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The whole dying and almost dying thing must be messing with me more than I realized. My imagination kept running wild.

When Ben’s chewing quieted, he spoke again. “What can I do to help?”

I hung my head for a moment. I knew what weshoulddo. I just didn’t want to do it. I preferred to work out problems on my own, but I had far more people in my life now. When it had just been Conn and me, I felt less concerned about the risks.

The official solution would be a problem for Ben in paperwork and a problem for me in having to cooperate. And the outcome of the effort was unpredictable outside of being able to keep walking around and breathing.

I snapped out of my thoughts and saw that Ben was studying me hard.

He pointed at my face. “That resigned look of yours is making me very nervous.”

I didn’t contradict him. I explained it instead. “Remember when I told ya some Shadow Breakers on the payroll worked outside the rules the rest of us follow?”

“Yes, I recall you mentioning something about them, but I didn’t catch the details.”

I laughed. “Because I didn’t tell ya any details, Ben. No one finds out details until the enforcers get involved. Enforcers tend to burn out quickly and retire early, so new ones get recruited every few years. We only find out their identities on a need-to-know basis. If we call them to help, we might regret finding out who they are and not like what they decide to do.”

“Where are you going with this warning?”

“I need to find out if there’s a contract on me for security reasons. If there is a contract on me, ya will need to keep yer distanceandput everyone who knows me on alert to do the same. Hired assassins often will kill innocents to rattle their actual target. No one who knows me will be safe.”

“Do you think the bowman who shot you was a hired assassin? I thought we agreed he was one of the man-made guardians.”

“He was one of them, and Rasmus converted him back. But how did he find out where I lived? I haven’t been here very long. That was not an accident. Neither is she,” I said, pointing to the statue of Ezra’s wicked sibling.

Ben rubbed his jaw. “Would he materially gain from your death? Getting revenge doesn’t seem that worthy of a goal. Ezra wants your power, but that’s all we can be sure of at this moment.”

I shook my head. “Has Ezra been sent home yet?”

Sighing, Ben looked away. “No. He’s still in custody because his family refuses to take him. I still don't know why.

“Since he’s still here and no longer frozen, I think we need to assume Ezra is the primary suspect for creating the contract. The fairy hates me for ruining his plans. He possesses the necessary tools and the money and has reasons to want me dead. Ezra knows where I live because he visited here while ya were gone. The fairy excels at chaos and misdirection. He alsoknows how to get things done, or he would never have advanced so far in the organization.”

“I know he hates you for taking away his power. He tells everyone who will listen.”

“I only took away what he stole. Sure, Ezra lost the power from Dylan’s stone and whatever else the angel took from him at the end of the fight with Hisser. But the fairy kept most of what he’d collected over the years. It’s not like he was going home completely empty-handed.”

“Didn’t you take more of his power away the last time you fought him?”

I sighed and shrugged. “I’m not sure what I did to him then. Things about that fight are still a bit fuzzy. My focus was on Mulan’s brother-in-law.”

“I have it on good authority that the fairy’s power is only about a quarter of what it takes for him to return to his homeland.”

I swore under my breath. “That might explain why he put a bounty on my head. He hopes taking the stone from me will make up for all he lost.”

“We don’t know if there is a contract or that Ezra is behind the attempts on your life. There’s no reason to borrow trouble until we know who’s creating it.”

Shaking my head, I paced away to chastise myself in peace. After I stole Tony’s angel power from the frozen Ezra statue, I had to once again stop the unfrozen fairy from killing me. Which I did on my own with no angel help. If I had taken Ezra’s power, where had it gone?

I remembered feeling giddy and strong after we put Ezra in a cage. But I did not remember his power mixing with my own outside of some initial rush. The beings in the stone should have told me because they would have felt it as well.

My chest buzzed before the thoughts left my mind. I put a hand over where the stone lay inside my chest.

We took it, a now familiar voice announced in my head.

I groaned at the news and hung my head.

“Aran? Are you okay?” Ben asked in a concerned tone.