Date: 2023-03-02 05:00:00+00:00
Description: The Terminus doesn’t exist. That’s what the Arcane Congress would have you believe. In truth, it’s the final resting place for beings the Arcane Congress deems too dangerous to exist. Those they can’t kill for fear of judgement and repercussions. Warlocks, sorcerers, and supernatural beings who have strayed into the mortal realm. The Terminus doesn’t discriminate, it takes all, and those who pass its gates are never seen again. Located on a remote island and guarded by deadly sentinels it is impregnable. And breaking into it is the only way I’ll ever be free of the Summer Queen. Join Kasey Cha
Rights: Copyright &#x00A9;2023 byPrescient Publishing

Death Sentence

S.C. Stokes

Prescient Publishing

Copyright

Copyright © 2023 by S.C. Stokes & Prescient Publishing.

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Contents

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
A Word From The Author
About the Author
Also By S.C. Stokes

Chapter 1

The subway train rolled into the station, but it brought Kasey no comfort.

Ever since she’d got on board that train, she’d had the nagging feeling that she was being watched. She’d changed seats, looked for tails, and searched with her arcane senses, but found nothing.

Kasey picked up the pace as she rushed out of the subway station. The stairs to the surface were steep, but Kasey was keen to put distance between herself and the subway.

It wasn’t the first time. She was one of the most recognizable witches in New York City. The hard part was determining if the unwelcome stares were someone’s passing idle curiosity, or something more malignant.

In New York City, there were few constants these days. One of them was early morning phone calls from Detective Bishop. The other seemed to be a dangerous skew toward supernatural mischief. New York had become a confluence of chaos where the supernatural world collided with the normal realm in the busiest city on earth.

First the Shinigami, then the vampires. New York City had been a battleground and while both had been driven out, the effect on the city was permanent.

Magic was becoming more commonplace as supernatural beings flooded to a city where some were starting to embrace their oddities.

Elsewhere in the world, the revelation about whether magic was real or not seemed to still be a matter of debate and speculation.

But in New York City, too many people had seen it for themselves to put that genie back in the bottle. Fortunately, the people of New York were resilient, and they had steadily been adapting to the world as they now knew it.

The lump in her stomach wouldn’t go away. She’d learned to listen to her gut, so she made for street level, her bag thrown over her shoulder.

She couldn’t afford to dawdle anyway. Bishop's text had been cryptic but insistent.

SOS. City Hall. Come ASAP.

To her unending frustration, Kasey had already been up, worrying about the myriad of other challenges she was facing. The trial was behind her and Armando Flint had left town, but life was still awkward at Council Headquarters.

Being accused of being a warlock and dabbling in the forbidden wasn’t something she could just shake off. It was an accusation that would tar her forever. Sure, she had her supporters. But there were plenty of others who seemed to see the accusation, false though it might be, as an explanation for her talents and supernatural capacity.

What made it worse was the fact that Sanders had spent the last few nights at the office. With her avoiding headquarters, Kasey had barely seen or heard from him all week.

His obligations to the Summer Court were putting him under incredible pressure. Kasey wanted to help but try as she might, he seemed determined to keep her at a safe distance.

Ever since the Summer Queen had visited, he’d been acting a little unusual. Kasey had figured it was the pressure of the trial, but even when that had passed, Sanders had remained wholly focused on whatever he was cooking up in his office.

He didn’t seem to understand that she didn't have a choice but to get involved. She too had struck a bargain with the Summer Queen, one that Titania had delivered on with her acquittal. Saved from the zealous persecution of the ADI and Marion Strang, Kasey knew that her time to pay the piper was coming.

She needed to make sure Sanders was successful, no matter the cost. If he failed, it would cost him his life. Success was proving difficult. All Kasey knew was that they were hunting for someone or something the Summer Queen had lost, and that their objective was stored in an unknown location controlled by the Arcane Congress.

With any luck, the same location they would send Talora once Flint had taken possession of the prisoner. The tracker Kasey had planted on Talora was still their best chance of finding the facility

The frustrating part was that she and Sanders were meant to be a team, but whatever Sanders was up to, he was doing his best to ensure she didn't become ensnared in it. But given how long and hard he was working, without help and a proper night’s sleep, mistakes were inevitable in a deadly game where none could be afforded.

If the Arcane Council, or worse yet, the Congress, discovered Sanders was running errands for the Summer Court, there would be outcry. He would inevitably be removed from office and any hope of delivering on his obligations would be forfeit.

Kasey didn't want to think about how the Fae Queen would react to such a setback.

She stepped into City Hall Park but barely made it a dozen steps before reaching the police cordon. Dozens of officers had erected temporary barriers around the embattled City Hall.

The structure served as the heart of the Civic Centre of New York City, but was also one of many secret entrances into the underground Metroplex that was the Arcane Council's seat of power.

Kasey herself had used it to escape the ADI when they had been chasing her. At the time, they had been acting under the Shinigami's direction, albeit unknowingly. Most recently, Kasey had come to check on the mayor when he'd been uncooperative with efforts to hinder the progress of the Feudal Court.

Unfortunately, he had been the victim of the vampire’s kiss and had succumbed, feeding on his staff and terrorizing the building. Kasey had put an end to his suffering, though the public record indicated that he died of a heart attack.

A new mayor was yet to be elected, and there were surprisingly few candidates. With the city struggling as it was with both organized crime and supernatural beings, it seemed no one wanted to inherit the mess.

It was a beautiful day to be outside. Kasey had packed a scarf in her bag, just in case, but even her jacket was feeling like overkill as the city moved inexorably into spring.

The police were doing their best to keep the media and reporters at bay. As always, there were plenty of passersby trying to spot something they could post to their social media in the hope of going viral.

A young woman in NYPD blues stopped Kasey.

"Sorry, miss, City Hall is on lockdown. You'll have to come back another day."

Over the past few weeks, Kasey had become accustomed to being recognized wherever she went. For better or worse, she seldom had to introduce herself, particularly when dealing with law enforcement.

Many of them considered her a hero. Others knew who she was because she was at the top of their list of people of interest. She'd been applauded, hounded, stalked, and almost mobbed.

So the young officer's apparent ignorance came as something of a breath of fresh air.

"I understand that, officer,” Kasey replied. “Detective Bishop, who is running this scene, sent for me. Could you radio through and let her know I’m here?"

The offer looked at Kasey, and then squeezed the transmit button on her radio. "This is oh-five David at the West Gate. I have someone here looking for a Detective Bishop. Over."

The radio crackled to life.

"Oh-five David, this is oh-nine Charlie."

Kasey recognized the voice. It was Morales.

"Is it Kasey Chase?" he asked through the radio.

"Kasey who?" the officer asked.

"It's me, Morales," Kasey called, loud enough to be heard over the radio.

"Coming to you, oh-five David. Hang tight. Over," Morales said.

The officer had a fresh out of the academy look to her. Her uniform was clean pressed and was yet to be bleached by the sun.

Kasey just smiled at her. New York City was a hard beat. They could use all the new blood they could get.

Kasey hadn't been with the precinct for months, but still she thought of herself as one of the team. The Fighting Ninth seemed to view her the same way. Shared trauma tended to have that effect on people.

She could have tried to talk her way through the cordon, but she didn't want to embarrass the rookie. Besides, she didn't have a badge anymore, and the rookie was just going by the book.

Morales came racing across the park. He reached the cordon and waved Kasey through.

" I'll take her from here," he said to the rookie. If she thought it was strange for a civilian to be on site, she said nothing and went back to her post.

"Heya Morales, how are things?" Kasey asked as she followed him across the yard.

"Pretty good, Chase. How about you?"

She traded updates with her old comrade as they crossed the park.

Approaching City Hall, Kasey looked up at him. "So, are you going to tell me why I'm here, or are you leaving the good news for Bishop to deliver?"

"And spoil her fun?" Morales asked. "Not on your life."

He guided her to the Western Wall of City Hall where Bishop and a cluster of officers wearing the bulky uniforms of the bomb disposal unit were gathered.

Bishop was wearing her usual pantsuit, her Glock sitting neatly in a holster at her waist while her blonde hair was pulled back in a high ponytail.

Clean, efficient, deadly. That was Diane Bishop. And those who didn't know it at a glance usually learned the hard way. She had a reputation for closing cases that had only improved when Kasey had been assigned as her temporary partner. Together they had put an end to this Shinigami threat facing the city.

Bishop had a sharp mind and an even better aim.

"I'll leave you to it," Morales said. "I'm still coordinating the efforts to canvas for witnesses."

"Thanks, Morales, see you around," Kasey replied with a wave as she headed for Bishop.

Bishop was locked in conversation with the bomb squad.

"What do you mean, no explosive residue?" Bishop asked, her voice rising as she shook her hands at the wall.

The bomb technician looked up at Bishop. "I mean something made that hole, but me and my crew have been all over it and the building. There is no explosive residue in that room and no explosive devices anywhere else in City Hall."

Bishop shook her head. "How is that even possible?"

"I dunno," the bomb squad operator replied, "but if you work it out, let me know. Twenty years in the department, I haven’t seen anything like that. It’s definitely not a sinkhole."

"Well, thanks for the help anyway, captain. We'll take one more look around and send in the cleanup crews."

The bomb squad started packing and Kasey crept up behind Bishop.

"What's not a sinkhole?" Kasey asked.

Bishop jumped. "Kasey, what are you thinking scaring me like that?"

Kasey laughed. "Me, scare the great Diane Bishop? I don't believe it for a second."

A six-foot wide hole gaped in the side of City Hall. Something seemed to have carved right through the darker colored bricks that formed City Hall's lower level.

It was almost as if a massive laser had cut right through the wall, taking out the brickwork and the window that should have been there, and vaporizing the lot. As Kasey stepped closer, she realized there was no bore marks on the surrounding wall and no indication that anyone had used any power equipment. In fact, the entire edge of the hole was smooth. Interesting.

A trace of arcane residue lingered, which certainly explained the bomb crew’s consternation. Their equipment wasn’t calibrated for bizarre.

Kasey made a mental note of its presence but wasn’t ready to jump to any conclusions.

"So why did you call me here?" she asked. "And what is not a sinkhole?"

Bishop put her arm around Kasey and steered her toward the gap in the wall.

She kept looking around, as if she were concerned that someone might overhear them.

"Two hours ago, police responded to a series of calls reporting an explosion at City Hall. Seismic sensors also reported some sort of disturbance. When our boys checked it out, they found this along with some more damage inside."

Kasey looked at the ruined façade and shrugged. "If you need a bricklayer, you're barking up the wrong tree. I make holes like this. I don't fix them."

Maybe Bishop was just looking to catch up. It wouldn't have been the first time she had called Kasey to consult on the case that she had well and truly in hand, just for a chance to grab a coffee. With everything she had going on, Kasey was hoping this was one of those times. But given the state of City Hall, it seemed Bishop was far more likely searching for a supernatural suspect. Still, Kasey like to make her work for it.

"I know," Bishop replied quietly. "I am well aware of that part of your resume. I was looking for confirmation that there was something arcane at work here. We are well beyond the realm of the normal and mundane."

Kasey nodded. "There is definitely a trace of something arcane here. Whoever took out that wall used magic to do it. The real question is why? Burglary, perhaps."

"I don't think so," Bishop said, resting her hands on her belt. "We can't find anything missing, and there would certainly be easier ways to gain entry to the building then boring straight through this wall. Surely a window would have been enough?"

"Unless you can't fit through a window," Kasey mused out loud. It was a thought that wasn't particularly comforting. She had met her share of magical creatures lately and some of them were truly terrifying. The Wendigo would have needed something even larger. She shuddered at the memory of its corrupting influence. The creature had tormented her mind for days. She had been glad to see the end of it.

Her thoughts went to Talora, the emissary of the Summer Court that had succumbed to the Wendigo's sickness.

She couldn't have done this. The last Kasey had seen her, she was in the custody of the Arcane Congress and their sentinels. The tracker that had been planted on her was still broadcasting from somewhere outside of London.

Still, there were plenty of other magical creatures making their way into the city. She was going to have to do spend some time in the archives. Hopefully with the Keeper’s, help she could narrow down some potential options.

Of course, it could also be a witch or wizard, simply trying to hide their tracks by leaving a greater hole than they needed.

The arcane residue certainly lent itself to that possibility.

Kasey sighed. A bomb would have made her life a whole lot simpler by making this a problem for somebody else. She had more than enough on her plate without adding any unusual new cases to it.

Marion Strang clearly had aspirations to sit in the Chancellor's seat. Given it was currently occupied by Sanders, Kasey had been watching for Strang’s next move. She was a powerful figure in the Arcane Council, and a formidable enemy who seemed eager to throw her weight around.

Strang had taken time to lick her wounds after the trial, but Kasey didn't believe for a minute that the battle was over. The last attack had caught her by surprise. She wouldn't let the bureaucracy catch her napping again.

The earth spirit had been silent since it had imparted its vision of the warring Sidhe…which wasn’t reassuring. It had been a harrowing sight to see the Summer and Winter courts arrayed for battle. By letting the Wendigo die, Kasey hoped she had avoided the conflict, but Talora succumbing before she had a chance worried her.

Would the Summer Fae turned Wendigo still be a catalyst for war?

Unfortunately, the Earth Spirit didn't appear to be in any hurry to clarify the matter. So, Kasey was working overtime to get ahead of her enemies for once. What she didn't need was a mysterious case of magical burglary in one of the city's seats of power.

"What are you thinking?" Bishop asked, scratching her forehead. "You have that look in your eyes."

"I'm thinking that someone or something from the supernatural world punched through this wall, and I'm going to be honest with you, Bishop. I could really do with a break right now. I've got a lot going on. Can't we just let the city handle this one?"

"I am the city, Kasey. It’s my job. Trust me, if this was the worst of it, I'd have let you sleep in. But if this one has got you concerned, inside is going to pique your curiosity."

Bishop always did know which buttons to push.

Try as she might to suppress the urge, Kasey found herself asking, "What's inside?"

"A sinkhole that's not a sinkhole," Bishop replied as she stepped through the chasm in the wall and into City Hall’s ground floor.

Kasey fell into step behind her.

She had never been in this particular room before. It was some sort of maintenance storeroom and might have been utterly unremarkable, if it wasn't for the massive hole in the floor. The hole wasn't visible from the outside, but once inside, you couldn't possibly miss it. The chasm was a good eight to ten feet wide and plunged straight down into the darkness.

