“Jesus, this has all happened in a day?” Sam asked.
“There will be a witch hunt unlike anything this world has seen,” Hugh said.
“A witch hunt?” Edgar said. “The commoners will go to war with us. I always thought we’d be exposed because some idiot would blow up a city.” He shook his head and frowned. “And now? We’re being outed by a cell phone camera because Ezekiel killed our best Mage Machina?”
“Yes,” Hugh said. Silence hung in the room.
“I have to go back,” Edgar said. “I have to consult with the Watchers.” He paused and turned his attention to Koda. “It’s good to see you again.”
Koda nodded. “And you.”
“Edgar,” Vik said. “You know we cannot focus solely on this footage. It has been viewed by millions. It’s beyond the Watchers’ power now, but Philip and Ezekiel are raising demons. If they loose a beast from one of the lower circles …” He paused and shook his head. “Gods, a war with the commoners will be the least of our worries.”
“Philip will gather whatever forces he has left,” Aideen said. “He’ll use them as a distraction to evade Ezekiel or as an offensive force against us.”
“He will use them against us,” Zola said. “He will strike where it will hurt me the most. Where Ah have fond memories of my student, my family, and him. Where we started a life together, and where it must come to an end.
“Coldwater.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“F
oster?” Mom asked as she stared at the fairy. She’d heard a lot about Foster, especially from Sam, but she’d never actually seen him.
“Ma’am,” he said in a horrendous cowboy drawl as he tipped a hat he didn’t have.
Bubbles and Peanut scooted in front of her to perform countless hip bumps for more attention. Peanut got this bizarre shuffle-hop-shuffle motion going with his rear end.
“Wow,” Mom said as she stared at the fairy. “It’s so nice to meet you, Foster. I always thought you were just Sam’s imaginary friend. Some kind of head trauma from becoming a vampire.”
Dad laughed from behind the counter. “Head trauma,” he muttered as he shook his own head.
“Head trauma is an apt description some days,” Vik said.
“Cara, you do that?” I asked as the fairy glided past me. “Oh, and how’s the Guardian?”
“Yes, I did that. There is no sense in your mother being blind to the things happening around her. The Guardian is fine, or I wouldn’t be back already, obviously.”
“Sometimes ignorance is bliss,” Vik said as he scooted around me and headed for the front door.
“You can’t argue that,” Frank said as he held his arm out to Sam. She wrapped her own around his and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Please,” Sam said. “Damian tries to argue with werewolves and vampires. Why not argue with a perfectly logical statement?”
“Yeah, well that runs in the family, Sam,” Foster said as he settled on the counter.
“I am going to talk to Vassili,” Vik said as he pushed the front door open.
“Do you want me to come?” Sam asked.
Vik paused and then said, “No, I do not know how he is going to react to this conversation. It is best if you stay here.”
“You’re a wise old vampire,” Zola said as she leaned on the doorway to the back room.
“And you are …” Vik smiled and coughed before he said, “ … old.”
Zola let out a small laugh. It was good to see her smile, even now. They both waved as Vik left.
“Hugh?” I asked.
“Yes, Cub?”
“Is the pack going to be around for this?”
“I’m sorry, but we have another matter to attend.”
“Another matter?” Edgar said. “What on earth could be more important than this? I mean no disrespect Hugh, but are you thinking this through?”
Hugh smiled and nodded slowly. “Yes, my friend. I have thought this through a great deal. We are meeting with two other packs. For a truce.”
“A truce?” Edgar said as he scowled. “Yes, that’s important, but we have to stop Philip. If we can’t stop the damn video, we have to stop Philip.”
“You are not wrong, but there is a greater battle looming.” Hugh glanced at Zola and then returned his attention to Edgar. “I trust Zola. I trust her with my life, and if she believes Philip will attempt to destroy her home, I have no reason to doubt her. She and our eclectic little clan have stopped him before. He will seek revenge, no matter how petty.”
“That has nothing to do with a truce between packs,” Edgar said with a quick flick of his right hand and a rising edge to his voice.
“No, it does not.” Hugh crossed his arms and took a deep breath. “More important than Philip is the coming conflict with Ezekiel. We all know it’s coming, but there are still questions we have no answers for. What will Ezekiel bring down on us? What creatures will we fight to save ourselves, to save our world? A truce with any pack is a boon. Without more allies, as we stand now, I doubt we can defeat him.”
