Iz nodded crisply, narrowly resisting the urge to do some kind of undignified victory dance. When she’d left her snobby, insular home village, she’d abandoned a lot of rules about dragon propriety, but her mother would never forgive her if she did anythingthatgauche.
*
THE NEXT FEW DAYS WEREa whirlwind. Iz felt like she blinked in her dorm room at Glynco and opened her eyes in a courthouse office in Robinette.
Cooper said, “Everyone, this is Isabelle—Iz—Benoit. Top of her training class, so try to hold off on immediately teaching her all your bad habits.”
“We don’t have any of those,” one of the marshals joked. He had a soft Korean accent. “We’re flawless professionals who would never corrupt innocent rookies.” He held out his hand. “Simon Park.”
Simon was almost surreally handsome, with an athletic build, chiseled features, wavy black hair, and warm golden-brown eyes. He radiated charm and charisma. Shaking his hand felt like touching a movie star.
Next up was Evie Anderson, a curvy, dark-skinned woman with, Iz noticed at once,exceptionalfashion taste: everything she was wearing was tasteful, tailored, and unmistakably high quality, with the burgundy leather of her jacket and the rich cream of her blouse both complementing her perfectly.
“In case you were wondering,” Evie said, “Simon’s a tiger shifter. And he’s got a little bonus—”
“Pain in the ass,” Simon said.
Evie nodded in agreement. “His senses stay ultra-heightened even when he’s human. We try to keep the noise down so he doesn’t go home every day with a headache.”
“I’ll remember,” Iz said, and she tried to survive the sheer mega-wattage of Simon smiling at her.
“I’m a spider shifter,” Evie said.
Iz hadn’t known spider shifters existed, and she wasn’t sure she liked knowing it now.
Evie’s expression turned wry. “Not a spider person, huh?”
“I think it’ll be fine as long as I don’t watch you shift,” Iz said diplomatically.
Evie laughed. “I can live with that. Honestly, even I’m not a big fan of spiders most of the time. It does come in handy for reconnaissance, though.”
Iz could definitely see that. As a spider, Evie could infiltrate basically anywhere and hide unnoticed, which was something Iz could almost never do. Sure, she could veil herself and be invisible to the naked eye, but dragons were stillhuge. They couldn’t slip in through the cracks, and they couldn’t be anywhere for too long without people bumping into them. Iz had to admit that everything she normally disliked about spiders were things she could appreciate in a teammate.
“And you already know me,” Keith Ridley said with a faintly self-deprecating smile.
Keith, a unicorn shifter, had worked with Cousin Theo for a few years before he had transferred over to join Cooper’s new team. He’d had a rocky start, but he’d changed a lot. His self-righteousness and cool sense of superiority had taken a big, necessary knock in those early days, and he had picked himself up off the floor to become someone Iz’s cousin liked and trusted. Theo had been sorry to see him move on, but Iz knew Keith felt that he owed his loyalty to Cooper, the man he’d almost taken straight to another prison.
Iz liked what she’d seen of Keith over the years. He was earnest and reserved, and there was something poignant behind it all, like he was holding himself back partly because he worried he’d never really made it to “likable.”
Iz thought he absolutely had, and she shook his hand and told him firmly that it was good to see him again. He turned a little pink.
“And this is Vin Callendar,” Keith said.
“Hi.” Unlike everyone else, Vin didn’t move to offer her his hand. He didn’t even smile.
He’d been there the whole time, but Iz hadn’t realized it. It was like he gave off radio waves that warned everyone he didn’t want to be noticed. And now that she saw him, she could understand why.
Something horrible had happened to him.
Vin’s body was a road map of scars. They almost looked likebitemarks, rippling and badly healed, but Iz wasn’t sure what kind of animal—animals, really, since the bites ranged from tiny to enormous—could have done that to him. Even if he’d been born human, it would have only takenonebite to turn him into a shifter. Not dozens. And these were just the ones she could see on the exposed skin of his hands and throat and even hisface.
It hurt to look at him.
Luckily, Iz’s mother had stressed the importance of calm, flawless courtesy so much that Iz could at least be sure that none of her pity showed on her face.
“Hi,” she said back, her voice even.
Vin’s gray eyes sharpened, and he gave her a nod that she thought might have been the slightest bit approving.