Riley snorted. “You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you, St. George?”

Garret’s voice was flat. “It’s what I would do.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’ve done this before, haven’t you? Shot kids in the back while they were running away?”

“Guys,” I said in exasperation, glaring at Riley. “This isn’t helping. Focus, please. Garret…” I glanced at the soldier, touching his arm. “You know St. George. You know how they think. What can we do?”

Garret nodded, looking thoughtful. “We’ll need to neutralize the threat first,” he replied, slipping into soldier mode, logical and calculating. “Find out where the shooter is, sneak around and take him out before the rest of the team arrives.”

“Oh, is that all?” Riley frowned, gesturing to the broken window. “And how are we supposed to find where this shooter is without taking a hole to the head? I don’t feel like playing whack-a-mole with a trained sniper right now.”

Garret edged close to the window, keeping his back pressed to the wall. For a brief moment, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if preparing himself. Then, before I could stop him, he straightened and peered through the frame, leaving his whole head exposed. Almost immediately, a shot rang out, slamming into the sill and tearing away chunks of wood in an explosion of splinters as he ducked back. I flinched, pressing close to Garret with my heart thudding against my ribs, but he wasn’t even breathing hard.

“Jeez, Garret!” My voice sounded shaky, unlike the soldier beside me. He straightened, looking perfectly calm, like getting shot at by snipers was routine. I scowled and smacked his arm. “Are you crazy?” I demanded. “You want to get your head exploded? Don’t do that again. We’ll find the shooter another way.”

“One block down,” he murmured, making me frown with confusion. His eyes were closed, brow furrowed, as if recalling an image from memory. “Across the street on the corner. There’s a two-story house with an attic window. Foreclosed, I think. The shots are coming from that direction.”

I stared at him in amazement. “You got all that just now?”

“Partly.” He peered out the window, keeping his back against the wall and his head inside this time. “But I observed the area when we first arrived, made note of all the places we might be attacked, where someone could set up an ambush. The house on the corner would be Tristan’s ideal…” He stopped, his jaw tightening. “It makes the most tactical sense,” he finished stiffly.

“Okay,” I said. I wished I could peek out the window, see the house for myself, but I also didn’t want to risk a bullet between the eyes. I didn’t know if I’d be fast enough, especially now that the shooter knew where we were, and maybe had his crosshairs trained right at me. “So we know where the sniper is. What now?”

Garret drew away from the window, face grim. “Wait here,” he said. “Stay inside, I’ll try to get close enough to take him out.”

“What? You’re not doing this alone.” He ignored me as he sidled past, keeping close to the walls, and I grabbed the back of his shirt. “What if there’s more than one?” I insisted as he turned in my grasp, his face stony. “What if he has a partner and you get hurt, or shot? There’ll be no one around to help. You need someone watching your back, at least.”

“Firebrand,” Riley warned in a no-way-in-hell voice, and I turned to glare at him, too.

“What?” I demanded, still keeping a tight hold of Garret’s shirt. “I can do this. I’ve been trained to do this. Lilith taught me herself, or did you forget that I was supposed to be a Talon assassin?” He took a breath to argue, and I raised my chin. “I seem to remember sneaking into a heavily armed St. George base a few nights ago and doing just fine.”

“Until you got shot!” Riley made as if to stalk forward, then jerked back, away from the window. His eyes glowed angrily as they met mine. “This isn’t a normal bullet, Firebrand,” he said. “This isn’t something you can recover from. You get hit in the head with a sniper round, you don’t have a head anymore.”

“I won’t get shot.”

“You can’t know that!”

“Ember.” A strong hand closed over mine, gently prying me loose. I turned back to meet Garret’s steely eyes, gazing down at me. His face was expressionless, and for a moment, I didn’t know if he would tell me to stay behind or not. Which was too bad, because I was coming with him whether he liked it or not. But then he gave a small sigh and released my hand, his gaze flicking out the window.

“We’ll have to move fast,” he said, scanning the street like he was planning the best route to the sniper perch. “Stay low, keep your head down and don’t stop moving. A moving target is much harder to hit. We’ll have to circle around, and we’ll stay in cover as much as we can, but don’t panic if you’re shot at. And don’t freeze, no matter what. The sniper will likely have a partner guarding his back, too, so we’ll probably have to deal with more than one. Do you have a weapon?”

I shook my head, ignoring the fear spreading through my insides, making my stomach curl. “I won’t need one.”

Behind me, Riley made an impatient sound and reached for something at his back. “Dammit, Ember,” he growled. “Yes, you will. Here.” He tossed the pistol at me, and my heart lurched as I caught it. “Just don’t get yourself killed, all right?”