back. Having recently been actively hunted, he knew better than to slow down or look around. He didn’t let on that he felt the presences tucked into the shadows, watching his progress.

The Bankses’ house was under surveillance, and he didn’t think it was by friendly forces.

His heart sped up and he barely kept himself from quickening his pace.

He hoped the Bankses knew the score and had taken the necessary precautions on Penny’s behalf. He also hoped Darius had started gearing up for a Guild strike. Knowing the high-level vampire, Emery imagined he was walking into a well-oiled machine.

A pink sign taped to a street light caught his eye, the yellow-orange light falling across it. Someone had come through with a red pen and marked out all of the grammar and spelling errors, of which there were quite a few.

He committed it to memory. It wasn’t a subtle way of leaving hidden messages, but the Mages’ Guild wasn’t exactly a subtle organization. He’d think on the sign later, when he wasn’t so preoccupied. See if he could ferret out any form of code.

A rustling to the left caught his ear, and he noticed a few sprigs of a bush in the neighbor’s side yard waving out of the corner of his eye, as though someone had quickly dashed by.

He continued on his way. Going by the address, the Bankses’ house was right there on the right, white, huge, and with a well-manicured front yard. When he reached the neighbor’s place, he saw magic glittering in the air above the Bankses’ side fence leading into their backyard. The spell reeked of experience and economy, with no flourishes or anything to prove. It was strong, sturdy, and did the job it was supposed to.

A higher-powered mage with a thorough mental catalogue of spells would be able to crack it open without much of a problem. But then, that was true of most spells. He had to be thankful there weren’t too many mages with the power to achieve it.

The scuff of a shoe caught his attention up the way. A dark shape zipped in behind a house, the figure’s slight frame dressed in black.

This place was teeming with surveillance, more so than he’d originally thought.

Cold washed through his middle. Penny needed to be taken out of here. Now.

Also, his cover was already blown. He hadn’t been thinking, approaching it so overtly.

“Damn,” he swore softly, at the edge of the Bankses’ property. With the anxiety of meeting her troubling his thoughts, he’d completely lost his senses, missing some very basic survival precautions.

Another weave glimmered near the Bankses’ front door, overlaying the wood. Without getting closer, he couldn’t tell what it was for, but he imagined it was a beefed-up ward, meant to do harm to anyone trying to break through as well as alert the casters to unwanted visitors. Though he couldn’t see any weaves, he would bet the windows had something similar.

Cars lined the street in front of the Bankses’ house and filled the long driveway. Their lower windows were almost all lit, and a couple glowed on the upper floor. They seemed to be hosting a party or a meeting, possibly introducing Penny around the New Orleans magical community.

Maybe that was the reason for all the posted surveillance. The Guild could pick off a few magical people as they came and went, maybe turn them into Guild spies. It wouldn’t be the first time. Or maybe they’d already found spies.

There were too many “shoulds” and “maybes” on the table. No more stalling. Emery had to face this, for Penny’s sake.

Palms sweating, warning tingles from watchful eyes running his length, he started down the walkway toward the front door. It took everything he had not to turn around and try to catch whoever was watching him.

His heart sped up and his breathing became laborious. Even his legs were trembling, of all things. There was a great deal on the line, but all he could think about was seeing her. Her beautiful blue eyes. That giant, glittering smile.

How much it would fucking hurt if she yanked out his heart and kicked it to the curb.

“Steady on, Emery,” he said, stopping in front of the door.

With gritted teeth, he gave three hard raps on the door. The next moment, he turned and quickly scanned the street. As expected, two shapes ducked for cover—one directly across the street, the other a little down the way.

Once he was sure Penny was secured, he’d clean up this street. From now on, if any Guild spies got close enough to be seen, he’d snuff them out. The battle was about to begin in earnest.

Turning back to face the door, he rapped again, analyzing the weave layering the wood. As with the spell on the side of the house, it was straight to the point and packed a good amount of power. It would take a few run-of-the-mill Guild workers a few days to get through it, or a knowledgeable power player. The Bankses knew what they guarded, and they were doing their best to hold up their end of the bargain.

