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I glanced behind me, expecting Conn to say something as well, but he was studying the masked man with an odd expression.

“We don’t mind helping a co-worker, do we, Conn?”

But Conn still said nothing. He just continued to stare.

The masked guy motioned us to follow him and set off down a hallway. As we followed, I fell back to walk beside Conn. “What’s wrong?”

“Either everything or nothing,” Conn said.

I hated my familiar’s strange moods and evasive answers. There was no prying for details, though, until he’d come to his conclusions. I’d learned that the first year we worked together.

We made a sharp turn into a smaller area that may have once been a store. There was a table with blueprints set to one side and another across the room with a portable computer and chair.

Ben stood at the blueprints table surrounded by a bunch of men all trying to talk to him at once. I guess we’d come at a bad time.

Our escort walked to Ben, butted into the conversation, and pointed to me and Conn. Ben’s face turned toward us and lit in recognition. He spoke to the men at the blueprint table and walked away without looking back. The masked guy trailed behind Ben.

“It’s nearly lunchtime. I thought something might have kept you two from coming.”

I smiled at Ben. “This place is busy as a beehive. Ya should have rescheduled us.”

Ben turned to masked guy. “Is the troll constrained?”

“Yes.”

Ben put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. The other men stopped talking to listen to him. “The troll has been caged. Time to get back to work outside, gentlemen.”

They flowed around us as they left. Some stopped to clap the masked guy on the back. Conn and I shared a look and grinned at each other. We’d never felt the need to impress people, but we’d worked with many who did.

The masked guy saw us looking and lifted a hand in our direction. “The troll kept escaping me. They helped me cage him.”

Ben smiled at all of us. “That doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen them at work.”

“We may have fought a troll together, but we haven’t yet been introduced,” I said, dropping the biggest hint I could.

Ben turned to the guy. “You don’t have to wear the face mask inside the facility. It makes you look like a criminal.”

The guy’s embarrassed gaze darted away from us. “Right. I’m so used to it that I forget I have it on.”

Ben pointed at us. “This is Aran and Conn O’Malley. Your secrets are safe with them. They’re a witch and familiar, a demon and his keeper, and in public, they frequently pose as brother and sister.”

“Or cousins where the person we’re fooling knows Bridget O’Malley only birthed one child,” I added with a grin.

The guy chuckled at my teasing. I was thinking that he had a nice laugh until my friendly urges turned into shock as he pulled the mask off. He was young and handsome and smiling at me in a way that set my inner alarm bells chiming. Shaggy dark hair fell in sweaty strands to brush his shoulders. His face sported a trim chin beard and a slim connected mustache that any French Musketeer would have been proud to wear in the day. One earlobe was adorned with a tiny gold hoop that added a pirate vibe to his tanned skin.

He could have passed for Orlando Bloom’s twin, which should have amused me. But it didn’t because my brain got confused as I checked him out. His eyes smiled at me but his mouth looked like it didn’t know whether to go along or not. There was only one being I ever met with that personality quirk.

And I suddenly understood with absolute clarity that I would never see that being again.

I could barely hear Ben’s introducing him through the sound of my own blood rushing in my ears. A unexpected wave of lightheadedness hit me as I blinked in shock. I had to press a hand to my chest to keep my heart from pounding its way out of my body.

Conn growled softly behind me, but Ben continued without even noticing our reaction.

“This is Rasmus Sheridan Gupta. He applied to the Shadow Breakers in Europe and was accepted. They knew we needed to staff up quickly so they sent him here.”

Jack and his scientists once forced a fake life on the guardian. With Lilith’s help, I’d rescued Rasmus from that fake life. But if this was a new version of Rasmus, there would be no rescuing him from this one. The changes they made to him were too intricate—too complete. He looked like his own son.

My optimism failed me so I faked it. “Gupta is an interesting name. Are ya Indian then?”