Kasey strode over to it, noting the edges of the hole were nowhere near as smooth as the exit that had been cut in the outer wall. This looked like it had been dug, leading Kasey to believe something else might have done it.

She agreed with Bishop's assessment: it certainly wasn't a sinkhole.

A sinkhole wouldn't have punched through the building's foundation and done such isolated damage to a single room. Rather it would more likely have damaged an entire wing of the building.

No, something had definitely made this hole, and if it hadn't been blasted with explosives, what on earth had done it?

Kasey felt around for lingering traces of the arcane but didn't pick up anything near as strong as whatever had punctured through the outer wall of the building.

Which meant something had dug it the old-fashioned way.

The pit reminded Kasey of scenes from a horror movie. It was like some evil creature had clawed its way up from hell and then burst out of City Hall.

A shiver ran down her spine, and she had the distinct impression today was going to be a long day.

"Has anyone had a look down there?" Kasey asked, gazing down into the darkness.

"Not yet," Bishop replied. "To be honest, I was waiting for you to help me check that out. You know, just in case."

Kasey let out a sigh. "I was afraid you are going to say that."

"I didn't think you're afraid of anything." Bishop gave her a nudge. "Come on, it will be fun. Just like old times."

“Old times were a hot mess.” Kasey laughed. “But I’m sure glad you were there.”

Bishop smiled. “You, too.”

Kasey stared at the hole. “What's your plan? Jump and hope it's not too deep?"

"Actually, it doesn't go straight down," Bishop said, pulling a small flashlight off her belt. She shone it into the hole.

As the darkness was driven away, Kasey realized Bishop was right. The pit wasn't vertical at all; it just looked that way in the darkness. The opening fell away to the west.

"If we are careful, we should be able to make our way down,” Bishop said. “At least have a look around."

Kasey didn't relish the thought of climbing down into the hole, but it did seem the most likely option for shedding some light on what had happened here.

She held out her hand and whispered, “Golau!”

Two tiny blue orbs materialized above her open palm. They cast a light about them as good as Bishop's flashlight, only they threw it in all directions. They would be a heck of a lot safer than trying to climb down while one hand was busy holding onto a flashlight.

"I guess we are doing this," Kasey muttered.

Turning around, she lowered herself over the edge. It was easy enough to move her lights with an effort of will as she went. It was far harder to find feet and hand holds as she made her way down.

Bishop climbed beside her, and the two worked in near silence, their complete concentration on the task at hand as they descended through the building's foundations. The deeper they went, the more the tunnel sloped. What had started as a ninety degree almost vertical drop tapered out until it was almost forty-five degrees and moving through rock and rubble. That made it less of a climb, and more of a clamber but still far from easy going.

Kasey was already regretting the fact that she was in her favorite jeans, but they fit well and had good pockets. What was a girl to do?

Soon the path leveled out enough that they could walk. Guided by the blue lights, Kasey and Bishop made their way west over the rough terrain.

Kasey couldn't help but realize they might have made a tremendous miscalculation. What if something hadn't clambered out of the hole? What if something had borrowed its way down here?

Her stomach fluttered as she realized they could be chasing some burrowing supernatural creature beneath the bowels of the city.

Perhaps they should abort and come back with reinforcements.

She was considering saying something when Bishop held up her arm across her chest to stop her progress.

Bishop lifted her finger to her lips, indicating that she should be quiet. How Bishop heard anything was beyond her, but once they had stopped moving, the unmistakable sound of footfalls carried through the tunnel toward them.

They didn’t sound like the immense trudging stride of some creature from the abyss.

No, they sounded distinctly human.

But Kasey drew on her power just in case. If something wanted to eat her for breakfast, it was going to have to work for it.

Only it wasn't some sinister creature emerging from the bowels of the earth.

It was much worse: half a dozen men and women in the bolt gun gray suits of the ADI.

And at their head stood a very red-faced, dust covered Marion Strang.

Chapter 2

Bishop reached for her weapon.

Kasey couldn’t blame her. Over the years, the ADI had been as much friend as foe. Finding them rooting around down here at the bottom of a bizarre crime scene didn’t help.

Much as Kasey would have enjoyed seeing Marion Strang get what was coming to her, throwing down with the head of the ADI and six of her agents was likely to end poorly for everybody. Particularly in a tunnel this far beneath the Earth. There was nothing in the way of supports, and a cave-in could bury them all alive.

There was also Kasey’s curiosity as to why Strang was here at the scene of this bizarre crime at all. While magic could well be involved, it seemed unlikely Bishop had clued them in.

"Don't," Kasey whispered, unsure if Bishop had recognized them for who they were. “ADI.”

Bishop relaxed visibly as the familiar suits approached. Her hand wasn’t far from her holster, but it was less openly hostile than drawing the weapon.

Kasey never let her guard down. Strang had tried to get her killed, and that particular wound was still raw.

"Strang, what on earth are you doing down here?" Kasey called. She'd been worried that she would come face-to-face with some infernal creature. She hadn't expected to run into the devil herself.

Strang startled as she realized that they were not alone.

As the agents reached for weapons and drew on their power, Kasey channeled more energy into her two dim swirling lights so they cast their glow across the tunnel. She hoped the added illumination would make their identity more obvious or at a minimum, make the tunnel bright enough they were harder to aim at.

Strang's brow furrowed, as she shielded her eyes against the brightness Her gaze settled on Kasey.

"Chase, I guess I should have expected you to be at the heart of this mess."

Her tone was weary.

"Me?" Kasey replied. "I've only just got here and am in the process of trying to help my friends in the NYPD discover why there is now a massive hole running through City Hall’s basement. I don't suppose you superstars could shed any light on that?"

Kasey’s surprise turned to sarcasm at a rate that shocked even her.

"City Hall?” Strang looked at her agents. “The tunnel goes right through? Then they are already outside."

She let out an angry groan, kicking a loose stone and sending it bouncing across the floor of the tunnel.

"Who is they?" Kasey asked. "And more importantly, why are they tunneling beneath the city?"

"I'm afraid that's ADI business, Chase. Stay out of it."

Bishop produced her badge. "Actually, when they tunneled into a city government facility, it became police business. I can turn this into a jurisdictional circus if you like, but we both know your Council is pretty keen to be seen to be cooperating with the city. Particularly in light of what has happened in other tunnels beneath the city.”

Bishop was referring to the mad Shinigami Akihiro, who had attempted to detonate a weapon beneath New York that would have had cataclysmic consequences for the city and everyone in it.

“Uh, well,” Strang scrambled for an excuse. “We have no reason to believe the two are related.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Bishop said. Sarcasm dripped from each word. “What do you know?”

It was fun to watch Strang squirm, though it did make Kasey wonder what was going on down here.

Strang eyed the badge and weighed her options.

"Come on," Bishop prodded. "We both know you sit on the Council, and we both know the current chancellor's feelings on cooperation with law enforcement. More importantly, we are on the same side. Work with me."

"We may be, but until we know what we're dealing with, I don't care to recklessly speculate.” Strang set her hands on her hips. “When we know more, we will be sure to tell you. Now turn around and head back the way you came."

"Oh, come on, Strang.” Kasey’s patience frayed by the moment. “You're going to have to do better than that. I can always pick up the phone, you know?"

Normally, Kasey was against calling someone's boss on them. But given Strang's boss was Noah Sanders and that she had recently tried to steal his job, Kasey enjoyed reminding Strang of her failure as often as possible. Childish, perhaps, but it did make her feel a little better about being up at stupid o’clock in the morning.

"He is yet to be briefed," Strang replied, "so go right ahead. It will be a short call."

Kasey tried a different approach, stepping forward. "What if we were to keep going down this tunnel. What would we find?"

Strang held out an arm to stop her. "You would find an army of ADI agents with instructions to keep unauthorized individuals out of an active crime scene."

Kasey looked down at the arm blocking her path. Her gut instinct was to press on, find answers, and workout what Strang was hiding. But she didn’t need to give Strang another reason to gun for her.

So rather than plow through Strang, Kasey put her mind to work instead. The tunnel didn’t really change direction, at least not obviously, so they were still more or less heading west from City Hall.

Then she remembered the fact that Strang had called it a tunnel not a hole. Which, given Strang’s usual attention to detail, was a clue she had almost skipped over.

Kasey leaned over to Bishop. "Has anyone else come or gone through City Hall since your officers discovered the hole?"

"No, no one. City Hall has been locked down tight for two hours, and there were officers on scene before that."

So the ADI hadn't come through the City Hall entrance. Which meant they had come through the other end of the tunnel. And given we were heading steadily west beneath Chambers Street, Kasey put two and two together.

"The tunnel leads right to the bowels of the council Metroplex," Kasey mused out loud. "But why tunnel through bedrock, when there are underground thoroughfares everywhere anyway?”

She was fishing for a reaction, but Strang had found her poker face. If they weren’t using the Council’s existing passages, it meant that whoever had fashioned this tunnel didn't want it to be discovered by the Council. More importantly, they had an intimate understanding of the layout of the Council's facilities and were able to avoid them.

Strang wasn't being the least bit helpful, which wasn't entirely surprising given the embarrassment she had faced when Kasey was acquitted.

But this felt like more than simple animosity. Strang had to know that Kasey would find out the truth eventually, so why bother hiding it now? What purpose could it serve?

Kasey's mind raced as she considered the possibilities. The ADI where here, so clearly there was some sort of magical law enforcement breach. The presence of the director herself spoke to something of a significant magnitude. Strang didn’t leave her office for arcane pickpockets or pedestrian criminals.

She went for the high-profile cases. Warlocks and the Forbidden were her bread and butter.

Strang's frazzled state conveyed the impression that her day was going particularly poorly.

Something had happened. Something had occurred at the Arcane Council's headquarters, and Strang was trying to keep a lid on it.

But why the tunnel?

Something had been trying to get in or out of the Council’s Metroplex without being detected.

Strang's words echoed in her mind. An army of ADI agents. What could require the attention of so many trained battle mages? Surely there had to be more important places for them to be.

Unless they were already there, Kasey realized.

At this hour of the day, the only place an army of ADI agents would be was in their headquarters beneath Chambers Street. What if the tunnel ran right to their offices?

There was plenty of magical and mundane firepower stored in their armory. Perhaps it was a robbery? No, too much risk, too little reward.

Or perhaps they had targeted a more secure location attached to the ADI’s headquarters. Somewhere like the jail cells where the Arcane Council stored its most dangerous criminals.

Kasey’s gut told her she was onto something.

It wasn't a tunnel to their headquarters at all. This was a tunnel to those jail cells. It had to be. No one else would have gone to so much effort to avoid using the ordinary passageways. Only someone trying to move undetected would bother with such a potentially dangerous course of action.

This wasn’t a burglary at all. It was a jailbreak.

"How many prisoners escaped?" Kasey asked, looking at Strang for any trace of a reaction.

"Wait, what?" Bishop asked as she played catch up. "Prisoners?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Strang replied, unable to meet Kasey’s stare.

"Don't lie to me," Kasey said. "This tunnel runs to the holding cells, doesn't it?"

Strang shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her silence answering the question even if she didn’t.

"I can follow the tunnel," Kasey replied, pressing her. "Your men aren't going to shoot me. So why don't you level with me and tell me the truth? If someone broke out of the cells, it's in all of our best interest they be returned there as soon as possible."

Strang's face didn't give away anything, but her men were less practiced. In the surprise that registered on their faces when she said prisoners, Kasey knew she was on the money.

"Come on, Strang, I'm not trying to make you look bad. I might already be doing your job, but I don’t want the title. If there are escaped witches and wizards roaming the city ready to inflict chaos, we need to inform our allies in the NYPD. We need to make sure they are adequately prepared to respond."

"We don't know anything for certain," Strang replied. "That's why I don’t want to say anything. For all we know, they are just running for their lives. There doesn’t need to be any reason for alarm. After Akihiro, people are easily panicked. The fallout could be worse than the threat itself."

Kasey tried not to smile. She'd been right. She might not have worked many cases lately, but it was good to know her instincts were still intact.

"How long ago did it happen?" Kasey asked.

"At some point during the night," Strang answered. "We’re not entirely sure, but their bunks were empty at breakfast. So the guards sounded the alarm."

"How did they manage to escape? Don't they normally wear those handcuffs that inhibit their powers?" Kasey remembered all too well how those felt. It was a strange sensation to not be able to access her magic. She had got out of hers at the first possible opportunity.

"That is correct," Strang answered. "And all of them were wearing them when they went to bed. So how this happened is a mystery. As unpalatable as the thought might be, it seems likely that they had some help. Escaping alone, from Council custody, is practically impossible.”

“But anything becomes easier the more conspirators you add," Bishop said. “Most systems break down with collusion. That and negligence are the most common points of failure in any penal system.”

“It wasn’t negligence.” Strang’s brow furrowed, her face taking on a reddish tinge as her temper flared.

"You think someone helped from the inside?" Kasey asked. That was a little disconcerting. The thought of a mole inside the Council brought back painful memories. Akihiro had done unspeakable damage as he'd masqueraded as Arthur Ainslie.

"At the moment, we’re not ruling anything out," Strang replied.

"What does your surveillance show?" Kasey asked.

Strang shook her head. "Nothing at all. The server the backup was stored on was undergoing routine maintenance, nothing recorded. The primary system was fried. Probably during the breakout itself."

The situation was growing worse by the moment. The tunnel had been an indication that someone with an intimate understanding of the Council’s underground layout had planned the nefarious affair. But now someone with security clearance had ensured that no footage survived of the breakout. Someone was going to great lengths to conceal what had happened. Someone with a high level of security clearance.

Given Kasey’s prior dealings with Strang, she couldn’t help but find the whole matter more than a little suspicious. Things weren’t adding up.

The Arcane Council didn’t have prison escapees. Kasey had been in those cells. Without her power, there had been no escape.

In her time working with the Council, she’d never even heard of an attempt being made. Now one had gone off flawlessly on Strang’s watch. A prisoner escaping, with all records of the jailbreak wiped from the Council’s surveillance, was a little too much to stomach.

The fact that both anomalies occurred under the usually obsessive watch of Marion Strang made it all the more distressing.

