Chapter 23

Ezra had just pulled a clean pair of jeans over his new gray boxers when he froze, his expression locked with sudden chagrin.

Halfway into my tank top, I paused. "What's wrong?"

"Shit, Tori. I didn't even think about protection."

Relaxing, I tugged my shirt down. "It's okay. I have an IUD." I quirked an eyebrow in amusement. "And you've been celibate for, what… eight years? So you're clean, right?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it. "Yes, but I still should've asked you first. I'm sorry."

Warm affection fizzled through me, and I closed the distance between us. Rising on my toes, I pressed my mouth to his.

I'd intended to give him a reassuring peck, but as soon as my lips met his, the banked coals that had barely cooled sparked into full flames. I plastered myself against him, running my hands over his pecs and abs, then down to the front of his undone jeans. His breath caught as I caressed him through the soft fabric.

His tongue flirted with mine, one hand finding my breast for a return caress, then he shifted away with a reluctant sigh.

"If we take much longer, someone will come looking for us."

"Probably Aaron," I muttered. It would fit his track record for interrupting us. Not that it was his fault, but a girl could still be annoyed.

Ezra finished dressing, and I heaved my own sigh when his dark blue, long-sleeved shirt dropped down over his mouthwatering muscles. I could stroke his abs from now until my hundredth birthday and I wouldn't get tired of it.

A rush of warm, damp air escaped the shower room as I opened the door. Ezra followed me out, waiting as I sat on the bench to put on my socks and shoes. I pulled on my sweater too, needing the warmth.

Pausing, I stole one more kiss, then headed for the stairs. The rumble of voices trickled from the main level as we hastened up the steps and through the door.

The pub was as packed as before, and walking into the crowd was like submersing myself in a sea of tension. The relaxing effect of my showers—the first one and the second, more exciting one—evaporated as unease infused me all over again. For a few minutes, I'd forgotten that we were holed up in the guild because bounty hunters would pick us off the moment we left.

Though no one manned the bar, several members were clustered around the stools—including Sin, Sabrina, Kaveri, and Zak. The latter stood a couple long steps away from the women, arms crossed and expression stony, while Kaveri eyed him as though trying to work up the courage to start a conversation.

Sweeping over, I slapped him lightly on the arm. "If you keep scowling, your face'll get stuck like that."

Sharp green eyes swung to me. "You're back. Finally."

"I was overdue for a long-ass shower." I glanced around. "Where're Aaron and Kai?"

"They went upstairs," Sin revealed. "Girard and a few others went too."

"Did they—" I began.

I broke off as Sin pulled her phone out of her pocket, the screen lit with an incoming call. She lifted it to her ear.

"Hello? Yes, she's right here." She held the phone toward me. "It's Justin."

I took the phone. "Justin?"

"Tori," he said in a low, rushed tone. "I'm at work and we just received orders to evacuate eight square blocks of the Eastside. It's just like that demon thing on Halloween."

"They're evacuating?" I repeated blankly.

"Yeah, from Cambie Street to Princess Avenue—and you know what's dead center in the middle?"

The floor shifted unsteadily under my feet. "The Crow and Hammer. We're in the center of the evacuation zone."

Sin, Sabrina, and Kaveri stared at me with growing horror as they pieced it together. The only reason the MPD would go so far as to evacuate half the Downtown Eastside was because they expected mythic violence.

They were preparing for a showdown.

"How long?" I blurted into the phone. "How long will the evacuation take?"

"Around four hours. Do you know what's happening?"

"Not yet," I whispered. "I have to go. Sin will keep you updated."

Ending the call, I handed Sin her phone and jerked my head at Zak and Ezra. "Come on."

I didn't have to say more than that. Both men were already sweeping across the pub toward the stairs, and together we rushed up the steps. I glanced into the second-level workroom on the way by, unsurprised to find it empty—or rather, abandoned. Of people. It definitely wasn't empty. An inexplicable collection of boxes and crates had taken over the tables.

I tailed Ezra and Zak up the stairs to the third floor. The door to the offices was open, and a male voice rumbled out.

