At my grammatical slip Rand glanced down at Cinnamon briefly, trying to smile. His neck was covered with in a stylish turtleneck, not unlike mine, but the rest of him was in one of his GQ suits that never seemed to get dirty no matter what he’d gone through. Today, however… his suit was torn. There was blood on the back of his hand. And not even Cinnamon could spark a smile in him. Rand was off his game. Rand was never off his game.

He glanced up, frowning. “Dakota, thanks for rushing. We really need you but… this is bad. Really bad. Cinnamon can wait in-”

“I can takes whatever you gots,” Cinnamon said indignantly.

“And I’d rather not let her out of my sight,” I said quietly.

Rand’s eyes tightened. He knew why I never let her out of my sight: just before I took her in, a serial killer had kidnapped her to get to me. It wasn’t that I never let her out of my sight… but whenever things got sketchy, I’d pick bringing her over leaving her every time.

“I understand, Dakota,” he said, turning back to the knot of first responders. “Let me show you what we’re dealing with.”

“Sure thing,” I muttered. “No one thinks to ask me whether I can take it.”

Rand just kept walking. “McGough, this is Dakota Frost.”

“You didn’t mention she was a civvie,” said a small, wiry, wizardly man in a Columbo trench. Like Rand, his coat was torn, his hands bloodied, but where Rand was thrown off his game, McGough’s movements were still crisp, his eyes sharp. A few nicks and cuts? Bah. Didn’t even slow him down. “Bad idea, having a civilian on a crime scene-”

“She was practically raised on the force,” Rand said, “and I think she can help.”

“Well let’s hope somebody can, we’re outta options,” McGough said, sizing me up. “So you’re Rand’s fabled Edgeworld expert. Jeez, you’re tall.”

My mouth quirked up. ‘Edgeworld’ was slang for the magical counterculture. Unlike most practitioners throughout history, who’d kept magic secret, or most normal people today, who tried to pretend it wasn’t there, Edgeworlders practiced magic openly-something which did not endear us to either group.