That was good enough for me. I walked into the barn, the sunrays coming through a couple slats, highlighting dust motes in the air. A deep breath and my lungs filled with the scent of hay and old leather. Jonathan sat up at the back of the barn with Deanna beside him.

“Jonathan, you have to help us. The world is depending on it.” She was cajoling him, holding his hand in hers. He snatched his fingers away like she’d pinched him.

“No. I have to have proper payment. That’s how this works.” His eyes met mine. “Tracker. You understand, don’t you? I can’t just help you; there has to be appropriate payment or this won’t work.”

Deanna let out a deep sigh and glanced at me before looking at him again. “Can you tell me what the payment is? Then we can get it for you.”

He shook his head violently and I wondered if that was why his eyes were all screwball. Too much head shaking for the freaky-assed kid.

“No, no, that’s not how this works. If you deserve to be Read, then you have to have the payment. You have to understand what it is I want. I can’t tell you.”

I crossed my arms, thinking about what Belladonna had said. That they’d given him money, jewels, and precious gifts in an effort to get him to write the future for certain things. The elementals had gone so far as to send beautiful women to his bed; none of which was the correct payment. At least in his mind. Which meant it would be something so out there that we likely wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

“Let me think a minute.” Fuckity, fuck, fuck. What the hell did he want? What would a boy his age want for payment?

Each minute that ticked by was one closer to facing Orion. Although it was early morning, by the time the sun set we would be battling for the world. “Fuck.” I paced through the barn. There was something in the back of my mind, from what seemed so long ago it could have been another lifetime.

My feet came to a halt in front of Jonathan as the possibility solidified in my mind. Could it be that simple? That easy? “If I get you two pieces of payment, will you Read for me two futures?”

He nodded. “Do you think you know what the payment is?”

“Believe it or not, I think I do.” I turned to leave when a hand shot out of the shadows and pulled me in. Liam.

“I really wish you’d stop leaving me behind, Rylee.” His lips were against mine as he spoke, and in the darkness I didn’t feel or see anything but him. And for a split second I was sad. Faris . . . I didn’t love him like I loved Liam. No one could ever come close to that.

But . . . he spoke to a darker part of me. A part that maybe, if I were honest with myself, even Liam didn’t quite understand. The part that could kill without remorse, and could stand in the darkness without fear. A part that perhaps liked that darkness more than the light on certain days.

I kissed him, thinking all those things as he snaked his arms around me. Our mouths and tongues tangled in a heated kiss that was bittersweet because I was about to do exactly what he’d said and leave him behind again. “I have to go.”

“I know. I’ll be here.” The words were weighted with more than their straightforward meaning. Liam would always be there for me. Of that, I had no doubt.

I stepped back and ran for the barn door. We didn’t have long, and I had to get to Bismarck for Jonathan’s payment. I went to Doran first. “You got any human cash on you?’

His green eyes widened. “What will you give me for it?”

“I already owe you a kiss? Isn’t that enough?”

He grinned at me, wide enough for his fangs to hang out. At times like this, I still wondered how he’d become the leader of the vampire nation, and I helped him do it. He pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills. “This enough?”

I flipped through them and nodded. “Yes, thanks.”

“That kiss is coming, Rylee. I feel it in my bones,” he called after me as I ran toward Ophelia resting in the cornfield.

“My friend, we’ve got to fly a little more, can you do it?”

Even as I asked, her fatigue washed through me.

Not if you want me to fly tonight with you in the battle. I need to rest, Rylee.

Something butted me from behind. I turned to see Calliope, the young leader of the Tamoskin Unicorn Crush. She was the most unusual of colors, all white except for a black mane and tail, and black stockings up her legs; a stunning coat with a personality to match. And now a horn that was no longer a nub, but a deadly weapon two feet long.

Even though she was barely out of being a foal, she led their herd.

Her thoughts drifted over mine, not unlike the way Ophelia spoke, only much softer. One of us could take you. We are faster than those human vehicles, even though we could not match the dragon for speed.

Looking past her, I was shocked to only see a dozen unicorns. All that were left after the pox swept through. Another piece of my heart chipped away. The unicorns were one of the few pristine spots in our world, and I loved every moment I had with them. So many were gone, and I felt their loss as keenly as if I knew them each personally.

“Thank you.” I swept a hand down her neck, the soft fur still very much that of a baby.

Tiomon, please take her. You are the swiftest of us all.

A petite bay mare trotted forward. Her black stockings rode up over her knees and her black mane and tail hung low. The golden horn jutted out of a tiny white mark on her forehead. It would honor me. She bent a knee, and dropped her head. An invitation to mount. I leapt onto her back and checked my weapons. Why did I think I was going to need them?