I scowled at him. “Yep, I’m her. Vicious demon protector extraordinaire.”

Cara rolled her eyes. “Charming as ever, Danica.”

Ethan walked toward the spelled bowl of water, and I felt him collect his power. If he could truly get around the sign-in spell, then he was a friend I needed to have.

I squinted at Cara. “How’d you know I’d be awake?”

She laughed. “I saw the paranormal news. Your little video has gone viral on the human channels too. I don’t know many people who could sleep after that.”

She wasn’t wrong. Ethan muttered to himself, and the bowl turned green. I peered at it, barely breathing. The spell was designed to carefully monitor anyone who stepped through the lobby doors. The bowl shouldn’t have turned green until each of us had held our hand above it and waited for our palms to be magically read.

Ethan had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. If the council found out what he could do, he was dead.

“Thank you,” I told him.

“Don’t mention it. He shot a desperate look at Cara. “Can I go now?”

“You sure can,” she purred, winking at him, and he blushed. Then he glanced at me and practically ran out of the lobby.

“How’d you make that happen?”

“He owed me a favor. Plus, he wants to get into my pants.”

We stepped into the elevator and I studied her. “Why are you helping me? Don’t you know I’m a dirty traitor?”

She eyed me. “You forget I was working these same streets for years before I was promoted. I know exactly what kind of hard decisions you have to make sometimes. If those witches had managed to steal Samael’s power, they would’ve made the Decade of Despair look like a good time.”

The Decade of Despair was the first ten years after the portals had opened. Close to a billion humans had died, and the power struggles while paranormals carved out their alliances and territories…

I shivered. Yeah. The witches would have been worse. Still… “You saw me save Samael’s life, right?”

She grinned. “Girl, the way he looks at you? I would’ve saved him too.”

I chewed on that while the elevator doors opened to the 6th floor. The Mage Council’s library stretched out in front of us. Nothing but silence.

We stepped inside. I half expected an alarm to start blaring, but Cara was already grabbing my elbow and pulling me toward the restricted section.

Tall, walnut bookshelves stood in rows– the books they held painstakingly organized by subject and author. I breathed in the comforting scent of leather and old paper.

“What are you guys doing?”

I jumped and let out a distinctly un-badass yelp. Cara smirked at me. We both turned.

Mella was standing on the other side of the library in her window. I stared at her. “Do you sleep here?”