"… have to assume they've noticed we're not in our cells by now," Aaron was saying as we wheeled through the doorway one after another. "Depending on how they—"

He broke off, brows drawing down at our appearance—and obvious tension.

The room wasn't small, but it felt cramped with nine people in it. Along with Aaron and Kai, Girard, Alistair, Felix, and my favorite ice queen Tabitha were already scattered among the three desks.

"Where's Darius?" Ezra asked urgently.

The door to the GM's office opened in answer, and Darius swept out to join us with his cell phone in his hand.

"Is there a problem—an additional one?" he asked.

"Looks like it," I replied. "Justin, my brother—he's a cop—just called and told me the police are evacuating eight city blocks, and the Crow and Hammer is right in the middle of the evacuation zone."

Darius pressed his lips together, and I really didn't like the sight of our infallible GM's disquiet. Before he could reply, a phone chimed—his cell this time. He tapped the screen.

"Darius here. You're on speakerphone."

"Mr. King. It's Agent Shen."

I had to strain to hear Lienna's voice, not because the volume on Darius's phone was too low but because the agent was whispering so quietly.

"Are you safe?" Darius asked quickly.

"For the moment," she breathed. "Mr. King, you need to evacuate your guild immediately."

My fear turned icier.

"S?ze's gone nuclear," a male voice added in a low growl. "I don't know what the hell he's thinking."

I had to assume that was Kit, but he didn't sound like a disarming jokester anymore.

"Shortly after we helped you escape," Lienna explained, still whispering, "a Keys of Solomon member arrived at the precinct to meet with S?ze. After their meeting, he announced the MPD was ordering Damnatio Memoriae and assigning the Keys of Solomon as the prosecuting guild."

"Ordering what?" Darius asked.

"It means ‘condemnation of memory.' It's an emergency provision dating back to ancient Rome that authorizes the complete eradication of the condemned, erasing them from existence and history. It allows the MPD to unconditionally sanction one or more guilds to use as much deadly force as necessary against the offenders."

No one moved. No one spoke.

"That… that can't be real," Felix muttered, shaking his head. "The MPD isn't that barbaric."

"Damnatio Memoriae hasn't been enacted since the nineteenth century," Lienna replied. "It's a last resort for when all standard procedures have failed, and only for cases that risk publicly exposing magic—like mercenary mythics looting and burning villages."

"The Crow and Hammer isn't looting Vancouver!" Girard protested furiously.

"S?ze claims most of your members are violent and your guild is preparing to attack the precinct en masse. He talked about your guild stockpiling weapons."

"We have been stockpiling weapons," Darius said. "In preparation for a battle with the Court of the Red Queen."

Ezra folded his arms. "We can probably assume the Court is in control of the Keys of Solomon now."

"That would explain why the Keys want to destroy us," Tabitha said, her eyes flashing. "But why does S?ze want to destroy us? What's his stake in this?"

"Hell if we know," Kit interjected. "He's a slippery bastard. Before this, he was really subtle, and now he's behaving like Dr. Evil. I'm just waiting for the sharks with laser beams to show up."

I snapped straight. "Wait. The Keys of Solomon member he met with—was it a woman with black hair?"

"Yes, actually," Lienna answered in surprise. "Do you know her?"

"Xanthe," Ezra snarled. "She controls the Court."

Aaron frowned. "I thought Xever was the leader."

"He's the visionary, but Xanthe is the one running the show." Ezra looked at the phone. "Is she still in the precinct?"

"She was accompanying him earlier, but I'm not sure where she is now."

"If she's still around, she could be manipulating him," I said urgently. "The woman is a mentalist. She can make people do anything she wants as long as she can see them."

Kit's quiet curse filtered through the phone.

"I see," Lienna said quietly. "If she's still here, we'll deal with her—but that won't stop Damnatio Memoriae. The Keys of Solomon guild has brought in four teams and they're already moving into position around your guild. You need to evacuate now, before you're trapped."

Fourteams of hardened combat mythics who specialized in dangerous kill bounties and thrived on violence? I didn't know how many men that equaled, but any number above zero was bad.

