Free Solatium (Emanations, an urban fantasy series Book 2) by Becca Mills

friends and see if they’ll agree to come. If so, I’ll call you back.”
    She grunted something that might charitably have been called an assent.
    “When would you like to meet?” I asked.
    “Tonight.”
    “Okay.”
    “Do try to convince your friends, Miss Ryder. Quite a bit may hang in the balance.”

    Theo leaned back, frowning. “I don’t like it. We should call Gwen and talk it over with her.”
    “Why?” said Andy. “You know what she’s going to say.”
    “Yeah, I do, and I think you two need to hear it.”
    We were gathered on the couches in Andy’s suite, where the guys had been watching a Yankees-Red Sox game that had gone into extra innings.
    “Look,” I said, “I know this is dangerous, but doing nothing is dangerous too. You know Yellin’s not going to bring me when you guys go after the sewer thing, even though I’m your best power source. You need to find out now what you’re going to be facing.”
    “And what makes you think anything Sturluson says will be true? For all we know, that was her in the sewer this morning — and her that killed that kid, too.”
    The kid. Well, if she hadn’t killed him, she’d killed many others. So far as I understood, anyway. Yellin had said killing was what she did. That seemed pretty clear to me.
    I pushed the dead child out of my mind. I couldn’t help him, but maybe I could help keep more kids from ending up dead.
    “I’m not saying we have to believe what she says,” I said, “but I think we should hear it. I mean, you can go in totally cold, or you can get what might turn out to be useful info ahead of time. And if you do it now, you’ll have handy-dandy battery girl along with you.”
    Andy frowned. “You’re not a battery.”
    “Yeah, I know, I’m so much more than that, blah, blah, et cetera.”
    “You know, sarcasm’s really not your best look.”
    Darn it all. I hurt his feelings .
    “Sorry.” There was an awkward silence. I looked down at my hands, annoyed and embarrassed. “Hey, I’d rather be a battery for you than have to burn things alive myself, you know?”
    Andy scooted over, put his arm around me, and kissed the top of my head. “I know, sweetie. Don’t worry about it. I just hated hurting you like that.”
    Theo drummed his fingers on the back of the couch. “How about no burning alive, no battery, no nothing, because she’s a trainee, and she doesn’t go on these sorts of missions?”
    Andy sighed. “Look, I don’t like it, but I think Beth has a point. I don’t want to leave this in Yellin’s hands. Especially after what Gwen said about his strength. If I’m the strongest one on that mission, we’re screwed — that thing had me overpowered by a mile. And,” he added, “I really don’t think Sturluson’s going to see us without her.”
    “Yeah,” Theo said. “That’s because helping us isn’t the point. Getting to Beth is the point.”
    He looked down, frowning. Despite his words, I could see he was torn. He didn’t like the idea of endangering me, but recon that might make him and his brother safer would be a big plus.
    “With more info, maybe we could convince Yellin to call in Williams,” Andy said.
    Theo grunted and nodded. I suppressed a grimace. John Williams was far enough down my “favorite persons” list to be trimming its toenails. While standing on a ladder.
    “Was the thing weaker than Beth?” Theo asked after a minute.
    Andy shook his head. “Hard to say. They’re both so much stronger than me it’s hard to tell the difference. Maybe it was weaker than her, or maybe it just wasn’t putting all its strength into breaking my working.”
    I shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t like hearing about my vast potential. It made me awfully nervous about the things I was going to be asked to do, once my gift became useable. I really would rather play battery forever, even if it hurt like hell. I hadn’t been exaggerating when I mentioned being able to burn things alive.
    “What does