Few people in the Council would have the knowledge or access necessary to facilitate such an escape. So either Strang was complicit in breaking dangerous criminals out of the Council’s cells, or someone was going out of their way to embarrass her.

Kasey eyed Strang with renewed skepticism. She’d proved herself a truly dangerous political adversary. Her political aspirations and callous accusations had almost got Kasey executed. Strang had even called in oversight from the Arcane Congress to undermine Sanders’ ability to protect her.

It was possible that this was simply Strang’s next attempt to wrest control of the Council from Sanders. Kasey wasn’t sure how the escaped prisoner might be spun against Noah, but just because she couldn’t see it, didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility.

She made a mental note to talk to Sanders. He’d previously been the acting head of the ADI. He would have a better idea what might have transpired here. He would also likely have some insight on what Strang might be up to, if anything.

Strang might be trying to keep a lid on the situation, but she was still accountable to him. Maybe Sanders could put a little pressure on.

“Okay…” Kasey nodded along. “So we don’t know how the prisoner escaped. Can you tell us who we are dealing with?”

“Yeah,” Bishop weighed in. “If we can get an ID and a picture, we can put out an all-points bulletin.”

Strang shook her head. “Until I’ve briefed the Council, I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to disclose those particulars.”

“I’m on the Council.” Kasey shrugged. “So why not just share the details with me now? We can help you.”

“You’re a guest at our meetings, Kasey,” Strang replied. “You aren’t on the Council. Frankly, you’re lucky you aren’t in the cells yourself.”

Kasey felt her pulse quicken, and her temper flare.

“Please, Marion, tell me how you really feel.” Kasey bit her lip as she fought the urge to tear strips off the Director. “If that’s how you want to play this, by all means. You’re probably going to want to loiter down here in the dark though. If any of you pop out into the middle of an active crime scene, the good detective here might have to detain you.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Strang said.

Bishop shrugged. “I mean, what other choice would we have? Don’t worry, holding down at the Ninth Precinct isn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t lead with the fact you’re wizards though. Still some unpleasant memories from the last ones that stopped by the station.”

“Of course you could always cooperate,” Kasey countered. “Share what you know with us, and we’ll do the same.”

“Not on your life. Feel free to cry to your boyfriend, I mean, boss.” Strang’s smile was more of a grimace. “But this falls under my purview. The Chancellor need not concern himself with such trivial matters.”

“Suit yourself, Strang.” Kasey was filled with the overwhelming temptation to hurl Marion Strang as far as she could throw her, but she settled for twisting the knife a little instead. “When we do find your missing prisoner, we’ll be sure to return him.”

“Prisoners,” Strang replied.

“Pardon?” Bishop asked.

“You said prisoner.” Strang shrugged, unable to help but correct others. “There is more than one of them.”

With that, the Director turned and led the ADI back the way they had come.

Kasey had been fairly certain that was the case, but she’d used Bishop’s favorite trick to get confirmation from Strang. She held her fist out for Bishop to bump.

Escaped wizards roaming the city streets. From the ADI’s response, the prisoners were dangerous.

The question was, just how many prisoners had escaped? And where were they now?

Chapter 3

Kasey groaned as she made the near vertical ascent back to ground level. Her arms burned from the exertion, but at least the climb was easier going up than it had been going down.

Bishop moved steadily upward, seemingly unfazed by the fact she was wearing a pantsuit while rock climbing. The detective wasn’t one to let a little dust and dirt get in her way.

"I take it that your acquittal did nothing to change her opinion of you?" Bishop asked, breaking the silence that had prevailed as they had worked their way back to the surface.

"Apparently not.” Kasey reached for the next hand hold. "In Strang's eyes, it’s not innocent until proven guilty. Once she’s formed her opinion, you're guilty and can't be proven otherwise.”

“That’s not a problem unique to her,” Bishop pointed out. “We deal with that every day on the force. Dealing with the worst elements of society every day has a way of coloring your judgement.”

“And people die for it,” Kasey replied. “It doesn't seem to matter what the jury thought. As far as Strang is concerned, I'm a warlock, and it's only a matter of time before I am consumed by my lust for power and try to wipe out the city."

"Remind me to stay on your good side." Bishop laughed. "Or just give me a little notice so that I can emigrate. I hear Greece is lovely this time of year."

Kasey laughed along with her friend. It was hard to picture the detective in anything but a pantsuit. Even when they relaxed for game night, Bishop's idea of casual was taking off her jacket.

Perhaps Jack was wearing off on her a little. Dating the handsome rogue had been good for Bishop. And the fact that he was a wizard didn't hurt either. Kasey imagined that he spent a good deal of time answering questions as Bishop lovingly interrogated him for insight into the supernatural world. It certainly showed in her increased understanding of how magic worked.

Kasey admired that in her friend. Bishop wasn’t one to settle for the status quo. If supernatural crimes were going to keep occurring in her city, she wanted to be able to do something about it.

Bishop had good instincts and Kasey wondered what her impression of Strang’s behavior had been.

"What did you think of the director?" Kasey asked as she climbed.

"In what sense?" Bishop rested on her forearms on the ledge above Kasey as she caught her breath.

"She strike you as being sincere?" Kasey asked, not wanting to put words in Bishop's mouth.

"Well, you two were circling each other like two lionesses on the prowl. She's gunning for you, that much is certain. So whether it's because she's worried you and your task force will take her job, or because she sees you as a way to get to Sanders, I'm not sure. Either way, she’s certainly hiding something. What did you make of her story?" Bishop asked.

"I've been in those cells." Kasey's foot slipped, and she went with it, grazing her palm on a stone as she scrambled to stop herself from falling back down the hole.

She winced as she slammed against the wall, but she sucked it up. She’d had worse.

“Are you okay?” Bishop called.

“Peachy,” Kasey replied, as she dragged herself back up to Bishop. “I was in the cells while I waited for my first trial. I know there is no way out without help. Help from someone in the Council, likely the ADI."

"You think it's an inside job?" Bishop asked, watching Kasey’s progress the whole way.

"I don’t see any other option,” Kasey said, trying to ignore her grazed palm. “Not only did they escape, but they did it without a trace. Strang didn't mention anyone being injured or killed in the attempt, which makes me think it was clean. The surveillance footage being faulty is also a little too convenient for my tastes."

"Yeah, that didn't particularly help matters, did it?" Bishop was starting to sweat as Kasey caught up to her. The surface was growing nearer by the moment.

"Not at all," Kasey replied. "What I can't work out is whether these escaped prisoners are a ploy to somehow damage Sanders’ reputation, or whether someone sprung them for some other nefarious purpose we are not aware of."

They were two wildly different possibilities, and Strang's unwillingness to share information made either as likely as the other.

“Hard to know what they might be up to, when we have no idea who they are,” Bishop replied. “Or why they were inside in the first place.”

"Right?” Kasey grumbled. “Now I’m not sure whether I should be watching Strang like a hawk for her next move, or combing the city looking for escaped convicts who could be extremely dangerous and armed with magical talent."

"An unenviable position," Bishop answered. "Fortunately, you're not alone, so why don't we do both? Strang might have the ADI, but we have the Ninth and its resources, plus your task force and plenty of friends in the community. We can run circles around her."

Bishop always knew what to say to make Kasey feel better. At times in life, it was only too easy to focus on the enemies and adversity she had faced along the way.

But Bishop was right. Ever since she’d got out of the morgue and started working with the Ninth Precinct, Kasey had made some incredible friends and allies. She’d made them on both sides of the law.

While the former would be great for scouring the streets, the latter gave her at least one idea on where she might start looking for the escaped wizards.

She reached the top of the hole and dragged herself over the lip. Bishop wasn't far behind, and they dusted themselves off.

"Don't send anyone else down there," Kasey said, pointing at the hole. "I suspect the ADI will seal the other side now that they know it leads to the outside world. The tunnel will be inaccessible and could be dangerous."

"Understood. I'll make sure this side is cordoned off and we'll work to fill it properly. Make sure there are no other unplanned trips through it."

"So that's what you two got up to?" Morales called as he poked his head through the hole in the side of City Hall. "Felt like doing a little digging around yourself?"

Kasey had heard her share of bad puns. Working with Vida had practically guaranteed it. He spent most of his time reciting movie references or making the worst pun he could think of as a matter of habit. It was a habit that seemed to infect everyone around him.

Thinking of Vida reminded Kasey that she needed to pay him a visit. After everything that had happened with the Feudal Court, she had done a rubbish job of being there for her friend. Now, his life was changing by the day, and she wanted to check in on him and see how he was doing.

"Careful, Morales," Kasey replied. "Too many more of those and we’ll be locking you in the punitentiary with Vida."

“At least I’ll be in good company.” Morales chuckled. "It had to be done. You two look like my son when I pick him up from kindergarten. How that kid gets so much dirt on him is anyone's guess. I'm not even sure they have a sandpit."

"We just wanted to see what was down there," Bishop replied. "Nothing like getting your hands dirty to solve the case."

"Find anything interesting?" Morales peered over the edge of the hole.

"No," Bishop replied, glossing over the meeting with the ADI. "Tunnel looks unstable, though. Make sure no one else tries that."

"You've got it, boss." Morales took a step back away from the edge.

"Anything up here?" Bishop looked at the trashed sleeves of her suit and gave up on her attempt to brush the dirt off them.

"Nope," Morales said. "Nobody has seen anyone come or go from City Hall. We've got uniforms out collecting surveillance footage, but at the moment, this one is looking like a head scratcher."

How had prisoners managed to burrow under a city block, tunnel up through City Hall, and escape through this gaping hole without being seen?

If they had arcane talent, there were a few options. They could always be working a glamor. Providing, of course, they understood how to do so. It still didn’t explain why such a large hole had been carved through the wall.

They could have slipped out of any door or window, affected a glamour, and stalked into the city unseen.

Another option was that they had hid out in City Hall, and the hole in the wall was simply a diversion. In which case, they could be trying to sneak out of the building unseen at some later point in the day.

"Bishop, be sure to scour City Hall, just in case they have hidden themselves somewhere here. If you find anyone, detain them carefully, regardless of who they might appear to be."

"You think the people that did this might still be here?" Morales’ hand went to his belt, close to his gun.

"Will do," Bishop replied, not answering Morales directly. "Morales, could you give us a moment?"

She placed a hand on the officer’s back as she steered him toward the exit.

"No worries, boss. I'll go make sure to keep the lads moving."

When he was gone, Bishop turned to Kasey. "I don't suppose there's any chance of a vision here? Something to help us workout what we’re up against."

"I wish it were that easy," Kasey replied. "Usually there has to be some sort of trauma, or life-threatening danger. I still can't just conjure up the past on demand. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize," Bishop replied. "Just checking in. I know things have been changing for you lately."

It was true. Kasey's gifts were certainly increasing in strength, in large part due to the tutelage of Carys and the renewed influence of the Earth Spirit. Ever since her vision, Kasey had felt an enduring connection with the spirit that was hard to quantify, but impossible to ignore.

Unfortunately, the Earth Spirit seemed to move at a glacial pace and wasn’t in much of a hurry when it came to her education.

"I'm gonna hit the road." Kasey ran her fingers through her hair to tame the mess a little. "I don't know that I can do much good here. But I'm going to try my connections, see what else I can find out about this little jailbreak."

"You can call him your boyfriend, Kasey. You don't have to refer to him like CI." Bishop laughed.

Kasey blushed a little, in part due to the mention of Sanders, but also because that wasn't who she'd been thinking of at all. Rather than admit to Bishop who she was really going to see, Kasey just smiled. "I will let you know when I turn up anything else."

"Are we still on for games tomorrow?" Bishop asked.

"Sure are," Kasey replied. "Seven PM. My place. Don't be late."

"I'll bring the drinks.” Bishop laughed.

"Getting me drunk isn't going to make it any easier for you to win," Kasey teased.

"I don't need to get you drunk. I can read you lot like a book now."

"And one of these days, you’re going to use that skill to win," Kasey replied, rubbing in the rather vicious losing streak Bishop had been on of late. For months, they had played Settlers of Catan, but a few weeks ago, Vida had brought a new game, Sheriff of Nottingham, a bluffing game that Bishop should have been pretty good at, given her day job.

But she just didn't seem to have a gauge for the game strategy, and when she played the role of the sheriff, she simply tried to over examine every bag. Usually the poor detective was miles behind by the time the first round ended.

Perhaps it was just her natural skepticism. Still, the new game was proving to be a lot of fun, and a great way to spend the night with friends.

"Behave yourself," Bishop called as Kasey stepped through the hole in the wall. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

As a rule of thumb, Kasey didn't like to ignore Bishop's advice. But she was fairly certain the detective wouldn't approve of her current plans. She had made it all too clear how she felt in the past.

Unfortunately, when you wanted information on the criminal underbelly of New York City, there was no better person to ask. Kasey knew just where to find him. That fact alone would have concerned Bishop.

Kasey hopped a cab and made her way to the Upper East Side, the last place anyone would be looking for him: billionaire's row with its grandiose apartments. What most people didn't realize was that many of them were empty year-round, simply items on a family balance sheet representing an effective store of value in a market that seldom declined.

When she’d pressed him about the apartment, he’d told her it was often difficult to sell a piece of art in a hurry, but property changed hands quite readily and could be effective proxy for cold hard cash. The fact that so few of the apartments were occupied, and many people didn't know their neighbors, was something that was exploitable if you were brazen enough to attempt it.

Kasey jumped out of the cab and using the key fob he'd provided, slipped into the building. The doorman raised his eyebrow at her disheveled state as she passed by.

He said nothing, so she ignored the disdain.

After all, if she didn't belong here, she wouldn't even be able to move the elevator.

Kasey pressed the button and waited. When the doors finally dinged and parted, she stepped into the elevator, swiped the fob over the internal security panel, and pressed the button for the penthouse.

Of course, that was where he was staying. Whether he actually owned the apartment, or was somehow impersonating its true owner, Kasey wasn't sure, and she frankly didn’t care as long as it didn’t come back to bite her in the ass.

After all, Kasey was half the reason his last place of residence had been burned to the ground. Retaliation by the Feudal Court, for his refusal to honor their demands.

They had wanted to place a bounty on Kasey's head, and in a rare display of selflessness, he'd turned them down.

