With every ounce of my soul, I believed him.

When I walked into the large kitchen area the next morning, most everyone was already sitting at the huge long table. When a house could sleep fourteen, the vacation rental owners clearly anticipated large gatherings for meals. Donovan stood at the stove, steam rising from various items sizzling on pans. Jack stood behind him, watching the proceedings with a look of longing, and Bria worked at the long counter cutting fruit.

Jerry sat in the far corner by the window. He’d stayed at the house last night so Kieran could keep an eye on him, and also because he had no place else to go besides his creepy lair. His warm, golden-tan skin had been freshly scrubbed, the shower tiles probably blackened because of it, and the clothes he’d borrowed from Kieran stretched tight across his chest and fell short on his long legs. At least there was no peep show, though.

Not seeing the kids, I looked for their souls on my radar. Both of them were moving around upstairs. They’d be down shortly.

A hush fell over the room.

“Talking smack?” I asked, beelining to the coffee pot.

“Always,” Bria replied without looking up.

Kieran watched my progress from his position at the head of the table. “I told them about the Lightning Rod,” he said.

“It would be incredible to have someone like that on our team,” Henry said. “It would close down one of our big blind spots.”

“I got the feeling that pursuing him would be incredibly dangerous. More so than going after Jerry.” I poured myself some coffee.

Jerry didn’t look away from the window upon hearing his name.

“From what I heard,” I said, keeping it vague, “it sounds like we’ll probably have to kill him if he won’t join us. He’s too desperate to keep his secret to just let it go.”

“It was the same way with Jerry,” Thane said, and it seemed like rest had made him forget his Jerry jokes. Until he muttered, “Right, Jerry?”

Donovan huffed out a laugh. “Jerry usually kills trespassers.”

Jerry still didn’t look away from the window. Apparently he didn’t care that he’d been dubbed someone to poke fun at.

“But a Lightning Rod is much more dangerous than a giant,” Henry said. “He probably has more reach than Lexi, and Kieran’s magic would make his lightning more powerful instead of less, since water can carry an electrical current.”

I felt Daisy before I saw her, trudging into the kitchen with her hair pillow-rolled around her head, her eyes puffy with sleep, and her silk pajamas much too glamorous and expensive, given everyone else in the house was wearing sweats and T-shirts.

“Daisy, have you heard of a Lightning Rod?” I asked. Since she wasn’t magical and was training to fight in a magical world, she had tasked herself with learning all there was to know about magical types. “The magical kind, not the metal rod.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and stopped walking. “It is the crack of dawn, Lexi. Attacking me about work stuff is totally messed up.”

I put a hand to my ear. “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you through all that teenage angst.”

Jerry finally turned from the window to glance at Daisy. She met his stare.

“You’re not very big for a giant,” she said.

“Big enough that my feet hung off the bed,” he replied smoothly, before turning back to the window.

“Fair enough.” She trudged to the refrigerator and took out the orange juice. “Lightning Rod is a somewhat rare magic of Zeus’s line, and it almost always manifests as a level five. The actual name for it is Thunderstroke. As the name implies, the practitioner can harness the power of thunder, creating deafening booms that rattle windows and disorient the enemy. Most notably, however, is their ability to control and manipulate lightning. They can pass lightning through conductors to strike someone miles away. If they practice enough, they can rain lightning from the sky with ninety-nine percent accuracy. A strike is like that of natural lightning—almost always kills, but some people have gotten lucky and walked away. From the first strike, anyway. The magic user can basically electrocute at will. Bolts can be divided up to strike many people simultaneously, although accuracy goes way down with that method. Best way to kill a Thunderstroke is to sneak up on him or her. Unlike you, Lexi, they can’t sense people outside of Zeus-like magic. They can’t sense humans at all. I’d slip in right behind them and, boom, stab them through the back of the neck and into the brain stem. Then I’d bend them on top of me just in case the split second it took to die was enough to rain down lightning.”

Jerry jerked back around to look at Daisy again, this time with wide eyes.

“You’d best get stronger if you hope to pull that move off,” Zorn said lazily from the table.

“Okay. Fine—”

“Speaking of electricity, close the fridge door,” I barked. “You’re wasting it.”

Daisy slammed the door harder than was necessary, orange juice container still in hand. “Yes, I’d need more strength.” She twisted her lips to the side. “Fine, then. I’d get a long-range rifle and place a kill shot to the head.”

“With a noise suppressor, I hope,” Zorn said.

“Obviously. I’m not a novice.”

“Yes, you are. And where would you get such a gun? You haven’t been able to steal mine.”

“I have one. Stole it off a redneck kid back home. Idiot thought he was going to get lucky with an underage teen. I broke his jaw and took his shit. Asshole.”

I held up my hand to stop all conversation and leaned toward Daisy as Mordecai entered the room. “What?”

“Sorry about swearing,” she muttered. We had a rule that she had to watch her mouth. Apparently, she thought I was more concerned about her language than the whole creepy older guy thing.

My voice filled the whole room. “What were you doing spending time with a guy who has an obvious agenda? A guy I assume is way too old for you. What if he’d tried to force you?”

“Obviously I would’ve killed him and had Zorn help me cover it up.” She gave me a you’re so dumb stare while popping out a hip. “I’m not an idiot.”

“You certainly sound like an idiot, taking risks like that.”

Mordecai shoved Daisy out of the way and opened the fridge. “I was there with her, just out of sight. I would’ve stepped in if anything had happened.”

“I wouldn’t have needed your help with that guy,” she said.

“Which is why I didn’t step in.”

“Why were either of you there in the first place?” I asked, my blood pressure rising. “When was this? Where was I?”

“This was a few weeks ago when Zorn charged me to increase my arsenal of unregistered weapons. That guy stole it from someone and was bragging about it on a private chat. I figured it would be a good weapon to acquire. You were at a meeting in the government building, and I knew you wouldn’t be able to call and check up on me. I pulled it off without a hitch. Don’t worry, that moron is too stupid to track me down, so he can’t turn me in or sue me for medical bills.”

“Well executed,” Zorn said, his voice ringing with pride.