When we returned to the main room, something must have shown on my face that I had gotten what I wanted. One of the women rose to her feet, wary. "What have you done?"

   "I did not agree, because that is the Council's decision," said Mark firmly. "I made it a test. If Roxie can find the team, then she can join them. Because if they are able to be found, then that is a problem. They will need her help if that is the case."

   It was somewhat the truth. Though Mark had given me a route directly to them. I had a good feeling that there was something Mark was hoping I'd solve by being on the team. I folded my arms with a faint smirk. The paper in my pocket crinkled and I saw Tate's head turn ever so slightly. No doubt he'd heard it and knew that Mark had given it to me.

   "You did that without our permission," said another Council member sharply. "We work as a group, Clarence. You seem to forget that."

   Clarence? Oh, right. People with the old family lines hid their names. I looked at Mark with a faint grin. He shook his head at me, almost as if he knew what I was thinking. A Clair with a problem of not working together? Apparently it was a family trait.

   "Anyway," I said loud enough to smother some of the voices. "I'll be going now. I'll find that team soon enough." I winked at Mark. The faint edge of his mouth pulled up. Tate looked bewildered as I opened the door and left the puzzled Council behind. The two Enforcers stepped aside as Tate closed the door. 

   "Did you get what you needed?" asked the neutral.

   "Pretty much," I replied lightly. My feet hopped down the stairs. Tate caught up to me and caught my arm, stopping me on the stairwell. He studied my face. "What happened?"

   "Tell you at the hotel." My head jerked to the side. "Ears." He understood and released my arm. I reached the bottom floor. Lila had jammed AirPods in her ears and was still playing Candy Crush. I quickly walked to the front door and pulled it open, jumping down towards the street. 

   Sure enough, there was a hotel directly across the way. I grinned and spun around to face Tate. He slowed to a stop and smiled oddly at me. "Why are you so happy?"

   I pulled the paper from my pocket and wagged it at him. Tate took it. He examined the signature. "Clarence? The Council member?"

   "Yup." I popped the word. "And we're going to meet that team tomorrow. He got me in."

   "He did?" Tate looked up, excited. "How? And why?"

   I shrugged slyly. "I'm just that convincing."

   "And why don't I believe that?"

   "Probably because I'm lying." I winked again and pointed at the hotel. "He got us hotel rooms, too. We've got to wait until about ten tomorrow morning, when a person on that team will be coming to meet us. This place looks fancy as hell. Come on!" I turned around. Tate abruptly grabbed my hand and I stumbled, looking at him in confusion.

   He didn't return the look, instead pulling me towards the building. "I'm dying to take a shower," he said. "I haven't cleaned up properly in five months." His hand tugged me onto the sidewalk and straight through the doors. I laughed, though I was still a little weirded-out by the way he'd grabbed my hand. And he hadn't let go, either.

   The inside of the hotel was startlingly white. A long, low desk ran across the front of the room and I could see a bar to the left. A sitting area sat behind the desk and the elevators around the corner. The girl behind the desk was absorbed with something on the computer. To my surprise, she looked completely human: thin, brown eyes, and light hair. She looked up as we entered and set down her mug of coffee. "How can I help you two?"

   "I've got a room," I told her. Tate dropped the paper onto the counter. "This is the signature of the Council member that arranged it for me."

   She picked up the paper with thin fingers and squinted at the words. Her lips pulled into a exasperated smile. "This Council member must be a doctor. I can't read this. Who's is it?" Her other hand tugged faintly on the white collar of her blouse. Her shirt lacked a name tag, funnily enough.

   "Clarence."

   "I think that's a C, so I'll just take your word for it," she chuckled. Her feet pushed her wheelie-chair to the computer and she started typing in the name. 

   Tate was studying her. Something about her was apparently making him uneasy. I glanced his way, curious. "If you don't mind me asking, are you a demon? Your scent is something I haven't seen before."

   She looked up with a wane smile. "I know. Haven't ever come across it, even after the scent training the Enforcer training camp puts you through."

   Tate blinked. I snorted at his expression. The girl shook her head and laughed again. "I'm a seer." 

   So that's how she knew. Seers saw stuff. I still had no idea how that worked. Tate wasn't convinced. "Your scent doesn't match a seer's."

   "Or -- rather -- my lack of a scent, right?"

   "Oh, damn." I whacked Tate's arm. "She's got you figured out." 