Kasey stepped out of the elevator, crossed the richly furnished lobby, and knocked on the penthouse door. There was a shuffling inside, and the door swung inward, revealing a tanned Grecian man with dark hair and a ready smile.

Two pistols with gold grips hung in holsters beneath his armpits.

His smile grew wider.

"Kasey, what a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hello Hades," Kasey replied, smiling at New York City’s self-styled king of the underworld. “Just the man I wanted to talk to."

The real question was, would Hades be willing to help, or did he have a hand in the mess at City Hall?

Chapter 4

They King of New York's criminal underworld looked down at his gold Rolex as he rubbed at his stubble with the other hand.

"Most women at least spend the night before they expect breakfast."

"Hades…" Kasey shook her head and tried to suppress a laugh.

Hades was the sort of man mothers warned their daughters about. And Kasey knew better than to entertain him too much. But she would be lying to herself if she said the thought had never crossed her mind. He might have been older than her by a good decade, but he had a distinguished, yet dangerous appeal that Kasey was sure had led many women to fall for his advances.

"On the other hand, if you're just very late for a booty call, all is forgiven. Give me a moment to send my guests on their way and we can retire to the master suite for a morning of debauchery we’ll not soon forget."

The color was rising in Kasey's cheeks, and she could feel herself blushing.

"Behave yourself. I just came to talk," Kasey replied, pulling her jacket closed to encourage Hades’ eyes a little higher.

"No good conversation ever started like that." Hades sighed as his eyes met hers. The depth behind those brown eyes hinted a world of secrets. The curiosity inside her wanted to know more about him; the rest of her feared what she might find.

Pushing the distracting thoughts aside, Kasey couldn’t help but notice Hades hadn't moved aside nor welcomed her into the penthouse. Normally, he would be all too willing to entertain her. Today, he seemed intent on keeping her at the door.

The unusual change in the status quo made her suspicious.

"Mind if I step inside?" Kasey asked. "It's something I would rather not discuss in the hall."

Hades glanced sideways and seemed to weigh the request.

"Unless you're already entertaining a charming young woman,” she added, “and would find two of us to be far more than you could handle."

Kasey had no intentions of following through on her flirtation, but Hades was being standoffish and it felt like an excellent time to dig down into why that might be.

"My capacity to handle things would make your knees weak. Unfortunately, my present company might balk at the presence of someone tied so openly to the city’s law enforcement. Not everyone is as flexible and understanding as I am, Kasey."

"Oh, just let her in, Hades," an accented voice called from somewhere inside the penthouse. "The more you deny her, the more likely she is to barge in here anyway."

Kasey took only a moment to place the accent: Italian.

She wasn't at all surprised when Hades pulled open the door, and there sitting in the living room of the penthouse was Vinnie Camarano.

Vinnie Camarano was the current head of the Bonanno crime family, one of New York City’s more prominent organized crime organizations. He was also Hades’ direct competition, which made the meeting all the more unusual. And certainly more worthy of her attention.

What had she stumbled into?

Vinnie was wearing his usual double-breasted blue suit. His silver-gray hair was slicked back on all sides. He was a broad-shouldered man, the kind who would make you nervous if he got into your elevator late at night.

She'd attempted to interrogate him for information when Vida had been kidnapped, and more recently, one of his henchmen had tried to kill her to claim the bounty the Feudal Court had put on her head.

Vinny had insisted the assassin had been acting of his own accord and not with the blessing of the family. But whether that was the truth, or simply Vinnie's reaction to the assassin's failure was difficult to tell.

Kasey entered the apartment slowly, her eyes never leaving the head of the Bonanno Family. Unlike Hades, who had proved himself an ally, Vinnie could only be trusted to act in his own self-interest.

"Vinnie, I wasn't expecting to see you here this morning," Kasey began as she approached the couch. “What occasion makes for you two strange bedfellows to be together?”

She scanned the room. Two of Hades’ Helldrakes stood by the windows, one guarding the balcony, the other keeping a clear line of sight to both Vinnie and his two henchmen.

One of Vinnie’s bodyguards was his lieutenant. Kasey recognized him from the restaurant but couldn't recall his name. It was amazing he hadn't landed himself in jail at his age, which was a testament to either Vinnie's influence, or the adept manner in which he handled his business. Organized crime wasn’t usually a career path with much longevity.

The other was a young man in his twenties. Unlike the others, he wore no suit, just jeans and a t-shirt with a band named Kasey didn't recognize. Their logo was half hidden beneath his unzipped jacket. He looked bored to be here.

Kasey would have pegged him for one of Vinnie's children, except they bore no resemblance and Vinnie struck Kasey as the sort of man who would have insisted his child dressed for the occasion.

"That makes two of us," Vinnie replied. "I know you’re not here for me. What's New York City's golden child doing in the presence of such a scurrilous character like Hades?"

Kasey noted the fact Vinnie had made no attempt to answer her question, and she was no more inclined to answer his. She didn't want word spreading of a breakout at the Arcane Council. That sort of news only tended to embolden criminals. Also, she didn't want to publicize the fact that Hades often provided her with information. Such could be dangerous to his reputation, or to his life.

If there was one thing criminals didn't tolerate, it was narcs.

"That's my business," Kasey replied. "I'll stay out of yours, if you stay out of mine."

"Always happy to maintain the status quo," Vinnie said. "How is your mother? Is she keeping well?"

"Very."

Her mother had reduced the mob assassin to a pile of ashes. Self-defense with extreme prejudice was what her mother had called it. She had also spread the word that anyone attempting to claim the now-lapsed bounty would have her to contend with.

Her mother was not a woman to trifle with. Not if you wanted to enjoy a healthy retirement.

"Excellent. I take it you delivered my message as I asked?" Vinnie laced his hands together.

He had been most insistent that Kasey tell her mother that he had no part in the attempted assassination.

Whatever Vinnie had turned up in his research into Kasey’s mother had him concerned.

Given everything Kasey had witnessed between her and Armando Flint, the Arcane Congress' Watchman, Kasey was starting to see why.

"Of course," Kasey replied. "She received your message and is most appreciative of the tradesman you sent to repair the damage to her home."

Repair was an understatement. They had not only patched the damage; they had also rendered the house and fashioned an expensive facade on it that modernized the home at what had to be considerable cost. Vinny Camarano had spared no expense in ensuring she was placated.

"Excellent. If your mother is happy, I suppose Hades here asked you to stop by. A subtle message that he maintains friends in high places." Vinnie shot a sideways look at Hades. "Or friends with special talents.”

Kasey wasn’t sure what Vinnie knew of her talents, so she stayed silent.

“Since the day you stopped by the restaurant, we’ve been recruiting a few of our own gifted.”

Vinnie nudged the young man in the jacket and jeans.

He looked up at Kasey, opened his palm with all the excitement of a caged lion, and muttered, "Fuego."

A ball of fire materialized over his hand. It turned and twisted like a miniature sun before he closed his fist, extinguishing the orb.

Kasey supposed a demonstration like that might intimidate a normal. Instead, her lips crept up into a smile. "Mine's bigger."

The young man shook his head. "I don't know what you're expecting, Vinnie. She's Kasey friggin Chase."

Vinny smiled all the same and Kasey realized why. The display had nothing to do with who the more powerful magical talent in the room was, and everything to do with the fact that Vinnie was sending her a message.

She wasn't the only one with talent in New York City, and now that the Shinigami had outed magic to the world, men like Vincent Camarano were gathering that power for themselves. If they couldn't possess it, the money they had could certainly purchase it.

Arcane talent now had new job opportunities, ones the Arcane Council would certainly frown upon. But Kasey was sure men like Vinnie would have all the firepower they needed. And she’d been the one to bring it to his attention by kicking in the front door and interrogating him and his lieutenants over lunch.

Actions have consequences. The Earth Spirit’s voice echoed within her mind. Kasey clenched her teeth so hard she was worried Vinnie might hear.

Her frustration had nothing to do with the crime lord and everything to do with the Earth Spirit’s timing.

Rather than actually communicate at a point in time she could continue the dialogue, the Earth Spirit seemed content to watch her efforts and judge her when it deemed she was falling short of the mark.

Because that was what she wanted: a backseat driver for her life.

Feel free to provide some actual guidance anytime, Kasey thought back angrily.

She worked to restore her smile. She didn’t want Vinnie thinking he’d gotten to her.

"I think we're just about done here," Vinny said, rising to his feet.

"Don't leave on my account," Kasey replied. "I'm just here for the cooked breakfast."

Vinnie ignored her and turned to Hades. "Consider my proposal. I think you'll find it mutually beneficial."

"I'll think about it," Hades said, noncommittally.

"You should. There are those who think recent events here have weakened your position. A united front could benefit us both."

That was a thought that didn't bear thinking about. Hades’ organization joined to the Bonanno crime family. The resources would be considerable, their reach almost limitless.

It was sure to complicate matters for the NYPD. One of the things they counted on was the rivalry between criminal organizations undermining each other. A united front made the war on crime all the more difficult to win.

"Anyone who thinks that would be a fool," Hades replied. "But I appreciate you bringing the possibility to my attention, nonetheless. I'll be in touch shortly. Take care, gentlemen."

Vinnie buttoned his suit and bowed his head. "Ms. Chase."

He headed for the door, his embarrassed wizard and senior lieutenant in tow.

When the door swung closed, Hades flopped down on the couch and let out a tired yawn. There were bags beneath his eyes, and a deep furrowed wrinkling of his brow that wasn’t usually there.

He swung his legs up onto the coffee table and looked at Kasey. "I do make a mean breakfast, but what do you really want?"

Kasey considered carefully how she phrased her question. She didn't want Hades to think she was accusing him. His tone already seemed a little defensive. Whatever was happening with Vinnie had him a little more wired than he had been letting on in the mobster’s presence.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about that?" Kasey asked, procrastinating her real question. “Seems like you are a little tense. Anything I can help with?”

"I know the history between you two," Hades replied. “Why do you think I was reluctant to let you in the door? I certainly don't want to drag you into anything with him."

"Don't want to drag me into it?" Kasey settled down on the recliner beside the couch Hades was sitting on. "Or don't want word of it reaching the boys in blue?"

"Either.” Hades let out a sigh. “Or both. Take your pick. Lady’s choice.”

"Is everything okay?” Kasey asked, leaning a little closer. “With you? You don’t seem yourself.”

"Why wouldn't it be?” Hades fidgeted in his seat. He was guarded and pensive, almost brooding.

"Well, for starters, your old fortress was trashed by vampires. And they tried to kill you."

That had to be what Vinnie was referring to. The loss of the Underworld, Hades’ private paradise, would be common knowledge by now, and likely would have undermined his image. The Feudal Court had left their mark on the city in many ways.

"But we showed them, didn't we?” Hades flicked his hand with an exaggerated flourish. "I'm fine. Better than fine, actually."

"Then why do you seem to be in such a cranky mood?" Kasey folded her arms. "You're one of the few people who is almost always happy to see me. Or at the bare minimum, not ready to bite my head off. What gives?"

"Well," Hades began, "it is beginning to dawn on me, that you only stop by when you want something. Once you have it, and all is well in the world, I don't see you for weeks or months at a time until you’re ready to burn down the city, or walk me into the firing line that lives in your wake."

"Don't play that fiddle with me," Kasey replied. “The day we met, we were trading favors and purchasing your assistance. You've helped me, sure, but you've also benefited from it."

Hades’ feet, still in designer black boots, slid off the table, thudding onto the floor, as he stood up.

"When I sided with you against the Shinigami, I lost my lover and my most loyal lieutenant. When I chose you over the Feudal Court, I lost my home and almost my life. I find myself wondering if I can afford to do you any more favors. Even your visit here today will have caused waves with Vinnie."

When you stacked it like that, it was hard to draw any other conclusion. Kasey’s presence brought with it a cost that most people found hard to pay. It was no surprise and nothing that was new to her. It was one of the reasons she had few close friends. Her life had always been difficult, in one way or another.

Now it was just more dangerous too.

But that wasn’t new to Hades, whose life had to have included plenty of peril before she showed up. There was something else hidden behind Hades’ words. It was difficult to fathom, but it seemed like somehow she had managed to hurt his feelings.

"It hasn’t been all doom and gloom though. You've also profited from knowledge you’ve gained from me," Kasey replied. "I also gave you the loan shark’s book when I was meant to turn it into the precinct. Bishop was pretty pissed about that, let me tell you.”

Hades’ lips crept up into the faintest hint of a smile. Funny how inconveniencing the police could perk up his spirits.

“And my friendship with you almost got me executed at my trial, so this goes both ways."

"Trial?" Hades’ eyebrow rose. “Execution? I feel like you’ve buried the lead on that one.”

Kasey stopped. She hadn't said a word about Strang and her persecution to him’ she hadn't had a chance. She also wasn’t entirely sure what he might do with that information.

"Yup, they tried to have me executed as a warlock." Kasey shook her head. Even now, the words sounded ludicrous to herself.

"Are they actually mental?" Hades asked. "After everything you've done?"

"That's what I said," Kasey replied. "Turns out, bureaucracy and political aspirations are more dangerous than a vampire lord. Go figure."

“It’s the knife in your back you have to watch for.” Hades scratched at his stubble. “Those who know you are far more adept at bringing you harm.”

Kasey knew he spoke from experience. She’d been there when his lover had shot him in the back, three times at point blank range. At the time, Kasey figured it was a miracle that he’d survived. Now, she wondered if something arcane hadn’t played a part in his survival. Hades’ conversation with Seth still lingered in her mind.

"They were using you to get to Sanders," Hades said, interrupting Kasey’s train of thought as he joined the dots quicker than she had expected. "I know he's your knight in shining armor, but he's going to get you killed."

Kasey wanted to argue but given how deep she and Sanders were tied to the Summer Court, she wasn't sure she could contest the point.

An awkward silence settled over the apartment.

“Well, it wasn’t him.” Kasey rubbed her clammy palms against her jeans. “It was the current Director of the ADI. Sanders skipped from that role to the Chancellor’s seat. She figures she can too. Just needs a prestigious enough scalp and a scandal big enough to discredit him.”

“So let me get this straight,” Hades began. “After putting your life on the line to save the city, Strang accuses you of being a warlock, drags you before a trial, and your boyfriend a.k.a. the most powerful and influential wizard on the continent doesn’t just shut that madness down? It actually went ahead? You were put on trial?”

