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Shadrach tilted his head. Anyone else would be treading very carefully, but Ira barely spared him a glance. Wolf was in danger of getting turned on. He liked cocky-Ira.

Shadrach flicked his hand, and something small and shiny flew up into the air. Ira fumbled for it reflexively, catching it against his chest. Over his shoulder, Wolf saw that it was a quarter.

“Tell me my future, little psychic.” He grinned.

Ira looked unimpressed. “I’m not a fortune teller.”

“Oh, come on. Give mesomething,” Shadrach needled.

Ira glanced at Wolf, who shrugged.

“I can’t tell you much—mostly because saying too much might change things, and the future is tenuous at best. But I’ll say this.”

Shadrach leaned forward eagerly, and even Talon was listening closely.

“You think all of these guys are so stupid for getting involved with paladins,” he said evenly, “but when you and Talon finally come to blows, it’ll be overyourhuman.”

Shadrach’s eyes narrowed. “Bullshit.Myhuman.” He scoffed. “I’m not stupid enough to fall for one of you.”

“I know,” Ira said dismissively. “That’s true right now. It’s not time yet.”

“That’s truealways. You think I’ll be swayed just because youtell meI’ll want a human later?”

“No,” Ira said plainly. “In fact, I think telling you any ofthis will make you less likely to accept it when the time comes. But you’ve annoyed me, and I know that knowing this will annoy you back.” He frowned. “I should probably do better about keeping my emotions in check if I’m going to do this without having anyone to supervise what I say.”

Wolf snorted out a laugh, muffling the sound in Ira’s hair. “I think you’re doing just fine.”

Talon and Shadrach eyed each other cautiously.

“Don’t worry, neither of you kills the other,” Ira added.

They both scoffed at that. They’d always reminded Wolf of siblings, antagonizing each other without doing any real harm. For all their banter, they’d never actually tried to hit each other. The fact that theywouldone day soon, and over a human Shadrach would fall for, was a revelation. He wondered if Ira realized the bomb he’d just dropped on the two leviathans.

Alex returned with Luke and Malachi in tow. “Got ‘em. You guys ready?”

“Yes,” Ira said quickly. “Let’s get going.” He turned, pecking a kiss to Wolf’s lips like they’d been doing it for years. “I’ll have Alex text you the address to the place after we get it cleared out, and you can pick me up from there. Sound good?”

Not really, but he didn’t have much of a choice. And based on Ira’s smile, he knew exactly what Wolf was thinking.

“Yes, fine. Be careful.”

Chapter 7

Ira squeezedinto the backseat of Talon’s sports car. Soon they would see the Rink for the very first time. He capitalized the word even in his own head. It would have such significance to their future, he couldn’t lessen its importance by correcting himself. It was Important.

“So where exactly are we going?” Alex asked, turning in the passenger seat to look back at him. The headlights from Malachi’s cherry red Mustang behind them lit up his face.

Ira gave them directions to the old building but bit back any more explanations about it. He wanted to see it for himself first, make sure it felt right.

As the car wove in and out of traffic toward their destination, Alex asked, “How are you doing with all of this, by the way?”

Ira blinked in confusion, his mind stuck on the Rink and all its potential. “All of what?”

One corner of Alex’s mouth lifted, but it was a bitter thing. “Everything. Leaving the guild. You’re the smartest of us, y’know? Luke and I, we waited until things with the guildblew up in our faces. I admire you for realizing where things were headed before it got to that point.”

Nausea pitched in Ira’s gut, and he took a slow breath to quell his anxiety. “Oh. Well, I had your experiences to guide me. I might not have made the same choices if I hadn’t watched you two go through it all first.” He blew out a breath. “I don’t even know if I’ve prevented anything by leaving voluntarily. Things are different for the prophets. We can’t just retire. Even though I’ve stopped reporting to HQ, I’ll continue to receive these visions. And they’ll do whatever it takes to keep me there, reporting tothem. They never would’ve accepted a simple resignation. That’s why I left the way I did. I’ve had to disappear from the life I had before. I can’t go home. I couldn’t bring anything they could use to track me down or contact anyone who might give me up. And there’ll still be… things that happen in the future. Things I don’t think I can stop.”

Fire.

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