The next afternoon, after tossing and turning instead of sleeping, thinking about those large, luminous eyes soaked with feeling for him, Emery stepped out of Reagan’s beat-up Honda in front of a warehouse outside of the city. Last night it had been universally agreed upon that he would help train Penny, and partially agreed upon that he’d need to go home with the Bankses. Strangely, it was Dizzy who’d raised the most fuss about Emery and Penny sleeping separately.

Only a fool would think it was for propriety’s sake. The Bankses were clearly in the know about Reagan’s secret…and Penny was not. She’d been using Reagan’s power, and she didn’t even understand it.

Emery hated enigmas. They were liable to get people killed. He especially didn’t like them in connection to a special girl who held his vitals in her soft, dainty hands.

“I miss the Lamborghini,” Reagan said as she got out of the car. “This bucket of tin is slow…”

“It’ll probably last longer, though,” Emery said, walking around the car to help Penny out.

“And back in the poor days, that would’ve mattered.” Reagan opened her trunk and grabbed out a sleek-looking sword, a dagger, a leg brace, and a fanny pack.

“Nineteen-ninety called, they want their fanny pack back,” Emery said, grinning at Reagan.

She gave him a blank stare. “Just for that, I’m not going to pull any punches.”

“Oh dear, the girl isn’t going to pull any punches.” He rubbed Penny’s back, hoping she knew he was just kidding. Reagan seemed the sort who liked taunting. It would fire her up and, hopefully, help her forget whatever secret she was hiding.

To his surprise, Penny said, “You don’t want to rile her up. She’s crazier that way.”

“Don’t ruin the surprise.” Reagan smiled and gestured them toward the warehouse. “Shall we?”

“I put a ward up on the Bankses’ house this morning,” Emery said as he scanned the flatland around the warehouse. The sun was slipping toward the horizon, but the vampires wouldn’t be up and moving around for another couple of hours. It was a prime time for enemy mages to gather around. At the moment, his senses didn’t detect anything out of place, but that didn’t mean they weren’t on the way. They’d surely know about this place by now. “It isn’t as good as the one Penny and you did, but it’ll keep even the best mages at bay for a day or more.”

Reagan pulled open the door, which hadn’t been locked. She wasn’t concerned about intruders. “I’m getting a bad feeling lately. Things have been too quiet.”

Cold pooled at the base of Emery’s spine as he watched her sweep the open space just as he had done. She seemed to know quite a lot about the constant presence of enemies, though maybe it was nothing more than self-preservation from having bonded an elder vampire.

“How so?” Penny asked, peeled off to the side and hunching. She looked around the murky warehouse, the hard light gleaming in west windows. Her gaze darted to each shadow in turn.

Various items of warfare sat on racks in the back, near a few chairs that had been set up. Another couple of chairs sat in the opposite corner, nothing around them. The rest of the large warehouse was completely bare, swept clean.

Reagan flicked on the light, chasing many of the shadows away.

“Those aren’t…power rocks, are they?” Emery asked, pointing to a collection of various-sized rocks along the back wall.

“No.” Reagan didn’t elaborate, though Emery couldn’t fathom why she’d have large, mundane rocks lying around. “Penny, you’ve been in town for a few months now. And while the Bankses are known to be a strong dual-mage pair, for all they know, I’m just a retired bounty hunter. No one knows me from Seamus the sheep farmer—”

“I think you spent too much time abroad,” Penny mumbled.

“We should’ve seen, at the very least, people hanging around my neighborhood, trying to learn our habits. But not even Smokey has seen anyone. I mean, you were out the other night with a bunch of witches.” Reagan flicked her finger at Penny.

Hunching further, Penny gave Reagan a hard scowl before drifting along the walls, digging her hand into the multi-compartment belt encircling her waist. It was the same belt Clyde had given her in Seattle. Emery needed to get another one.

As Penny started setting power stones around the empty floor, Reagan strapped her arsenal to her person.

“I do not, for one second,” Reagan said, “think the mages at the MLE office are all good guys. Maybe they aren’t totally bad, yet, but we’d be simpletons to think the Guild isn’t paying for information.”

“They didn’t seem to recognize me,” Penny said, holding the second to last rock Emery had sent her. Her gaze switched to Reagan. Then back to him. “Huh.”

“What?” Emery asked.

“Best not to try and understand her weird relationship with those rocks,” Reagan murmured. “You’ll think she’s a quack.”

“Like you can talk, Fanny Pack,” Penny shot back, her scowl back.

More chuckles racked Emery’s body. He’d forgotten how Penny could make him laugh.

Penny dropped the rock back into her belt.

“What was it?” Emery asked, trying to force down the laughter.

“Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky power stone doesn’t know which of you it would rather catch a ride with.” Penny pulled out another stone, this one deep purple.

Reagan caught Emery’s eye before making a circle in the air around her temple. Crazy.

“It’s only been a day since we helped with that banshee,” Penny said. “They wouldn’t react that quickly. Not in numbers.”

