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up the argument for the time being.
    â€œNow we get on a flight back to Boston.”
    â€œWhat about Chicago?”
    Tom stretched. “I’m not taking chances and waiting another day to reach our last recruit. I notified the Chicago office while you were giving your official statement, and Ms. Park is being taken into protective custody as we speak. Once they have her, she’ll be escorted to Boston.”
    It made sense, but I couldn’t see it going over well. “I hope she takes Gryphons at her door better than Mitch did.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. If this is related to the prophecy, then there’s no room for niceties or arguments. We’re at war.”
    â€œNo, you’re not zealous at all.”
    â€œYou might want to take this more seriously, Jessica.”
    I jumped up and just managed to keep my voice low. “Take this seriously? How much more serious do you expect me to take things? I am the one in Olef’s damn visions, and it’s my friends who have already suffered for whatever twisted end-of-the-world mumbo-jumbo you and yours are going on about. I do not want a single other person to become a victim, but I don’t have any idea what you actually expect me to do, and you don’t have very many details on what needs to be done. Plus, now I have to worry that you have a leak in your super-secret organization. So forgive me if—given how many unknowns we’re dealing with—I’m not taking all this nothingness seriously enough.”
    I stood practically nose to nose with Tom in my effort to vent. All I needed to do was reach out one finger, poke him in the chest, and he’d probably fall over. His entire posture was so rigid it was amazing the force of my breath alone couldn’t knock him down.
    Tom stared at me for another moment. Then he placed a surprisingly gentle hand on my arm. “We do not have a leak, but I will look into what happened later. Meantime, you need to calm down. We’re both shaken up from everything. It’s normal.”
    Right. Normal. I took a deep breath and nodded.
    Tom’s penetrating blue eyes fixed on my face for a few more seconds while I attempted to project calm, then he let go of me. “Good. So let’s figure out what we have to do to get out of here so you can go home and rest.”
    I swallowed, trying to shake off my fear of the future. “What about home for you?”
    â€œUntil I get word from my superiors that we’re moving this operation back to World, Boston is my new home.”
    â€œSorry about that.”
    He shrugged. “It’s part of the job, and this is the job I wanted.”
    Dully, I clomped along the brightly lit corridor with him, wishing I could say the same. But all I could think was that I didn’t sign up for this shit.

Chapter Five
    I must have been more exhausted than I thought because I somehow managed to drift off to sleep on the flight to Boston. I woke as the plane began its descent and early-morning sunshine pierced the window and fell on my lap.
    Mornings. Ugh. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. My eyes were like raw wounds. Before we left the airport, I bought an enormous coffee, but my head throbbed by the time we reached Gryphon Headquarters downtown.
    Tom had been on the phone since the moment we landed, and he clearly had plans. Whatever sort of energy pills or charms he was taking, he was being completely unfair by hogging them all.
    â€œAnything you intend to make me do,” I started as we entered the building’s lobby, “I don’t see why it can’t wait until—”
    â€œJess!”
    My heart barely had time to skip with relief. Lucen must have been waiting right by the doors. His arms enveloped me in a hug that crushed my face against his hard chest.
    Oh, yes. I breathed deeply and filled my lungs with the scent of his clean cotton shirt, the heady leather from his jacket and the