I mimed a gasp. "But this is so sudden."

The goon glared. Nicodemus smiled. Inside the jewelry box was an ancient silver coin, like the one I'd seen in the alley behind the hospital. The tarnish on the coin was in the shape of another sigil.

"You like me. You really like me," I said without enthusiasm. "You want me to join up?"

"You needn't if you do not wish to," Nicodemus said. "I just want you to hear our side of things before you make up your mind to die needlessly. Accept the coin. Have some breakfast with us. We can talk. After that, if you don't want to have anything to do with me, you may leave."

"You'd just let me go. Sure."

"If you accept the coin, I doubt I'd be able to stop you."

"So what says I wouldn't turn around and use it against you?"

"Nothing," Nicodemus said. "But I am a great believer in the benevolence of human nature."

Like hell he was. "Do you actually think you could convince me to join up with you?"

"Yes," he said. "I know you."

"Do not."

"Do too," he replied. "I know more about you than you do yourself."

"Such as?"

"Such as why you chose this kind of life for yourself. To appoint yourself protector of mortal kind, and to make yourself the enemy of any who would do them harm. To live outcast from your own kind, laughed at and mocked by most mortals. Living in a hovel, barely scraping by. Spurning wealth and fame. Why do you do it?"

"I'm a disciple of the Tao of Peter Parker, obviously," I said.

I guess Nicodemus was a DC Comics fan, because he didn't get it. "It is all you will allow yourself, and I know why."

"All right. Why?"

"Because you are ruled by fear. You are afraid, Dresden ."

I said, "Of what?"

"Of what you could be if you ever let yourself stray from the right-hand path," Nicodemus said. "Of the power you could use. You've thought about what it might be like to bend the world to your will. The things you could have. The people. Some part of you has considered and found joy in the idea of using your abilities to take what you wish. And you are afraid of that joy. So you drive yourself toward martyrdom instead."

I started to deny his words. But I couldn't. He was right, or at least not wholly wrong. My voice came out subdued. "Everyone has thoughts like that sometimes."

"No," Nicodemus said, "they don't. Most people never consider such actions. It never crosses their minds. The average mortal would have no sure way of taking that kind of power. But for you, it's different. You may pretend you are like them. But you are not."

"That's not true," I replied.