“I can kill him,” the Old Man grumbled.
Hugh smiled. “Oh, I have no doubt you’d give him a good run, but this is not a time for chances and possibilities. We have to kill him. Philip must die, but when that is done, we must hunt down the God of Death, the man known as Ezekiel, the god named Anubis, and destroy him. And you, Amun-Ra, you will tell us how to kill an immortal.”
Edgar’s eyes narrowed. “This is no place for that name.”
“Nudd. Be. Damned,” Foster said as he plopped down on the counter beside Aideen, jaw slack. He glanced over at Cara. “Did you know?”
Cara just smiled.
“Ra?” Frank asked.
“The Sun God?” Mike said as his hand slid over the head of his hammer
“Lord of
truth,”
Zola said with a bite to her words that shocked me.
The Old Man laughed. It started low and quiet and built into a bellowing thunder. “Lord of truth. Father of lies. Creator of wars.”
Edgar sighed and his shoulders hunched forward.
“Your magic,” I said. “It’s all solar. You’re a Mage
Solis.
Christ!”
“I am,” Edgar said with a weary smile.
“You were Ra?” Sam said. “Or you are?”
“I was. A very long time ago.”
“Not so long ago for some of us,” the Old Man said. “If you had acted, if you had stopped that war, my family…” He curled his hands into fists until the scars on his knuckles were stark white.
“I am sorry,” Edgar said as he plucked the bowler from his head and ran his fingers along the brim. “I regret much from those days.”
“This was necessary,” Hugh said. “Everyone in this room should know who you are.” He glanced at my parents. “Well, almost everyone. Congratulations, you’ve met a god and will live to tell the tale.”
Mom slowly scooted around the counter and slipped in beside my Dad. They whispered something and then my Dad gave her a huge hug. I did not want them to see this side of my world. This darker side where we made plans to kill, hoped to stay alive, and prayed all our friends would stay alive with us.
“How do you kill an immortal?” Aideen asked as she unsheathed her sword an inch and then slammed it home with a metallic ring. “I know how to kill many things, but not an immortal.”
“Not many know how to kill us,” Edgar said. “It’s one of the reasons we became gods.” He stared at his palms and frowned. “You may not know how to strike us down, but it is only the Fae who can kill us.”
“I’ve heard no such stories,” Cara said.
“There is only one story you need to worry about,” Edgar said.
Two Blessings, bound as one
Twisted, tortured, burned upon earth
Purest flame, hammers fall
Darkest blade
Death’s embrace
“You speak of the
splendorem mortem,”
Mike said, his eyebrows creased and a frown pulled on the corners of his lips.
“I do.”
“Madness,” the smith said. “That kind of weapon could rend the fabric of the world’s ley lines. Open the gates between the Burning Lands and this world.”
“Or it could kill an immortal,” Edgar said.
“Two Blessings,” Cara said. “It is a weapon fashioned from two fairy Blessings?”
“Ezekiel is worse than Philip?” Ashley asked from the corner of the room beside the shelves of amber and gemstones.
“Yes, what of it, witch?” the Old Man said.
“What of it?” Ashley said as her lips peeled back like a wolf. “He has to die. After Philip’s men …” Her hand trailed down to the nine tails on her hip. “After they hurt me, I came to understand many things about this world. If we don’t protect ourselves, we cannot expect anyone to do it for us.”
I almost choked on the guilt rising up in my throat as I sat down on the stool behind the counter. If Ashley hadn’t known us, if we’d been there to help her … always the
ifs.
Foster saved her life, but—bloody hell—they broke her.
“I’m sorry,” Foster said from the counter. “I let you down.”
Aideen put her arm around him and whispered into his ear.
“Foster,” Ashley said. “You didn’t let me down. I
am
stronger because of it. I won’t be so helpless ever again.”
“But you were a green witch,” he said in a small voice.
“It is still a part of me. It is still the best of me, but my coven will not fall victim to my weakness. My coven is my family, much as you have all become my family.”
“Ashley is right,” Cara said. “I do not know what consequences await the destruction of two Blessings, but Ezekiel has fouled the air with his very existence long enough.”
