“This yard is enormous. How could Valens have kept something like this a secret from Kieran?” Bria asked, her voice so low I could barely hear her. “Or from anyone?”

“It looks like it’s in a really bad part of town,” I said, whispering now, too, as we slowed. A small driveway broke up the fence line in front of us. A dimly lit booth sat in front of the metal gate, and a man waited inside it, standing in the open doorway. I couldn’t see his face, but unless he could sleep standing up, he’d know we were approaching.

“It’s still the magical part of town, though,” Bria said, hunching even more as we crawled toward that driveway. “Everyone knows everyone else’s business in the magical part of town. I mean, Kieran has made Valens his business, and he still didn’t know about this. Valens is clearly good at hiding things. Especially big, sprawling things with lots of fencing and new barbed wire.”

I pulled a little to the side, watching Donovan’s car.

“I’m half terrified to get mixed up with Valens,” she said, “and half invigorated. He’s a mad man. He’ll string us up by our toes and skin us alive if he catches us being traitorous.”

“Not to mention he’ll trap our spirits in the world of the living.”

“Yeah. And that. But still, what a rush, am I right?”

“No.” I would absolutely run if things went wrong. Run, cocoon myself in bubble wrap, and then move. Kieran had been dead right to let me bring my own car.

Donovan hadn’t yet turned into the driveway before the metal gate shimmied and started a slow swing open. Without stopping, the car continued through it, everyone in it expecting me to follow.

“Oh, interesting,” Bria said with a slow release of breath. “Kieran didn’t know about this place, yet in half a night he found someone in it who was loyal to him, arranged entrance, and got his whole team coordinated. What do you want to bet he’s got schematics for the building, too?” She shook her head as I crawled toward the driveway. “I’ve got a semi lady-wood. He’s nothing but a toddler in the Demigod sandbox, yet it looks like he’s able to play with the big boys. Mad respect. Still stupid of you to get involved with him, but mad respect.”

I chewed my lip, eyeing the metal bars of the gate. The barbed wire on the fence surrounding the establishment was just as good at keeping people in as it was at keeping them out. The guard still stood in the open doorway of the gatehouse, the light showering his grim expression.

“Or else… Kieran thinks this guy is loyal to him,” I whispered, barely stopping myself from stepping harder on the brake, “but he’s actually loyal to Valens, and this is a trap.”

“Right.” Bria nodded, leaning her elbow against the window ledge and half covering her face. “Or that.”

A cold sweat broke out over my forehead. “What did I get myself into?”

“Just keep going.” She nudged me with her other hand. Donovan had slowed down, too, and I could see a head in the back of his car turning around to look at us. “There is always a way out of a tight situation. Trust me. Dumping this car and hot-wiring a service car? No problem. Slitting a security guard’s throat? Sure. Resurrecting the security guard and making him show us a secret way out? Been there, done that. There’s a reason Kieran has me shadowing you instead of one of the Six. This bitch is good at surviving. I got you. Now keep going. You don’t want your face standing out in that guard’s mind. You gotta learn to be forgettable.”

“Forgettable, I got…” I grimaced as I let my foot off the brake and rolled past the hard-eyed guard. “Courage, I’m having a hard time with.”

“It’s not a courage problem with you, it’s an experience problem. One we’ll probably rectify sooner rather than later.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

The driveway cut through a large parking lot strewn with gravel that mostly, though not entirely, covered up the white lines. Black drips marred the ground in places, and a few areas were flatter than others, as if something heavy had been set down and then taken away. A long warehouse squatted against the backdrop of shimmering water, the location butting up against a lesser-used area of the bay.

“This is a big parking lot for that warehouse,” Bria said quietly, still whispering, still hunched behind the lowered visor.

“A big parking lot, with only a few cars.” I eyed those cars, either parked randomly throughout the space or grouped together in front of the warehouse entrance. “Why would people park so far away? If this place had a bunch of employees, it couldn’t be kept secret, could it?”

“One would assume not, but then, Kieran knew someone that worked here, and he didn’t know of it.”

“Weird,” I said quietly, following the lead car to the cluster of parked cars up near the front.

“Yes, it is. It is definitely weird. Which, in my experience, means fucked up. So prepare thyself for some fucked up shit, lady, because we’re headed right for it.”