   "How could you not have a scent?" He finally asked, bewildered. "Everything has a scent. Everything. How did you mask yours?"

   The girl turned around toward a printer and picked up a paper. Without looking at us, she snagged a highlighter and a pen. "I just don't have one. Now, I need a signature here and here. These are the hotel policies. Just need a quick initial on each line."

   Tate frowned at her. "These has Roxie's name on it but nothing was printed while we've been here."

   She looked up, still holding the pen at me. "What's got you so uptight, Tate? If I hadn't called ahead to warn that elf that you'd be arriving and to let you in, you never would have made it to the Council. Don't you think it was a bit odd that an Enforcer was willing to break some rules for you? I'm on your side."

   An alarm bell started to ring in my head. This girl seemed to be five steps ahead of us. Tate wasn't calmed down by her statement. His head turned. "Why would you do that?"

   The girl frowned and sat back down, setting the end of the pen in her teeth. Her eyes, hardly a shade lighter than Tate's, bored into him. "Because it's just like Roxie said. She's our last chance of stopping Dani Darhk. Well, the woman that calls herself Dani Darhk. You have to know that's not her real name by now."

   "It isn't?" I gawked at her.

   "Apparently you didn't know," mused the girl. She grinned. "Oops." I have a feeling that wasn't an accident. "Of course not. Three alliterating names in one plot? Too messy."

   "What are you talking about?"

   "Anyway," she chirped, "Roxie here is the best shot at taking Dani down. And if I hadn't interfered, you wouldn't have been given a ticket to the team. Dani would have ambushed you in two days while you were in holding because you attacked the Enforcers. And then you'd be her source until you died from her drawing on your ability. So, if I hadn't called ahead, you would be dead."

   Isn't there some sort of seer rule she'd breaking by telling me this? I didn't know what was going on anymore. Tate studied her. "So you saved her life?"

   "Not saved, really," she said distantly. "More like prolonged." 

   "What?" 

   "But I did save yours," she said to Tate. "Anyway, do you want this room or not? I booked it two days ago and it confused the heck out of my manager. Might as well prove that I wasn't going crazy."

   Tate opened his mouth again, but I lifted my hand to stop him. My eyes studied her critically. The girl smiled at me, clearly knowing that I was judging if she was a threat. After a second, her smile wavered. "You want to know if you have the overpowered trait."

   I leaned back. "So you can read minds?" It hadn't been at the forefront of my thoughts, but after talking with Mark, the question was still there.

   The girl was suddenly reserved. "No. I don't read minds. Why do you think it matters if you know the answer, Roxie?"

   "It doesn't matter."

   "You're lying," she said flatly. "You think it matters. Deep down, you never wanted to be special, but you're scared that if you're not special, then Dani will kill you. Then she'll kill Tate, and then your father."

   Something in the pit of my stomach flinched. My lip curled automatically. "You're a mind reader. You have to be."

   "I can swear on your father's life that I'm not reading your mind," she said. "If you don't believe me, you can run an investigation and notice that I was the one to orchestrate the elf clan living in your apartment building -- the same one that warned you before Dani's troop arrived to kill your father."

   My fingers dug into Tate's hand. I was getting more and more uneasy talking to this girl. She couldn't be older than eighteen and she was freaking me out. 

   The girl suddenly leaned back and sighed heavily. "If I don't stop you now, this conversation is going to go on for another ten minutes and you're just going to get more confused. And then the chances of you attacking me go up pretty decently. So I'm going to stop this here." She pulled the paper towards herself and scrawled on the signature line. I was able to recognize my own signature and started to protest, but she folded the paper and stowed it away. She just forged my name! What the heck? And she'd known what my signature looked like, right down to how my capital letters were three times the size of the smaller ones.

   "You don't like people looking at your feelings, Roxie," she said, typing on her laptop. "I get that. But if you don't stop thinking with your rage and being reckless, then you're going to get yourself killed. In about a week, actually. I was hoping that by telling you this, you'd switch off of that course, but I can't tell if you will or won't anymore."

   "Do you see the future?" asked Tate, finally.

   The girl shook her head. "I create the future, Tate Leon." She pulled out two key cards and slid them to us. Her eyes flicked to us and suddenly brightened. The somber girl I'd just seen vanished as she smiled. "The bar's happy hour is four to five, and the restaurant opens at three. Breakfast is open at six tomorrow morning. You'll be out of your room by ten. I'd suggest leaving the TV on."