"I can vouch for Catcher and Mal ory. He's exhausted from working on this problem, and she's wrapped up in her exams. Besides, even asking them about it would make them both go bal istic." And I did not need any more bal istic right now.
"I was actual y thinking about the only Order-sanctioned sorcerer in town."
"You're talking about Simon?" I asked. "To tel you the truth, when I asked him about the water, he seemed to be in denial about the whole thing. A little shady, yeah, but largely in denial. This could be a cover for some kind of secret magic he's working, but I didn't have the sense of it. And if you're the only sanctioned sorcerer in town, you're already the big man on campus. Why risk that? What's the benefit?
The prize?"
"Be that as it may, we don't have much else to go on. It might pay at least to sit him down and talk to him about it.
See what information he, or the Order, can provide."
"Good point. I'l see if Catcher can set it up."
A bolt of lightning crashed nearby, shaking the car. We both looked out the windows and up at the sky, clouds whirling across it.
"If this is a symptom," I said, "a side effect, maybe we can find its heart?"
He looked over at me. "What do you mean?"
"The effect on the river stopped at the city limits, right?
So it's unlikely the sky is red everywhere. And if there are boundaries, maybe there's also a center. An origin point."
"Like a giant sucking tornado in the middle of the Loop?"
"Hopeful y not that, but that's the idea, yeah. If we can't find the people responsible for this, maybe we can find their location. We can drive through different neighborhoods to see if there's a focus, and we'l cover more territory if we split up. If we find something, we can ral y at that place?"
"That sounds like a decent plan," Jonah said, but he made no move to get out of thegetal y car. Was he waiting on me to say something about what had happened in the tower? To offer thanks . . . or maybe vitriol?
I silently swore, and reminded myself that the point was what he'd done - not why he'd done it. "And thanks, by the way, for defending me."
"You're welcome," he said. "It's part and parcel of being someone's partner."
"We aren't partners yet," I reminded him, thinking of the Red Guard.
"Aren't we?" He gazed back at me, and it was clear he wasn't thinking of the RG, but had something much more fundamental in mind. His eyes changed, and then his hand was behind my head and he was leaning toward me, pul ing me toward him, and before I could stop him his lips were on mine, his mouth insistent.
Jonah kissed me with the intimacy of a lover and the confidence of a chal enger to the throne, daring me to think outside the box I'd wal ed around me.
And for a moment, I let him.
It felt so good to be wanted, to be needed, to be desired by someone again. It hadn't been that long since Ethan had been gone, but Ethan and I hadn't been together long, if at al .
And the kiss was just . . . toe curling. Jonah wasn't a novice, and he used every part of his body to his advantage, his fingers at my jaw, his tongue teasing mine, his body moving closer and closer, a suggestion of things he could offer: warmth; the solace of touch; another kind of intimacy.
But a shock of guilt turned my stomach. I wasn't ready.
I pul ed back and turned away, covering my mouth with a hand. It had been only a kiss, not initiated by me, and certainly no violation of any promise I'd made. But my lips were swol en, and my skin was flushed, and there was a bal of heat in the pit of my stomach. However unexpected it may have been, and however long Ethan may have been gone, my reaction felt like a betrayal to his memory.
"You're not ready," he quietly said.
"I'm not. I'm sorry - but I'm not."
His next words surprised me nearly as much as the kiss had. "No, I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have pushed. It's just - I didn't expect this. I didn't expect to find a connection."
I looked back at him again, my heart racing at the desire in his eyes and the sudden sense of panic that tightened my chest. "I am flattered, real y, but - "
He held up a hand and smiled gently. "You don't have to apologize. I took a chance, and the timing isn't right. No harm, no foul." He cleared his throat, then nodded confidently. "Let's just forget the temporary humiliation and get back to work."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure," he said with a nod, and pul ed out his phone, a shiny gold wafer, to check in with Scott Grey. I did the same and sent a message to Keley, advising her that we hadn't discovered anything helpful, and that Claudia apparently hadn't even known about the sky.
Her response chil ed me: "PROTESTORS DOUBLED
B/C OF SKY. ALL VAMPS ON GUARD. EXTRA FAIRIES
AT GATE. NATIONAL GUARD CALLED. HUMANS
BELIEVE APOCALYPSE IMMINENT," was the immediate fol ow-up.
I muttered a curse.
"What?" Jonah quietly asked, but I held up a hand while I typed out a response to Keley.nseont si
"RETURN HOME?" I asked her, "OR KEEP LOOKING?"
"CRISIS BEING MANAGED," she responded. "KEEP
LOOKING."
I could definitely keep looking. It was the "finding" that was proving difficult. The message sent, I tucked the phone away again and updated Jonah.
"Humans think the end is nigh," I told him. "The protestors at Cadogan House have doubled again."
Alarm flashed in his eyes. "Do we need to get back?"
"Keley says she's on it and wants us to keep looking. Do you think you could have Scott make a cal , maybe send some guards over?"
He answered without hesitation, sending an immediate message on his phone.
"Done," he said after a moment, pushing the phone away again. "Scott is advised. Grey House is quiet, and he'l contact Keley and offer up some friends."
Cadogan House didn't have any al iances with other Houses in Chicago; maybe we could make an al y of Grey House, even if the circumstances weren't ideal.
"I'l go back to the Loop. I'l search there for something that looks like a focus, and I'l stick close to the water in case there's some link we don't know about between the water and sky. Why don't you drive around this part of town? Hit the rest of the Gold Coast and Jackson Park. Cal me if you find anything."
He nodded. "Sure," he said, then climbed out of my car and into his. I felt awkward leaving him after the kiss, but what else could I do?
There was only so much a girl could accomplish in a night.