Kasey let out a sigh. This wasn’t why she was here. She didn’t want to relive the nightmare of the trial for Hades’ benefit, and while she knew why Sanders had let it run, she couldn’t just come out and tell Hades. That sort of truth could cost Sanders his office, and if that happened, he would never repay Titania. If he was ousted from office, it would likely cost him his life, and Kasey any chance she had of sharing it with him.

That singular truth would also be like handing Sanders’ kryptonite to the one person almost certain to use it. Kasey couldn’t do that, but she also couldn’t say nothing.

“It’s a little more complicated than that. There was a missing book that was taken from the Arcane Council. They wanted it back. It was one of the reasons Strang’s inquiry got legs in the first place.”

He pushed his hand back through his long black hair.

“You were almost executed over a book? Do you even have it? Must be a stellar read.”

Kasey folded her arms. In her effort to save Sanders’ secret, she’d now strayed into a realm that was uncomfortable for her. She wasn’t ready to tell Hades that truth.

“I do.” Her voice was soft. “I liberated it from the vampires when we took them down. They were using its secrets to further their plans.”

“Then why not just give it back to the Council? Surely that would have made all this go away?”

“It wasn’t theirs to begin with,” Kasey replied, a little sharper than she’d intended. “It belonged to my family. It was stolen from them and wrongly fell into the Council’s hands. Now it’s back where it belongs.”

His eyes lit up. Now he was interested.

“It wasn’t just an ordinary book,” Hades said. “The vampires stole it, and the Council want it back. It was Forbidden, wasn’t it?”

When Kasey didn’t answer, Hades wrung his hands together. “Funny how they get a whole lot more excited when a little power is concerned.”

“So do you.” She nodded at Hades who was leaning forward in his chair.

“Don’t tar me with the same brush. I’m not nearly that boring,” he said.

“This is the most excited you’ve been since I showed up. Funny how you react to knowing I have a book loaded with supposedly forbidden secrets that the Council wants back.”

Hades laughed. “You misjudge me, Kasey. I don’t care about the book. Other than that it’s significant to you. I’m excited because I’m actually learning something about you, and I’m very interested in you.”

His brown eyes smoldered with an intensity that sent a thrill through Kasey.

Hades had always been a relentless flirt, but now he was telling her how he felt. It was new and dangerous ground. Kasey wondered whether she should really be here alone. She trusted herself; at least, she thought she did. But as she looked into those eyes, she wondered if she’d misjudged her own sense of self-control.

“The fact you didn’t roll over and give it to them speaks volumes about your strength of will, Kasey,” Hades added, his approval all too apparent, but then again, she had been sticking it to the man. Hades was always going to approve of that.

Kasey shrugged, happy to let Hades draw his own conclusions, rather than giving him the whole truth. The trial had forced her to reveal some of that truth, but the full extent of it even the Arcane Council didn’t know. Kasey wasn’t positive that indulging Hades’ curiosity was in her best interest.

“Oh, you can do better than that,” Hades replied. “You didn’t give it back to them. Which means you know what is in it, and for whatever reason, thought it better in your possession than the Council’s.”

“It was never their property to take,” Kasey replied. “It was written by my ancestor and stolen from us. Priceless knowledge my people had worked to cultivate for generations, taken from us and labeled Forbidden to justify their actions. I didn’t even know it still existed, until it showed up on a case I was working. When I stole it back from the vampires, I learned what it was. I couldn’t give it back to the Council.”

“They wouldn’t have liked that,” Hades said, a broad smile across his face.

“They tried to kill me for it,” Kasey replied. “But the reality is that it is safer in my care than theirs. It had already been used once by the vampires. If it wasn’t for my intervention, the knowledge the Council had let slip from their grasp could have destroyed the city. Clearly, I’m the better custodian.”

Hades shook his head. “A family tome, full of the Forbidden. Kasey, you get more interesting every time I talk to you.”

The silence lingered in aftermath of Hades’ compliment. The excitement in his intrigue both flattered and concerned her. The realization that the flirting might have something more behind it brought with it complications and distraction she could ill afford, particularly now.

If it was just flirting, Kasey could brush it off. But this was the second time she had found herself thinking there might be more to it. Was the lord of the underworld really interested in her? She had always been quick to dismiss it as a possibility. The age gap, the diametric opposition of the paths they had chosen in life. The very thought was crazy, and yet she couldn’t help but think that he might.

Hades was handsome, dangerous, and charming. There was an allure there that was impossible to dismiss but dangerous to consider.

Kasey wanted to change the subject but was still trying to work out how to move the conversation back to the breakout at the Arcane Council without upsetting Hades.

“What was in the book?” he asked.

“I can’t tell you that,” Kasey replied. The Libro Sanguis was the only written record of her ancestor’s druidic heritage. In a culture of oral tradition, the book contained arcane insights that had been lost to time over the past thousand years. Secrets that had proved dangerous in the wrong hands.

It also contained the most potent and comprehensive education on blood magic that may have ever been written. The work of Carys Anglesy, or Carys Bloodborn, as the authorities of his day had known him, was full of secrets Kasey didn’t care to share with the world.

“And why not?” Hades asked.

“Everybody has their secrets, Hades. And it is probably better that way.”

“Better for who?” he asked. “I’ve trusted you with everything.”

Kasey cocked her head to the side. “Not everything. Not by a long shot. Your secrets have secrets.”

“Like what?” He rose from the couch and made his way over to the bar. Slowly, he began fixing himself a drink. “I’m an open book, Kasey. All you have to do is ask.”

Kasey’s mind raced with dozens of questions she’d always wanted to ask, but never expected him to answer in a thousand years. As she went to open her mouth, Hades held up a finger.

“All I ask is that you give me enough chance to explain the answer you seek. There are things in my past that without context might lead you to judge me harshly. I am not a monster, but I have not walked an easy road.”

Vulnerability wasn’t something that she’d ever seen in him before. She didn’t think he gave a damn what people thought of him.

He took a sip of his scotch.

Hades paused at the bar. “Would you like anything?”

Kasey shook her head. She was only too aware of where she was. Drinking would not be a catalyst for making good choices. There was however a question that she had been dying to ask, and seeing as he had opened the door, she walked right through it.

Hades made his way back over, only this time he sat on the coffee table, facing her.

“You said something at Kendra’s,” Kasey began, stalling as she tried to work out how to frame her question. “When you were speaking to Seth. At the time, there was too much going on, and it didn’t seem like the appropriate place to ask.”

“Ah, I was wondering when that might come up.” Hades set down his scotch. Before Kasey could react, Hades drew one of his gold-plated pistols.

Kasey’s heart skipped a beat as she tried to back away, but only pushed herself deeper into the recliner.

Hades stared at the pistol. “You want to know what it’s like to speak with the god of death.”

Chapter 5

Kasey stared at the gold-plated pistol, her heart beating faster and faster.

She had wanted to talk about meeting the god of the underworld; she didn’t want to meet him herself.

Hades wasn’t going to shoot her, was he?

When it came to Hades, she was always unsure. The man had a way of keeping her off balance.

He removed the magazine, setting it down beside him.

"That's what you wanted to know, isn't it?" he asked.

He ejected a round from the chamber and removed the slide. Kasey started to ease. Her relief was short lived as she realized that Hades’ weapons were always loaded.

Why had he drawn the weapon in the first place? Was he trying to intimidate her, discourage her from asking about the encounter?

So much for being an open book.

Kasey wasn’t one to be so easily deterred though.

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask about," she said. "But what's with the gun? If you don't want to tell me, that's all you had to say."

Hades laughed, and somehow, she found the mirth comforting.

"I would have thought it would take a lot more than that to intimidate you," he said. "Sorry, it's just force of habit when I'm nervous. I've never really told anyone that particular story. I don't know why I even mentioned it to Seth in the first place. I guess I was showing off."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Kasey said as she moved about in the chair to make herself a little more comfortable. She hadn't come here for a heart-to-heart. She needed a lead on the breakout at the Arcane Council. But she wasn't working any other cases, Sanders still hadn't returned her call, and she didn't particularly have anywhere else to be. Learning a little more about Hades ranked pretty highly on her priorities.

She'd always felt like there was more to him than met the eye. Now seemed like an excellent opportunity to see if she was right.

"I'll make you a deal," Hades said. "I'll tell you what happened when I met the Lord of the Underworld, if you tell me one thing about yourself that you've never told another soul."

Kasey was always wary about making deals. When it came to Hades, she was doubly so. The first deal they had ever made involved her stepping into the cage with Dozer. She’d had to fight for her life.

This seemed a whole lot less dangerous on the surface, but then again, the secrets she had never told anyone would reveal far more about herself than she'd ever been willing to share.

Knowledge was power, and she was reluctant to give him any more power over her than he already had.

Most of her secrets revolved around who she was, around her heritage. They were the reason she was so different from other people.

Kasey hadn't come to terms with the details herself. How would Hades perceive them? Would he see her as a freak? Some sort of arcane anomaly? She wasn't sure she was ready for that, but the prospect of hearing about an actual encounter with an Olympian fascinated her.

Would it be anything like her meeting with the Earth Spirit?

"What are you so scared of. Kasey?" Hades asked. "Is it me? Or is it something else?"

It was a good question, one she couldn't rightly answer. Bishop would have warned her against even being in the same room as Hades, but for some reason, Kasey felt at ease in his presence. At least she did when he wasn't pointing a gun at her.

She certainly didn't want him to think it was him, so she smiled. "You've got a deal. But you can go first though."

"As you wish," Hades said, the corners of his mouth perking up into a cheeky smile. "I got into my line of work quite young. I was orphaned by a car accident when I was fourteen. I bounced from shelter to shelter, but I had a chip on my shoulder and figured the world owed me better. I ended up falling in with a crew of thieves. We were mostly small time, but it put food on the table. The others were normal. They didn't know or care why I was so good at my job. Magic gave me an edge. I never went to the Academy, or had any real formal training. You could say I learned on the job."

Well, Kasey certainly had that in common with him. She’d dropped out of the Academy due to the relentless teasing from her fellow students. But she had also seen Hades in action, against the Shinigami and most recently against the vampires. He was clearly well practiced now. The streets could be a hard teacher.

"Eventually, we hit the wrong target. It was the hub for a money laundering operation. Plenty of dirty cash would come in to get countered, then washed through a series of cash heavy businesses. Laundromats, car washes, arcades. We only saw the dollar signs. We were too young to think about who exactly we were ripping off. We ran the heist, got away clean, or so we thought. There was a tracker in the bills that we missed. Turns out that particular operation was a front for a drug cartel. While we were celebrating at a club, a handful of sicarios shot up the place, dragged us out of there and down to the docks.

One by one, they executed my crew. The only family I had in this world. But do you know what still sickens me to this day?"

"What?" Kasey asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"I’d figured they wanted their money back, but they didn't even ask for it. They simply executed us one at a time on video. We weren’t their meal ticket. We were a message to anyone that would cross them."

Kasey didn't know what to say. There was a harsh barbarity to cartel’s retaliation that was difficult to stomach. In her mind's eye, she could almost see a young Hades kneeling at the waterfront, begging for his life.

"I'd already split off my share of the cash. I offered to get it back for them. I even offered to work for them to make up for it. I can still hear their boss's laugh. He was still laughing when he pulled the trigger."

Hades unbuttoned his shirt and dragged it to the side, revealing a bullet wound right next to his heart. It should have been fatal.

"I fell into the water, kicking against the freezing waves as I bled to death, my body losing strength by the moment. They laughed on the pier as my legs gave out and I slipped beneath the waves. My world went dark, and I died. At least, I'm pretty sure I did."

"You died?" Kasey couldn't stop herself from interrupting Hades' narrative. "Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

Based on her own visions and experience in seeing the Earth Spirit, she knew that at times it was difficult to discern whether something was actually happening to her in the flesh, or simply an experience inside her mind.

Had her spirit left her body, in some sort of transcendent out of body experience? Or had the entire exchange happened in her mind? She still wasn't sure.

"The next thing I knew, I was standing in a strange hall. It was unlike anywhere on earth, tinged with a dull green luminescence. I looked down at my body, but I could see through it. I was a ghost, or a spirit, I guess. The entire place felt cold. Exactly what you would imagine the emptiness of death to feel like. I couldn't smell, nor taste but I could feel the eerie sorrow of that place."

"It sounds horrible," Kasey said, leaning closer so that she didn't miss a single word.

"That was when he appeared. The actual Hades, Lord of the underworld, in all his glory. Seven feet tall with skin like porcelain, and the eyes…” Hades swallowed. “The irises burned like bale fire. His stature was considerable, but his presence was something else altogether. It was as if he were the eye of the storm. Misery, pain, and anguish flowed from him. I will never forget that feeling."

"You actually met him, the Olympian, the brother of Zeus?" Kasey shook her head. Most myths usually had a grim truth behind them, but she’d never talked to anyone who had actually met a god. Or so she thought.

"I did, but what shocked me more was that he knew who I was. He'd witnessed the manner of my death and at first, I thought he had come personally to torment me. It was no less than I deserved. But Hades had other plans."

"Like what?" Kasey asked, pushing her hair back out of her face. "What did he want?"

Hades rubbed his palms against his slacks as he spoke. "He wanted to offer me a job. He told me he'd been watching me and that he thought I had potential, but that I had to prove myself. He offered me a deal."

"What was it?" Kasey asked, hanging on his every word.

"He offered me my life back," Hades replied. "All I had to do was send other souls to him in my place."

"He wanted you to kill people?" Kasey asked, unable to believe what she was hearing.

"It was a test," Hades replied. "He told me I could have my life back for thirty days. If in that time, I succeeded in sending those who had killed me, he would keep them in my stead and send me back to New York City to do his will. I would have my life back, live with his blessing, and be on his errand. An avatar of the Lord of the Underworld."

"And you succeeded?" Kasey asked, her eyes growing wide. His very presence here was proof that he had.

Hades had gone to war with a cartel for the Lord of the Underworld. She had always known Hades was dangerous. But with his charm and flirtatious nature, perhaps it had been easier to ignore the warnings of her conscience.

"I am here, Kasey," Hades replied as if that was a complete answer.

He had answered her question, but his answer only inspired a hundred others. Not the least of which was what Hades meant in calling himself an avatar? Did that just mean he was working for Hades? Or was there more to it than that? Was that why he used his name?

