But she wished like she did everything else: one hundred fifty percent. She stood there so long I was beginning to suspect she had a little bit of an attorney in her and was adding codicils and caveats.

Then her eyes popped open and she flashed me that cocky grin. She nearly blew the icing off the cake. “Means it’ll hafta come true, right? Cause I blew ’em out?”

“Haven’t you had a birthday cake before, Dani?”

She jerked her head.

“From this day forward, there will be at least one birthday cake for Dani Mega O’Malley each year,” I proclaimed solemnly.

She beamed, cut the cake, and plunked two huge wedges on plates. I added cookies and a handful of candy.

“Dude,” she said happily, licking the knife, “what are we gonna watch first?”

Since I came to Dublin, there haven’t been many moments in my life when I’ve been able to sit back, relax, and forget.

Tonight was one of them. It was bliss. For a stolen evening, I was Mac again. Eating good food, enjoying good company, pretending I didn’t have a care in the world. One thing I’ve learned is that the harder your life gets, the gentler you have to be with yourself when you finally get some downtime, or you can’t be strong when you need to be.

We watched a dark comedy and laughed our petunias off, while I painted her stubby fingernails black.

“What’s this?” I said, noticing her bracelet.

Her cheeks pinked. “Ain’t nothing. Dancer gave it to me.”

“Who’s Dancer? You have a boyfriend?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Ain’t like that.”

“What’s it like?”

“Dancer’s cool, but he ain’t … he’s got … just a friend.”

Yeah, right. The Mega had blushed. Dancer was more than a friend. “How’d you meet him?”

She wriggled uncomfortably. “We watching this movie or being sissies?”

I picked up the remote and hit the pause button. “Sisters, not sissies. Spill, Dani. Who’s Dancer?”

“You never tell me nothing about your sex life,” she said crossly. “Bet you and Alina talked about sex all the time.”

I sat up straight, alarmed. “Are you having a sex life?”

“Nah, man. Ain’t ready yet. Just saying. Wanna talk like sisters, gotta do more than read me the riot act.”

I breathed again. She’d been forced to grow up so fast. I wanted some part of her life to unfold slowly, perfectly, with roses and romance. Not in the heat of the moment, with the console of a Camaro digging into the small of her back and some guy she barely knew on top of her, but in a way that she’d remember forever. “Remember when I said we were overdue for a talk?”

“And here comes the lecture,”she muttered. “Dude, ears up, they didn’t tell us all the important stuff about the prophecy. Left out a lot.”

She sprang it on me out of the blue, derailing me completely, as she’d known she would.

“And you’re just now telling me this?”

She poked out her bottom lip. “Was getting around to it. You’re the one that wanted to talk stupid stuff while I was trying to be professional-like. Just heard it myself. Ain’t been hanging around the abbey much. Moved out long time ago.”

I’d assumed she’d moved back in! One day I’d learn to quit making assumptions. “Where have you been staying? With Jayne at Dublin Castle?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, preening. “Pop by to kill the Fae fecks they catch, but got my own digs. Call it Casa Mega.”

Dani was living on her own? And she had a boyfriend? “You just turned fourteen.” I was horrified. The boyfriend part was fine—well, maybe, depending on what he was like, how old he was, and if he was good enough for her—but the living on her own part of things was going to have to change, fast.

“I know. Long overdue, huh?” She flashed me that gamine grin. “Got a couple o’ places for different moods. ’S all there for the picking. Even got a crotch rocket!” She waggled her fingers. “Five-finger discount. I was made for this world.”

Who would take care of her if she got the flu? Who would talk to her about birth control and STDs? Who would bandage her cuts and scrapes and make sure she ate right?

“ ’Bout the prophecy, Mac. There’s a whole ’nuther part they didn’t tell us.”

I shelved parental concerns for the moment. “Where did you hear that?”

“Jo told me.”

“I thought Jo was loyal to Rowena.”

“Think Jo’s got stuff going on the side. She’s part of Ro’s Haven, but don’t think she likes her none. Said Ro wouldn’t let ’em tell you the whole truth and they kept it from me ’cause they don’t trust me neither. Think I tell you everything.”

“So, spill,” I urged.

“Prophecy has a whole buncha other parts, more deets about peeps and the ways things’ll happen. Says the one who dies young is gonna betray the human race and hook up with those that made the Beast.”

I shifted uneasily. A thousand years before Alina had even been born, it had been foretold that she would join Team Darroc?

“Says the one who longs for death, the one that’s gonna hunt the Book—that’s you, Mac—ain’t human, and the two from the ancient bloodlines ain’t got a snowball chance in hell o’ fixing our mess, ’cause they ain’t gonna want to.”