“You should take her out, Zayne.” Danika shoved him as she strolled past him. “Do you just have her locked up in your place?”

I lifted a brow as I took in the wide, circular foyer. There were a lot of doorways.

“All day and night,” he replied.

“Sounds like a good time actually?” She giggled when he shook his head. “I think Dez and Nicolai are—”

A gray blur was suddenly coming straight for my face. Gasping. I stumbling back a step and lifted my arms out of reflex as someone shouted, “Izzy, no!”

Hands and wings smacked into me, and the next thing I knew, I was holding a squirming little gargoyle in my hands. She was a tiny thing but as heavy as a truck as she pounded her little fists on my arms. Her features took shape, and she was in her Warden form, her chubby face a slate gray and small horns parting a riot of red curls. She threw her arms around me and hugged me as tightly as a long lost friend would.

I was shocked into immobility as she murmured incomprehensible things and rocked in my arms, holding on to me for dear life. I stared over a small, flapping wing at Danika and Zayne. Both were gaping at us as I awkwardly patted the little girl on the back, between her wings.

“Hi there,” I said, tightening my arms around the little girl as she kicked her head back and let out a wild giggle. I looked around her to Zayne and Danika. Both were staring openmouthed at us. “I’m guessing this is Izzy?”

Zayne nodded.

“Yep,” Danika said. “That would be her...and this would be my sister, Jasmine.”

A moment later, a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Danika came rushing forward. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. She was actually napping, and the next thing I knew, she took off and here she is.” Jasmine reached for her daughter, grasping her by the waist, but Izzy held on. “Oh! I’m sorry. Izzy, let go.”

Izzy did not let go, and she now had fistfuls of my hair. “I think she likes me.”

“I think so, too,” Jasmine agreed.

I glanced down and noticed that there was a small boy the same age as Izzy attached to the back of Jasmine’s leg. He was peering out from behind his mother with big, blue eyes. “Hi.”

He jerked back behind her. A second later, I saw one big blue eye appear behind her leg.

I grinned.

“Izzy, if you don’t let go of this poor girl, you will not get any pudding for your afternoon snack.”

The little girl immediately let go, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck.

“Wow, that worked remarkably fast.”

Jasmine grinned. “This child will actually behave for pudding and that’s about all. Again, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “It was a nice greeting.”

“Glad you think so.” Jasmine turned toward where Danika and Zayne stood. “Danika, can you do me a huge favor and grab Drake so I don’t trip over him.”

“Of course.” She pulled away from Zayne and easily scooped up the boy, who promptly buried his face in her neck. “Drake is a little shy.”

“And as you can see, Izzy is not.” Jasmine grinned as she stepped back. “These two could not be any more different.”

“Are they both shifting now?” I asked.

“Izzy can fully shift and hold it, but Drake can only partially shift so far,” their mother answered as the girl twisted in her mother’s arms toward me. “Izzy prefers to be in her Warden form.”

“Drake just overthinks it, isn’t that right?” Danika ruffled the little boy’s hair and he lifted his head, sharing a tiny grin before shoving his face back down. “Izzy doesn’t think twice about anything. She wants to do something, she just does it.”

“My kind of girl,” I said, playing with Izzy’s hand as she reached for me again.

“Ours, too.” Danika and her sister shared a look. “But she gives her daddy a heart attack about every five seconds.”

Laughing, I glanced at Zayne and saw that he was leaning against the wall, ankles crossed and hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. There was a faint smile on his face, a softness to the normally hard line of his jaw. I was struck by how much it reminded me of the day at Roth and Layla’s place.

Zayne was here, but he wasn’t a part of this.

My smile faltered as he tilted his head toward me.

The sound of male voices came from one of the closed rooms and then a door opened. A male Warden stepped out down the hall, and he was too far for me to see his face, but I recognized Dez’s voice when he spoke. “Did Isabella attack someone again?”

“No.” Jasmine laughed. “She was just overly happy to see Trinity.”

“Is that so?” Dez swaggered down the hall and stopped to pluck his son out of Danika’s arms. “Hey there,” he said to me as he shifted Drake into the nook of one arm.

“Hi.” I waved Izzy’s hand at Dez, and Izzy cackled.

“How’ve things been?” He asked this of Zayne.