"You are an avatar," Kasey ventured. “What does that even mean?”

Hades put his gun away.

"I have made good on my promise,” he said, promptly ignoring the question. “Now it's your turn."

Kasey shifted in her seat. She was a woman of her word but opening up was a mistake she had made many times. It almost always cost her something. She still wasn't sure what she wanted to share with someone who had just admitted he was working for a Greek god.

And she was more than a little wary of his motives for asking. Hades had a knack for profiting from the most innocuous of details.

"And I'll make good on my end of our deal, but I am a woman of many secrets. Before I decide what to tell you, I want to know why you care?"

Hades had divulged something intensely personal, something that could readily turn others against him. Did he expect her to share something suitably incendiary about herself? Kasey was wary of putting herself in a position where she could be blackmailed by one of the city's most notorious criminals. Whatever else Hades might be, he was certainly that. And she didn't know what he might do with the information if push came to shove.

"Because you are the most interesting woman I have ever met," Hades said, his brown eyes boring into hers. "I find myself wanting to know more about you. So choose whatever you like. I simply ask that like my own, it be something you've never shared with another soul."

"How will you know?" Kasey asked. "I could tell you anything. You'd have no way of knowing whether it was a truth for you alone. You take a terrible chance on me."

"Life seldom rewards those who risk nothing," he replied. "It is a small price to pay, to know you a little better. If you cheat me, you are only cheating yourself. To know and be known in return is a reward few understand until they feel it for themselves."

The words sank deep into her heart. Hades was possessed of a profound loneliness. One she was only too familiar with. It was a loneliness that came from walking a unique path in life. Her magic had always set her aside from others. She wasn't better than other people, just different.

It was difficult to be close to people when a lingering touch could prompt a vision that would forever change the dynamic between you. A vision of what might be, or perhaps what had been.

Her gifts had helped her save lives, but often at the expense of enjoying her own.

So she chose an experience she dearly wanted someone else's opinion on. She'd been struggling with it in her mind since the moment it had transpired.

Kasey stood up. The thought of sharing what was on her mind made her too nervous to sit down.

"Where are you going?" Hades asked. His tone wasn't angry, or upset like someone who might be worried she would back out of the deal. It was filled with concern, which surprised her.

"I just need to stand up," Kasey replied. "I think better on my feet. I always have."

Hades relaxed, still sitting on the coffee table.

"You know that I am a druid, right?" she asked.

Hades nodded. "Based on the Welsh you use when you cast your magic, I'm inclined to think you, or at least your family, belong to the order of the Earth.”

That was far more insightful than even she had expected. Few people knew anything about druids, other than the common myths and misconceptions. For Hades to know about the various orders was unusual.

"The only part that surprises me there," Hades said, "is that you seem to have such a natural affinity for fire and seldom rely on Earth magic when pressed."

Kasey had thought about that too. If she had spent more time training with her family, instead of running away from the world of magic, she might have been a very different elementalist. Something in her mind tended to favor fire. It was just such a tangible manifestation of arcane might that it was often the first idea to come to mind in the heat of battle. Earth magic tended to be more subtle, powerful certainly, but it wasn't to be used without adequate consideration. The consequences could be severe, particularly when it came to collateral damage. Fire might burn, but upheaving the earth could bring down buildings, cause tremors and earthquakes, and play havoc with fault lines.

Kasey went to answer the question, but Hades held up his hand to stop her. "To be clear, I don't want to use my one secret on the answer to that question. Simply a passing curiosity. Please continue."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"My family has worked for centuries to establish a tighter bond with the Earth Spirit."

“Earth spirit?” Hades asked.

"Think of her as mother nature. The Earth is her domain, and we work to help her preserve its proper function."

Hades sat on the edge of the table, and Kasey could tell he wanted to ask questions. But the secret she had to share lay not with who she served but what that being had shown her.

"The Earth Spirit and my connection to it, is responsible for more than just my magic," Kasey replied. “I may not have been completely aware of it, but many of my gifts, and by extension the path I have taken in life, has been guided by the Earth Spirit. Akihiro and his attack on New York City would have had detrimental effects on the Earth. Extinguishing untold human lives, but also irrevocably changing the climate of the Eastern Coast. It was the Earth Spirit that was responsible for warning me of the danger. Now it warns me of a different conflict growing on the horizon."

Hades’ face grew pensive.

"What is it?" she asked, her train of thought lost in his reaction.

"Don't you feel like you've done enough?" he asked. "You've saved the city, more than once. Shinigami and vampires. Every time, you pay a price. One of these days, your desire to save others is going to be the death of you. Aren't you afraid that might happen before you have even lived a little for yourself?"

"I live every day," Kasey replied, as she considered his words. "Saving others makes me feel good, even though they may never appreciate it. It gives me a purpose, something bigger than myself."

"I just worry that one day you will wake up and realize you've spent your life living for others, and never for yourself. This world has joy and beauty in it too, Kasey. Not just death and conflict. I would have thought you'd earned a break."

There were times when she had said those words to herself. The last year of her life had been a blur as she had dragged herself from one battle to the next. But at the same time, she had often asked herself how she would feel if she did nothing.

Could she live with herself then?

In the quiet recesses of her soul, she knew the answer. It was what drove her every day.

She could live without smelling the roses, but she couldn't look at herself in the mirror, knowing she had let down people she might have saved if she had been less selfish.

"It would seem not," Kasey replied. "And in trying to save the city, I might have actually made things worse." It felt both cathartic and terrifying to say the words out loud. She didn't want to give Hades all the details, but it had been weighing on her mind since she'd first made the journey to the Falls with Talora.

"Don't keep me in suspense," Hades said with a laugh. "If I'm leaving the city, I need to know whether I should pack an overnight bag or emigrate."

Kasey laughed. "I don't know if that will help. When I met with the Earth Spirit, she showed me a view of what might happen. It showed the Fae courts arrayed for war, vast hosts of Summer and Winter Sidhe and all manner of magical creatures mustering for battle."

Hades waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, the Fae. Don't fret on their account, Kasey. Like spoiled children, they are always fighting. Always have been, always will. The struggles keep the seasons in balance. Hardly something to lose any sleep about."

"Normally, I would think you were right," Kasey replied, "but I might have inadvertently tipped the balance of power between the courts, ending the long winter we had been stuck in, and welcoming summer."

"You can't go blaming yourself every time," Hades said. "That’s the Arcane Council’s job."

Kasey laughed. "Very funny. But I’m serious. The Earth Spirit warned me that if I didn't take a particular course of action, it could have dire consequences in that struggle."

She remembered the wilting and frostbitten fields surrounding the Earth Spirit. If the vision was a metaphor, she suspected that they represented the world. And the Earth Spirit's position as the great tree at the center of it all represented the Earth Spirit attempting to maintain the balance of the world.

"Seems easy enough. What am I missing? You did follow the instructions, didn't you?" Hades arched an eyebrow as he looked up at her.

Kasey shrugged. “I am a little unsure.”

“How can you be unsure?” he asked, his tone rising with every word.

“Well, the answer to that is a little more complicated than you might think.”

“I have nothing but time.” He leaned back on the coffee table.

"Are you familiar with the creatures known as Wendigo?”

“I have heard of them, have never seen one. I’m not sure I know anyone who has. Why?”

Kasey nodded. “I came face to face with one in Faerie. I escaped, as did my escort, but we were both infected with the creature’s magic. Left unchecked, it would have eventually consumed us, and we would have become Wendigo ourselves. To be released from the curse, I needed to kill the creature.”

“I’m not seeing the problem,” Hades replied. “Or the connection to the conflict with the Sidhe. What does this have to do with war between the courts?”

Kasey was actively trying to censor just how much she told Hades. She couldn’t afford to reveal Sanders’ secret. She might trust Hades enough to share her own, but it certainly wasn’t her place to share Sanders’.

“The creature served the Winter Court,” Kasey replied. “The Earth Spirit warned me that if I did not kill it, I could not escape its influence. I would eventually succumb and become one myself.”

“So why not just burn it with fire? You’ve never been so skittish in the past.” Hades stared at her, aware that something was missing from the explanation.

“Killing it outright would frustrate the purposes of the Summer Court, who were using it as a pawn. I was obligated to help them in exchange for their assistance in preparing me to deal with Rhaine.”

“So fulfill your obligation to Summer and become a Wendigo, or follow the Earth Spirit, kill the creature, and leave your obligations to Summer unfulfilled. I’m assuming from the fact you aren’t a monstrous killing machine that you killed the creature,” Hades concluded. “What part are you unsure about?”

“I hesitated,” Kasey admitted. “I did kill it. But not before the Summer Fae I was with succumbed to the evil and became a Wendigo herself. Now I don’t know what will happen. I killed one and saved myself. But will my indecision thrust the courts into a war that could kill us all? I don’t know.”

Hades smiled.

“What are you grinning about?” Kasey asked. “This is serious. The Earth Spirit was emphatic.”

“Gods often are,” Hades replied. “They see things in black and white. You were told to kill the creature, and you did. So another roams the world. Who cares? The future is uncertain. So what? Now you are in the same boat as everyone else. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Stop blaming yourself for what might come.”

“People might get hurt,” Kasey replied.

“They get hurt every day. With or without your help. At least you’ll be around to intervene.”

Kasey nodded slowly. It seemed Hades was doing his best to try and cheer her up. She wasn’t wholly convinced, but she appreciated his efforts all the same.

“I guess time will tell,” she replied. “But that is my secret. None know how close I came to becoming the evil that hunted me. They also don’t know about the Earth Spirit’s warning, or the fact we are on the brink of a war that could very well spill into our world. In any event, those are but a few of my secrets.”

“Secrets?” Hades repeated the word slowly. “If we are trading secrets, that would make it my turn. What do you want to know?”

She hadn’t been trying to maneuver Hades into a corner, but she had shared more than one. And she still needed to get answers about the mess unfolding at City Hall. If a handful of prisoners had managed to escape the Arcane Council, she was betting Hades knew something about it.

Kasey looked him in the eye. “I’d like to know everything you know about the jailbreak at the Arcane Council.”

Hades’ eyes went wide, betraying his surprise, but his lips went from pensive to outright amusement.

“Jailbreak at the Arcane Council?” He toyed with the words as he spoke them. “I am absolutely certain I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kasey rounded the coffee table, moving a little closer. “If that’s the case, why are you smiling?”

“A jailbreak from the Council’s cells hasn’t happened in years. The ADI seems to think they are inescapable. I’ve often wondered how I might do it. Fortunately, I’ve never been in the position to need to test my theory.”

“So you’re telling me you had nothing to do with it. And know nothing about it.” Kasey wanted to be sure she was leaving him no room for ambiguity.

“Nothing whatsoever,” he said. “Who escaped?”

“I don’t know. The ADI is playing it close to their chest.”

Hades laughed. “I hope you’ll forgive me in taking a little pleasure from their embarrassment. What has Sanders said about it?”

“Nothing,” Kasey replied without thinking. “I haven’t been able to reach him yet this morning.”

“Well, I’m flattered that you would come to me, but I’m afraid that neither me, nor my people had anything to do with this. Which is a shame because it would do wonders for my reputation.”

Kasey had been hoping for a lead. Anything that might give her something to work with. All she’d managed to do was amuse Hades. But she wasn’t leaving empty handed.

“I know you have people on the street,” she said, referencing the collection of thieves, beggars, homeless informants, cleaners, and staff that he used as his eyes and ears throughout the city.

“The perpetrators entered or exited via City Hall. Can you put the word out to see if anyone saw anything unusual in the area last night?”

Hades drew a phone out of his slacks. “For you, Kasey, certainly.”

The way he said her name sent a tingle down her spine. It felt good, and she knew it shouldn’t. She told herself he was just being his usual flirtatious self, but even she didn’t believe it.

“Tell me, Kasey, what is so important that your boyfriend hasn’t answered your call?”

And just like that, Hades gave voice to the nagging question she’d been arguing with since leaving City Hall.

What was Sanders up to?

She hoped nothing had happened to him, but realistically figured that he’d simply been detained by the duties of the Chancellor.

Not for the first time, Kasey wondered if there was a future in which their lives weren’t ruled by the endless bureaucracy of the Arcane Council.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Things can be complicated at times.”

“They don’t have to be,” Hades replied. “If it were me, I know where I would be.”

Kasey didn’t leave time for that thought to linger.

“We all have other masters,” she said. “You, me, Sanders. All of us are in service to someone or something.”

For Sanders, it was the Council, and the Summer Court. Hades, by his own admission, was an avatar for the Lord of the Underworld. She had sworn herself to the Earth Spirit. It was difficult to imagine a world where they were free to pursue their own lives.

“Things change, Kasey,” Hades said. “You will see. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can dig up on your jailbreak.”

“Thank you.” Kasey stood there, not sure what else to say.

An awkward silence settled over the room, and Kasey wasn’t in the mood to try and process everything Hades had said to her.

“I’d love to stay, but unfortunately I’ve got to run this to ground,” she said. “I’ll see you around?”

“I’ll hold you to that. Swing my anytime. I can make you dinner.” His lips rose into a smile. “Or better yet, breakfast.”

Kasey laughed as she headed for the door. “One of these days, Hades, you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”

“I hope so,” he called as she slipped through the door. She closed it behind her.

Endless thoughts ran through her mind as she rode the elevator back to the ground floor. Hades was relentless, but she would be lying to herself if she said his efforts didn’t make her smile. He was as charming as he was dangerous.

She was glad she’d found Noah. He made it easier to set aside what was almost certainly a dangerous life choice.

Kasey exited the lobby onto the street of New York’s busy Upper East Side. She’d barely gone a dozen paces when she got the feeling she was being watched once more.

She looked about, searching for a tail, but spotted nothing out of the ordinary.

Her pulse quickened. Her gut was twisting in knots, telling her that something was horribly wrong.

She took another step as a deep voice that could only be the Earth Spirit echoed in her mind.

Down!

Kasey knew better than to argue. She threw herself forward onto the sidewalk.

Something sliced through the air overhead and slammed into a passing car.

Chapter 6

The street went to chaos around Kasey, as a taxi with a foot long projectile sticking out of its rear door panel veered violently off the street. It mounted the sidewalk before slamming into the facade of the building next door.

