Jasper had never in his life been so excited to go to work. He had to remind himself to look reasonably serious as he walked down the main hallway of the Advocacy Bureau toward Julia’s office. He didn’t want to attract more attention than he normally did as a famous dragon, because he wanted to hurry up and get to Julia. But it took quite a bit of self-control not to skip down the hallway with a giddy smile on his face.

He and Julia had stayed out on the lake until the sun started to set, making love another time before they drove the boat back to shore. On a normal day, they would never have gotten away with sleeping together out in the middle of the lake. There were always too many boaters and jet skiers around. But Jasper had gotten lucky with the warm November weather. No one else had wanted to bother to get their boat out of storage for one freak day. Jasper had been the only one, but it had been worth it. More than worth it.

He swallowed hard as he approached Julia’s office. Despite his giddiness, he could feel his nerves tightening as well. He hadn’t talked to Julia since he dropped her off at her car after their day on the lake. He’d kissed her good night, and they’d agreed to see each other at work. It had seemed completely natural at the time to leave things like that, but Jasper was all too aware of the fact that Julia had never actually agreed to any sort of relationship, or even to go out on another date with him. What if she had only slept with him on the boat because she was buzzed from the beer, or overtaken by the beauty of the lake that surrounded them? What if it hadn’t meant as much to her as it had to him?

Jasper gritted his teeth together as he approached Julia’s office door. No matter what, he wasn’t giving up on her. He’d insisted on a date with her because he knew they had chemistry. Now, he was sure of the fact that she was his lifemate. And that meant that regardless of how she felt, or how long it took for him to fully win her heart over, he would wait for her.

Of course, he hoped he wouldn’t have to wait. He hoped that when he saw her in the next few seconds she’d be just as excited to see him as he was to see her. Raising his hand and standing straight and tall, Jasper knocked on the door. She called for him to come in, and he opened the door with a broad smile on his face.

“Good morning!” he said. She smiled back at him, but she looked guarded. And the smile froze on his face as well when he saw why. There was another man sitting in her office. One of the Advocates, judging by his fancy wizard robes. Jasper gave Julia a questioning glance.

“Good morning to you, too.” Her smile was sweet, but still guarded. She seemed a bit nervous, and he had a feeling it had something to do with the other man in the room. “This is Noah Mohler, one of our top Wizard Advocates. Noah, this is Jasper Moffatt.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Noah said warmly, rising to shake Jasper’s hand. Jasper nodded at him.

“Nice to meet you, too.” Jasper did his best to be polite, but he felt impatient. Why was this guy here? As long as he was in the room, Jasper couldn’t have a conversation with Julia about what the future might hold for them.

“Noah has been assigned to show us around some of the advanced Advocate training facilities,” Julia said. “Usually, these facilities are off limits to everyone except for the students actually being trained, and their teachers, of course. But the High Council thought it might be useful for you to see what goes on in there.”

“I agree with the High Council,” Noah said. “Seeing these facilities will give you an idea of some of our hardest tasks. If you ever need to help defend the Advocacy Bureau against an enemy attack, understanding what we do in depth will make it easier for us to work together.”

Jasper nodded. “Sounds good.” He tried not to let his disappointment show in his face. Seeing the advanced training facilities did sound exciting, but he wished he’d had a chance to talk to Julia before going on any tours this morning. He glanced over at Julia, who still looked quite nervous.

“Since these training facilities are so specialized and have such high security, we’re required to have a senior Advocate escort us through them. Even then, it’s rare to be offered a tour. I myself haven’t seen the facilities yet. It’s a great honor to be allowed in.”

Jasper smiled as he detected a note of excitement in Julia’s voice. She might be nervous, but she was also looking forward to seeing a part of the Advocacy Bureau she hadn’t seen yet. He knew she loved this place. She’d told him when they were out on the boat that she had big dreams of becoming an Advocate Defender, and he had no doubt that she would succeed. She was smart, but more than that, she was dedicated. She worked harder than any of the other Advocate Support Specialists, and it was obvious she actually cared about the Advocates more than any of the others, too.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Jasper said. “When does the tour start?”

