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“You’re on normal patrol shifts tonight,” Captain Reese continued. “But first, I have some updates from Magiford City Hall.” Captain Reese taped a printed photo of a woman to the whiteboard. “The human police chief reached out to the Curia Cloisters to inform us of a missing person case—a woman who is a Magiford citizen. I want you all to study her picture carefully.” She pointed to the photo, which looked grainy—like it had been cropped and blown up.

The woman in the picture appeared to be in her early thirties, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She had a faint smile that made her eyes look tired, but would be easy to recall while out on patrol.

Captain Reese continued, “This is the first time they’ve reached out to read us in on one of their cases that doesn’t involve supernaturals. We need to take advantage of the situation and show we’re willing if we want to forge a relationship with city hall. Any questions?” Captain Reese leaned against the podium positioned at the front of the room.

Brody stood, knocking his chair into the wall behind him. “Yeah, what did they send over with her scent?”

Captain Reese rested her hands on her podium. “They didn’t send anything.”

Brody frowned. “No scent? How are we supposed to find her without a scent?”

Captain Reese held her hands up. “I don’t know how they conduct their investigations, but her picture, name, address, and physical description is all we have to go by.”

“Wait,” Tetiana also stood, her eyebrows furrowed. “Do you mean that they didn’t even list her blood type?”

“No,” Captain Reese said.

The room was quiet for a moment.

“Humans are incompetent,” Brody muttered.

“They’redifferent,” Captain Reese corrected. “I imagine they don’t have much use for scents or blood types given human abilities.”

Tetiana turned to one of the two wizards in our squad. “Is that true, April?”

April—one of the other members of the task force who’d been issued a gun because her wizard House was obsessed with firearms and weapons—tilted her head. “I guess? I only grew up with wizards. I don’t know humans that well.”

No one even glanced at me despite my also being human. (Not that I blamed them. I couldn’t even help Sunshine with her crossword puzzle. It did make me wonder if they didn’t consider me a human or if they’d just forgotten I existed.)

“What do their TV shows do in missing persons cases?” Brody asked.

April, who I estimated to be in her early forties, didn’t react. “Might I recommend the task force, in general, stop relying so much on human TV?”

“I know!” Grove stuck his pointer finger up in the air for emphasis. “We could use their internet to look it up.”

April tugged on the tail of the braid she’d tucked her light brown hair into. “That’s even worse.”

“Maybe,” Captain Reese said. “Anything to add, Slayer O’Neil? You’re a human.”

I straightened up under the captain’s attention—I’d been willing to transfer to the short-staffed night shift because I wanted to work under her, and she was an amazing boss—while I tried to ignore my rising nerves as the rest of the squad glanced at me.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth, so I cleared my throat before trying again. “S-sorry. No.”

I should explain why not—my answer is too short.

Ignoring the odd flutter of my heart caused by my nerves, I squared my shoulders and forced myself to speak again. “My family didn’t…interact much with humans.”

Tetiana raised a sculpted eyebrow. “I’ll bet,” she vaguely said, and an awkward silence settled over the room.

Captain Reese frowned at Tetiana before addressing the room. “Missing woman. Study the picture and keep an eye out for her,” she said. “Moving on…”

CHAPTERFOUR

Considine

Iwaited until the flight crew secured the stairs before emerging from the private jet. The stairs were unnecessary; I could have jumped out without any difficulty, but as little attention as I paid to them, I was vaguely aware that humans got twitchy when they were reminded of supernaturals’ physical superiority.

The sun was a sliver on the horizon casting a rosy orange-gold color on the airstrip that would clear out soon for the invasive swell of night.