It wasn’t enough.

The door swung open and light blasted into him, making him squint. Warmth and the homey smell of cookies wafted toward him as a barrel of a woman filled the doorway, her fist on her hip. Covered in a light blue faux-velvet sweat suit, she slammed him with her bold gaze.

“Yes?” she asked, her eyes traveling his frame and sticking a little on his hip, where others might wear a satchel.

“Hello, ma’am.” He slipped his hands into his pockets so he seemed less of a threat. “I’ve come to inquire after Penny Bristol.”

Her eyes narrowed and her body stiffened. “Who are you, and where do you get off calling me ma’am? Do I look like my mother to you?”

He couldn’t help a lopsided smile. That wasn’t exactly the answer he’d expected. “Um…” he said, confusion and nerves creating a potent cocktail of stupid. He cleared his throat. “I’m Emery Westbrook, and I’ve never seen your mother, so I’m afraid I can’t say, but I would assume, based on your comments, that it is doubtful. I’m sure you’re much younger and more—”

“Never mind,” she said, waving him to silence. She squinted this time as she looked him over. “Emery. The Emery? The Rogue Natural?”

“Yes, ma’—Yes.”

She shook her head as someone called, “Who is it, hon?”

A man about her age showed up at her side, wearing a stained shirt and a pleasant expression. Keen eyes looked out from over half-moon reading glasses, and something told Emery this man wasn’t nearly as jovial as he looked at first glance.

“Do you think I was born yesterday?” the woman asked, looking suspicious. “That’s not even possible, and it’s an even worse attempt than the one you made yesterday. We aren’t going to invite you through this ward, so you can just stop trying. You better get off my property, or you’ll meet the same fate as that poorly dressed vacuum salesman.”

“What’s not possible?” the man asked.

“This idiot claims he’s the Rogue Natural,” the woman said. “The Mages’ Guild clearly thinks we are as empty-headed as they are.”

“Oh.” The man shoved in a little closer, his eyes now scrutinizing, and his gaze touched the same empty patch on Emery’s hip. “He is handsome enough.”

“What does that prove? A bunch of guys are handsome enough,” the woman said.

“He’s the right age.”

“So they went to a modeling agency.”

“I hadn’t heard he was so large.” The man made a movement like he was flexing.

“I can prove it, if you wish,” Emery said quietly, feeling the pressure of the eyes on him.

The woman crossed her arms over her chest. “If you are who you say you are, you’d know what you’ve been sending Penny.”

“Power stones that pulled at me more than typical power stones, or ones that were particularly beautiful. She can feel their personalities, and I wondered what she’d feel in the ones I sent her.”

The man made a duck bill with his mouth. “Well, that seems right enough—”

“Shh.” She elbowed him. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Yes, it does,” the man said in a flash of anger. “The spells protecting those packages weren’t tampered with.”

“Everyone knows the Guild is keeping eyes on the Rogue Natural”—she leaned forward, her gaze boring into Emery’s—“who is on the other side of the world right now.”

“Well, yes, I suppose that information could’ve been obtained another way,” the man conceded.

Emery spread his hands. “How can I prove it?”

“Do some magic,” the woman said.

He looked harder at the spell covering her door, blocking access to her house. He pulled magic from the elements around him—the dew on the grass, the rubber from his boot, the chemicals from his hair care products—and quickly constructed a countering weave.

“You might want to stand back,” he said. “It will spark.”

Both of them took a step back as he laid his spell over theirs. Multicolored fizzing filled the doorway. Their eyes widened, and suddenly the woman was hurrying away and the man filled the door, as though he planned to fight Emery off should he tear down the spell.

“You have no need to worry,” Emery said, putting his hands back in his pockets when the spell was done. “I’ll put up a new spell, one that very few mages will be able to take down.”