“Good. Nothing to share other than what I’ve already reported,” Zayne replied, pushing off the wall. “How’ve things been here?”

“Normal, but we do have some news for you.” Dez glanced at me. “This is something Trinity’s going to want to hear, so I’m glad you brought her. Let’s go visit Nicolai.”

Zayne glanced at me, and I disentangled my fingers from Izzy’s while Danika took Drake from his father. I walked over to join them.

“Remind Nicolai that he has thirty minutes,” Danika said. “Or I’m leaving without him.”

Dez shot his sister-in-law a look but she simply smiled back at him, and two things struck me as odd. One being the whole leaving without the clan leader part, which I hadn’t even heard a male Warden threaten to do, and second, she was leaving? Like, the compound? By herself?

Danika’s gaze met mine, and what I was thinking must’ve been written across my face. “Izzy takes after her aunt,” she said, and Jasmine nodded. “I do what I want.”

The corners of my lips tipped up. “I like you.”

Danika winked.

“Come on.” Dez motioned us. “Before you and Danika start chatting, because I feel like really bad things will come from that.”

“Now I really want to talk to her,” Danika called out.

“I’m not sure who would be the worse influence,” Zayne commented, and I shot him an arched look. “You or Danika.”

“Throw in Layla, and the entire house will be burning down around us,” Dez commented.

“I heard that!” Danika shouted from the foyer.

I glanced at Zayne, but he showed no reaction to Layla’s name or the fact that one of the clansmen had brought her up. I didn’t know the details surrounding who had turned against her and who hadn’t.

Dez opened the door, and I immediately smelled the faint scent of rich tobacco. I walked in, spying Nicolai behind a wide, large desk. He looked up from whatever papers he was flipping through as I inched into the room. Dez walked ahead, over a brightly woven throw rug.

“Danika wanted me to remind you that if you’re not ready in thirty minutes, she’s leaving without you.”

Nicolai sighed, but when he spoke, his voice was laden with fondness. “Of course she will.” He sat back. “Well, let’s get the ball moving so I’m not chasing Danika through the streets of DC.”

I opened my mouth to ask if she really was allowed to roam around the city, but I realized Zayne wasn’t with us. I looked behind me and saw that he had stopped at the entry to the office. He seemed paler than normal as he slowly looked around the room, seeming to take everything in.

Then it struck me.

This had been his father’s office.

My heart went out to him, and I started to turn toward him, but then he finally strode forward, those pale eyes focused on me. I waited until he was beside me and then I whispered, “Are you okay?”

“Always,” he repeated, and then turned to Nicolai. “You have an update for us?”

If Nicolai or Dez had noticed his hesitation, they didn’t acknowledge it, but then Nicolai dropped the bomb. “Bael was sighted last night.”

“What?” I gasped as Zayne stepped forward. “When? Where?”

“Cal saw him on patrol around eight last night, near Franklin Square,” Nicolai answered.

My heart started racing. This was huge news—news I hadn’t been expecting.

“Cal is sure he saw Bael? Positive?” Zayne asked.

Dez nodded as he leaned back and picked something up off the desk. “Cal was able to snap a pic of him with his phone. We had the image printed out.” He handed it to Zayne. “You think that’s him?”

I darted to Zayne’s side and peered down at the somewhat grainy image of a tall, dark-haired man standing outside a black town car. He was dressed in a gray suit and his black hair was slicked back. He was looking up, and even I could see the weird yellow light that had reflected off his eyes.

“That’s him,” I said, hope sparking alive. “That’s Bael.”

“It is.” Zayne looked up as I all but snatched the photo from him. “Do we know who’s in the car?”

I squinted. There was...someone in the backseat.

“Not sure yet, but we reached out to our contacts at the police department to get the tags run. The vehicle is registered to a local car service company. We’re waiting to find out who the driver was and who they were transporting. As soon as we hear, we’ll let you know.”

Bael was in the city.

“This is good news,” I said, looking up at Zayne. “Right? Once we find out who he’s with, we can hopefully find him.”

He nodded. “Not just that. Now we know where to start patrolling.”

28

“Are you sure you’re safe up here?” Zayne asked, offering me a hand as I reached the top of the fire escape of the building overlooking Franklin Square.