“Have you always been like this?” I asked as I parked.

She glanced over in confusion. “Like what?”

Which was really the answer I was looking for.

Before I could set the parking brake, Kieran was at my door, his hand on the handle, waiting for me to unlock it.

“Ask him if he’s going to wipe your ass for you, too, the micro-managing turd,” Bria muttered, flipping up her visor.

“Hey,” Kieran said as he pulled my door open, scanning the warehouse. He spared me a glance before reaching down and taking my arm, helping me out. “We’re running interference with the cameras, but I don’t have anyone else on the inside. We’re going to have to use stealth on this.”

I nodded and swung the door shut. Kieran’s hand shot out and caught it before it hit home. He shut it much more quietly than I would have.

I grimaced. Micro-managing was definitely needed for a while. I worried Bria wouldn’t manage me enough…

“We have an hour and a half, roughly, before the shifts change,” Kieran went on, putting his arm over my shoulders and pulling me close. It wasn’t sexual. This was a huddle. “The people in there are security, and they’re tired. They’re ready to get off work. With the cameras down, all we have to do is keep a low profile.”

“Do we know where the lockers are?” Bria asked, at my other side. “I can grab a couple uniforms.”

Kieran nodded slowly and Donovan drifted over with a folded square of paper. He handed it off to Bria without a word before drifting away again. The other guys fell in around us in a loose circle.

“I don’t think you’ll need them, though,” Kieran said, pointing at the double door. Black film covered the glass on the inside, blocking visibility. No windows dotted the walls. “Unless there’s something to do with your magic, you’ll stay to the side. Stick to the shadows. There should be low light in there, so odds are you won’t be noticed in what you’re wearing.”

“Let’s just hope there is something to do with our magic in there,” Bria mumbled, tucking the paper into her back pocket.

I glanced down at my black turtleneck and black leggings. Kieran had brought a spandex jumpsuit for me to wear, but not trusting he’d correctly gauged my size (because of my height, I looked thinner than I actually was), I’d decided to adhere to my heretofore firm rule of not being caught dead in anything spandex.

“I thought you didn’t know about this place?” I asked, feeling his tug to slow me.

We stopped outside of the double door. Thane, a bald brick of a man with a brown beard and light blue eyes, tapped the face of his phone.

“I didn’t,” Kieran murmured.

“A few seconds, sir,” Thane said in a clear voice made for singing. If he paired up with Jack and his deep baritone, they’d have a good start on a capella group.

“Then how do you know so much about it?” I asked.

Bria lowered her head before pacing to the side. I’d seen that look before. She was searching for souls.

Kieran followed Bria with his gaze. “All I needed was a direction. Everything else was easy to uncover.”

“Did you not sleep?” I flared my elbow, making some room between us. I needed to follow Bria’s lead, if only to practice.

“No.”

“Demigods don’t need to sleep?”

“Not when they can harness the ocean’s power for rejuvenation.”

I widened my eyes before nodding, because that was as surprising as it was cool. “And you still smell like a normal guy instead of like kelp. Amazing.”

“I showered.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but really, what was there to say?

I stepped farther away and sank into a light trance, feeling for souls my eyes hadn’t yet spotted. A soft breeze rustled my middle, a very strange feeling since I didn’t have eyes on the Line. A moment later, I felt the souls of everyone around me, nestled inside the armor of their bodies, lightly swaying to the force of the Line.

Someone gasped. Feet scraped against the ground as someone else pivoted.

A hand smacked my shoulder and shoved.

I was staggering before I’d even snapped my eyes open. Luckily, Kieran grabbed me before I could face-plant into a wall for the second time that morning.

“We’re going to have to work on that,” Bria said, whose raised hand identified her as the shover. “It’s disruptive.”

“It’s downright terrifying, and I don’t mind saying so,” Donovan said, rubbing at his chest.

“Told you I wasn’t exaggerating,” Jack said to him.

“Sorry,” I muttered, wishing I had pockets to put my hands in. “Clearly I’m doing something wrong.”

“We’re good, sir,” Thane said, dropping his phone into the pocket of his black cargo pants. Kieran hadn’t tried to dress him or any of the other guys in spandex. I sensed a double-standard. Then again, Thane had a bunch of stuff, like rope and cable and tools. The only thing I had was a faulty understanding of my magic.