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“For the love of—okay, okay, I know you think highly of your squad! Please, for once, just think of yourself without prejudice! You might be average for your family of slayers, but you’re an elite here. No one else trains like you do!”

Sunshine’s glare and twitching eyebrows said I shouldn’t push her, but I felt honor bound to point out she’d overlooked someone. “April practices with all the House Medeis wizards—”

“Jade!” Sunshine snarled, sounding surprisingly like my mom—a real feat because my mom had great lung capacity and you felt it when she was facing you down.

Sunshine sighed and abruptly deflated. “I didn’t want to get in a fight with you about this—all I want is for you to be careful. I know you. You’ll sacrifice yourself in a second for your teammates.”

I opened my mouth to point out that was expected conduct of slayers everywhere, but Sunshine held up a hand to cut me off before I could get started and continued. “But! Please. If something happens, please try to get help. Don’t just try to fix it yourself. Promise?”

I paused, surprised by the grimness in Sunshine’s voice. “…did something happen?” Fae didn’t have the ability to see the future—oracles were the only supernaturals who could, in theory, do that. But she sounded so…certain.

Sunshine hesitated, then shook her head. “It’s just what I said earlier. This is dangerous. That gem Orrin used—it’s not easy to fix a hypnosis spell to a gem. The gem alone cost more than you and I make in a year; add the spell on to that and it was a priceything to toss in an attempt to get you off his tail. And if Gisila is really directing this, and Tutu’s is the target…it might become a battle between dragon shifters.”

That thought was enough to make me feel ill.

I didn’t know much about dragon shifters, but general knowledge was all I needed to know the scale of damage they could cause.

Dragon shifters didn’t transform into tiny, delicate beasts. One transformed dragon was easily the size of a bus—and they could geta lotbigger.

Sunshine shifted. “So. You’ll be careful?”

“I’ll be careful,” I repeated back to her. “Thanks, Sunshine. I’m glad I have you for a friend.”

Sunshine relaxed. “Of course! And I know you’re strong. I also know someone must remind you to watch out for yourself since you don’t have your family around to save your neck.”

“No, but I do have my squad,” I said.

“You do,” Sunshine agreed, her voice growing lighter. “And they’ll do their best to help you.”

My heart warmed a bit at the thought. I might be a slayer without a family, but at least I’d found myself a trustworthy team!

“Blood?” Binx called from the door to the meeting room where she waited, with Clarence and Grove, holding a piece of paper—assumedly our patrol route for the night.

“Coming.” I finally stood up, scooping up my mask so I could start snapping it into place in my hood. “Thanks, Sunshine. Make sure you get enough rest.”

Sunshine swatted me off. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Text me when you get home in the morning. My mom is making scones—I can drop a few off for you.”

I waved to her as I crossed the meeting room to join my team.

“Ready?” Binx glanced at me, then Clarence and Grove.

“I’d like to run back to my locker real quick like,” Grove said.

Clarence worriedly tugged at his fancy white cravat. “Why?”

Grove balanced on the tips of his toes. “I want to grab a few—”

“Ah-ah—no!” Binx slapped a hand over his mouth. “If you were about to say poisons, don’t even start! We’re going!” She grabbed the fae by the ear and dragged him out of the room.

“You know, it’s never wise to manhandle your medic,” Grove complained. “I’ll remember this next time I need to heal you.”

“Please,” Binx scoffed. “You’ll just shove a potion at me, and I’ll have to hope it isn’t a poison.”

Clarence laughed weakly as he followed behind Binx. I looked back at Sunshine but she was approaching Captain Reese, so I ducked out of the room after my team.

Thinking of Sunshine’s worry for me and Connor’s wry concern, I smiled behind my mask.

It’s nice to have good friends.