The captain waved the two federal agents into her office. The third moved to guard the door, keeping the flow of traffic moving against the far wall, out of ear-shot.

Oh, good. This was going to be on our turf, under our terms. Here, I had people who had my back.

The woman caught my eye first. Short. Dark hair. Possibly Native American, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Probably in her fifties, though it was hard to tell. Her height didn’t take away from the air of control that surrounded her. Out of the two of them, she was definitely in charge.

The man with her was about my age, maybe a little closer to thirty. He looked like he thought he was Bond, but was probably her rookie.

Maybe he was as good as Bond. I didn’t know him.

“Ms. Nofsky,” the woman said, sticking out her hand. “I’m Agent Bylilly. I’ve been assigned your case.”

I shook her hand.

“Agent Brenner.” The man stuck out his hand too.

They both nodded at Grayson, who seemed pretty chill. They must not have been too hard on him last night.

“How about you have a seat? I hear you were injured yesterday.” Agent Bylilly gestured toward one of the chairs at the captain’s desk. Maybe I should have protested to show that I was fine, but I didn’t know how long we were going to be talking, and the stitches were starting to pull.

Agent Bylilly sat on the corner of the captain’s desk, ramrod straight. Agent Brenner moved over so he was behind her, where he could keep an eye on the situation and the other eye on the door. Okay. Maybe he wasn’t a rookie. It would make sense that they would send experienced agents to deal with a situation like this.

Though no one had experience with the fae.

Wait. That was actually a big assumption. The federal government could very well have extensive experience with the other world and had just never told us.

“I’ve heard the story from Officer Anderson. Now I’d like to hear it from you. Please start with when you arrived at the warehouse.”

So I did. She made notes as I told her about the walk into the warehouse. About the woman on the ground, acting like the victim. I grabbed the arms of the chair I sat in and squeezed, hiding the tremble as I told her about Ghira and her sword fighting ‘lesson.’

“Stop,” she said, tapping her pen against her notebook after I told her about Grayson’s break for the portal. “Officer Anderson. You didn’t mention that you left your partner in the other world.”

Grayson looked a little sick. “I didn’t have a choice. It was her, or the city. Trust me, I didn’t want to.”

“I told him to,” I interrupted. “It was the best choice we had. The only choice.”

Agent Bylilly continued to stare Grayson down. “I agree. That’s not what I have issue with. Why didn’t you tell us?”

Grayson ran his hand through his hair. “I didn’t want you to know I’d left my partner to die.”

Finally, Agent Bylilly took her eyes off Grayson, but only to make another note.

“Is there anything else you aren’t telling us?” Agent Brenner asked, his tone decidedly less friendly than before.

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“No, no. That’s it. It happened just like I said. By the time I got back from calling for backup, she’d gotten herself out of that place and was about to take on Ghira herself. Again.” He looked at me, eyes moist. “Sorry.”

He didn’t need to clarify that the sorry was for leaving me, and not about omitting some things from his report. This explained all the extra food and time he’d spent at my house last night. We took care of each other, but I wouldn’t have called us friends. Until now.

“It is what it is.”

He nodded, but looked away. Maybe he felt better, maybe he didn’t. I couldn’t tell.

“Officer Anderson, we’ll need to have a talk after this,” the captain said.

He nodded again. If there had been something I could do to help him out, I would have. But there wasn’t at the moment, so I continued my story, finishing with me leaving the hospital looking like a voodoo doll, sewn back together.

Agent Bylilly studied me hard for a moment, like she could see anything I was hiding. Like I would hide anything. I’d seen what this crazy woman was capable of, I wanted her caught more than anyone. “Did you see anyone other than the dead fae, and the other one that was helping Ghira?”

“No. No one.”

“Think about your answer.”

I settled back in the chair a bit, doing as she’d ordered. I ran every painful memory back through my head, straining to remember. “No, sorry. No one else.”

Agent Bylilly relaxed. “Don’t be sorry. That’s good news. No other fae escaped into our world while the portal was open.”

She could have told me that was why she was asking.

“Now, I have a few more questions for you…”

Her few more questions turned into an hour of being grilled. How any suspect held up under her interrogating, I had no idea. I wasn’t even on the hook for anything, and she made me sweat. My head pounded, and no matter how many sips of water I forced down, my mouth was as dry as the Sahara.

“Agent Bylilly,” the captain finally broke in. “I believe Officer Nofsky may be struggling a bit. She was injured in the line of duty yesterday.”

“I’m so sorry, Officer.” And Bylilly actually did look sorry. “It’s a matter of not only National security, but global.” She stood and straightened her jacket. “But that doesn’t mean the individual doesn’t matter.” She handed me a card. “If you think of anything, any tiny thing, you call me. I don’t care if it’s the color of a flower or a blade of grass, I need to know.” She nodded at the captain, but continued to ignore Grayson as she’d done the entire interview. “Captain. Thank you for your time.”

And just like that, they left.

I finally allowed myself to melt into my seat, fully exhausted. Not sleeping on top of mental and physical trauma from the day before had hit me hard about ten minutes ago, but there hadn’t been a thing I could do about it.

“Am I free to go?” I asked the captain. I checked my watch. My shift had barely started. But I needed out of here.

“I told you not to come in today.” She lifted an eyebrow and stared me down. “So yes. Go home. Get some rest.”

I stood, awkwardly, but I made it to my feet.

“Oh, wait one moment.” The captain stood also, and walked over to a large locker against the wall. She unlocked it, and pulled out the sword I’d kind of used yesterday.

“The labs ran every possible test on this all night long. There isn’t anything special about it, no unknown metals, no strange hides for the hilt, nothing.” She walked over and held it out to me. “In my opinion, it’s yours. Thank you for being a cop I can be proud to have in my precinct.”

I hesitated. Did I want a reminder of what had happened hanging in my house? The picture of Grayson shooting straight at Ghira and missing her popped, unwelcome, into my head. Yes. I did want it. I took the sword from her. “Thank you.”

Grayson eyed us both, but didn’t comment.

“Anderson,” the captain said. “You and I will have our talk later. You’re home for the day too, after getting Nofsky home.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Grayson’s voice didn’t sound right. A tone I’d never heard from him before. But I couldn’t worry about it right now. I had to get out of here.

Officers whooped and hollered for us as we walked out of the precinct. At least today, we were all a family. I stepped into the sunlight and paused for a moment, face toward the sun. I opened my eyes to find Grayson’s eyes on me, like a junk yard dog on an intruder.

“Uh, Grayson?”

Pink. They weren’t Grayson’s eyes staring at me. They were pink. His lips moved, and I almost missed the beginning of what he said. “Your Grayson is not here at the moment. I think we should talk.”

I stumbled back. The voice was Grayson’s, but had another voice overlapping it. Ghira. “You’d better leave his body,” I snapped at Grayson. “Now. We have nothing to talk about.”

“Wrong.” Grayson walked away, toward an alley on the other side of the road.

I looked wildly around for help, but the street was empty. What did I do? What could she make Grayson do? He’d risked his life yesterday throwing himself into danger for me.

Today I’d return the favor.