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handle the knife.” Or maybe I was the only one who could , but I wasn’t ready to admit that to anyone, not yet. “He told me to bring him home. To you.”
    Uncle Mike’s face drained of color. “Chief, I can’t. I’m leading this operation. I can’t go back out into the field.” He scrubbed his hand across his hair. “Why now?”
    “You were a wielder once,” I said, holding the knife out to him. “It seems like you’re meant to be one again.”
    He let out a heavy breath. I knew what was going through his mind: Katie, Aunt Julie, leaving Pentagram Strike Force in someone else’s hands. But sometimes we didn’t get to choose our destinies. Tink had made sure I understood that. Finally, he reached out to take the knife.
    The handle stayed dark and cold in his hand.
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    “Wait,” I said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
    The look of relief on Mike’s face was plain. “Maybe you had your wires crossed.”
    “But, the spirit said … ” Oh, God. This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. Because the alternative—no, I wouldn’t think about that yet. “Here, I’ll take it back and we’ll see if it wants to transfer to someone else.”
    He handed it to me, smiling. “Dodged a bullet, huh?”
    “Um, yeah.” My mind spiraled a thousand scenarios as we joined the team in the operations room—none of them good. Finally, I whispered. “Show me home again.”
    Here . Parker’s knife-spirit flashed up a mental picture of Uncle Mike’s house.
    My chest heaved like I’d been running. How I could give the knife to its rightful owner without hating myself for it? Would Mike ever forgive me?
    You hesitate. Parker’s knife-spirit sounded disappointed. You promised.
    Give the boy a minute, will you? Tink said firmly. This isn’t going to be easy, not for him nor several other people here.
    Sometimes I was so grateful she had my back, but waiting would only delay the pain I was about to cause. After taking a moment to steady myself, I waved Aunt Julie over. “Captain Tannen? I need to talk to you.”
    Mike’s head popped up from the reports he was reviewing on Davis’s laptop screen. Yeah, he knew where this was headed.
    “Matt, why don’t you come here a minute?” he barked. “I need to talk to you.”
    Julie shot him a quizzical glance. “Give us a second, sir.” She shook her head. “He’s wound really tight today. Anyway, what do you need?”
    Feeling sick down deep, I held Parker’s knife out. “You need to take this from me.”
    “Captain Tannen!” Uncle Mike’s voice was like a thunderclap. “Don’t.”
    My aunt’s shoulders relaxed and she seemed more dangerous in that moment than I’d ever seen. Without heeding her husband’s—her commanding officer’s —warning, she reached for the knife’s handle.
    Which promptly flashed blue and hummed in content.
    Everything stopped. I don’t think any of us breathed, except for Mike, who was staring in horror at his wife.
    Our new wielder smiled the most badass smile I’d ever seen. “Well,” Aunt Julie said. “That’s better.”
    “Better?” Mike cried. “ Better ? You can’t go into combat. You can’t. We have to find someone else.”
    She turned on him, and if I’d been my uncle, I would’ve eaten every one of those words with ketchup to make sure I choked all of them down. While everyone else backed up against the walls, Uncle Mike stood stubborn in the center of the room as Aunt Julie closed the space between them, as deadly and beautiful as a lioness.
    “My maiden name was Hunter,” she said calmly. “Every man on my father’s side was one. Then my dad had two girls. But that didn’t mean the end of the hunters in that family. I can do this, Colonel. I believe it, and so does the knife. He’s telling me so right now.”
    “You can hear him? The knife-spirit?” Jorge asked, his strange eyes alight with excitement. “Truly?”
    “Of course,” Julie said, looking confused. “Aren’t