Jenna rolled to her other side, punched her pillow, and groaned. She turned back, cuddling up to Robert, but it wasn't comfortable either. She rolled to her back.

'Hey, are you awake?' she asked the man. 'I can't sleep.'

'That is quite unfortunate, Jenna. I wish you good luck with that,' he said in a blurry voice, not even opening his eyes.

The girl poked his ribs under the blanket with her elbow.

'What?' he asked.

'Told you, I can't sleep.'

'That's because you are still talking, Jenna,' he sighed. 'Believe me, I'd be happy to put a stunning spell on you, but I'm afraid I cannot do that.'

The girl sat up and the blanket fell into her lap, showing her bare chest and flat belly. The last embers of pleasure were still smouldering in her lower belly after the long, slow and sweet ride she had earlier, but the peaceful feeling it gave her went away a long time ago.

Jenna reached out and switched on the lamp on the nightstand. Weak, yellow light flooded the tiny flat, leaving the corners even darker than they had been before. Robert sighed again.

'What's wrong?' he asked, blinking quickly because of the sudden light.

'Do you think that she was right?' asked Jenna.

Robert sat up too, putting his back against the bed-head.

'I honestly don't know,' he said. 'I mean, Luther never lied to us, and he helped us out with Mr George. And the Goddess did try to kill you.'

'She was angry and scared, everyone would have been,' pointed out Jenna. 'Plus she did knock out Marcus and Ayana but didn't kill them. Up here, Professor!' she added when she caught Robert staring at her boobs.

'My apologies,' he said, turning his eyes away with some difficulty. That made Jenna smile. 'That is a good point. Although I am not sure that a regular human being would have survived what she did to Ayana.'

'Yeah, okay,' said the girl, wrapping the blanket around herself. 'But as far as we are concerned she is free since Trafalgar Square and nothing bad happened. I mean, not because of her.'

'Yeah but that wasn't that long ago if you think about it. Although it's kind of amazing how many things happened since then. No wonder I'm so tired all the time…'

'You are tired all the time because you are an old man who is trying to keep up with his young and hot girlfriend,' she grinned.

Robert laughed.

'That must be it, yes. Speaking of which, if you are interested…' his palm began to go up on her thigh, but the girl grabbed his wrist.

'Maybe later…' she said with a little shiver. The muscles in her lower belly had a different idea. 'I'm having a bit of a crisis here.'

'Right, right,' nodded Robert, pulling away his hand. 'So what do you want to do?'

It began to rain. The sound of knocking raindrops on the roof made the warm little flat somehow even cosier. Jenna put her head on Robert's shoulder.

'That's the problem, I have no idea,' said Jenna. 'I believe that Luther thinks he told the truth, but what that Edyta woman told us was all too logical and convincing. I think we are going to need some proof from either one of the sides.'

'Yes, but none of them are keen to provide that,' shook his head Robert. 'Maybe try to look at it from a mathematical point of view.'

'You are losing me,' said Jenna.

'We think that there is a chance the fae might come back, right?' he explained. 'That would mean 8 million deaths in the best-case scenario, maybe much, much more. On the other side, we have one person, who is very likely a murderer and dangerous. Are you rather imprisoning one person or risking 8 million lives?'

'Yeah, but what if she is innocent after all? Or if Luther is wrong?' Jenna ran her fingers through her curly hair. 'There is too much we don't know here.'

'This might sound heartless but it doesn't matter,' said Robert. 'One life against 8 million. It cannot be a question. If there is the slightest chance... I don't understand, Jenna. Just a little more than a week ago you were ready to end The Priest… And the danger that leaving him alive means is much smaller than what we are facing now.'

'I know, I know, but… What if it was me?' she asked suddenly.

'Who were you?' frowned Robert.

Jenna leaned away a little so she could look him in the eye.

'What if the one person who had to die was me?'

'It's nonsense. Why would you ask that?' Robert looked confused.