“Right now,” Noah said. “We were just waiting for you to arrive. The tour will take several hours, so we should get started now if we want to finish up before lunch.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Noah nodded, and Julia and Jasper followed him out of Julia’s office. Julia looked over at him and mouthed “sorry.” He smiled back at her, feeling strangely heartened by that one word. He knew she was apologizing for the fact that they hadn’t had a chance to have a conversation about what was going on between them. But if she was apologizing for that, then at least he knew she was thinking about it, too. She wasn’t intending to blow him off and act like nothing had happened.

Jasper wished more than anything in that moment that he could slip Julia’s hand into his. But that would look wildly unprofessional, and he knew that it was important to Julia to appear professional. So he kept his hands in his pockets as they walked along.

Noah kept up a brisk pace, and soon arrived at the entrance to the highly secured training area. There were two guards by the gate, as well as a retina scanner and fingerprint sensor. Jasper whistled under his breath. Whatever went on in here must be quite important to warrant such a strong show of security.

Noah approached the guards and conversed with them in low tones for a few moments, pointing back to Jasper and Julia. The guards nodded, and one of them looked up and squinted in Jasper’s direction. “We’ll need I.D. from both of them,” the guard said, loud enough for Jasper to hear. Jasper took the hint and started digging in his wallet for his Torch Lake Driver’s License. Julia merely held up her Advocacy Bureau badge, which had her picture and name on it. Jasper’s Advocacy Bureau badge only had the word “Visitor” printed on it in bright red letters. He didn’t think the guards would consider that a proper I.D.

He stepped forward and handed the license over to the second guard. Noah was handing a paper sealed with the official Torch Lake High Council seal over to the guards. The second guard broke the seal and scanned the paper, then nodded.

“All good. These orders allow Jasper and Julia in, just like Noah said.”

“Here you go,” the first guard said, handing Jasper’s driver’s license back to him. “Have fun. You’re lucky. Almost no one from the outside gets to go in here.”

Jasper smiled politely, then waited another moment as Noah stepped forward to allow the retina scanner to scan his eyes. Small beams of light flashed across Noah’s face for just a moment. The system beeped and a computer voice said “Senior Advocate match. Please place fingerprints on the sensor.”

Noah placed his fingerprints on the fingerprint sensor, and then a large click sounded as the fingerprint scanner recognized Noah’s fingerprints and began opening the door. “Welcome Noah Mohler. Have a good day.”

Jasper and Julia exchanged glances. Julia was grinning, clearly enthralled by the security technology. Jasper had to admit that seeing a retina scanner was impressive. Fingerprint scanners were everywhere in Torch Lake, but this was the first retina scanner he’d seen.

“Come on,” Noah said. “We’ll start in the advanced magical defense techniques room. I know Julia is interested in seeing that.”

Noah winked at Julia, who looked like she might explode from excitement. Jasper had to grin at how adorable she looked. “What’s the advanced magical defense techniques room?” he asked, reading the name of the room, which was written in bold letters across the top of the doorway.

“It’s where the Advocate Defenders train,” Julia said. “They’re pretty much the only people allowed in here, other than the senior Advocates.”

Jasper nodded. He was beginning to understand why Julia was so excited about this tour. She was getting a glimpse into what she hoped was her future.

“We make sure our Advocate Defenders practice advanced techniques on a daily basis, usually with one of the Advocates they work most closely with. And this is also where those who decide to apply for an Advocate Defender position come to take the practical exam they have to pass to get the position.”

Julia was nodding her head up and down excitedly. “It’s so cool to get to see this. Hopefully I’ll be seeing it one day soon as an actual applicant.”

