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after all, not fourteen. The cocoa smelled delicious though so I drank it all up. After I set the cup down, I watched Jake sip his. Steam curled up from the mug distorting his features. It was getting harder to picture him as a boy now that I'd seen him as a man.
    "What happened to you Jake?"
    His jaw ticked. After a pause, he set the mug down in front of him. We stared at each other for a while, just looking, like re-learning one another. Finally, he said, "I went to Elite training. You know that."
    I bit my lip to keep the smart ass retort from spilling out. If there was one thing Damen taught me, it was not to be a smartass when you were trying to get information out of someone. I couldn't say I was always successful at it, but I tried. "But why? You never told us why."
    He shrugged, his cheeks turning red. "I just needed a change. You can understand that, right? It's what drew you to being a Guardian. Because of Damen, you never needed to step up to the plate and neither did I, but we both did."
    "You left us."
    "You didn't need me anymore. The ley line was under control and I thought my skills would be better used somewhere else. I wanted to fight and there was nothing left to fight anymore. Damen had it handled."
    I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. How many times had I dreamed about doing only guardianship? Too many to count. Was I just settling for this gig? Could I really give up being a librarian, give up Salem and Damen, to pursue guardianship full-time? I could never be the sole Ley Line Guardian unless...well, it didn't matter. That was never going to happen so I wasn't going to even think it. But I could leave like Jake and try and go Elite. I may not make it. In fact, I probably wouldn't make it if I pulled a stunt like I did with Eddie last night and trained like I did this morning with Jake.
    "Can I ask you a question?"
    Jake nodded.
    "How did you know the fae was going to do something last night?"
    "I didn't, obviously, or I never would've turned my back on him. You thought it was okay so who was I to tell you you were wrong?"
    "But I was wrong."
    He shrugged and took another sip of his cocoa. "Happens to the best of us."
    I rolled my eyes. "You know I don't get it though. I know Eddie."
    Jake cast me a sidelong glance.
    "Not like that. But I know him enough to know that he wouldn't fuck with me unless I provoked him. Do you think the energy is turning good magic into bad magic?"
    "I've never heard of it before, but you know the deal. Magic is constantly evolving, constantly changing. It isn't like the laws of physics. In magic, there are no laws. There are loose guidelines."
    "I think that was rule number one in the SPAWN handbook."
    Jake chuckled, suddenly sending me back fifteen years. "No, I think that was a Damen original."
    "He is quite poetic, isn't he?"
    My gaze wandered to the portrait of Damen and I on the mantle in the living room. It was probably the last sibling portrait we ever took. I was five or six, he was eleven. It was taken right before he was inducted into SPAWN. Right before Grandpa spilled the beans.
    Jake followed my gaze and smiled. And then, as if he read my mind, "You know I walk by Grandpa Marston's picture almost every day. It hangs in Command Central for the longest service as a Ley Line Guardian."
    "It was Dad's fault. He was supposed to take it over from him."
    His smirk faded. "This life isn't for everyone. I think your Grandpa understood that. By the time it came to our generation, we were kind of stuck. Your Grandfather was too old to fight, mine was already gone, and we had real trouble on our hands."
    "If you could've chosen though, would you still have chose this?"
    "One hundred percent."
    "I wonder about Damen. He's so good at this but he's also good at everything. He could have been anything."
    Jake looked into his mug of cocoa. "I think Damen's exactly where he should be."

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    I always