Ritual Magic

would try her damnedest not to see killing as the only solution . . . but he expected her to do that if she had to. Or order it done.
    Did she have to? Wasn’t there always a choice?
    Behind her, Rule was giving crisp instructions to Scott for the men. Bound by his word, he said nothing about Friar or a crazy god or the deal they’d just made. He told Scott that he and the rest were to follow him, Lily, and Cullen to an address he could not give out at this time. Earlier, on the way to the scene, Rule had briefed the men on what Sam had told them; now he asked Scott to emphasize to the others that the knife was their most urgent priority. He said there was a good chance that Miriam Faircastle had the knife, but it was not a certainty. Yet.
    When he finished, she told him that the call had been from Karonski. “Miriam isn’t at her condo.”
    Rule was silent a moment. “That tends to support the information we just received.”
    It did, though it wasn’t proof. But if Miriam did have the knife . . . Rule had said he was trying to think of how to stop her. Either he hadn’t seen the obvious, either, or he meant that he was trying to find another way. One that didn’t involve a rifle. Rule saw nothing inherently wrong with assassination, but he didn’t hurt women. Killing one would rip him up inside. It would rip up any of the lupi.
    What was right?
    What do you believe?
That’s the gist of what Karonski had said when Lily picked him up at the airport.
What do you know in your gut about goodness?
She hadn’t known how to answer. Maybe it was time she figured that out.
    She believed in the rule of law. Individual laws might be wrongheaded, but the rule of law was a definite good.
    And yet that wasn’t her bedrock. At one time she thought it was, but she couldn’t see it in that black-and-white way anymore. She’d been brought to accept the need for a Shadow Unit to deal with matters the law couldn’t. Tonight she’d indicated to Karonski that this was a matter for that Unit, not the legal one. She’d been happy to circumvent the law, too, about the Uzi José had used on the dworg. She didn’t want him jailed for using the only weapon he’d had that stopped the monsters.
    Stopping the monsters. Yes. She believed in that. Heart, gut, and mind, she knew that was right.
    But
stopping
was not another word for
killing
. Sometimes that was what it came down to, the only way she could stop them, but killing monsters was not the goal. Stopping them was.
    And Miriam wasn’t a monster. At least, not of her own free will.
    Sam had told Lily once that the fundamental value for dragons was freedom of will. She believed in that, in free will and choices. That was what lay behind the whole rule-of-law thing, wasn’t it? People got together and decided that those who made bad choices, ones that harmed others, were subject to consequences. Cops, laws, courts, prison . . . if you didn’t believe that every person was responsible for his or her choices, there was no point in any of it.
    They’d reached the road where their car was parked. Gray and Joel were there, but Ronnie hadn’t made it yet. He’d been the farthest away, but he’d be there any minute, Rule said. They’d wait.
    And with that, another piece of her beliefs fell into place. Lily wasn’t a dragon. Free will mattered hugely, but so did teamwork. Cops, like soldiers and lupi, knew about working as a team. Other groups did, too. Families, churches, nonprofits, even businesses . . . at their core, each was about people getting together to do things no one could on their own. About working together. Helping each other the best they knew how. Their best was a long way from perfect. Even the good guys were full of flaws and foibles, and they swam in a society made up of people—every one of whom thought they didn’t have enough of something. Beauty, friends, love, sex, money, food, whatever.
    Sometimes you truly didn’t have enough. Sometimes all the choices open to you were bad. That was what the law called mitigating circumstances, wasn’t it? You were responsible for your choices, but sometimes those choices were so limited you couldn’t find any good options.
    You did the best you could. You
tried.
And you kept trying.
    Ronnie showed up running flat-out in wolf form. Rule told him to stay four-footed for now and get in the van. Cullen was going to drive Rule’s car. He’d heard the address.
    Lily slid into the backseat beside Rule