“Then dunk your shirt like I did so you stay cool.”

She looked around, not sure who else was home right now. “Girls aren’t supposed to take off their tops.”

“That’s a stupid human rule,” Simon growled. “We don’t care.”

She couldn’t argue that one way or the other, and the air had become close and viciously muggy in the face of the oncoming storm. The weather forecasters couldn’t decide whether Lakeside was going to be hit by the storm coming up from the south or the one swinging over the Great Lakes from the north. They were cautiously optimistic that the rain and damaging winds from the hurricane that was leisurely pummeling the East Coast wouldn’t reach Lakeside. The hurricane hadn’t stalled; it just seemed to pause at certain cities to inflict the most damage before continuing north.

After dunking her shirt in the trough, Meg put it back on and sucked in a breath when the cool, wet fabric touched her skin.

“Isn’t that better?” Simon asked, taking her hand.

“Much better.”

They walked over to the road, then paused.

“Which way?” Simon asked.

Good question. If they headed toward the Market Square, they would pass the kitchen garden. It was dark now, so it wasn’t likely that anyone would be working there, but there was always a chance, and she didn’t want to see her human friends right now.

Meg turned in the other direction, which would take them up to the Utilities Complex if they stayed on the Courtyard’s main road.

“Are we walking so you don’t itch?” Simon asked after a minute.

Should have known he would notice. “Too much that’s new and unsettled.” She hadn’t met Lieutenant Montgomery’s mother or the other members of his family, but just their presence in the Courtyard had caused twitches and prickles and buzzes on her arms and legs. Those potential prophecies could have been caused by Agent O’Sullivan just as easily. After all, he would have more influence on whatever might happen, wouldn’t he?

In the end, she’d closed the Liaison’s Office early and gone home—and wasn’t surprised to find Nathan waiting on her porch by the time she’d put her BOW in the garage and connected it to its charger. Until Simon got home, the watch Wolf was on duty.

She wasn’t sure if it was being home, or doing some of the moves she’d learned in the Quiet Mind class, or her amusement at Nathan, in Wolf form, doing some of the moves with her, but the prickles faded. And yet the unease had lingered through the rest of the afternoon.

“Simon, what’s going to happen?”