“Yes, but you might,” he gritted out. “We can’t take the chance; the Council will be gone in just four days.” He blew out a breath. “Okay,” he said finally. “We’re going to have to wait outside the doors for you. Both of you, give Kara your weapons. Willow, hand me your cellphone.”

After covertly handing Kara her gun, Willow dug in her jean-jacket pocket for her phone, her mouth tight – Seb knew without trying that she was irritated at having orders snapped at her. Keeping his back to the crowd, he drew out his own gun and switchblade, passing them to Kara. She tucked them away wordlessly in her bag. Her opinion of him was so obvious that Seb couldn’t resist smiling and saying, “You won’t steal my blade, will you?”

Her brown eyes turned even chillier. “Don’t worry. I’m not the one who steals things.”

Across the square, the sound of chanting was still going strong, pounding through the air. Alex fiddled with Willow’s cell, punching buttons on it. As Seb glanced at him, the moment froze.

Though he could see auras without trying, he didn’t check out each one he encountered in detail; it would have been information overload. But the day before, as Alex had left the range to go upstairs, Seb had thought he’d seen something strange in his aura’s blue and gold hues. He’d dismissed it as a trick of the light – yet now, in the pure, slanting sunlight of late afternoon, he was seeing it again.

Alex’s aura was damaged.

Chapter Twenty-two

SEB STARED AT THE COLOURS of Alex’s life force. He’d never seen anything like this before. He’d encountered thousands of auras with angel burn in his life – was all too familiar with the grey, sickly look it caused, with the aura’s natural colours trying to regain themselves through the pallor. This was similar, but different: the colours themselves looked faded. The blue – which Seb was sure had been a rich ocean-blue when he’d first met Alex – now looked dull and greyish; the gold almost tarnished, with faint black spots.

The damage looked as if it had been caused by angels...and yet not.

Willow’s question barrelled back to him: Do we cause angel burn to humans?

It wasn’t something Seb had noticed; certainly none of the girls he’d ever been involved with had shown anything like this. But then his chest went cold as it hit him. He’d never been with a girl for any length of time, had he? He’d only had flings; a day or two at most. Willow had been with Alex for months.