“I will not make that abomination,” Mike said. “You risk hell on earth to destroy one man.”
“We may not have a choice,” Edgar said. “Think on it. Ezekiel’s death would make the world a safer place for your soul mate.”
Mike frowned and glanced at the shadow beside him. He took a deep breath as his eyes slowly trailed back to Edgar. “I will think on it.”
“I’m afraid we will all need to do more than ‘think’ before this battle is won,” Hugh said. “And for that, I am sorry.”
Something cold shot through the back of my pants. At first I thought I’d leaned up against some metal, but then it got worse.
“Dammit, what the hell?” I said as I leaned forward and rubbed my right ass cheek. It felt like I’d sat down on a small coaster made of ice. I stood up and glanced at the stool. Nothing.
“What is it?” Foster asked as he landed on my shoulder.
“I don’t know. My ass got cold.”
He cursed and leapt to the backrest on the stool. “Is Nixie’s token in your pocket?” He pointed repeatedly at my pants.
“The Wasser-Münzen?” I stuck my fingers in my pocket and wanted to recoil at the intense cold. I eased the disc out, expecting to see its blue obsidian surface, but I almost dropped it when I saw what it had become. The entire surface was crystalline blue with a pulsing core in the middle. It beat as a heart would, blood red and glowing like some kind of demonic firefly.
“Nudd’s balls! Get to the river, now!” Cara said.
I was torn between panic and laughing outright at Cara’s curse. Seeing the look on her face caused common sense to win out immediately and I sprinted out the front door. During the run I realized what it must be—some kind of alarm, some kind of emergency from Nixie—and my heart rate spiked even higher.
I was slow compared to the fairies and Sam. They were waiting on the riverbank by the time I crossed the cobblestones and made it down to the water’s edge. I stepped into the river and my teeth wanted to chatter instantly.
“That’s fucking cold,” I said as I fumbled the Wasser-Münzen out of my pocket. I held it between both hands, plunged it into the river, and grunted as Nixie’s power battered my senses. There was nothing gentle or sensual about her arrival. The waters rose up immediately, outlining her face and cascading into a series of waterfalls below her neck.
“Damian, thank the gods,” Nixie said. “Falias is under attack.”
“Are you safe?”
“I’m … I …" She nodded and then her face began to fall. “I have sisters there. It’s not … their walls, they can’t be breached, but they are falling!”
“If someone has found Falias,” Aideen said as her voice trailed off. “If they’ve found one hidden city, they’re all at risk.”
“It’s not
them,”
Nixie said, her voice edging hysteria. “I mean, there are many men, but one man brought the walls down. One man!”
“Why has no one called through the Warded Ways?” Aideen asked as she walked into the river beside me.
“I don’t know,” Nixie said. “The Ways, they are blocked to us all. Glenn can’t break through them. He’s going to destroy his own city in a fit of rage.”
“The Ways are the only path to Falias,” Foster said.
A black pit of helplessness welled up inside me as I watched Nixie’s tears begin to fall. Her eyes focused on something behind me.
“Levi!” Nixie said.
I turned and found no one but the Old Man. The light bulb detonated in my head a moment later. His name.
“Yes, I heard,” the Old Man said. “Did you see Ward? He was journeying to Falias.”
Nixie nodded. “Yes, I watched him go. He’s there. Oh gods, he’s there.”
“Then they have some chance. However small.”
“I can’t hold this connection open, Levi. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s breaking down the lines. Our magics can’t travel through it. Without my connection to Damian, I couldn’t even do this.”
“Ezekiel,” Zola said. “He’s the only one mad enough to attack the cities of Gwynn ap Nudd.”
“He’s one of the few with enough power to do it,” Edgar said.
“The courts here,” Nixie said as her image started to fall back into the river. “The courts here are talking of war. Open war! Do you know what that means?”
She cursed, her face contorted in pain. “I can’t hold the connection.”
“Go, Nixie,” I said. “Be safe. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said as the water collapsed back into itself.
The Wasser-Münzen warmed immediately and took on the deep blue obsidian tones I was used to seeing. It was a stark contrast to the icy river we stood in. I pulled it out of the water and stood up straight, the cold chill of the water forgotten amidst Nixie’s message.