“Or something with someone else.”

“A roommate?” She considered the idea. “I’d drive any normal person insane.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re surrounded by people just as abnormal as you.”

She laughed. “I will miss Riley.”

“You will still see him.”

She sighed.

“Even more if you come to work for me too,” he added.

She smirked at him. “You’re not ever going to give up on that, are you?”

He took her hands in his. “Never. I shall persist to my last dying breath.” He even managed to keep a straight face as he said it.

“I was wrong,” she told him. “You are rather poetic.”

As he folded his arms around her, she set her head on his chest, just listening to the rise and fall of his breaths. It was so soothing. So right.

“Sera?”

She glanced up. His breathing had increased—or at least she thought it had. “Yes?”

“I know I’m being rather persistent about this.”

“Getting me to work for you? I hadn’t noticed.”

“It’s hard to trust people, now more than ever, hard to know someone won’t stab you in the back. But I trust you. That’s why I want to hire you.”

“That and my awesome prowess with a sword.” She grinned at him.

“You have a talent for making messes of monsters,” he agreed, taking her hand. He led her to the window.

“Damn right I do.” She looked out at the canvas of city lights. The view was nothing short of magnificent. “And don’t you forget it.”

“Drachenburg Industries has a very sizable cleanup crew.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “With me around, you’d need to double it.”

His chest buzzed against her back. “I have no doubt,” he said, amused. He was quiet for a few moments before he added, “There’s more. Other reasons I want you here.”

“You can’t stand to be away from my sharp wit?”

He faced her, meeting her eyes seriously. “I can’t stand to be away from you.”

He brushed his thumb across her jaw, following it, his touch gentle. Her heart thumped.

“Sera—” His hand froze, then dropped to his side. “The guys are coming.”

A few seconds later, Riley and the commandos entered Kai’s office with a man. The informant, no doubt. He was about Kai’s age with dark hair cropped short and even darker eyes. He was dressed like Kai too, in jeans and a fitted t-shirt, which showed off his strong build. He felt like a mage shifter, and a powerful one at that. His magic sang a wild song of monsters and beasts.

Kai looked at him. He was very still.

“Who is he?” Sera asked.

“Kai and I are old friends,” the man said. “The name is Ares.”

Sera’s brows lifted. “As in, Ares the god of war?”

“The one and only. But there’s no need to genuflect.” Ares winked.

Sera snorted.

“Ares and I know each other from university,” Kai told her.

“He was there with you all at SFUMAS?”

“Yes”

Sera looked at Dal. “Is he the classmate you knocked on his ass in combat training?”

Ares laughed. He had a friendly, easy laugh. “No, that was Dario.” He smiled at her. “You must be Sera.”

“Yes.”

He nodded, looking her over. “Your reputation precedes you.”

“My reputation for killing monsters?”

“Your ability to cut through all the crap and tell it like it is.”

“I like this guy,” Sera told Kai.

Ares’s shifter magic was powerful and he held himself with the sort of self-confidence of the old magic dynasties. But there was something really approachable about him under all that. He had an easy energy that reminded her of Kai and the commandos. It was no wonder they’d all been friends.

Ares clasped her hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sera.” He kissed her hand.

Kai wrapped his arm around her in a protective embrace, like Ares was a poisonous beast about to strike her.

Ares laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit, not in all these years, Kai.” His gaze shifted briefly to Sera. “And yet in some ways, you have changed more than I ever thought possible.”

Kai folded his arms across his chest. “What happened? How did you end up bowing to the Grim Reaper?”

Ares grimaced. “Direct as always, Kai.”

“If I wanted to trade bullshit, I would have become a politician.”

“Alden approached my company,” Ares told him.

“Ares runs Sunshadow, the world’s largest producer of magical offensive and defensive weaponry,” Tony explained to Sera.

“Sunshadow uses a lot of our research in their designs. They’re one of our largest customers,” Callum added.

“What did Alden want?” Kai asked Ares.

“He wanted Sunshadow to outfit his soldiers,” replied Ares. “Of course he didn’t call them that. He called them liberators.”

Kai gritted his teeth. “And you agreed.”

“I decided to play along, to see if I could get more information, to see what he was up to.”

“That is so like you, always trying to play the hero,” said Kai.

Ares shrugged. “It’s up to those of us with power to protect those without.”