“Do you know of any way to break the Blood Orb’s control over the vampires?”

“We’re working on it, but no, not yet. At least not on a wider scale. A strong Magic Breaker could probably do it on individual vampires. Or maybe a whole group. But you’d have to get close to them.”

“How close?” Sera asked.

“Grappling distance.”

Awesome.

“Sera, if you’re fighting these people, please be careful. Do not underestimate them. They have very powerful magic at their disposal.”

“I thought they hated magic.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah, well people don’t always make sense. As far as I know, they don’t have magic themselves, but they do use magical objects and weapons. Your best bet in a fight is to disarm them.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“They’re devious,” Alex added. “They will stay out of sight, keeping to the shadows.”

“I’ll have my dragon step on them.”

“Your…dragon?” Alex’s voice trailed off. “Ah, you mean your new boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. Why does everyone keep saying that?”

Chuckles buzzed through the phone.

“He’s just my coach for the Magic Games.”

“Sure thing, Sera.” Alex didn’t sound convinced. Sera…” Her voice grew serious. “Do you ever…well, have this voice…in your head?”

“Yeah.” Apparently, Sera wasn’t the only one hearing voices. That was oddly comforting.

“You should listen to that voice,” Alex told her.

“Listen to the voice in my head?”

“Yes.” Alex paused. “I have a lot I want to tell you, Sera, but not over the phone. It’s so impersonal.”

Translation: someone could be listening, so it wasn’t safe for Alex to say more.

“We have to get together soon,” Sera agreed. “How long will you be in Zurich?”

“At least until this mess with the Blood Orb is sorted. And then there are all these hybrids springing up. Things are busy here.”

“Busy with that assassin?”

“Logan? He’s my partner. Work partner,” she tacked on quickly.

“I don’t remember any of your other work partners ever having access to your underwear drawer,” Sera teased her.

“He doesn’t have access. He only wishes he did.”

Something in Alex’s tone made Sera think her sister wished it too, so she decided more teasing was in order.

“Are assassins good kissers?”

“That one is,” Alex said in a whisper. Maybe she didn’t want him to hear.

Sera chuckled.

“And are mage shifters good kissers?” Alex asked her.

Sera choked on her own chuckles. “Um, what?”

It was Alex’s turn to laugh. “Oh, come on, Sera. I know you’ve been running around with Kai Drachenburg.”

“You’ve been talking to Riley.”

“Yep,” Alex said brightly.

“By the way, Riley says he likes the pictures you sent him of Madam Meringue’s chocolate factory,” Sera told her.

“The ones I sent him last week? We went on a tour of the inside.”

“You went on a tour of a chocolate factory…with an assassin?” Something about that was just too funny.

“Yes. Yes, I did,” Alex said. “But we were talking about your new man.”

“He’s not my man.”

“Then what is he?”

“Kai is…complicated.”

Alex laughed. “Aren’t they all? Though I do hear he was on the cover of Mages Illustrated.”

“And you’ve been talking to Naomi too.”

“She e-mailed me. Wrote that I should encourage you to ‘let loose every now and again’.”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” Sera said.

“Oh?”

“Don’t you think ‘letting loose’ with someone like Kai would be…irresponsible?”

“I’m sure you know how to take the proper precautions.”

“I’m not talking about letting someone into my pants, Alex. I’m talking about letting him into my life.”

“And your heart?”

“Yes.”

“It sounds like he’s already there,” Alex commented.

Sera tried to ignore the sharp twinge in her chest. “Yes. I’ve already let things go too far. And because of that, tomorrow I’ll be neck-deep in trials designed to break me. And it could have turned out far worse. For others.”

“Oh.” Alex seemed to understand the meaning: that she could have been exposed too. “Sera, I really think you’re rewriting history to torture yourself. You’re going to the Magic Games because you used magic to save San Francisco, not because you played footsie with the dragon. You can’t stop living life because you’re afraid of what will happen if you let yourself be happy. I think we’ve both been doing that for far too long. Besides, I’m not going to let you hog all of the blame. I’ve been a bit irresponsible myself.”

“By playing footsie with the assassin?”

“Something like that,” said Alex. “And you know what? It was so worth it.”

“Hmm.”

“Do you like him?” Alex asked.