The spell in the doorway unraveled, its energy dissipating back into the natural world, from whence it came. Or so Penny would say.

“How is she?” Emery asked quietly, unable to help it. “Is she happy?”

The woman showed up with a satchel draped over her shoulder and held another out for the man. “Here,” she said, gathering a handful of basil and sage.

“Wait.” The man took the satchel.

“You’ve studied that spell, have you?” the woman asked, taking a capsule out of her bag. “Well, that crossed the line. We don’t—”

“Would you wait?” the man said, his anger flaring again. It seemed to be his way of counteracting the woman’s badgering. It was clearly the way they balanced as a dual-mage pair.

“He’s tearing down our spell! We can’t wait,” she said.

“It’s gone,” Emery said. “I do not treat the act of tearing down a ward as an invitation to come inside. The Guild and I differ in that, somewhat.”

“He asked if Penny was happy,” the man said, lowering the satchel.

“So?” the woman said.

“I know how a man acts if he actually cares about a woman. This man didn’t ask about her magic, or her fighting prowess, or where exactly she is—he asked if she was happy. Which means he actually cares about her.”

She lowered her hands, the wheels turning.

“That wouldn’t be a question the Guild would think to ask,” the man went on. “If they were pretending to care, they’d ask if she was safe or something.”

“I can tell you about our breaking into the Guild, or my experiences with her mother, or our first meeting,” Emery said. “Or you can just take a picture with your phone and have Penny verify. Whatever you choose, please hurry. I do not like standing out here, flaunting myself to the Guild. They might get antsy and come for me. They’re all around us.”

The woman stepped forward while tucking her herbs back into her satchel. “So you’re Emery.” She nodded slowly. “Even more handsome than I’d heard. Penny has good taste. Hi.” She put out her hand to shake. “I’m Callie Banks.” He shook it before she stepped back and nudged the man next to her. “This is Desmond.”

“Dizzy.” The man put out his hand. “People call me Dizzy. We thought you were in the wilds.”

“Did the vampire send for you when he proclaimed us unfit?” Callie asked.

Anxiety bled through Emery again. “He declared you unfit?”

“See? There.” Dizzy pointed at Emery’s face. “Concern. He is worried about Penny. Yes, this is our guy. I’m certain. Come in, come in.”

“We were already certain.” Callie waved him in before turning. The word “Savage” was etched into the seat of her pants in pink sparkles. Emery couldn’t argue with it.

“We tried to train her how we’d been trained, you know?” Dizzy stared out for a minute, his eyes tightening, before he shut the door a little harder than was necessary.

“Did you want me to put up another ward really quick?” Emery asked, hesitating.

Dizzy hesitated as well, wariness crossing his features as his gaze returned to the door. “It can wait for a moment. Adding you, we have a lot of power in this house right now. They won’t come in. I don’t think they have the resources. Not yet.” Dizzy’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Anyway, we tried to train her the usual way. We walked her through the theory of the spells, gave her the ingredients, as Penny called them—”

“Ingredients and recipes,” Callie said, leading them through a large foyer. “And she made each spell as easily as she could make spaghetti, let me tell you. All she needed was the recipe.”

“But they didn’t stick,” Dizzy said. “The spells.”

“They stuck, all right,” Callie said, turning into a living room filled with people sitting at tables and talking quietly. They looked up when Callie came into the room. “But whenever she needed to use them in a practice battle, she drew a blank. She was left standing defenseless. Well, until she reacted in blind terror.”

“Oh yes. Best to steer clear of her whenever she reaches the stage of blind terror,” Dizzy said with a smile. “She is a force unto herself, but horribly unpredictable.”

All eyes in the room stuck to Emery, the mages’ expressions assessing.

He increased his swagger, owning the room and everyone in it. These mages might be necessary allies at some point, so it was best to place himself at the top of their hierarchy. His brother had drilled that necessity into him, harping on about how much time and effort it would save.

Thinking on what Dizzy was saying, he frowned. That didn’t sound right. Penny had excellent recall, and was a force to be reckoned with in real battles. She should’ve been in her element. He said as much.