Noah smiled kindly at her and nodded, then opened the door. The room was giant, and looked quite similar to the training room in the fitness studio where Jasper had watched Julia practicing her magical defense moves only a few days earlier. This room had the space for dozens of wizards to practice at a time, though, and even though it was early in the morning, there were already several wizards in here, their faces sweaty and flushed as they shouted out attack spells and ducked and rolled across the room. The noise was deafening, and the room was crowded, but no one bumped into each other. Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going, and what their next move needed to be. It was almost like watching some sort of impressive fighting dance. Jasper and Julia both looked on in awe for several minutes, until Noah’s voice cut in to explain further.

“Most of the Advocate Defenders come to practice in the morning, although there are always a handful in the afternoon. For the most part, though, this is the busiest you’ll ever see this room.”

“It’s plenty busy,” Jasper said, still in awe of how the wizards managed to practice so many attack spells and moves without running into each other. He glanced at Julia again, and she looked equally mesmerized. He imagined her out there one day, practicing her attack spells with her fellow Advocate Defenders, and he felt his heart tightening up with admiration. She was going to be damn good at this job. He hoped she knew that he would never try to distract her from her work or hold her back in her career. He would support her and cheer her on every step of the way. They stood and watched a few minutes more, and then Noah told them it was time to move on to the next room.

The tour felt like a whirlwind after that. They went in room after room, watching how the Advocates tackled all sorts of tasks. There was an entire section devoted to stealth techniques, which covered how to appear to be a normal human and not a wizard—even if someone in a crowd suspected that you were a wizard. A room in that section was filled with “human” devices that weren’t common in wizard communities. Things that seemed mundane to Jasper, like fax machines or microphones, weren’t an ordinary part of life for wizards, so it was important that any wizard going undercover as a human understand what these devices were called and what they did. Jasper had lived among humans before, and his clan had all been non-magical shifters before the war, so it seemed strange to him at first than someone wouldn’t even know what a microphone was. But he supposed it made sense that many wizards here didn’t. Even the shifters in Torch Lake didn’t use microphones anymore. Why would you, when you could just ask any nearby wizard to perform a quick and easy amplifying spell on your voice?

After the stealth section, there was another section where the Advocates came to practice very advanced magic spells. Julia seemed especially fascinated by this.

“Some of these spells they’re doing are things I’ve only read about in books,” she whispered reverently as they all watched an older wizard teaching a younger wizard some of the more complicated spells. Jasper had never seen any of the spells, either, but that wasn’t surprising. Even some of the common spells wizards did were still unfamiliar to him, since he’d only been living in a town with wizards for a few months now.

The tour took even longer than Noah had anticipated, and it was already nearing lunchtime when he told them there was one more section left.

“We still haven’t made it to the area dedicated to how we deal with advanced cases of unauthorized use of magic. That might take a while to get through, so we can break for lunch and come back tomorrow if you want?”

Jasper would have gladly stopped to go grab some food, but Julia was shaking her head no. “I’m not that hungry, are you, Jasper? I think it’s probably better to just get everything finished up while we’re here.”

Jasper had to laugh. Julia was so excited about this that she didn’t even want to stop to eat. He shrugged at Noah, who cracked a smile as well. They both knew that Julia was probably starving—she was just too excited to notice it.

“Well, you heard the lady,” Jasper said in a teasing voice. “Let’s press on.”

And they did. Noah explained as they walked that unauthorized use of magic was his area of specialty. One of the Advocates’ main jobs was to deal with situations where magic had been used improperly or without permission.

“It’s actually how we originally came to be known as Advocates,” Noah said. “When someone is accused of using magic without authorization, they will often hire an Advocate to defend them. Advocates are sort of like human lawyers in that regard. They are experts on the laws of magic, and can argue all the reasons why a particular use of magic was or was not authorized. Some cases are pretty straightforward, of course. But due to the arcane nature of magical laws, and the fact that magic is ever-changing, there are many cases that are quite complicated.”

