But her voice trailed off when she looked back at Con. He was so handsome. Flirty, but always nice. And look where she’d ended up the last time she’d run away from him.

“Well,” she added. “It might be nice to have somewhere private where we could . . . you know, talk about stuff.”

Siobhan laughed. She downed her whiskey and slid out of the booth. When she was standing, she gave Andy a pointed look.

“What?” he said.

“Come on,” she said. “I need a hand moving my stuff.”

Lizzie waited until the two of them had left the booth and started for the door, before she turned back to Con.

“So,” she said. “Do you want to go talk somewhere private?”

He laid a hand on hers and smiled.

“Wherever you lead,” he told her, “I will follow.”

“Oh, please.”

But when he leaned forward to kiss her, she let him.

Joe

“I’ve just got one more thing I need to do,” Joe told Cassie when the two of them and Jack got back to the city.

Cassie sighed. Before she turned back to him, she gave a longing look to the front of their apartment building. Which Joe didn’t miss.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But it can’t wait.”

“Is it dangerous?” she asked.

“Don’t think so. I just need to deal with the last of the bogans—the one those crow boys didn’t find.”

“Oh, Joe, you’re not going to . . .” she began, then caught herself. “What am I saying? Of course, you wouldn’t. You’re just going to take him to Raven, right?”

He shook his head. “No, I made a promise to Anwatan to keep him away from the corbae. She says he’s basically a good kid who got dragged along on the hunts against his will.”

“Like there’s any such thing as a good bogan,” Jack said.

Joe shrugged. “I gave Anwatan my word.”

“So that was the price for her bringing you back?” Jack asked.

“You know I don’t work that way. Once she told me her need, once she explained about the kid to me, I would’ve done it whether she brought me back or not.”

Jack gave him a coyote’s grin. “Helps that you’d have to be alive to do that.”

“I could’ve got around it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cassie asked.

“Spirits can get things done before they move on. Especially in the otherworld.”

Cassie shook her head. “I don’t believe you. What about me? What about us? How could I go on without you?”

Joe reached up and touched her cheek with his palm.

“It didn’t play out that way,” he said. “And we’re still good, right?”

“We’re still good. I just wish you didn’t have to play hero all the time.”

“It’s nothing I choose.”