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and escaped once, but I knew that was a one-time dance. They hadn’t expected me to come at them the way I had. Now they knew better. As I’d done every night for the past few months, I reinforced the walls that kept my soul trapped in my body. Maybe I worried about it too much, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t build that wall strong enough, the demons could reach into me while I slept, and that would be the final song of the show. No encore.
    The rest of my training had been mental and physical. I was in the best shape of my life, but facing off against thirteen men seemed a bit much. Kelly and Brand could do it, but they felt no pain and didn’t get tired. I hoped Rayna’s life wouldn’t depend on my being as solid as my magically engineered Sekutar friends. I might be fast, and I might be strong, but I was still only human, and I felt like I wasn’t up to the task. I’d lost Naomi and I wasn’t able to save Miranda. I didn’t want to lose anyone else. To be fair, Miranda was probably dead before I ever met her. In that regard, perhaps she didn’t count as someone I’d lost. But that wasn’t how it felt.
    I tossed and turned, trying to get my thoughts to stop churning. My job was to protect Rayna, and one way or another, I would keep her safe. Failure was not an option because I knew I couldn’t take another loss at this point in my life.
    Sleep finally took me, and when I awoke four hours later, bits of a dream where I’d been unable to save Rayna from her assassins flittered across my mind then thankfully drifted away.
    I crawled out of bed, stretched, then approached the window. The blinds were drawn, so I parted them with two fingers to peek out. The sun started to pull itself above the horizon, shooting orange streaks through the clouds. Movement in the yard caught my attention, and I yanked down on the blinds to get a better look.
    Graham Noble clad in a blue jogging suit darted across the yard toward the gate.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. Fortunately, I saw Kelly slip out of the trees to follow him.
    Good. I ran my hands through my hair and grabbed my jeans from the chair as I looked for my shoes. I wanted to catch up to them, so I threw on my clothes and bolted out the door.
    Esther smiled at me when I entered the hall. “I love your hair.”
    I patted my head and could tell I had a serious case of bedhead going. I shrugged. “Nice. Can you keep an eye on Rayna for me?” I asked.
    “Only if you gave her a typewriter key. What’s going on?”
    “Graham evidently thinks it’s all right for him to go for a morning run on his own.”
    “What about Kelly?”
    “She’s on it.”
    “You know which way he went?”
    “Shit.”
    “Just a second. I’ll check with Kelly.” She popped away.
    I raced down the stairs and out the door. As I approached the gate, Esther popped back to me.
    “Go right. He’s on the bike path heading north. Just be aware that Kelly says she doesn’t need you. She’s got it under control.”
    “But Graham doesn’t know she’s there. He needs to know he can’t go running off like this.”
    Esther sighed. “Don’t yell at him too much when you catch up. I want to be able to stay in this house for a while. It’s got a style to which I’d love to become accustomed.”
    Being dead might interfere with that style, but far be it from me to say that to Esther.
    Instead, I gave her a wink then slipped out the gate and turned right. Two blocks down, I saw a dirt trail leading up to the paved bike path. I raced up the incline and made good time racing down the trail. Two minutes later, Kelly slipped out of the trees to join me on the path.
    “I told Esther you didn’t need to come,” she said, matching my speed.
    I ran at a fast clip, but Kelly kept pace as if it were nothing. “Yes, I did. He needs to know—”
    “Nothing,” Kelly said as she grabbed me and made me slow down. “I’ll keep him safe. You’ll just piss him off, and he’ll tell