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stubborn set. I had seen it before a few times, and I knew what it meant. “I know that look.”
    He turned a dazzling smile at me. “What look?”
    â€œPromise me that you’ll cause no harm directly or indirectly to Ted by acting on my behalf. I’m dead serious, Raphael. Promise me.”
    â€œWhat he’s doing to you—”
    â€œIs exactly what I would do in his place. I knew the risks when I got into the Order. The Order has done absolutely nothing to renege on the terms of our bargain. All the fault lies with me. I deceived it, and if discovered, I’ll pay the price. I accept that.”
    â€œWhat is the price?”
    A spike of anxiety pinched me. My throat closed up for a moment. “They’ll throw me out on my ass.”
    â€œIs that all?” he asked. “Are you sure they won’t send someone after you to make sure you don’t join the opposite side?”
    â€œI’m sure,” I said. “Their conditioning is very good. It would take a lot to break my devotion to the Order even if they put me out on the street. Promise me.”
    â€œFine. I promise.”
    We drove in silence for a few minutes.
    Raphael’s eyes darkened. “Maybe we should be careful with public displays of affection.”
    I gave him my thousand-yard stare. “Oh no. I think you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. You are mine .
    If there is an attractive female in speaking range, you will be publicly affectionate to me. Otherwise I’ll end up pistol-whipping them off you, and I’m pretty sure injuring innocent civilian hussies would be considered ‘conduct unbecoming a knight.’”
    Raphael showed me the edge of his teeth in a slight smile. “And what will Ted think of you shacking up with a bouda?”
    â€œTed is welcome to show me a section in the Order’s regulations that forbids me to do so. My knowledge of regulations is extremely extensive. I can quote entire passages from memory. I guarantee that I know the rules much better than Ted.”
    My brain took a second to process the words that had just left my mouth and realized how many things I had taken for granted. I said softly, “At least I hope you would be publicly affectionate.”
    Raphael laughed softly, like a bemused wolf. “You ruined a spectacular alpha snarl.”
    I had seen Raphael fight. He was devastatingly lethal. The way he tore up Cerberus’s head took both skill and the berserk frenzy that made boudas feared in any fight. Physically he could overpower me. I was barely five feet four; he was six feet and change. He outweighed me by about eighty pounds of hard muscle, toughened by constant exercise. He was without a doubt the best fighter of the bouda clan. But he was also a male, and bouda males preferred the beta role. I had snapped into an alpha mode without even realizing it.
    â€œI didn’t mean . . .”
    â€œI trust you to take the lead most of the time,” he said. “With the understanding that when I really insist, you will listen.”
    I exhaled. “Agreed.”
    Â 
    The Casino, the People’s HQ in Atlanta, occupied the enormous lot that had once housed the Georgia Dome. The People’s architect had taken the Taj Mahal as a model and expanded the blueprint to twice its original size. Pure white in daylight, the Casino seemed to float above the asphalt, buoyed by the glittering streams of many fountains surrounding its walls. Its slender towers reached to a dizzying height, flanking the ornate central cupola. Elegant passageways united the towers, ethereal as if woven of spider’s web or carved from a chunk of ivory by a patient sculptor. Its elaborate central gates always stood open, just as the guardhouses and engines of war on its thick walls were always manned.
    I parked in a side lot and nudged Raphael to put Kate’s book down.
    A hundred yards from the gates, both of us paused in