'Because she is me, don't you see?' burst out Jenna. Her voice was trembling, full of feelings even she couldn't recognise at first. 'We are the same. Sure, she knows the Old Talk and she is twenty-whatever-thousand years old, but that's it, that's all that is different! We want to put her back into a prison because we are afraid of her, just as people were always afraid of powerful sorcerers, especially if they were a woman! What do you think, what would have happened to me in the middle ages, before the Revolution? They would slow-cook me on a fucking bonfire! And if I was born in the '50s? I could only learn magic that could be used around the house, cleaning, cooking, that kind of bullshit. And guess what, if I was born back there, when the Goddess was, I would have ended up in a fucking doll, too,' Jenna stopped. Her chest lifted and lowered quickly as she tried to catch her breath. The man looked at her, apparently unsure what to do. She continued: 'Do you know who was the first female demon-hunter? My mother, Robert! She quit when she got pregnant with me, and never gone back, but the point is, she became the first female hunter in fucking 1991! And you heard what people said about my grandmother, she was a big deal, and you know what she did with all that power? Nothing, because the society didn't think that a woman should have worked or doing anything but raising kids and cooking dinner. So I'm sorry if I'm a little too emotional about this, but I cannot look at it from a "mathematical point of view". It's only my luck that I'm not the one this time who is okay to be killed for others' sake!'

Jenna wanted to get out of the bed, but Robert grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She fought a little, half-heartedly, but gave up quickly and buried her face in his chest. She was trembling and had to swallow her tears.

'I am sorry, Jenna,' she heard his voice.

'It's okay. Not your fault. I am sorry that I…'

'No,' he cut in. Jenna looked up surprised: Robert never did that. He was too much of a gentleman. 'No,' he repeated. 'You don't have anything to be sorry about. And you are right. We are going to find her, and we are going to talk to her. You are going to talk to her. And we will only make a decision after that.'

Jenna didn't know what to say, so she just threw one of her legs over his body, sat down on his lap and kissed him. They kissed for a long time, and when Jenna felt his hardness pushed against her, she just reached down, took his penis out of his boxers, puckered her panties away from the way and let him slide into her. She sighed. She needed that now, she needed him inside her body, needed him to be as close as it was possible. It wasn't even about just sex now, it was much, much more, things that the woman couldn't name.

She moved her hips slowly at first, her arms around Robert's neck, kissing him. His hands explored her body for the hundredth time, seemingly never getting bored. The explosion built up itself slowly in her body, and even though it wasn't as overwhelming as it tended to be sometimes when it finally came, this wasn't about that either. She finished first and moved until Robert finished inside her, too, with a loud groan, then stopped and hugged him tightly.

'Thank you,' she whispered.

'My pleasure, very literally…' he answered.

'Not for that, you moron,' she smiled. 'For understanding me.'

Robert didn't say anything, but he didn't need to.

'I love you,' said Jenna a little later. It was still weird to say it out loud, but she started to get used to it.

'I love you, too,' answered the man.

Jenna fell asleep on him, only moving as much as she needed to let him go, just to wake up, as it felt, minutes later, for the smell of fresh coffee and grey, cloud-filtered sunshine.

'Good morning,' said Robert when he saw Jenna moving under the blanket.

'Good morning,' she answered.

She got out of the bed, stretched her back and made a little grimace as her backbone cracked. Then she grabbed one of Robert's shirts from the clothes-horse and put it on, but didn't button it up. She felt a little sore but in a good way.

'So where are we going today?' the girl asked as she sat down at the counter. Robert put down a mug of coffee and a plate in front of her. It had a fried egg, two strips of bacon and a slice of buttered toast. Even though that was the peak of Robert's cooking skills, at least he got that right.

'Well, we have two people to check on today, Mr Kevin Brown, who is on the list because he invented several new ways of making better instant spells, and Annalise McCormack, who learned the Rune of Fire inside out and now she can not only put out a burning four-story building in seconds, but she can make it explode, too. Ironically she is pretty mediocre with every other Rune, but the MAGE thinks it's more like a mental issue than the lack of power.'

Jenna took a bite of the egg.

'The girl sounds promising, but the nerd? I don't think so,' she said.

'He isn't a nerd, Jenna, he is an engineer,' sighed Robert. 'A highly accomplished professional.'