Horns blared as drivers slammed on the brakes. Traffic ground to a halt as people tried to work out what was going on.

Kasey couldn’t let the noise and chaos distract her from the true danger.

Someone had tried to kill her.

Pushing herself off the concrete, she rose into a sprinter starting position, and then launched herself forward.

The sudden attack had come out of nowhere. If it wasn't for the Earth Spirit's warning, she would be in the same state as the taxi.

Clearly her assailant was behind her somewhere, but Kasey’s glance caught no obvious threat. As she ran, she risked a longer look.

But everyone on the street around her looked as confused as she did. Kasey ran towards the crashed taxi, confident that she would at least be putting distance between herself and her attacker.

Normally, she would have stopped to help the driver, but doing so would only put the driver and bystanders in more danger of becoming collateral damage in a fight that wasn't their own.

As she raced past the taxi, she took stock of the projectile buried in it. It was the best part of a foot long but shone like a diamond as it caught the light. Then Kasey noted the trail of moisture dripping off it.

Not diamond; ice.

"And here I was thinking it had been a while since someone had tried to kill me," Kasey muttered as she vaulted the front of the yellow taxi, sliding across the hood before her feet hit the pavement.

She needed whatever cover she could get.

Sucking in a deep breath, Kasey lengthened her stride. Whoever had taken the shot at her was brazen enough to do it in the broad light of day. It was safe to assume they wouldn't quit after one botched attempt.

As she glanced over her shoulder, she found another icy blade materializing out of thin air. It hurtled at her like a miniature missile.

Kasey changed directions, dashing past a storefront. The icy missile crashed through the glass and annihilated a mannequin before shattering on the internal shelves.

As she moved, Kasey’s mind did too. Ice wasn’t a particularly common element in a wizard’s toolkit, which made her assassin all the more unusual.

Who were they? And what did they want?

Did they know who they had just attacked? They had to. After Akihiro, she was surprised someone had the stones to pick a fight.

Then she reevaluated her opinion. It wasn’t courage to try and shoot someone in the back.

Courage or cowardice, they were going to regret their life choices.

Kasey’s heart hammered in her chest as she ran.

The fact she’d just left Hades’ home wasn’t lost on her. Vinnie Camarano had known where she was, and while he’d been surprised by her presence, she had to think he wouldn’t be dumb enough to make such a brazen attempt on her life.

Not with her mother’s threat still looming overhead. Besides, she’d felt like she was being watched all day. That made Vinnie an even more unlikely suspect.

No. Whoever had done this had been following her all morning.

She’d just been too busy meeting with Bishop to pay attention to her gut.

Kasey glanced back in time to catch a third crystalline missile arcing through the air at her. Still, she couldn’t locate the assassin. Kasey dodged the missile by ducking into an alleyway on her left.

The trajectory of the frozen missiles told her that her assassin was on foot, and tracking her progress through the Upper East Side. No single vantage point could have allowed them to continue taking pot shots at her. Which meant they were chasing her. She wondered if they were foolish enough to continue their pursuit.

Most people would want to stay in a crowd, hoping the presence of others might protect them. Kasey had met enough murderers to know that if someone wanted her dead, they would think nothing of going through a few innocents to get the job done.

The alley would give her a chance to level the playing field, protect bystanders, and narrow her pursuer’s options.

She wove between the dumpsters, jumping over a discarded coke can and glancing back in the hope of spotting whoever followed her into the alley.

When no one did, she was almost disappointed.

Then the coke can being crushed sounded in her ears like an alarm. She put two and two together.

An unseen enemy stalking through the city, able to remain undetected in broad daylight. They had to be using a glamour. Fortunately, they hadn't been fast enough to see the can. Probably because they were focused on the three razor-sharp daggers of ice they flung down the alleyway at her.

Ice and glamours. The winter court. It had to be.

Kasey ducked behind a dumpster as the three daggers hurtled past.

"Enough defense," Kasey muttered. Reaching around the dumpster, she opened her palm and bellowed, “Pêl Tân!”

Fire the size of a basketball coalesced before her hand. With a thought, she hurled the fireball straight down the center of the alley at her pursuer.

With her spell protecting her, Kasey broke cover and kept running.

Initially, she had planned to ambush her pursuer, but if they were in the Winter Court, there was no guarantee they were working alone. Her best chance of survival lay in getting somewhere safe.

Since she had first visited the falls with Talora, Kasey had wondered what the Winter King thought of her interference in their world. The shifting seasons in the mortal realm told her that she had made an impact. But she had been unsure of whether the King of Winter would risk venturing into the mortal realm for reprisal or if he would simply lick his wounds for a few seasons and attempt to reassert his strength once more.

Kasey had thought the Wendigo's presence was reprisal for her actions, but the intense psychic assault she had been under had been for a different purpose. Having infected her with its magic, the Wendigo had been intent on turning her into another of its own kind.

The creature had failed, at least as far as she was concerned. Talora had succumbed. With the Wendigo's death, Kasey had not been able to determine if that was the creature acting of its own accord, or carrying out the orders of the Winter King.

It was difficult to misinterpret a Fae assassin trying to kill her right here in New York City.

The Winter King was pissed.

Not surprising, given the courts appeared to be rallying for war and she had struck a blow for Summer, declaring her allegiance, whether she had wanted to or not.

Kasey looked back in time to see her fireball get extinguished in a blast of wintry sleet that filled the alley with a foggy white mist. Her boots pounded the pavement as she ran, and for the first time she could make out the heavy footfalls of her pursuer.

The assassin was big, heavier than she was, and although she couldn't see them, her heart raced. The Fae were dangerously talented magic users, and most of them had lived far longer than she had. By extension, they had far more time to refine their arts in a world where only the strong survived.

She had been hunted by werewolves, vampires, other wizards, and magical creatures. But the measured, even stride of the assassin told her she wasn't dealing with an amateur.

Now that she could hear him, Kasey was confident she was starting to tax his ability to multitask. Maintaining a glamour was difficult. You not only had to conceal yourself with magic, but every trace of your presence. Your smell and your sound could still give your way. Like they had the assassin.

Confident of where he was, Kasey turned and shouted, “Revelare!”

She had first seen the spell used by Ernesto, the owner of the emporium. He had used it to dispel an illusion and reveal one of his hidden storage chambers.

Kasey had since employed it many times, most notably to unmask the Shinigami Akihiro in open court. Chaos had ensued but it had proved effective. So much so that she had never bothered to learn the spell in her own native tongue.

The assassin hadn’t been expecting that.

The wave of magic rolled down the alley way, washing over the assassin.

Kasey's spell obliterated the glamour, revealing a man in a black overcoat and broad brimmed felt hat. The sort of hat farmers in the country wore to keep the sun off their face. It was floppy brimmed, casting a shadow over his face and making it difficult to see him clearly.

But this much she could tell, he was human.

That realization caused her to hesitate. She'd been confident she would find herself staring down a fae like Talora, or perhaps even one of the Sidhe themselves.

But her assassin was a six-foot tall man in an overcoat and felt hat, who even now conjured another icy fusillade of death.

More projectiles than she could count formed in a dense cloud before him.

The ease with which he had batted aside her earlier spell bothered Kasey.

Kasey pointed to the concrete between them and bellowed, “Wal o Dân!”

The alley glowed orange as fire grew from wall to wall, turning the narrow alley way into a furnace. Soon the fire was eight feet high and completely obscured her from view.

Sweat ran down her face as she poured will into her spell. She stoked the blaze until it was white hot.

The air she breathed was hot to the point of becoming uncomfortable, but Kasey had a singular focus. She pushed the inferno toward the assassin.

The dumpster between them started to melt, paint crackling and peeling in the intense heat before the steel itself glowed white hot.

He might have been human, but his mastery of ice magic led Kasey to believe she was right about his origins. The Winter Court assassin unleashed a storm of ice at her. Kasey grinned with satisfaction as the icy projectiles hissed and fizzled out of existence, melted by the intensity of her own conjuration.

Kasey focused on her barrier, even as she moved it closer to the assassin.

Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.

One by one the icy missiles vanished, but as they struck the same part of her wall again and again and again, the flames flickered and waned.

She noticed the imperfection as a column of ice, as wide as her forearm, hurtled through it with a speed that startled her. The shard of ice had jagged edges running down its hexagonal shape.

He'd baited her, and she had fallen for it.

Turning, Kasey narrowed her profile. The ice still found her right arm, slicing through her jacket and flesh with equal ease.

Intense cold flooded her arm as pinpricks of pain shot through her nervous system.

The ice cut like steel. Hot blood ran down her arm, a stark contrast to the numbing throb of her frozen muscles. She bled thick and fast. That was going to be a problem. Or at least it would be if she lived long enough to bleed out.

She hoped her wall of fire had barbecued the Winter Court assassin, but when she looked up, there he was. He stepped through the fire with little more than an angry hiss.

She cursed. She would have felt a lot better if the fire had at least caught on his overcoat, or burnt that stupid hat to a crisp.

As the pain came, Kasey tried to shut it out. When that failed, she channeled it into her magic, drawing deep on her power as she weighed up the assassin stalking toward her.

Fire wasn’t working. As hot as she could burn, the assassin seemed adept at neutralizing it or passing right through it as he had the wall of fire.

If he was a servant of the Winter Court, Summer would be his most frequent foe. Heat like the Summer Sun would likely be a common weapon employed against him.

She needed to change the battleground.

In the past, she’d experimented with eldritch lightning. It was fast, accurate, and deadly. But something Hades had said surfaced in her mind.

You seem to have such a natural affinity for fire and seldom rely on earth magic, even when pressed.

He was right. Earth magic ought to have been at the heart of who she was. But it had never felt right. She felt at ease with fire: hot, dangerous, and unpredictable. In many ways, it mirrored her own nature.

Earth was ponderous but inexorable. There was an undeniable power to it, but it required patience, understanding, and careful calculation. Did she really have that in her? And was this moment really the right time to find out?

She’d gambled on it against the Wendigo and it had worked. Why not try again? After all, this was another servant of Winter. Perhaps changing her approach would catch him flat footed too.

She had no choice.

Blood ran down her arm as the assassin prepared another assault, a veritable wall of icy missiles that was liable to turn her into a human pincushion.

“No time like the present.” Kasey groaned as she slapped her good hand flat against the pavement. “Rhwygo'r ddaear!”

She closed her eyes as she willed her spell into being. Too little and it would do nothing. Too much and she risked bringing down the buildings around her.

The force of her spell fractured the concrete, a jagged crack appearing beneath her palm that raced forward, splitting the concrete slab in two.

The assassin looked down and then whipped his hand over his face as a shield.

Kasey’s magic exploded beneath the concrete, sending a thick wave of concrete debris right at the assassin from directly beneath his feet.

The concrete tore his cloak, clothes, and flesh to shreds.

The brim of the felt hat was lacerated in a dozen places as the assassin pitched backward.

Kasey rose as the assassin keeled over, like a ship taking on water.

He was so limp, Kasey thought he was dead, but as he hit the ground, he shouted something in what sounded like old Latin. Thick mist swirled around him, but Kasey wasn’t having any of it.

Sending a gust of wind down the alley before her, Kasey lashed out at the mist. If he wanted to hide, he was going to have to do better than that.

As the mist cleared, the assassin was dragging himself through a rift and into Faerie. He wasn’t hiding at all; he was running.

Kasey sprinted for the assassin but before she could throw herself through the portal, it closed like the curtains of a theater. Right before the portal sealed, the assassin smiled back at her, his face a ruined mess, streaked in blood.

What did the Winter Court want with her? Why now? Why wait weeks after the incident at the Falls? Why send an assassin in broad daylight in the busiest city in the world?

It made no sense.

What had changed?

Kasey’s arm burned. Blood was seeping down her jacket.

And all she had to show for it was one well-worn and bloody felt hat.

And a burning desire to return it to its owner.

Unfortunately, she had no idea how to do that.

And no idea when Winter’s next killer might come for her.

Chapter 7

Kasey slumped against the wall of the ruined alley. The brickwork had been scorched from the intensity of the blaze, and was still a little warm against her jacket, but she had bigger problems.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her scarf and tied it around her mouth. It wasn’t much but it was a little protection against the swirling cloud of dust and grit from the pavement she’d obliterated.

The cloud was a tangible reminder of her attempt to use earth magic. The pavement was shattered, but the buildings on either side of her were still standing. That was something. Her eyes lingered to the crater she had left where the assassin had been standing.

She managed a smile.

"All in all, that could have gone a lot worse," she muttered. She’d managed to limit the collateral damage and apart from the blood running down her arm, she was still very much alive.

Between her and her assassin, Kasey suspected she was feeling a whole lot better than he was, but the fact that he had survived bothered her. It meant he would be back. People with an axe to grind always came back.

If it wasn’t him, it would be someone else.

At least now she had some sort of closure. Winter wasn't going to let her actions go unanswered. Knowing that, she could start planning for them. It seemed Wendigo or not, the conflict between the courts was going to drag her into the fray.

She sank down the wall, thinking about everything that had transpired.

What had changed in the past few weeks? Why strike now?

On reflection, she realized she'd entered into a bargain with Titania for help in her trial. She hadn't meant to, but the monarch had taken her at her word and if Kasey's suspicions were correct, the Summer Queen had interfered directly. Kasey recalled the jury leader’s eyes glowing gold and couldn't help but think they reminded her of the Summer Queen.

Was Winter somehow were aware of her bargain? Or was this simply a delayed reaction to her interference at the Falls?

Either way, it was safe to assume that the Winter Court no longer viewed her as a neutral party. That was bound to present a problem, but right now problems were abundant and so the Winter Court would have to take a number and get in line.

She still had escaped prisoners to find, not to mention her boyfriend that had gone AWOL, and somewhere on that list, just above the Winter Court, was a jacket that was absolutely ruined.

Kasey looked down at her arm. The bleeding wasn't as profuse as she had expected, likely a byproduct of the severe cold that had caused the wound. Even now, her skin tingled and was cool to the touch. With the immediate danger passed, she needed to stop the bleeding all the same. She hovered her hand over the wound and whispered a healing incantation.

Her hand glowed gold as a wave of healing magic washed over the wound.

Kasey waited for the flesh to knit itself together, but nothing happened.

