“Ah, what an image,” Ellery joked. “You, naked and shivering.”
“Hey, if you printed postcards of it, I could sign those, too.” He staggered, yanking up a pant leg. “Anyway, unlike the past Chosen Ones, I don’t plan on peaking as a teenager. I better do something notable after the cataclysm. A few impressive feats. Maybe a scandal or two.”
“A scandal? You?Never.”
“Oh, fuck, you’re right. I keep forgetting I’m a changed man.”
Ellery laughed. “You know, once we’re through with this, I’m sure you could get a date with anyone you want.”
Domenic fumbled with his shirt buttons. “Could I, now?”
“What, have your eyes on Phillipa Chastian?”
“Should I know who that is?”
“She was in that movie we saw in Mercester Square! The femme fatale?”
“Oh. Right.”
Ellery snorted. “You’re ridiculous.”
Domenic flopped back onto his bed, suddenly not the least bittired. “What about you? I seem to remember a lot of posters of some dreamy, excessively muscular heartthrob on your walls.”
Ellery paused, and Domenic wondered if she could sense he was holding his breath, if she was knowingly torturing him. Because he’d let Ellery Caldwell torture him all she wanted, so long as he survived to know what awaited at the end of it.
“Firstof all,” Ellery said finally, “he’s Kent Sinclair. He played the teen runaway in that spy flick. Secondly, he’s thirty-five. And married.”
“What a shame,” Domenic said.
“Besides, I don’t know if I’d retire from the Order entirely. I used to think I wanted Glynn’s job, but now I’m not sure I could deal with Sharpe as my boss.”
Domenic’s hope withered. No doubt Ellery had changed the subject because, unlike him, she was too sensible to risk distraction.
“Fair. Sharpe will outlive us all,” he joked. Then he sobered. “You know, I might hate all the costume stuff. And the destiny stuff… I guess I’m still making up my mind. But saving the country, it’s terrifying, yeah—but we’re really doing it. And if I got to go back and tell that to my kid self, that he was gonna be a hero? He’d be thrilled. He’d probably love the costume, even.”
“I know what you mean,” Ellery said. “Yeah, the costume is still bullshit, but the good we’re doing feels real. And the fashion stuff… I suppose it’s silly, but is it bad that I’m flattered?”
“You say ‘silly’ like it’s a bad thing.”
She laughed softly, then murmured, “Wielding Izzy and Val, it really is an honor, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It is.”
Domenic twisted onto his side, facing the wall. And though the way he felt Ellery through their magic was not touch, he could feel her, next to him.
Then the cold of Ellery’s magic dissipated. He didn’t know why, but now she was the one holding her breath.
But oh, he could think ofreasons.
He should get up. He should splash some water on his face. At this point, he was only torturing himself.
“So tomorrow, that meet and greet,” he said. “I’ve been trying to decide what to say to the Prime Minister. And I figured, hey, you can never go wrong with a pun.”
“No, no—that’s what I was planning to do!”
“Shit. How do you think she’d react if we both—”
The line clicked as a third voice came over the phone. “Dom?” Hanna sounded deeply tired. “You do realize you’re not the only one who needs to make calls, right?”