Darius stared down at his phone for several long seconds. "Do what you can, Agent Shen, Agent Morris. And stay safe."

"Safe?" Kit mused. "Not unless we plan to hide in this closet all night. It's kind of cozy, but—"

"We'll be in touch," Lienna interrupted, and the call clicked as she disconnected.

Darius slid his phone back into his pocket, and we all watched him, waiting for his response.

"Justin said it would take the police about four hours to clear the neighborhood," I revealed hesitantly. "If we assume the Keys won't move until that's complete, then we have time to evacuate the guild… right?"

"We aren't evacuating."

I twitched, wondering if I'd misheard him.

The GM surveyed us, then focused on his four officers. "There's no way to evacuate over forty mythics without the Keys following us, which would leave us in the same danger but in a less secure location. We could possibly sneak small groups past them, but then we'd be leaving those members with minimal protection."

"But if we can't evacuate," Tabitha whispered, her face white, "what will we do?"

Our guild master raised his hand, palm tilted toward the ceiling. Darkness plunged over the room, then the lights flickered back to life. Darius's gray eyes gleamed.

"We will defend our guild and the members we swore to protect."

* * *

I lingered near the bottom of the stairs, listening as Darius addressed his guild. The four officers, including Aaron, flanked him in silent solidarity. As the GM spoke, the expressions on his audience's faces slowly morphed from confusion to trepidation.

We were going to fight. We were going to defend our guild.

The Keys were professional killers, but we didn't have to defeat however many of them came after us. We just had to stand our ground. We would stand for justice—a word the MPD had forgotten.

And if we were lucky, Kit and Lienna might pull off a miracle and get S?ze's orders revoked. But I wasn't counting on it.

My throat tightened, and I crept back up the stairs. I already knew the plan—Darius and the officers had hashed it out in the office upstairs—and I didn't want to listen to it again. I had enough anxiety and guilt to cope with already.

I'd provoked the cult, and the cult had engineered this. Had I saved Ezra's life only to be responsible for the deaths of my other guildmates?

Sucking in a deep, steadying breath, I hastened toward the open doorway into the second-floor workroom—only to pull up short at the sound of Ezra's voice just inside.

"Are you staying or going?"

I hesitated at his cool tone.

"Your guild is going to war with the Keys of Solomon," Zak replied, his tone even more arctic than Ezra's. "Shouldn't you be begging me to stay?"

"You don't care about our guild. You only care about Tori."

"Your point?" When Ezra didn't reply, Zak made a scoffing noise. "I'm trying to make things right with Tori. That's why I'm here, not to make friends with your little guild of misfits."

"So you'll let her guildmates die in front of her? I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

"Are you suggesting I single-handedly protect this guild? For a mythic who just lost most of his power, you've got a lot to say about what I should be doing with mine."

"I'm suggesting you be honest for once about what you intend to do."

"Maybe I'm not intending to do anything."

"Then why are you still here?"

I hastily stepped through the doorway before their argument could escalate. The two men turned toward me, Zak scowling irascibly while Ezra was… I wasn't sure. Calm, but in a grim sort of way.

He'd been freed from Eterran for less than twenty-four hours, and I didn't know yet how much he'd changed now that the demon wasn't influencing his mind, eroding his concentration, or requiring him to suppress his emotions.

"No one expects you to protect the guild, Zak," I told him. "Any way you're willing to help is fine."

His narrowed eyes flicked from me to Ezra and back.

"Seriously." I waved my hand. "You've already done enough."

Slipping between them, I peered across the workroom. One row of tables was covered in an assortment of weapons—from swords to spears to axes to guns. Another row held a display of artifacts—medallions, wands, tokens, and more, each marked with runes—and alchemic potions of every color and consistency in different-sized vials.

"Look at all this stuff," I muttered, squinting at a black sphere the size of a golf ball with gold runes etched into it. "Are we going to use all this stuff to fight the Keys?"

"The original plan was to use them against the Court." Ezra joined me at the table. "But they'll work just as well against the Keys."

"Is anything here unclaimed? What can I have?"

