Gretta sat in a small, plain room on an unremarkable yet comfortable chair next to a modest, nondescript table. Two plainclothes agents sat in the room with her. One agent reclined in his chair to her right, positioned far enough away that if she focused on him, she couldn’t quite keep the other agent to her left in view. The agent on the left maintained a more rigid posture in the corner beside the table.

“You can see how this looks,” the agent to her right said in his deep, rich voice. His name was Agent Mackinaw. His skin was the warm, deep copper tone of somebody with Native American heritage. “An amber alert was issued for Sofia Vega days ago. Her father is found dead in a mine pit. And now? You were seen driving out of town with the kid—after evading the authorities in an outlet mall parking lot.”

“Lawyer,” Gretta said slowly, enunciating the syllables.

Agent Delmark, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, placed a candy bar on the table and slid it toward her. “You look tired and hungry. Why don’t you eat something?”

Gretta glanced at the candy bar. It was peanut butter and chocolate and looked amazing, but she resolutely avoided starting at it. She returned her stare to Mackinaw. “Lawyer.”

“Let me tell you what I think happened,” Delmark said. “We found the body of one Rowan Carter a few miles north of where you were pulled over. There’s evidence that he had been there a few days with at least one, probably two other people.”

Gretta swallowed. They found Rowan’s body. She blinked rapidly and took in a slow breath.

“You aren’t a known associate of his,” Delmark continued. “We think that maybe he took the girl, and maybe you, the detective hired by Lucia Vega-Martinez, managed to find him, but he was more dangerous than you expected, and he kidnapped you, too.”

“W-who?” Gretta asked, her mind still reeling. “That’s not who hired me.”

Agent Mackinaw leaned forward, speaking softly. “She is Sofia’s mother and Miguel’s ex-wife. You know who Miguel was, correct?”

“I know who Miguel is,” Gretta said. “I was hired by a woman claiming to be Adriana Vega, but she turned out to be Gabriela. I think her last name is Ramirez.”

“We have your bank records, and it looks like Ms. Martinez paid you,” Delmark said. “You can be honest with us. We’re trying to help.”

Mackinaw cut in. “Where did you discard the gun after you shot Mr. Carter?”

Gretta looked from Delmark to Mackinaw. “I didn’t shoot Rowan. There were people after Sofia. He was leading them away.”

“Mr. Carter’s body had been shot three times,” Agent Delmark said. “We didn’t find a weapon at the scene, though. We’re waiting for forensics to confirm, but all three shots were from the same caliber weapon. The last shot was point-blank to the head. Messy business. Where did you leave the gun?”

Gretta sat stunned. Maybe this was all an elaborate trick. Maybe the FBI only thought they found his body.

Mackinaw leaned in and held out a tissue toward her. “Did you say Mr. Carter had accomplices?”

“No,” Gretta stammered. “That’s not what happened.”

“Okay,” Agent Mackinaw said. “Why don’t you walk us through what happened, starting with when Ms. Martinez hired you?”

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“Gerald, why don’t you get her a water? She looks thirsty.”

Mackinaw looked from Gretta to Delmark, then nodded and stood. He shut the door behind himself.

“Mackinaw thinks you’re just a victim in all of this,” Delmark said. “I’m not buying the waterworks. If you don’t tell us what really happened, things will get messy. Messier.” He lowered his voice. “We deal with a lot of scum, but at least they are human scum. I heard what kind of freak you are, and I wouldn’t subject any human to that, even the murderers.”

When the door opened, Mackinaw walked in holding a paper cup, which he set on the table in front of Gretta. He then sat back down near the door.

Somehow, Delmark’s threat had sobered her. She had been trying to figure out what had happened to Rowan, but now she saw the game. The agents had been trying to unbalance her and keep her off guard. Rowan probably wasn’t dead. They were probably lying their asses off.

She was genuinely concerned about Delmark’s comments about her being a freak not fit to share a cell with a human murderer. She had been warned that the FBI policed magic users, but she hadn’t done anything wrong. She had been protecting a child.

Gretta’s expression hardened. “Lawyer.”

A voice from the camera in the corner of the room spoke. “Put her in a containment cell. You aren’t getting more out of her until she’s had time to realize her situation.”

Gretta recognized that voice. It belonged to the green-eyed agent she had seen in the outlet mall parking lot. He was the same person who had arrested her. He had magic, and she suspected he was a disciple of judgment.

Mackinaw shook his head, pulling cuffs out from his jacket. “What did you say to her?”

Delmark shrugged. “Keep your eyes on her. If she shifts in here, I’ll shoot her even if she’s got your head in her mouth.”

They knew she could shift. For the briefest second, she considered not letting Mackinaw cuff her, but she was in an FBI building. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but if she killed two FBI agents, she really would be locked up or killed. Her tiger form was still not fully healed, though she could take both of these guys. She sighed and let him cuff her.

Mackinaw led her down the hall, and Delmark walked behind them. She wondered if he had a gun drawn or if it just felt that way.

They passed a room with a man in a suit handcuffed to a chair. He had an FBI lanyard around his neck and was crying. He repeated the words “my fault” over and over.

A well-dressed woman who also wore an FBI lanyard sat next to him. “Agent Mace, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything.”

“Keep moving, or we’ll carry you,” Delmark said behind Gretta.

Gretta picked up her pace to keep up with Mackinaw.

“That was Mr. Carter’s work,” Delmark said. “He was here earlier and used some of his trickster juju to escape. Look how that worked out for him.”

Gretta had never seen Rowan manipulate someone’s mind, and that man appeared broken. Then she wondered if Rowan could manipulate her and if she would even realize it. Maybe he had some way of getting into people’s heads and making them do what he wanted.

The sign above the door ahead read “Containment” in bold red letters.

“There’s a bit of a smell,” Mackinaw said. He sounded apologetic as he opened the door.

The wave of air that hit her was heavy and damp and smelled like a mixture of lemon cleaning fluid and a cloying scent she couldn’t identify. Blood?

She paused in the doorway when she saw a metal table with Rowan’s naked form splayed out on it. His skin was pale. He had a bullet wound in his thigh and on his arm, but it was the small hole in his forehead that caused her to wretch.

“Keep moving,” Delmark said.

Mackinaw dragged her into the room and toward a small cell in the corner. Glowing blue runes lit up as she approached.

“Yeah, she’s one of them. Secure her,” Delmark said. “She’s already pulling on magic.”

She heard the click of Delmark’s safety come off as he leveled her gun at her. The barrel was black and deep as she looked into it. She might never forget that moment.

Then Mackinaw hurled her past the bars and into the wall. The door slammed shut, and with it, she felt her connection to magic snap. She had been pulling a steady stream to heal her tiger form and hadn’t even been conscious of the connection until it was gone. Now, she couldn’t feel her other forms, like they didn’t exist.