“That’s what we thought. But no, she choked. Big time.” Callie stopped in the center of the room. “Everyone, meet Emery Westbrook, the Rogue Natural.”

Gasps replaced the soft murmurs. Eyes widened and mouths dropped open. A woman with a red face and delighted smile fanned herself, her eyes taking on a gleam Emery knew would eventually turn into a handsy sort of invitation. He’d need to steer clear of her.

“He’s resurfaced for our Penny,” Dizzy said joyfully.

“I just came to check on her,” Emery said quickly, noticing the glower of a gangly man with slicked-back hair. He didn’t want to step on any toes before he fully understood the situation.

“She froze up, and it wasn’t until a newbie vampire charged her that she came out of her shell.” Callie started through the tables. “Dizzy, get this meeting wrapped up and get them out of here. We need to have a powwow with our new friend.”

“We should put up the wards first, hon,” Dizzy replied.

She hesitated and worry filled her expression, making Emery’s stomach flip over. The Bankses were not comfortable with what was going on around them. It seemed like they were trying to barricade themselves in. But surely they had to know that such a strategy would only work until the Guild came after them.

And the Guild would come in after them.

“Fine,” Callie said. “Give them some liquor until we can get everything into place.”

“Hi.” A woman stood up quickly from a table as Emery passed it. “Hi, I’m—”

“He doesn’t care who you are, Cheryl, hack that you are.” Callie yanked Emery along behind her.

“Is Penny here?” Emery asked as Cheryl called out, “She’s just bitter that she doesn’t also have Seer abilities, like I do. We’ll chat later.”

“If you had Seer abilities, you’d already know you’re going home alone to your twelve cats,” Callie yelled back.

More people stood up, their expressions eager and hands outstretched.

“We’re so privileged you would visit,” a woman said.

“Penny is one lucky girl,” another said.

“So great to meet you,” a man said.

“Let him through,” Callie roared. “He has important business here. Do you not remember the meeting we just had?”

No one seemed to hear her. Instead, they fawned over Emery like he was a celebrity. Had his brother felt like this all the time when working with other mages?

“Don’t worry about all of them.” Callie led him through a dining room where an older man was filling a plate. She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Emery. “This is the Rogue Natural.”

“The…” The man’s eyes rounded and his mouth dropped open.

“Yeah, I know. Dizzy and I have become the hub for two of the most powerful mages in the world. So…” Callie shrugged and led the way out.

“Big on status in this neck of the woods, huh?” Emery asked, finally reaching a large kitchen that was, blissfully, empty.

“You’re a mage; you know how it works. You need to constantly prove your place in the power and prestige pyramid.”

“I’ve never really taken an active role in that. I left that to my brother.”

Her face fell and she nodded sadly, but didn’t comment. That small gesture endeared her to him. Made him connect with her on a more human level. He was thankful for that.

“So, the bad news is that Penny is no longer under our care,” she said, each word angrier than the last. The world stilled for a moment. So many questions blasted through Emery’s mind that he couldn’t focus on just one.

“We hoped to break down her bad habits and build them anew,” Callie said, “but the vampire didn’t think it was the best strategy for her. If only he wasn’t right, I would’ve done it anyway. He thinks he has a better way of training her.”

His mouth dried up and his heart pounded, terror squeezing his throat. If he hadn’t already acknowledged the hold she had on him, he’d be severely wigged out by his own dramatic reaction. As it was, he couldn’t shake the fear that Penny was exposed. That she lacked protection as the Guild slithered into the city in ever-larger numbers.

The black mist of warning that had clouded his vision had promised some sort of demise for her…

“And she is in his care?” he said with a suddenly dry mouth.

Pride flashed across Callie’s expression before unease settled in. “No. As part of his training method, he tried to force her into survival mode. Well, he succeeded, all right. And she nearly blew his house apart.” She proceeded to tell him about Penny killing four new vampires, somehow scaring a fifth (he hadn’t realized that was possible) and awakening an extremely old vampire that had been in a sort of stupor.

