Unknown

Rashid had appeared in the middle of the road, perhaps five hundred yards away. Arms folded, a shark’s smile on his face, watching the car hurtle toward him at killing speed.

Turner, face gone white, fought desperately with the vehicle.

“Just hit him,” I said, through gritted teeth. “It serves him right.”

Turner paid no attention to my excellent advice. He managed to bring the car to a smoking, sliding halt no more than a foot from Rashid’s immobile body.

For a moment, no one moved. White, stinking smoke from the scorched tires blew into my window, and I coughed and choked. The cloud of smoke moved toward Rashid, but he simply waved it away, still smiling.

Ben Turner looked stu

Rashid simply looked at him. To his credit, it didn’t take Turner long to realize his mistake, to take in the slightly-off color of the Dji

“Dji

Rashid made a rude sound. “Not in any sense, I assure you.” On that, we were in complete agreement. He stalked around to the passenger door of the front seat, opened it, and got in. Leaving Turner standing outside, staring in at us.

We all stared back at him.

“Seriously,” Turner said. “He’s a Dji

Rashid reached out and touched a finger to the ignition of the car. It fired to life without benefit of the key, dangling from Turner’s shaking fingers. “Yes,” he said. “Seriously.”

Turner blinked, as if the world had gone out of focus, and shook his head. He slipped back into the driver’s seat, looked at the key in his hand, then dropped it into the drink holder next to him. He put the car in drive and accelerated away, fast. I looked behind us and saw the heavy black streaks of skid marks disappearing behind us.

“Didn’t really think you’d show up again,” Luis said to Rashid.

I turned my head back. “I did.”

Rashid was watching me with a predator’s hot intensity. Waiting for weakness. Well, I had that in abundance, but I was not willing to demonstrate it on his command. “You found something,” I said. “Correct?”

“No, I came back because I find your company so inspirational. Of course I found something.” His mouth stretched and settled into something that was almost a smile. “I found the boy’s bloodline. His sires are gone from the world.”

“Siblings?”

“No. Distant branches. Nothing close.”

I shook my head and translated that for Luis. “His parents are dead. No brothers, sisters, or cousins.”

“Yes,” Rashid confirmed. “His father was a Warden, killed in Ashan’s uprising. His mother was mere human, dead of disease.”

“Orphan,” Luis said. “An orphan with latent Warden powers.”

Rashid said, “He was listed so on the rolls.”

Both Turner and Luis sent him identical looks. “Rolls?” Turner was just a beat faster at the question than my Warden partner. “You mean there’s a list?”

Rashid lifted an eyebrow slowly. “You mean you don’t keep your own lists? How careless of you. How do you ensure your progeny are trained properly if you don’t have a record of their potential?”

Luis’s mouth opened, then shut, and he looked at me instead. “Let me get this straight, okay, just so there’s no confusion: The Dji

He was asking me. It was embarrassing, but I had to admit the truth. “I don’t know,” I said. “If it’s done, I had nothing to do with it. I had no interest in Wardens, much less regular humans.”

Luis stared for a beat, then went back to Rashid. “Can you get us that list?”

“Why?”

“Because the kids on that list are all at risk. It’s our best way to get ahead of this bitch and stop her from taking more kids. If we can lock down all these potential victims . . .”

“You forget,” I said. “Some of their parents are willing participants. And we don’t have enough Wardens to do this.”

“We’ve got enough FBI. And enough cops,” Luis shot back. “To hell with the Wardens, they’re not doing squat for us anyway. We work with law enforcement, we got plenty of firepower. And I don’t think she’ll have pla

Luis, I had to admit, had a point. But when I glanced at Rashid, I saw that his face was closed and hard. He said nothing.

Luis sighed. “Come on, man. I get it, you’re a bastard. You don’t care. Fine, whatever. I’ll give you all the respect you want, just give me the goddamn list.”

“I can’t,” Rashid said. “Whether I wished to or not, this list isn’t mine to give.”

“Yeah? Then who the hell do we have to talk to?”

I knew, with an ill feeling, before Rashid said anything. “The Earth Oracle.”

Rashid nodded once, sharply. Of course. My last encounter with the Earth Oracle—archangel to the Dji

It did not change the fact that she had once been halfling-born—the daughter of the Dji

Imara not only had survived, but had become . . . more. Other. She wasn’t a half- powered Dji

I wasn’t sure Imara had any great and lasting fondness for me, either. The last thing I wanted was another, perhaps less cordial, encounter.

“Get it for us,” I told Rashid. He shook his head. “You must be a special pet of hers, if you know of this list at all.”

“I know of it because David told me of it, not because I can lay my hands on it.”

David. I fumed quietly. He led half the Dji

“You could. He might even be inclined to grant it to you, knowing David; he’s so accommodating.” Rashid made a face that implied he did not altogether approve of this trait. “Unfortunately, he ca

That stopped me, Luis, and even Turner cold for a long, icy second. “You . . . can’t find him.”

Inconceivable. David was the Conduit of the New Dji

“He’s hidden from us,” Rashid clarified. “He told us, before he left, that he would be cut off from us.”

“Then there must be some replacement. Someone keeping open the Conduit for you.”

Rashid inclined his head, but didn’t answer.

“Rashid,” I said. “My patience is not just thin, it is starving, and moments from death. Just tell me.”