'Why, what did I say?' asked back Jenna. 'Anyway, the explosion thing… How is she doing that?'

'Well, an explosion is basically a very fast burning procedure, so it just takes some skill. The surprising part is the volume: I could probably make a small rubbish bin explode, maybe a car, but a huge building? I doubt even you could do that.'

Robert shook his head and grabbed a plate for himself. He sat down next to Jenna.

'So that will be the next you gonna have an obsession with, right? Figure out how to blow up stuff.'

'You know me heartwarmingly well, Jenna,' he grinned. 'Speaking of which, I've been thinking about Edyta,' he added.

'I mean, she looks good for her age, but I kinda hoped that you are gonna keep me for a little longer,' said Jenna with a serious face. Robert pushed her gently.

'I was thinking about her take on teaching people,' he explained. 'She looked like she agreed with the idea in general.'

'And you think she could teach you a few new tricks?'

'Why not? Shamans don't use Runes, and she has some kind of power.'

'But we don't know what it is exactly,' pointed out Jenna. 'Plus the little we know seems very… Unlike you. Talking to animals, brewing potions and stuff… Do you think you could do that?'

'I don't think I would be very good at it,' confessed Robert. 'But it could never hurt to learn something new.'

'And you just won the right to do the speaking when we are gonna check out the nerd,' grinned Jenna. 'You two are gonna be friends in no time.'

She threw the last bit into her mouth and got up to do the dishes.

'There is something else I wanted to talk about…' said Robert, a little hesitantly. Jenna turned around and looked at him.

'What's up, Professor?'

'You see, lately, I've been thinking about leaving the city, and I wanted to ask what do you think about that?'

'You mean, like a holiday?' Jenna asked back.

'Well, I had something more permanent in mind…' he sighed again. 'The truth is, I am tired, Jenna. Tired of being on charge, tired of watching over the city, even tired of saving people. There is always something life-threatening, some new horror, and honestly, I'm getting too old for that.'

'So what, you wanna pack up your stuff, and that's it?'

'Our stuff. I want you to come with me. We could go to the countryside or even abroad, we could go to Italy! Or I don't know, the States, Japan, whatever you feel like. Away from the fights, and families, and all the responsibility,' he looked at her with hope in his blue eyes.

Jenna didn't know what to answer. She always spent summer vacations in Italy, but taking a few weeks, even a month was nothing. Robert proposed a new, unknown life far from everything and everyone she ever knew. It was very, very scary. On the other hand, when she looked at the man, she kinda wanted to go, if not for anything else, but to make him happy.

'I don't know, Robert,' she shook her head. 'That's a pretty big step, even for us.'

'I know, I'm not saying that we should go tomorrow,' he said. 'No, we need to see the end of the Goddess-thing, in whatever way we decide to end it. But after that… The Priest is in prison, Magda too, I think we did our fair share for the city. What do you think?'

She took a deep breath.

'I cannot say yes right now,' said Jenna honestly. 'I'm sorry. But I promise I will think about it, okay?' she looked at him nervously now. What if Robert gives her an ultimatum? What if he will be angry or disappointed? She really wanted to give him everything she had, but was that a good thing? Did she need to give up on herself in order to keep the person making her happy close? How did those goddamn things work? She couldn't believe that there wasn't a written manual for relationships. How come everyone knew those things but her?

She watched anxiously as Robert got up, went around the counter and stepped to her. Then he hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

'Thank you, Jenna,' he said. 'I know it's a big step. It is for me, too. I just… I feel like maybe it could be a good thing.'

'Maybe…' murmured the girl. 'Sorry, I know it's hard to be with me sometimes. You know, girlfriend in training,' she smiled weakly.

He kissed her on the lips now, and that sent away all her bad feelings. No, he won't guilt her into something she didn't want to do, it was a stupid idea. Jenna shook her head. Robert would never do that.

'Say, Professor…'Jenna said. 'I agree with the part when you said you are too old…' Robert rolled his eyes on her. 'But do you think you have left enough in you to do me real quick?'

As it turned out, Robert wasn't too old for that.