Shadow of Temptation (Asylums for Magical Threats #2.5) by Jessie Donovan Page B

to get their plan for tonight formulated and then she would still have time to get him talking about his dream and maybe even about his reaction to her working for the Feiru Liaison office. He had yet to bring it up and Sabrina wasn’t going to go into a high stakes situations—like taking down Watkins at the school—until she was sure they could trust each other enough to work together.
    She clenched her hands into fists to prevent herself from reaching for him and said, “Watkins is moving up the bombing of the school. According to Neena, he’s going to do it tonight.”
    He crossed his arms over his chest. “Start from the beginning, and tell me everything Neena told you.”
    She did—well, everything except for one secret she’d promised to keep from Jorge—and when she finished, he looked her dead in the eye and said, “You’ve been doing this double-life thing for years, so I’m guessing you’re good at telling whether someone is lying to you or not. What’s your professional opinion on Neena? Imagine you had a team’s life in your hands, would you still trust her and use her information?”
    Sabrina had already given this a lot of thought. “Yes, I think she’s telling the truth. Her eccentricities are genuine and I get the feeling that most people think she’s lying because of them, when in reality she’s being herself. It’s kind of a brilliant cover, if you ask me. I wish I could just be myself and say whatever I wished, but then have people dismiss it out of hand because of my behavior. It’d be a hell of a lot easier than having to live two lives.”
    He uncrossed his arms. “About that, what made a human take an undercover job with the Fed League for two years? How long have you even known the Feiru existed?”
    She hadn’t meant to draw attention to her earlier revelations, but now that she had, she wouldn’t try to brush them aside. “I sort of discovered your existence by accident.”
    He gave her a look and she decided they had enough time for her to tell him more. She hadn’t told anyone outside of the Feiru Liaison office this story before, but if she wanted any sort of trust between them, she needed to stop worrying about what her superiors might do to her. Especially since her identity was already compromised.
    She took a deep breath and said, “During my first year at university in Brazil, I was returning from a late night at the library. It was a clear, warm night, but all of a sudden I heard loud splashes of water, as if there was a downpour. I went toward the sound and came upon a young man surrounded by streams of water dancing around him, and occasionally one of the water streams would hit the ground. Like any human, all I could do was stare. The young man was standing in the open, and there was no logical reason I could think of for the displays of water—no fountain, no hoses, nothing.
    “I didn’t get to stare long, however, before I heard something like a gun go off. The young man went down, and the water instantly splashed against the ground to form a big puddle. As I tried to move away from the growing lake at my feet, arms grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. The woman was wearing a police-like uniform, but something about it was off.”
    Jorge said, “She was a Feiru enforcer.”
    Sabrina nodded. “Yes. I later learned they’d gotten a tip and had come to take care of the problem before someone could record the display of elemental magic with a camcorder or a video on their cell phone. The man was taken into custody, as was I.”
    “And what did they do with you?”
    Despite everything she’d seen, and everything she’d experienced in her current occupation, that night was still the most important in her life because from that day onward, she’d never been able to be truly honest with anyone. Keeping it a secret from all of her friends and family, including her sister, had nearly torn her apart.
    But with Jorge, she could finally break her silence, and