“I’m just surprised they haven’t shown up yet. Not one creeper in the bushes. Not one sneak attack.” Reagan braced her hands on her hips, watching Penny move about the space. “The Guild normally isn’t this patient.”

“They are amassing,” Emery said, the humor draining from him. “They’ve been following me in increasing numbers. Darius sent me a message when I was in the Realm—the Mages’ Guild has the gate closest to New Orleans blocked off.”

“Darius said that?” Reagan’s brow furrowed. She waited for confirmation before shaking her head. “I might need to have a word with that secret-keeping SOB. Old habits die hard, my ass.” She waved her hand, and while the gesture might have seemed like a dismissal to some, he could see the hard gleam in her eyes. That vampire had bonded his match, Emery could tell. She was more than she seemed. But what, exactly? “Right. C’mon, Penny, let’s get cracking.”

After placing the last stone—Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, she’d called it—halfway between Reagan and Emery, Penny skulked out to the center of the warehouse and turned to face Reagan, who was standing a hundred feet away. Penny’s expression crumpled into one of wariness. Her stiff frame and a tight jaw said she was entirely too wound up. She worked better loose, letting the magic naturally flow around her.

Emery refrained from saying anything. He wanted to see how this played out.

Reagan brandished her sword, and Penny’s wariness turned into confusion. And then Reagan was charging toward her, faster than he would’ve believed possible, with aggression in spades. She was on Penny in a flash, and literally backhanded her across the face before picking her up and tossing her across the warehouse.

Emery stepped forward, everything in him pushing to run to Penny’s side. Power pulsed from somewhere near him. One of the power stones, throbbing.

Penny, lying on her back, thrust her hands into the air.

Power crackled within the warehouse. Energy scraped across Emery’s skin, making his eyes water. Magic blasted from her hands, streaming toward Reagan in a thick weave.

He stepped forward again, but this time it wasn’t to protect Penny. It was to tell Reagan to get the hell out of the way. That spell, an intricate, artful weave made up of over two dozen components, would fry someone alive.

Reagan thrust her hand into her opened fanny pack, grabbed out what looked like a casing, smashed it against the base of her sword while muttering what sounded like gibberish, and sliced through the spell just in time. The sword splintered the weave, sending it curling to the sides, but didn’t unravel it.

“I hate that trick,” Reagan said, running toward Penny as the spell tracked her from behind. As she came close, she reached downward, aiming for Penny’s chest.

Penny reacted hard and fast, slapping the hand away and punching up into Reagan’s face. The blow didn’t land. Reagan jerked back a fraction and swung her arm, hitting Penny’s forearm with her own. Before the move could be executed, Penny kicked up, hitting Reagan right behind the legs.

“Good move,” Reagan said, twisting to drop her knee onto Penny’s thigh. “But my balls are figurative.”

Streams of magic rolled and boiled above Penny before running through her fingers, faster than thought, and morphing into something Emery, quite frankly, didn’t understand. It wasn’t a weave so much as a sparkling collection of harmonic elements, fire and ice in perfect balance.

An explosion without sound concussed the air. Reagan flew backward, her arms stitched down to her sides with unseen hands. A smile graced her face and she didn’t struggle or even twist. She hit the ground and bounced before jerking free, her sword still in her hand despite the force of the invisible and unexpected blow.

“Sneaky little thief,” Reagan said as Penny scrambled to her feet.

“You said we could share,” Penny hollered.

Reagan got up slowly and wiped her forearm across her mouth. “You made me drool a little.”

Penny started, staring at Reagan with wide eyes. “Oh no.”

She didn’t reach for her magic. She didn’t brace to fight.

She turned tail and ran.

“There’s nowhere to run to,” Reagan said.

“No!” Penny yelled. “Timeout. Do-over. Uncle!”

Reagan took off after her, a mad smile on her face. “Use your magic, you scaredy cat.”

“No killing, remember?” Penny yelled over her shoulder.

“I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to kick you.”

Penny pulled elements out of her belt and from the various items in the room, weaving as she sprinted to the corner then pivoted randomly and headed away at an angle.

“I can change direction faster than that banshee,” Reagan said. And then cackled.

“Turdswallop apple sauce,” Penny said loudly, getting a weave together as Reagan came within striking distance. “No!”

Reagan jumped, launching at Penny with arms wide, sword held out to the side.

Emery braced himself, feeling the power stone pulse with energy, charging up the entire room. Magic came without him consciously pulling it, running in and around his fingers.

Reagan hit Penny from behind. She wrapped her arms around Penny’s body, putting the sword at an extremely dangerous angle. Before Emery could voice a protest or they could hit the ground, Reagan twisted in the air, landing so the sword wasn’t a problem.

“You’re going to poke someone’s gizzard out with that thing,” Penny said, struggling against Reagan’s hold.

“As long as it isn’t mine, I’m good.” Reagan released her hold long enough to pepper punches into Penny’s back.

Penny grunted, and the weave of magic she’d been making, even while being tackled to the ground, drifted into the sky before floating above them.