They had reached a room which, when they entered it, looked something like a courtroom. “This is where senior Advocates hold mock trials to practice defending or prosecuting unauthorized uses of magic,” Noah explained. “I was hoping to show you part of a mock trial so you could get a feel for how they go, but there aren’t any scheduled today. Maybe another time. Instead, let me show you something that you’ll both probably find more interesting: the magical artifacts handling room.”

“Really?” Julia said, clapping her hands. “I can hardly wait!”

Jasper frowned. “One of you will have to fill me in. What’s this ‘magical artifacts handling room,’ and why is it so exciting?”

“It’s where our Advocates practice handling dangerous magical artifacts,” Noah said. “You see, one of our jobs is to respond to reports of unauthorized uses of magic. Sometimes this just means tracking down the wizard accused of wrongly using magic. But often, it also involves dealing with ancient magical artifacts, many of which can be quite dangerous if handled improperly. So in our practice room, our Advocates review magical handling techniques on many types of objects that we often encounter out in the field. We have fake swords, jewels, shoes, and cups, for example. By practicing on harmless objects, the Advocates can safely prepare themselves for the times when they encounter such objects out in the field, when those objects won’t be so harmless.”

They had arrived at the room by then. Noah pushed the door opened, and Jasper immediately saw wizards all over the place who appeared to be concentrating deeply. They were performing different shield spells, and using other magical methods of moving the objects around without actually touching them. Once again, Julia seemed fascinated, but Jasper had to admit that this room didn’t seem any more interesting than everything else he’d already seen. Perhaps he had just seen too many things, and his senses were on overload. Noah and Julia were both acting excited about the room, though, so Jasper did his best to look interested as well. Jasper knew Noah was very proud of this room, and Noah had been so kind to show them around in here. The last thing Jasper wanted to do was come across as rude and disinterested.

Which is why he turned to study one of the more interesting swords closely. The wizard who was practicing on the sword noticed Jasper’s interest and paused his training.

“You’re Jasper, right?”

Jasper nodded and extended his hand. “I am.”

“I’m Tim,” the wizard said as he shook Jasper’s offered hand. “They said you might be coming through today. What do you think of the advanced training facilities?”

“Impressive,” Jasper said. “It’s crazy to think that all of this is going on right here in Torch Lake and most people have no clue.”

Tim laughed. “Yeah. But it’s better that way. We keep our defensive methods a secret, and people don’t get freaked out by what could go wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

Tim shrugged. “The longer you work as a senior Advocate, the more you learn about all of the possibilities for things to go very, very badly. And some of the bad things that could happen we have no way of fixing. For example, there are some magical objects that are cursed and can make you very sick, or strip you of your magic, or both. There’s no known cure. We do our best to keep weapons like this from being used, but what good would it do people to worry about them? Most people would just freak out, which isn’t helpful for making things safer. Better for them to stay ignorant, you know?”

Jasper wasn’t sure he entirely agreed. He was the type who thought that knowledge was power. But he also realized that there was a lot about magic that he didn’t understand. Maybe Tim knew better than him what people should or shouldn’t know. So he nodded and said, “I see your point.”

Tim’s face brightened at the seeming agreement from the most famous dragon shifter in town, and he seemed eager to make Jasper feel at home. “Do you want to hold this sword I’m working with? It’s an exact replica of an ancient sword that could swing itself and inflict poison. Don’t worry, this one’s fake and it’s completely safe. But look at the intricacy with which the sword’s handle was carved!”

Jasper looked back at Julia, and saw that she was standing with Noah next to a table of brightly colored balls. The two of them were pointing at the different balls, deep in conversation. Jasper might be here a while. He might as well take a look at the sword.

He picked it up and squinted at the gleaming handle, which was indeed carved impressively. He’d barely had a chance to start looking at it, though, when an angry scream sounded out behind him. Startled, he turned to see what the commotion was about.

Whatever had caused that scream had not been a fake magical artifact. That scream had been very, very real, and when Jasper saw one of the Wizard Advocates yelling in Julia’s face, he felt his blood run cold.