She held back on the urge to gulp and give anything away. “I . . . might be willing,” she said. “I guess we could keep in touch?”

Handshake nodded to her. “Brilliant! In that case, I’ll be sending you a text with the location of the remaining money I owe you within the next day or so. Until then, you three have a fine evening.”

Emily stepped back and watched Handshake back the van rather awkwardly out of the alleyway and into traffic before driving off.

She let a long breath out. “That’s done,” she said.

“That was kind of boring,” Teddy said.

“Yeah,” Athena agreed. “But it felt like it was real important stuff. So it couldn’t be all that bad, yeah?”

“I suppose not,” Emily said. “Who wants to get changed first?” she asked.

“Are we heading home?” Teddy asked. “I could use a nap.”

“I was thinking maybe we could grab something to eat. Just fast food.”

“I could use a snack too,” Teddy changed tracks. “I’ll get changed first!” The bear girl darted into the little changing room tucked away under the fire escape, leaving Emily alone with Athena.

Athena slid her hands into her pockets, then leaned against the nearest wall. She might have looked cool if she were taller than Emily’s shoulder. “What’re we going to do about the C-word people?” Athena asked.

“In the best case,” Emily said, “nothing at all.”

Teddy opened the door to the changing room, half out of her costume and with Emily’s phone in hands. “Hey, Boss, this is ringing.”

Emily felt her heart sinking. She took the phone and looked at the unfamiliar number on it. She tapped the call accept button. “Yes?”

“Oh, oh, thank God,” Alea Iacta’s voice came through. “I need help.”

Emily considered hanging up and pretending there was nothing going on. But a look to her summons put paid to that. Not only would it be cowardly, it would be cowardly in front of the two people whose opinion she was starting to really care about. More than she cared about the opinion of people she barely knew, which in hindsight was probably more than she should have.

“What is it?” she asked.

“H-hey, no need to rip my head off,” Jacob said.

“J-just tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m being chased. A Hero. Some flashy girl I’ve never seen before. I think the Cabal tipped her off. I need help bad.”

Emily knew she would regret it. “Tell me where you are.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Catching the Mouse

Emily walked at a decent clip, her sisters . . . summons . . . keeping pace by walking fast with the occasional bit of jogging thrown in. Some part of her knew she had to slow down, that it wasn’t kind of her to be heading off so quickly.

Another part of her didn’t care.