“What fecking spell is that?” Reagan said. She didn’t look up at it, but she clearly knew it was there.

How in the hell…

“Surprise!” Penny paused for a fraction of a second and received a couple more punches because of it. “Eventually. Surprise eventually.” She twisted and jabbed back with her elbow, connecting with Reagan’s sternum.

“I could kill you right now,” Reagan said, holding tighter.

“Fine. You win. Let me up.”

“No way. That thing you’re making is nasty. Send Emery away.”

“You send Emery away!”

Reagan glanced back at him. He started, realizing he’d drifted forward, ready to intervene without consciously thinking of it. Her shift in focus had Penny twisting again, trying to get an elbow into her ribs. “He’s two seconds from rescuing you,” Reagan said. “You send him away. He won’t listen to me.”

“No. You will take my surprise!”

“This is why men try to keep women dumb. They are much less dangerous to the power structure that way.” Reagan stared up vaguely at the cloud of magic drifting over them.

“What are you even talking about?”

Reagan didn’t answer. She rolled to the side, hopped up with a grace nearly equal to that of a vampire, and sprinted across the warehouse with a speed nearly equal to that of an elder.

“Are you non-human?” Emery asked.

“A little busy right now,” she replied.

She was right. The spell took after her like a shot, seemingly an intelligent entity.

“We need to get you on some nicer spells,” he heard Reagan mutter, glancing at him for a moment before digging into her fanny pack and pulling out a casing.

He could’ve sworn that casing had already been used.

She smashed it to the base of her sword, like she’d done before, and—again—he could see no magic transferred. More gibberish and then she was pivoting and running at the spell, sword up and snarl ready.

It split before she got to it, and he could more clearly see the weave. Wild and raw and fizzing with power, the fine strands creating it nearly sparkled with pent-up energy.

“So this is what I can look forward to, is it?” Reagan said, a knot of concentration between her brows. She swung her sword at one of the misshapen clouds, releasing her hand from the hilt of the sword as it cut through and fried the spell. The free hand swung behind her, and though he was at a bad angle, he could swear the same sort of frying effect happened to the second cloud without anything actually touching it.

She spun, slicing her magical sword—which, again, didn’t have any magic he could see—through the second cloud. She was working through them in short order.

Something was definitely off.

But Penny had already moved on to something else. Her fingers palpitated in a sort of rhythm. Eyes glistening and face smooth, she was clearly in her element. She’d found her balance rooted in nature.

Emery stepped closer, wanting to get inside her bubble of magic so he could better see and feel what she was concocting. So he could help and lend his touch. From the distance, he was missing components of what she was doing.

Penny shot the spell off as Reagan turned toward her.

“Clever,” Reagan muttered with a smile. “There are holes, though.” Her knees bent and her eyes glazed over for a moment, her concentration so intense that it seemed like she was blocking out the world around her. “Little pockets of deadness. Patch that up, and I’d need to resort to drastic measures to get out from under it.”

She didn’t bother with the casing this time. She charged, hacking and ripping at the spell with her sword and a clawed hand, fracturing the weave instead of unraveling, dissipating, or countering it. A black spot appeared on Reagan’s upper arm and she flinched away. Another on her forearm.

“Ouch.” She cut the reaching arms of the spell as Penny created yet another. By the time Reagan made it through the black-spot spell, Penny was ready with another.

Emery watched in fascination as the two engaged in a rare dance. Whatever magic Reagan had, it could counter Penny’s extremely inventive, tightly woven spells. And each time she did so, she described what Penny could have done better.

They were a team unlike any he’d ever seen.

Without any outward communication, they stopped nearly at the same time, both of them panting and fatigued.

Reagan nodded. “Good. You’re getting better. You didn’t take nearly as long to get in the zone. Was it him?” She pointed at Emery.

Penny bowed with exhaustion. “Yeah. He’s never guarded with his magic. I tapped into it and…it calmed me. Helped me find balance.”

“You embodied his magic, though. Like you do mine. I could tell because it was so much more interesting than your peaceful, lovey-dovey bullshit.”

“Wow.” Penny shook her head. “No wonder you love a vampire. You two have the same emotional landscape.”

“Yeah. A bit slow of you to just pick up on that now.”

Penny walked to Emery and, without a word, wrapped her arms around his middle and leaned into him. She wasn’t worried in the least about showing her affection or being rebuffed. She was completely open and honest. It comforted yet humbled him. “Sorry I’m sweaty,” she mumbled.

He wrapped his arms around her, supporting her. “I am going to steal your spells so hard, it’s not even funny.”

She laughed into his shirt. “I stole your magic, so I guess that’s only fair.”

“This stealing of the magic… That’s rare, Penny. It’s a gift, like my premonition. It must be.”

She shrugged. “Maybe everyone could do it if they’d open up more.”

He shook his head, not so sure.

“Ew. You guys are gross.” Reagan crouched and leaned her forearms on her thighs. “All right, Romeo. Let’s see what you’re made of.”