Tage scanned the room for anything useful to bind her spell, but her jumbled nerves fractured her focus. Halen's sketchy behavior didn't help either. Something irked her about the way Halen avoided her by scurrying off to the shower when she questioned her further about Asair. Halen wore her heart on her sleeve—easy for an empath to read. But ever since Halen returned from Asair's dimension, Tage couldn't felt nothing from her.

Tage didn't like it one bit, which only fueled her theory—Asair had hijacked Halen. Still, Halen swore he died, and Dax had backed her up. But why hover then if he was so sure?

Through the crack in the door, she watched Dax flip through a magazine, then toss it on the bed. Did he really need to sit outside the bathroom door while Halen showered? His nervous energy made her skin crawl. She bit her lower lip, gnawing on the silver loops.

"Do you trust him?" Ezra leaned forward.

"He's holding something back. I feel it." She rubbed her arm. "When someone isn't telling the truth, my bones ache."

"Is he lying about Asair?" he asked.

"I don't know what his secret is, but Halen is lying about Asair for sure. Every time I press her about Asair, she averts the question."

He lowered his voice. "Why would she lie to us?"

"To save her life." She stood and walked to the side table where a marble pot sat with a plant trailing over the sides. She pressed the leaves between her fingers. Fake. She dug under the leaves, finding pebbles shimmering with quartz. She scooped a handful and returned to the coffee table.

"We wouldn't hurt her," Ezra said.

She lowered her voice. "But what if it's not her? What if Asair's taken possession of her and is pretending to be Halen?"

His eyes widened as he considered the possibility, but then he shook his head. "You can't think like that. We have to trust Halen."

"Yeah, okay, that might be a little easier if the entire Bay Area wasn't an inferno."

"You do have a Plan B—right?" He thrummed his fingers on the glass table.

Tage sprinkled the rocks onto the tabletop and stood once more. She scanned the room and spotting an ice bucket, smiled. She shoved the bucket against Ezra's chest. "Make yourself useful."

"Is this Plan B?"

"Do you have to question everything? Just get the ice."

He sighed, snatched a key card from the desk, and headed out the door.

She should have been nicer to him. He could have taken off as soon as they returned from Elosia, but since she had woken from her trance, he was always but a whisper away. Perhaps, when the world wasn't in flames, she would want more from him. Then again, death had an obsession with those closest to her. He was safer if her heart shut him out.

The spell. Tage shoved thoughts of Ezra away. She had to stay focused. She spread out the rocks, tossing aside the ones with little or no quartz. If Halen wouldn't talk, then Tage would handle it her way. She felt a little guilty lying about the protection spell. Maybe she was wrong about Asair, but if she wasn't and he gained control of Halen's powers, she couldn't let him walk out the door.

The door lock chirped and Ezra stepped in with a bucket of ice under one arm, three candy bars clutched in his fist, and a bag of chips tucked in his jacket pocket.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows.

"What?" He shrugged. "If I have only a few days to live, a little junk food won't hurt." He set the bucket beside Tage and crouched next to her. "You want one?" He offered her a candy bar.

"Sugar's the last thing I need."

He leaned in closer, hovering over her. "Is this spell going to work?" He peeled back a candy wrapper.

"It has to work."

A knock on the door startled her already unraveled nerves.

"Room service," a man said from the other side of the door.

"That was fast." Tage twisted the clock to face her.

"Dax ordered like twenty minutes ago."

"Too fast." Dax stepped into the living room.

Tage jumped up and headed him off. "Stand guard outside Halen's bathroom."

"Can't you do the spell before we open the door?" Ezra asked.

"Tage needs the poppy seeds," Dax said. "The bagels are with the food order."

"I've got this." Ezra shooed her to the coffee table and headed toward the door. Tage sat and dumped the ice, spreading it in a circle at the base of the rock tower she had formed with the pebbles.

Ezra peered out the peephole. "Leave the cart." "I need a signature, sir," the man said.

"Let me get dressed first!" Ezra shouted.

Tage shot him a pointed stare.

"What?" He shrugged. "I'm buying you some time."

"Now he's going to think we were... Ugh, forget it." What did it matter what anyone thought? She returned her attention to the spell. Waving her hands in small circles, she chanted, "Zipsolium, volinium, osangi mori."

The center burned with a soft glow and as the ice melted away, the rocks melded, forming into one solid piece. She still needed the poppy seeds, though, if she didn't want Dax to know she had changed the spell.

"Open the door, just a crack," she said. "Sign the bill and take the cart. Do not let him set foot in here."

Ezra wedged the door open and thrust his arm out. "Hand me the bill. I can't find my pants. Wild afternoon, you know." He glanced back, a broad grin smothering his face.

"You wish," she mouthed.

The black bill folder passed through the door.

"Hurry," Tage whispered.

He scribbled his name on the sheet and handed the bill folder back. "Just leave the cart."