Zak appeared on my other side. "Carrying unfamiliar artifacts into battle is dangerous. It's difficult to remember more than one or two new incantations in high-adrenaline situations."

As I grimaced in reluctant agreement, he swung his backpack off his shoulder. It landed on the table with a thump. I watched bemusedly as he dug around inside it, then lifted out a tangle of leather ties. Hanging from the end of each one was a rough-cut crystal.

He fished out a ruby gemstone. "You know how to use the decidas spell already."

My eyes widened as he extended it toward me. My fingers, trembling slightly, closed around the cool crystal containing the same fall spell I'd lost.

"One won't be enough." Shaking the tangle of cords, he dragged out two more red crystals. "Here. Same spell."

I took those too, watching in amazement as the three gems clinked together. "These are…"

He contemplated the remaining crystals. After a moment's hesitation, he selected one and dropped the rest in his bag. Holding it up, he let the artifact—an elongated diamond shape two inches long, its violet depths veined with cerulean streaks—swing from its leather cord.

"This will be your one new spell. The incantation is ori vis siderea."

"Ori vis siderea," I repeated. "What does it do?"

"It's a rapid-fire artifact." At my blank look, he explained, "It can be used six times without recharge, but after that, it's done forever."

"Six times? Without needing to wait at all?"

"Exactly." Stepping away from the table, he grasped the crystal in his palm. "As for what it does… ori vis siderea."

The crystal flashed and a softball-sized orb of swirling blue and violet light appeared in his hand. Mini arcs of multicolored electricity crackled off it. My eyes bugged out. He was holding what looked like pure magical energy.

He cocked his arm back. "Ready?"

Alarm shot through my gut. "Wait, wh—"

He lobbed it into me.

The orb hit my right shoulder and burst. The detonation threw me back into Ezra, and as he caught me, I sagged weakly. Glowing purple and blue stains were splashed over me, as though the energy had turned into liquid. Wherever it glowed, my body had gone numb and weak. My right arm hung limply.

"Tori!" Ezra exclaimed.

"Three seconds," Zak said.

The magical stain over my shoulder fizzled away, and feeling returned to my skin. Muscles functioning again, I straightened and gave Zak my meanest glare.

He held the artifact out, the crystal swinging innocently.

"Now you know what it does," he said without the slightest hint of apology. "Five activations left."

I opened my mouth—then closed it again without berating him for attacking me and wasting one of the artifact's uses. Maybe he was right that I needed to understand its precise effects before taking it into battle.

"Thanks," I muttered, gripping the leather cord. As I dropped all four crystals over my head, I looked at him again. "Really. Thank you, Zak. You've done more than enough. If you want to go, that's fine. I won't hold it against you or anything."

Those green eyes fixed on me, boring through my skin. "You want me to leave?"

"Of course not, but this isn't your guild. You need to take care of yourself."

"And you won't care if I leave?"

"No. It won't change anything between us, promise."

A muscle in his jaw ticked as he studied me, lines of tension around his mouth. After a long moment, he gave a short nod. "Understood."

A strange zing of unease ran through me. "Zak—"

He caught my wrist and drew my hand up. Pulling something small from his pocket, he pressed it into my palm.

"You might need this too. Keep it this time."

The tight grip of his fingers disappeared from my wrist, then he turned, his long coat billowing out behind him as he swept toward the open doorway.

As he reached the threshold, he paused. "If you considered me a friend, would you have asked for my help instead of telling me to save my own skin?"

My eyes went wide and a wordless protest scraped my throat. "I didn't—I was just…"

He glanced back, taking in my guilty expression.

"That's what I thought."

Then he was through the doorway. His footsteps thumped quietly down the stairs, the sound quickly lost in the rumble of voices rising from the pub. Jaw hanging, I looked down at the object in my palm—a square of purple fabric, warm from his body heat and heavier than it looked.

The Carapace of Valdurna. His most valuable fae artifact.

I shot a disbelieving glance at Ezra, then vaulted toward the stairs. Taking them two at a time, I charged down the steps, but just before I reached the bottom, I spotted him across the crowded pub.

The pub door opened, and his dark form slipped into the darkness beyond. He didn't look back.