She finished, “Darius was not expecting that dinner to go as it did.”

A grin worked through his concern. That was the thing about Penny: no one could ever predict the outcome of a situation when she was stuck in the middle of it. He loved that about her. The innocent volatility. The excitement and challenge that she created over the normal course of her day.

His heart ached. He missed her something rotten. Which would make it extremely awkward when he had to see her with someone else. Extremely awkward.

“Her power is unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed,” he said as she took down a bottle of whiskey. “I can see how she wouldn’t respond to the normal training. Though her choking in a mock battle is…”

“Alarming.” Callie nodded. “I know. It has made me wonder. Her survival magic hasn’t failed her yet, but she has absolutely no control over what she does with it.”

“And she was…unhurt after that dinner, I assume?” he asked tentatively, afraid of the answer. Afraid of how much he cared about the answer.

Callie paused in pouring drinks, her gaze roaming his face before resting on his eyes. “You really do care for her. Dizzy was right.”

“Yes, and I don’t want to see her come to harm.”

She went back to pouring drinks. “Other than a few blisters on her feet from those God-awful cheap shoes I told her to return, she was unhurt, yes. Though she did need to ask a bunch of derelict shifter barflies for help.”

He gripped the edge of the countertop. “What’s this now?”

“Don’t worry.” She patted his forearm. “Reagan came to the rescue. That’s whose house she is in now. No safer place, trust me. She probably should’ve gone there first.”

“Who is Reagan?”

“A friend of mine. She has very powerful magic and is bonded to Darius.”

“She’s—” He felt his eyes widen in surprise. “Darius bonded someone? I wouldn’t think he’d stoop to binding himself to a human, magical or otherwise.”

“She’s not just any magical human, and yeah, she bonded him. It was necessary at the time, and she says she’d do it again, but I think she’s a damn fool.”

“I’d have to agree.”

“So now Penny is training with Reagan, and it seems to be going really well. Or so Reagan says. If it couldn’t be me, at least it’s her and not some conniving, egotistical, selfish vampire.”

Emery ignored the smack talk about vampires. Darius had his uses, but Emery generally thought along the same lines. Most people who weren’t vampires did. “Reagan is a mage?”

“No. More of a…mutt.”

He was losing his patience for this conversation, hating these non-answers. “Does she know how big of a disaster Penny can be?”

“Trust me, Penny is nothing compared to Reagan.”

“And yet you think the setup is a good one?”

Callie’s eyebrows lowered. “There’s a difference between caring about someone and being overbearing. You’d do best to remember that. And yes, I do. Because Reagan can handle herself, and she can handle anything Penny might throw at her, including intense spells. That woman is a walking spell encyclopedia. Like I said, Penny is in good hands.”

“But what if Penny is out in the world and freezes up again?”

Callie took a sip of her whiskey. “Impossible. Penny is stuck working her butt off within an extremely powerful ward. So far as we know, the Guild hasn’t locked on her location yet. And before you ask how we could know that, just trust me. Reagan’s neighborhood watch is particularly vigilant. If Penny freezes up, it’ll be in the safety of Reagan’s house.”

“And if Penny leaves?”

“If you knew her at all, you’d know she’s a rule follower. She won’t leave.”

His knuckles turned white where they gripped the countertop. He did know her, and yes, she was a rule follower…up to a certain point. But if what she called her temperamental third eye convinced her to get into mischief, she’d run at it full steam. She wouldn’t stay put for long.

If she was freezing up, it meant something was blocking her use of her considerable power. Probably the integration of a different way of working magic, one that didn’t feel natural to her. Until that issue was completely worked out, she’d have times when the spells just wouldn’t come. He knew that from experience.

And if the Guild was there to cash in on just one of those occasions, she’d be a sitting duck, easy prey.

“Call her. Call them both. I need to speak to them. Now.”