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“Not my first rodeo with weird.” He glanced at me. “Though usually I'm not being led into the heart of it by an irritating Irishman.”

“Careful now,” I drawled, letting my accent thicken. “You'll hurt my feelings.”

“You'd have to have feelings first.”

I laughed despite myself. This was why Cade was dangerous, he made me forget to keep my walls up. Made me want things I couldn't afford to want.

The trees pressed closer, branches reaching over the road like grasping fingers. Somewhere in the darkness, something howled. Not a wolf, not quite.

“Hallow's trained hunters here for centuries,” I found myself saying. “Everything you see, everything you don't, it's alldesigned to keep normal people out and train the ones who make it in.”

“And which were you?”

The question hit closer to home than he probably intended. “Neither. I was something else entirely.”

Cade absorbed that, handling another reality shift in the road with impressive skill. “That why you left?”

“Partly.” I watched shadows move between the trees, remembering endless training sessions, learning to kill before I learned to drive. “Hallow has... methods. Ways of doing things. Not everyone agrees with them.”

“Including you?”

I turned to study him properly. In the dashboard's soft light, his profile was all sharp angles and quiet determination. The kind of face that could make a man forget his carefully constructed rules.

“You're asking a lot of questions for someone who never answers any himself.”

“Maybe I'm just trying to figure out if I'm making a mistake.”

“Oh, you definitely are.” I smiled, but there was no humor in it.

We were getting close now. I could feel the old magic getting stronger, pressing against my skin like a forgotten embrace. Part of me wanted to turn back, to keep Cade away from this world of blood and shadows and ancient obligations.

But he'd chosen this path the moment he called me. And whatever was hunting in our city, whatever game Phoenix was playing, we needed Hallow's resources to stop it.

Even if bringing him here felt like feeding him to wolves.

“Almost there,” I said as we approached the final barrier. This one would hurt. “Try not to crash when it hits.”

The wave of power slammed into us like a physical force. Cade cursed but kept the car steady, even as reality seemed tobend around us. When it passed, the world ahead had changed. Where there had been only forest, now a sprawling compound emerged from the darkness.

“What the—” Cade's hands tightened on the wheel.

“Relax,” I drawled, already shifting my position. Casual to anyone watching, but placing myself between Cade and where I knew Kieran would appear. “Just the welcoming committee.”

Right on cue, a figure materialized from the shadows. Kieran hadn't changed, still wore those ridiculous leather pants, still moved like every step was a threat assessment. His eyes, silver in the darkness, fixed on Cade with predatory interest.

“Sean Cullen,” he said, Irish accent thicker than mine. “Bringing strays home now, are we?”

I kept my posture loose, ready. “Kieran. Still dramatic as ever, I see.”

Cade, to his credit, didn't flinch. He met Kieran's gaze steadily, and I felt a flash of pride I had no right to. Most people couldn't handle a Hallow gatekeeper's full attention without breaking.

“Agent Cross, CITD,” Cade introduced himself, his tone professional but with that edge of defiance I'd come to expect.

Kieran's smile showed too many teeth. “A fed? Really, Sean?”

“He's with me.” I let just enough warning color my voice. Kieran might be Hallow's attack dog, but he knew better than to challenge me directly.

“Is he now?” Kieran circled the car, and I tracked his movement, muscles coiled beneath my casual stance. “And does he know what that means here?”