When the server didn't budge, Tage's panic swelled. Had she placed them at risk, just to cover her ass? She leaped up, sprinted across the room, and slammed the door between the suites. She held her breath with the click of Dax bolting the two rooms off from each other.

"Seriously, dude, you don't want to see me in the buff. Not pretty." Ezra stripped off his shirt and kicked his pants to the side.

"What the hell are you doing?" Her jaw dropped as he scooted out of his boxers, then slid the chain bolt from the lock.

"No!" she shouted. "Stop!"

Ignoring her frantic plea, he opened the door. A server stood on the other side, his face flushing six shades of red when Ezra grabbed the cart. Ezra turned his bare ass to the server, rolled the cart inside, and slammed the door shut. "No danger. Just food." He grinned.

Averting her curious gaze from the cross tattoo inked over his hipbone, she grabbed a robe off the hook and tossed it to him. "You moron! That could have gone so wrong."

"But it didn't." He slipped the robe on, securing the tie at his waist.

"How did you know he wasn't here for Halen? You don't get it." She stepped toward him; the hairs along her arms rose, not from the danger of the situation, but with the thought of the little cross nestled above his hip. Ezra had a way with her she couldn't deny, but a distraction like this would get them killed. "If some shifters believe Asair is still alive, it won't be long before the Hunters and the Elosians know. Word will spread fast. The Tari can't protect all of us. I don't even know if they would."

"Are you worried something might happen to me, Tage Summerfield?" When his deep eyes searched hers, her composure dissolved like sugar in boiling water.

Dammit. The more danger he put himself in, the more she cared about what happened to him. "You could have gotten an arrow in your ass." She broke free from his taunting stare and knocked on the door to the adjoining suite. "It's okay. It was just the food. Go figure; the world would have to end to get faster room service."

Dax opened the door. His questioning gaze fell on Ezra's robe.

Tage held up her hand. "Don't even ask."

Dax choked back the laughter. "I'm sure it's interesting."

"Is Halen out of the shower yet?" Tage eyed her spell faintly glowing on the table.

"No, the water's still running. I thought I better give her some time."

"Not too much time." Tage didn't care for the idea of Halen being alone. "Are you getting any weird vibes from her?"

Dax shrugged. "I don't feel anything."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? How can you not feel anything? You're her freaking Guardian!"

"I don't know," Dax said. "She's sort of blank right now."

"And this isn't concerning to you?" Tage couldn't believe he wasn't losing his mind over this. He knew the dangers of not having a connection with Halen. "After what happened with Natalie?"

"This has nothing to do with Natalie. I felt all of her emotions. With Halen, I feel nothing."

"Exactly!" Tage wagged her finger. "I'm not picking up anything either. Not sadness, happiness... Even after the dragon cracked the glass, she should have been terrified. Don't you think that's strange?"

"Maybe she's numb," Ezra said. "She's been through a lot. You know what it's like." He met her gaze. "To feel so much you feel nothing."

Tage knew all too well. After months of grieving the loss of her parents, her lips would lift with false smiles; her throat deceived her with laughter, but she was nothing inside. "Yeah, I get it."

"Give her some space." Ezra flicked on the television.

"Another fire ignited along the Indian Ocean. The Navy has evacuated all ships," a television reporter spewed.

"I need to call my grandmother." Ezra's face paled.

Dax tossed him the cell phone. "Make it quick. My dad will be here any minute. He's going to call if there's trouble."

Ezra sat on the end of the couch, his back to them. He spoke low, but Tage could make out Japanese. He could have been with his grandmother but had stayed with her. She shook her head. Fool.

"You changed the spell—why?" Dax nodded toward the table. The tower of rocks glowed with a brilliant orange hue, illuminating the carpet beneath the glass tabletop.

She had forgotten about her poppy seed decoy. "What?" She sidestepped, blocking her enchantment.

"I know a few spells, remember? We learned them from the same person. I recognize a restriction spell when I see one."

"Please don't tell Halen. I don't want her freaking out. It's better to be safe."

"You have nothing to worry about. Halen just needs the Etlins to strip out Asair's memories. She'll be fine."

"And what about Etlis?"

"If Halen has access to Asair's memories, she might discover how to break the spell. She just needs a little time," he said.

"I didn't think of that." Why hadn't she? Because she had been so hell-bent on assuming Asair possessed Halen. "Do you really think it's possible?"

Dax ran his finger along the cracked window. "I think she can open Etlis."

Doubt still tugged Tage's thoughts. "What if we're the fools and Asair is tricking us? What if Halen is already gone?"

"Then she would have annihilated us by now," Dax said. "Stop worrying."

Ezra ended his call and handed Dax the cell phone. "No fires in Japan, but my grandmother is taking my cat, Mittens, and going inland to some relatives as a precaution." His skin took on that I'm-going-to-puke tone.

Tage braced her hands on his shoulders. "We'll go see her after this is over."

"If we still have a planet." His Adam's apple bobbed.

Nothing she could say would comfort him. Right now, their lives hinged on Asair. Dead or alive, their fate still lay in the demon's hands.