I didn’t reply but kept my hands gripping the armrests.

Her expression slackened. “Have you ever thought that maybe it’s time to let your sister make her own mistakes and live with the consequences?”

“It’s not like that. Not this time.”

She leaned back. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to overstep. It’s just hard. In this job, with domestic issues, we see the same patterns play over and over again, without an end in sight. Sometimes, I can’t bite my tongue anymore.”

Her words lashed out at me like a razor-sharp whip, because everything the commander saw—my sister’s flighty choices and reckless behavior—was true. But she didn’t see the caring, vivacious, larger-than-life woman that was also my sister.

The commander was right about one thing, though. My sister was the only true family I had. Our parents had died in a car accident when we were very young, and our distant elderly relatives, who had shuffled us from house to house, had long since passed away.

I was so young when my parents had died that only one concrete memory stood out about them—my mother’s worried eyes when she’d made me promise to hide my secret no matter what. Never, never tell anyone.

And now it came down to either revealing that secret or waiting for the SF’s psychic. I steeled myself against that impossible choice, my hands curling even more around the chair until they resembled talons.

I hated this. Hated everything about it. I hated that some asshole had taken my sister. Hated that I was now having to choose between compromising myself or saving her. Hated that the SF wouldn’t just believe me and do their fucking job. Hated it.

But I couldn’t break my promise. “Will you just tell me when the SF’s psychic is free to verify Tessa’s abduction?”

“I will.”

I nodded in acceptance. I’d have to wait. I would give myself an hour to wait for their psychic—an hour of freedom before I sacrificed everything I’d spent my life protecting.

I stood stiffly from my chair. “Can you call me when she’s free? Right away? No matter the time?”

“Are you sure your friend can’t come in?”

“I’ll ask her, but I doubt it. She doesn’t like authority.” If the commander saw through my lie, she hid it well. I reached her door but paused with my hand on the door handle. “What are the chances your psychic will actually be free within the hour?”

The commander shrugged. “How long is a piece of string?”

Of course. I gave her a tight-lipped smile and strode from the room, but just as I reached the front lobby where Jeff was still playing online poker, an alternative solution to finding Tessa hit me.

My breath caught in my throat as my heart began to pump madly. Once outside, I whipped out my cell phone as the evening breeze blew around me. Carlos’s text still sat there, waiting for me to reply, but meeting up with my ex was the least of my concerns right now, regardless of how I’d once felt for him.

I tapped my finger on my contacts and scrolled to a name that I was loathed to call. But if the SF refused to search for Tessa until her abduction could be verified, and I wanted to keep my secret safe, then this could be the answer to finding my sister now.

I placed the call.

He answered on the third ring. “Jenkins.”

“It’s Tala Davenport. I need a contact.”

“Tala.” A squeaking noise sounded in the background, and I knew the half-demon was lounging back in his chair, probably with his large belly protruding over his pants. “It’s been a long time.”

Not long enough. If Prisha knew I was calling the shady fucker she’d be ranting at me to hang up. “Look, I’m pressed for time. I need a contact outside of the SF that has experience tracking down someone who’s been abducted.”

“Abducted? Who’s gone missing?”

I gritted my teeth. He always wanted as much information as one would give him, but that was only so he could use it against you, as Prisha and I had learned during our teenage years when we’d been a bit overzealous in testing our powers on a weekend excursion to a questionable bar in the seedier part of Chicago. We’d met Jenkins that weekend and had nearly lost our lives because of it, but I’d saved his contact info for some reason. Now, I was so thankful I had.

“How much for a contact? And I want a legit one, not some bogus contractor who’s going to scam me.”

The half-demon chuckled. “A good contact doesn’t come cheap. Five hundred, but that’s only for his location. You’ll have to do the rest. You gonna wire me the money?”

“What are your details?”

He prattled them off, and I pulled my phone away and brought up my banking app. A sickly feeling swept through me when I saw the money drain from my account. While our magic shop was profitable, I was by no means rich. When the transaction was complete, I put the phone back to my ear.

“Done. Who is he?”

“Name’s the Fire Wolf, and according to my sources, he’ll be at the Black Underbelly tonight.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 4

“Wait, come again? You want me to go where?” Prisha asked as I stood in her doorway. Her silky black hair brushed her shoulders when her head bobbed in surprise.

“The Black Underbelly.”

“Are you suicidal? That’s in the Shadow Zone. You know, that lawless area where anything goes and not even the SF patrols?”

“I know, but Jenkins told me—”

“Whoa, stop right there.” Gaping, she held up a hand. “Are you talking about the Jenkins? The shady, half-demon asshole who nearly got us killed when we were eighteen?”

“That’s the one.”

She laughed. “Damn, that was a fun weekend, but you should know that any explanation that starts with Jenkins is an excellent reason not to be doing something. Unless we’re looking for trouble.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“I know, I know, but believe it or not, I don’t want trouble. Not this time. I just want to find Tess.” My fingers curled into my palms as that suffocating feeling clamped around my throat again. “The SF won’t help, Prish, and I gotta do something.” I didn’t explain further. I’d already filled her in on everything during my drive to her apartment. Well, filled her in about the SF. I hadn’t mentioned Jenkins until just now.

Prisha’s midnight brows drew together. “So you’re not kidding about going to the Underbelly. You’re really going to take matters into your own hands.” She sighed. “Okay, I get it. I know how hard you’ve worked to keep the vastness of your witch powers out of the public eye.”

I gave a tight nod, guilt trickling into my veins that I wasn’t being fully honest with my best friend. She didn’t know about my forbidden power, but she would if I got tested. Because the SF tests would not only reveal that I possessed every branch of witch magic there was—binding, telekinetic, shield, healing, potion making, maximizer, tactile, cloaking, etcetera—they would also reveal my other magic. My hidden one. The one that I kept under lock and key, and only practiced in secret while using Tessa as my guinea pig—the magic I’d promised my mother I would never reveal to anyone. Since our parents were dead, my twin was literally the only supernatural in the world who knew about it.

An excited gleam grew in Prisha’s eyes. “Okay, so it sounds like we’re going to the Shadow Zone. Let me grab my blades.”

I waited at the door as she retreated to one of the many bedrooms in her ginormous penthouse apartment. As a descendent from the ancient line of Krishnalanthala warriors, the only Indian family on our continent to be of that line, Prisha’s power was unique in that she could poison her blades with deadly magic and infuse them with unimaginable strength. In that sense, we were alike, since we each possessed unique forms of magic. It was probably why her father had welcomed me into their fold and had taught me to fight alongside his daughter. I would forever be grateful for that training.