Noah tried to pay attention when Cyrus was telling them what they had to do, but the memory of his cheek pressed against Elle’s hair wouldn’t fade. The girl, Zoey, was at some government installation.

Vivian had sent the information. The present was relentless, battering Noah until he let go of the last scraps of the dream. They had to recover Zoey. Cyrus’s tone made it sound like they were going to the store. Drop in and pick me up a mage.

Once they were in the van, Noah desperately regretted the choice not to drink. He had coffee, thanks to Ylli, but it wasn’t the same. Regardless, he needed to wake up, and he drank it as quickly as he could, trying to wash the memory of burning out of his throat. Slowly, he unwound. Lindsay’s hand in his helped more than Noah wanted it to.

Dane took up most of the bench seat in the back of the van, long legs stretched into the gap left by the middle row being gone to accommodate Ylli’s wings reaching back from the front seats. That left Lindsay and Noah in the space that remained, Lindsay’s hand still tight around his. Noah breathed and tried to relax, letting his head fall back and stretching his legs out into what little room was left. He knew the mental

exercises that would help him grasp his magic. He’d practiced since he was a child, before he realized none was coming to him.

He drew shapes in his head, changed their colors, made them three-dimensional, turned them over and over. He called up the memory of how he’d left his dresser and the floor of his room, filling everything in as perfectly as he could. It worked to calm his nerves, and he needed all the help he could get.

Kristan drove like a maniac—or it felt like it from the backseat—but no one else seemed to mind.

When Lindsay leaned into Dane and Dane wrapped an arm around him, that helped too. As long as they stayed together, they’d survive.

After more than an hour, Kristan pulled up near the arching entrance to what Noah realized must be their destination. She cut the lights and the engine, and turned in her seat. “Everybody out.”

Ylli was already maneuvering his wings past the seats and the door, and beside Noah, Dane and Lindsay were shaking off the stiffness of being still so long.

“I’ll put up an illusion that will keep us from being seen while we’re inside,” Lindsay said quietly.

Noah slipped out of the van first and waited for Dane and Lindsay. “I can stay with you.” He offered Lindsay his hand and helped him down. He couldn’t imagine that Dane would be better used watching over Lindsay rather than hunting down the girl they were here to get. Hopefully, Dane wasn’t angry about this afternoon. This afternoon felt like ten years ago. “I won’t let anything hurt him,” he told Dane.

“I know,” Dane said, but it sounded more like an order than an acknowledgement.

When Dane slammed the van door behind them and put his arm around Lindsay, Noah stepped away to give them some space, following Ylli, who was looking around. Noah checked over his shoulder to see that Dane had pulled Lindsay close and spoke to him, too softly to be heard.

“Do you know what the hell you’re doing?” he muttered to Ylli.

“Enough to know I don’t really want to do it. But...” Ylli shrugged and his wings whispered like wind-blown leaves. It had to be done.

“Yeah, that.” Noah wanted a cigarette, and it was worse for knowing he couldn’t have one.

Dane and Lindsay caught up a moment later, and Lindsay slipped his hand into Noah’s. “The illusion is set,” he said, voice tight. “Time to go.”

They walked through the front gates and none of the guards so much as blinked at the intrusion.

Noah’s heart was in his throat for the interminably long walk to what the sign outside the building said was the Personnel Directorate.

“I need to find a computer.” Ylli’s wings twitched with distress as the heavy double doors closed behind them. “And I have to say, I wish Cyrus would hire—or whatever it is he does—someone who can actually hack things. All I know how to do is take advantage of security gaps the real hackers post about online.”

“This is just finding Moore’s offices,” Lindsay said, though the look he gave Noah was uncertain.

“You’ve done well enough in the past.”

“You search your way, I’ll search mine,” Dane rumbled. He was already casting about, head raised, to catch the scent. There was a subtle shift in his shape, so small it seemed like a trick of the light until he glanced over his shoulder at them and Noah could see the feral features that had overtaken his face. “I’ll find you when I’m done. If you have her first, let me know. We leave together.”

“I’ll tell you if we find anything.” Lindsay’s grip on Noah’s hand tightened as Dane loped away down a side hall.

“We can get access here.” Ylli had drifted ahead of them and was peering through a glass wall.

“People are still working.”

The large room beyond the wall looked like a standard cubicle farm, with a few young men and women in uniform still at work. Lindsay gestured for them to step in, and Noah watched from a vantage point by the door as Lindsay and Ylli wove between the oblivious staff and peered over one shoulder after another.

“Here. I can get somewhere with this clearance.” Ylli beckoned Lindsay closer. “Can you...” He waved his hands vaguely.

“Yes. Step back?” Lindsay gestured for Ylli to clear out of the way. As Ylli moved, the man rose, then walked to the back of the room where he settled down at another computer and began to go through the same motions. This time, Noah could see that his screen was dark.

“Thank you.” Ylli wriggled into the seat, wings arched awkwardly. “Keep your phone out.”

“I will.” Lindsay pulled it out of his pocket. “I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“Nice job.” Noah grinned at him.

It wasn’t ever going to get old, watching people walk past them like they weren’t there. As a child, Noah had dreamed of being invisible and travelling the world unseen. Minds were strange things; he wondered how much of the illusion was magic and how much of it was the mind lying to itself.

No matter what the process was, Lindsay’s magic was impressive. Noah followed Lindsay out into the hall, where they wandered along like a pair of fresh ghosts looking for a haunt until they found an elevator.

A sign farther down the hall indicated a set of stairs, but Ylli’s first message on Lindsay’s phone said they should go up two floors by the nearest elevator to get into the correct section.

“I hate places like this.” Lindsay slouched against the side of the elevator, crossing his arms over his chest like he was hugging himself.

“I think anyone who doesn’t work in one does,” Noah said, jabbing at the buttons to get them moving.

Elevators made him twitchy—he hadn’t seen one until he left home for the first time—so he kept talking to fill the dead air. “A friend of mine works for the government up north. It’s a mage unit. And it’s still creepy walking in there. It’ll be good to get her away from here.”

“Yes.” The word was barely out of Lindsay’s mouth when the elevator stopped with a sickening jerk and thud. Noah pounded on the buttons, trying to get the door to open—the lights dimmed, there was nothing but a rattle from the emergency hatch overhead.

Something heavy fell into the car with them, making the whole of it lurch while the cables squealed.

Noah shoved Lindsay behind him, spreading his arms to stop the danger from getting past.

It was a man. A brutish, ugly man, but just a man until he smiled, baring jagged teeth. The smile didn’t last. Lindsay swore and then the man was snarling, clawing at his own throat, caught in whatever illusion Lindsay had cast on him.