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We made it back to Prisha’s apartment building just shy of four in the morning.

“Thank you.” I gave her a hug at the high-rise’s entrance. “I love you so much for coming with me, and I’m sorry it was such a shitshow.”

“Nah, it wasn’t that bad. You may have been a wee bit antagonistic to the Fire Wolf, but I know you’re worried about Tessa. Now please, go home and get some sleep. In the morning, I’ll come with you to the SF. We’ll get this figured out so they start searching for her. Call me when you wake up, okay?”

I managed to nod, my throat too thick to speak. I didn’t know how I was going to sleep, but Prisha was right. Right now, there was nothing more I could do. I’d called the SF as soon as we’d cleared the Shadow Zone, only to be told again that their psychic still wasn’t available but they’d have time to test “my friend” first thing in the morning.

So, for the time being, I was shit out of luck, and my failure was making me feel like absolute crap. I’d completely failed at initiating my sister’s search outside of the SF, which meant I’d have to reveal my powers if their psychic wasn’t free to assess Tessa’s disappearance come sunrise.

Please be okay, Tess. I concentrated again on the witch-twin connection she and I shared. That spark of magic still resided inside me. She was still alive.

Even though I had no idea where she was, I clung to the belief that she wasn’t dead as Prisha went inside her apartment building and I ambled back to the street.

She’s not dead. She’s still okay. We can still find her in time. It became my mantra as I began walking.

It was a hike to get back to my home in Avondale from Prisha’s high-rise in the Gold Coast—at least a two-hour walk—but at the moment, I needed to keep moving because despite trying desperately to shove the horrifying images of my sister being gagged and bound, or worse, raped and tortured, from my mind, I couldn’t.

Those horrific images played over and over in my head, like a slideshow of torment.

It was only a few miles into my walk—when blisters had formed on my heels—that I finally stopped my midnight urban hike and requested a hired ride. I slipped a healing potion from my belt and downed it in one swallow as I waited.

By the time the sedan pulled up to the curb, my blisters had healed, but I still hopped in and watched in a daze as Chicago’s nightlife blazed out my window.

“Have a good one,” the driver called when he pulled up to my curb.

I smiled wanly and remembered to tip him before getting out. My sleepy-looking three-story apartment building rose in front of me. The neighboring buildings were dark, this area not as busy as where Prisha lived.

Tessa and I rented the apartment on the top floor, so I trudged up the stairs, making loud stomps with each step. When I finally reached my door, I tried not to think about how I was going to be sleeping alone in there tonight.

Tessa and I had lived together our entire lives, and while we’d occasionally been apart to take trips with friends—or when Tessa went off on one of her disappearances—we usually were under the same roof every night.

I half expected her tinkling laugh to reach my ears when I opened the door, but all was quiet. Only the hum of the fish filter from the small tank we had in the living room reached my ears. It housed our fantail goldfish—Agent Orange and DJ Finster—who were lazily swimming around despite the late hour.

I closed the door behind me, my fingers shaking as I engaged the lock. I leaned my head against the solid wood. “Please, please still be alive, and please let me find you. I’ll do anything to find you.”

“Do you always pray to your door?” a deep and smooth voice called out from the darkness.

My heart jumped into my throat as I whipped around. My fingers automatically went to one of the potions on my belt. Magic crackled under my skin, rushing to the surface, just as a punch of foreign heat and intense mind-altering magic slammed into me.

I doubled over, unsure if I’d been hit with a spell or if my magic had gone on the fritz again.

A grunt came from the darkness, then, “Your security’s pretty shit.”

I gasped as the familiar tone finally hit me. “Fire Wolf?”

A lamp clicked on in my living room, its light blazing to life. I gaped just like DJ Finster was currently doing at the hunter who stood in my living room. He was as huge as I remembered him, his shoulders so broad they strained against his shirt. His amber-hued eyes glittered in the dim light. Here, in my small apartment, his presence commanded the room.

My mouth dropped open even more. “What the hell? Did you break in here?”

He quirked a dark eyebrow as a sexy smile curved his lips. “Obviously, yes.”

I managed to stand upright, the initial punch to my gut and terrifying feeling of surprise falling off me like a snake’s molted skin. I stormed toward him, my fingers crackling as magic rushed through me.

He simply watched me with interest, not looking concerned or backing up.

Arrogant prick. But at least this time, as magic rose high inside me, it was the magic I was used to sensing and not the weird foreign-feeling crap that had been hitting me all night.

I stopped a foot away from him, planting my hands on my hips before spitting out, “You broke into my apartment? What the hell’s the matter with you?”

He idly looked away and ran his finger along one of the end tables in our living room before rubbing off the dust. His strong fingers drew my attention, then the way his muscles bunched and moved in his forearms. It didn’t help that his profile was strong and breathtakingly handsome. Or that his dark hair curled at the nape of his neck and begged me to slide my fingers through it.

Seriously, the dude was too beautiful for earth. He belonged in heaven—or perhaps in hell. His kind of beauty was bewitching. Yep, definitely hell.

A couch and two armchairs circled the coffee table to our left, and he casually perused those too, before glancing to the kitchen with its old table and chairs that Tessa and I had purchased at a flea market several years ago.

Our apartment wasn’t large, but it was ours, and the Fire Wolf was defiling it by breaking into it uninvited. Even though he was as beautiful as a dark angel and my vagina was practically bowing before him, this was not okay.

“I should knock you down right here and wait for the SF to come arrest you.”

His lips parted, a dark chuckle escaping him. The fucker was actually laughing. “I’d like to see you try that.”

“You don’t think I could?”

He shrugged. “Even if you could restrain me, which I know you couldn’t, I thought the SF didn’t want anything to do with you?”

“I didn’t say that. I just said that they didn’t believe me that my sister had been abducted.”

“About that . . .” He stopped his perusal of my apartment. “I find that quite intriguing. I’ve never heard of the SF denying anybody before. Especially, someone such as yourself.”

I cocked my head. “Oh, you mean the woman who works nine to five, pays her taxes, and never ventures to places such as the Underbelly? Is that what you mean when you say someone such as yourself?”

“Yes, very impressive. You have an adequate memory.”

I glowered at him.

“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked when he didn’t say anything further.

He strolled to the wall, studying a picture of Tessa and me in New York. We’d gone to a Broadway show a few years ago, after snagging a last-minute airline deal. I’d loved every minute of that trip. “I had a change of heart.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Come again?”

He moved to the couch back and leaned casually against it. “I said I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided to take your job, but your payment offer was laughably low. I demand half up front—ten thousand. The remaining ten to come after I complete the job.”