She shook her head. Her skin was meant to bind itself to staunch the flow of blood. It wouldn’t heal the tissue damage, but it would at least prevent her from bleeding out. She couldn’t understand the failure. She’d used the incantation a number of times, so she knew it worked, but the wound on her arm remained.

She tried again, her palm glowing gold as she hovered it right above the cut. Once more, the magic had no effect.

She groaned in frustration. It had to be something in the Winter assassin’s magic that was preventing her wound from healing. Now he was proving to be a right pain in the ass. Waiting for the injury to heal of its own accord was bound to be as tedious as it was painful.

Kasey considered her choices. Part of her wanted to head for the Arcane Council and the Administorum. Surely the gifted healers there could do something to help her. Worst case scenario, they could at least stitch her up.

But that meant risking another encounter with Marion Strang, and one was more than enough for one day. Truth be told, she had been avoiding council headquarters as much as possible since the trial. That meant she saw Sanders less, but it also saved her from the judgmental stares of the ADI. She had been acquitted during her trial, but those loyal to Strang still viewed her as a warlock.

And if there was something she no longer needed in her life, it was the ignorant judgment of those whose job she had been doing for the past twelve months. Sure, there were some agents who knew better. But why waste effort on those who only saw what they wanted to saw?

With the dust and grit settling, Kasey pulled down her scarf from over her mouth and started undoing the knot. If the cut wasn't on her arm, she could have stitched it herself. Instead, her scarf was going to be the second item of her wardrobe to pay the price of her admirer in the Winter Court.

Easing out of her jacket, Kasey circled the wound with the scarf. She pulled it tight enough to apply some pressure, then circled the wound again and again. After she'd applied as much pressure as she could stomach, she tied it off. The scarf wasn't a great solution, but it would do.

She was going to need a new scarf and jacket but at least she was confident she could make it across town without bleeding out.

Standing up, she snatched up the assassin’s battered felt hat and jammed it in her bag. It was all the evidence she had of her attacker. Perhaps Bishop could test the DNA and see if it turned up any hits in the police database. The man had been human, after all.

Kasey pulled the leather jacket on over the scarf, threw her bag over her shoulder, and made her way back down the alley. At least with the black clothing, blood didn’t show up easily. On passing glance, hopefully people would just figure the hole in the jacket was a bizarre fashion statement.

As for her wound, fortunately, she knew just the man who could help.

Kasey made her way down the street to the subway station. She kept her eyes open, searching for other potential threats.

None showed themselves as she swiped her card and slipped quietly onto the train.

In New York, she was hardly the strangest commuter riding the train that day and while a few people gave her odds stares, Kasey just looked down and ignored them. It was too hard to tell whether they had noticed the blood or just recognized her face. In either case, she had more pressing thoughts to occupy her attention than their judgmental eyes.

The train gave her time to collect her thoughts. She'd been meaning to visit Vida for days but with game night coming up, she had figured it would be easier to kill two birds with one stone and give him a little time to come to grips with his new life.

Vida’s life had been a whirlwind the last few months. First, he’d been kidnapped by the Feudal Court, a result of his gambling addiction. If he’d known his loan shark was a vampire, he might had made better choices.

Then somehow, he'd found himself a new girlfriend, the short but spicy Stephanie. She'd been good for him, helping him out of his shell. But the vision Kasey had seen of Stephanie, in her werewolf form standing over a bleeding Vida, had given her cause to worry.

Kasey had held her at bay, suspicious of her motives.

But as Kasey and her team had squared off against the Wendigo, Vida had been ambushed and left for dead.

The foul creature had fed on her suffering. Rather than simply killing her friend, it had maimed him and left him for Kasey to find. Probably hoping the madness would drive her to embrace the poison in her mind.

She had misinterpreted her vision.

Stephanie wasn't a danger to Vida at all. If anything, Kasey's friendship was.

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

Right when Kasey had thought she was going to lose Vida, Stephanie had bit him. Lycanthropy could be viewed in many lights. Most wizards might consider werewolves second class citizens in the magical community, but the werewolves Kasey knew were some of the best people she’d ever met.

They drew strength from their adversity, and reveled in the power it gave them. For Vida, it was lifesaving.

Turning into a werewolf had helped him regenerate wounds that otherwise would have been fatal.

His body might have survived, but Kasey wanted to know how he was really doing. There was more to life than just breathing, at least that was what she liked to tell herself.

She staggered out of the train station and up the stairs, and paused at street level.

She searched for anyone who might be waiting for her. The assassin had struck once. She wasn’t taking any chances.

Not spotting anything out of the ordinary, she set off down the street. For the first time all day, she didn’t get the impression that anyone was watching her.

She reached the familiar apartment building, old red bricks, with a worn façade. Coroner’s pay wasn't particularly lucrative, but Vida seemed to supplement his with reckless gambling, a practice she hoped might have ceased after the trouble that it had got him in.

Kasey wandered through the old lobby with its broken tiles, and into the elevator. Stepping out onto the third floor, she made her way down the hall and paused outside his door.

Vida was still on stress leave from the NYPD, but she hoped he was home. She knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Vida's British accent carried from somewhere inside the apartment.

Kasey breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned against the door frame.

The door swung open, and Vida stood there in jeans, and an old SG-1 T-shirt. His thick black hair was swept to one side. What was more, there appeared to be some product in it.

She couldn't remember Vida ever investing much effort into his appearance, and while the clothes were clearly his and screamed same old Vida, the styled hair and five o'clock stubble was a new lock.

It was good to see him on his feet and looking relaxed. Stress leave had been good to him. Kasey wondered if perhaps she should take some of her own.

"Kasey," Vida shouted, throwing his arms around her.

She suppressed a groan as he squeezed her tight, his grip a little firmer than she remembered. But the real problem was that he was crushing her injured arm.

"You don't look at all happy to—" Vida paused mid-sentence.

"Wait.” He held up a finger as he sniffed twice, then he looked down at his own now damp sleeve. "Is that blood? Kasey you’re bleeding."

Kasey nodded. "Of that, I am well aware.”

"I guess the better question is why are you bleeding?" Vida asked as he took her by her good arm and pulled her into the apartment.

He dragged her into the apartment and pulled a stool out from his breakfast bar.

"Look who's here everyone," Vida shouted. "It's Kasey.”

Everyone? Kasey wasn't particularly in the mood for company, though she was glad Vida wasn't alone. It made her feel less guilty about how long it had taken her to visit.

Stephanie bounced out of the kitchen, then hesitated.

"Hi there, Kasey," Stephanie said slowly. "Look, I should explain…"

Kasey hadn't seen either of them since the incident in the warehouse, and while Stephanie's actions had saved Vida's life, he'd been unconscious at the time. Turning another human into a werewolf without their consent was a crime punishable by death. It was a position the Arcane Congress had taken an ironclad stance on when the werewolves had been allowed to participate in the Arcane Covenant. It was the only condition upon which other members of the magical community had unanimously agreed.

Stephanie had violated that agreement. And Kasey had witnessed it.

Kasey waved her concern away.

"I'm not here about that,” Kasey replied. “I just wanted to check that Vida was okay. I had a little incident on the way, though, so I’m a little out of it. It’s a long story, really.”

Kasey swayed as she felt a little lightheaded. Vida grabbed her and steered her to the stool.

“Kasey?" The deep voice came from somewhere in the lounge room.

Cal Strode appeared. He positioned himself beside her so that she could lean against him. He propped her up like she weighed nothing at all.

"Get the first aid kit, and some water, Stephanie,” Cal said.

Kasey’s head spun as the blood loss began to wear on her. The sea of voices around her blended together as Vida barked instructions at the others. Kasey sagged against Cal.

Stephanie reappeared, setting down a massive red bag on the counter.

Cal held Kasey up as Vida peeled off the jacket and peered beneath the scarf.

"Kasey, who did this?" Cal asked.

Kasey was fighting just to keep her consciousness. “Assassin. But you should see him. He’s having a much worse day."

"I don't doubt that one bit,” Cal replied. "What I don't understand is why you didn't just heal this yourself. Why risk this much blood loss?"

“Couldn't," Kasey whispered. “Some sort of magic."

Cal bent down and sniffed at the wound. It would have been unusual behavior but for the fact he was the alpha of one of New York's many werewolf packs. His nose was one of the best in the city.

"It reeks of it.” Cal shook his head. Werewolves were naturally suspicious of wizards. The two had often been at each other’s throats throughout history. And while they were both accepted members of the supernatural community, they certainly weren't above conflict.

He sniffed again. “Not just magic. This stinks of the Fae. Like the Wendigo’s. Who did this? Winter’s magic can be difficult to heal. You're gonna need stitches and some rest."

Stephanie brought a glass of water and Kasey took a long drink. She was as dehydrated as she was fatigued. The water helped her to clear her mind and gather her thoughts as Vida pulled up a second stool beside her.

"You want something for the pain?" he asked. “This will tickle a little.”

Kasey shook her head again. "I need to keep a clear head."

“Okay, if you insist.” Vida opened the first aid kit. Using a betadine-soaked cloth, he cleaned the wound.

Kasey grit her teeth, not wanting to appear soft. It worked, up until the time Vida started the stitches.

Kasey groaned as he made the first stitch.

"Harden up," Vida replied. “You've had far worse than this little scratch."

"You have a terrible bedside manner," Kasey replied. “Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Not recently," Vida answered as he continued stitching. "But that's probably because most of my patients are already dead."

That was true. His work in the morgue hardly required an exacting level of tenderness.

"We can always take you to a real hospital," Vida replied. “If you'd prefer. They actually do this for a living, you know?”

"Nah I'm good,” Kasey said. “At least I thought I was, then I saw you. You seem to be even more chipper than usual. How do you do it?"

"Chipper?" Vida asked as he continued stitching. "What do you mean?"

"When I last saw you at game night, you were a little quiet. It seemed like something was wrong."

"Just a passing fog," Vida replied, still stitching away. “I'm feeling better now.”

Kasey turned to get a better look at him. “And you’re good? Like good, good?"

She wasn't sure exactly how she ought to ask it, but she wanted to know how he was coping with his transition. Human to werewolf. She had never gone through it, but it had to be unsettling. Particularly for someone like Vida who could be a little jumpy on a good day.

"Better than good, Kasey.” A broad grin split his face. "I'm a freakin’ werewolf."

Stephanie laughed at his glee.

“Not just a werewolf, one of ours.” Cal clapped Vida on the back so hard Kasey felt it in her arm.

"Geez, let him finish first," she said. “I don’t need any more holes in me.”

"Sorry, boss,” Cal said, “just feels good to have another soul in the pack. There has been too much loss lately. We've got to take our joy where we can find it. Vida’s rebirth is a reason to celebrate.”

Cal’s pack had been decimated when the Feudal Court had attacked it in the dead of night. They had lost more of their kin at Madison Square Garden. Everyone had paid a price at the hands of the Feudal Court, but few grieved more than Cal and his pack.

Kasey managed a smile, in spite of the pain. Looking up at Vida, she nodded approvingly. "I'm happy you're happy."

She turned to Stephanie "And I'm glad you were there to do something when I could not. But mostly I'm sorry that any of you were there in the first place."

"What was that creature?” Vida asked. “Stuff of bloody nightmares that was.”

“Wendigo," Kasey replied. “Nasty beast. You don't have to worry about it though. We put it down for good.”

"I hear you also beat the case against you in the Arcane Council," Vida said. “That's good news. Not surprising, really, given you’re innocent, but a win nonetheless."

"Indeed." Kasey relaxed a little.

"The whole thing was a joke in the first place," Cal said. “Stupid Council. Always late to help, fast to accuse, and quick to execute their idea of justice."

"You should put that on a T-shirt," Kasey replied. “Me and all the other warlocks in New York would love one."

When Cal’s laughter petered out, he rested a hand on her good shoulder. “So, are you going to tell us who did this to you? If they are still breathing, they won't be soon."

"It was an assassin from the Winter Court," Kasey replied as she reached into her bag and pulled out the battered and bloodied felt hat. “I've never seen him before, but he ambushed me in the streets. No regard for anyone around me and he chased me through the city until I dragged him into an alley.”

"What happened?" Stephanie asked.

"I gave him a piece of my mind," Kasey replied as Vida finished stitching.

"So he’s dead?" Cal asked, a note of hope in his voice.

"Afraid not," Kasey said. “He slipped through my fingers, but he's pretty beat up. Bolted back to Faerie before I could finish the job."

Stephanie refilled Kasey's glass and she drained it again for good measure.

"What did he want with you?" Cal asked.

Kasey didn't like keeping secrets from the others. Secrets like the Wendigo had almost got Vida killed. But it wasn't her secret to share. Sanders’ loyalty to the Summer Court could cause real problems if it was discovered.

"In preparing to deal with Rhain, I may or may not have agitated the Winter King," Kasey replied. “With some help from Summer, we borrowed a little power from his domain. Turns out, it gave Summer a leg up in their little struggle and now I’m in the doghouse.”

"Well, it just wouldn't be a normal week if someone wasn't out to kill you," Vida replied as he applied a patch of gauze over the wound.

"You're right about that,” Kasey said, “but it's only one of two problems we have right now.”

"What's the other?” Cal asked as he picked up the felt hat and sniffed it. Kasey knew what he was doing. He was acquiring the scent so that he could watch for it around town. If Winter’s assassin returned, Cal and his pack would be hunting him. Hopefully, that would make him think twice before returning.

"Well, it would appear that this morning some dangerous prisoners escaped from the Arcane Council’s underground penitentiary."

"Doesn't sound like our sort of problem," Stephanie replied. “That’s wizard business.”

"Well, no,” Kasey began, “not your problem, that's for sure. But Cal and I have a task force. Supernatural threats in the city are our problem. And when a number of dangerous wizards break out of detention, it can quickly become a problem for the whole city. Who knows if they will go to ground, or start causing chaos here for the rest of us?"

"Isn't that the ADI’s problem though?" Stephanie asked. “They let them out. Why not let them clear it up?”

"We could," Kasey said, “but Strang is working hard to get my task force shut down. Or shuffled sideways under the ADI’s purview. If that happens, we’ll lose any leverage we have and probably be out of a job.”

"If that happens, I’d quit anyway," Cal replied. “I only help out because of you, Kasey. If that changes, I’m out.”

"Which is exactly why I'm trying to find these escapees," Kasey answered. “Right now, we are two-zero in saving the city. The ADI is playing catch up and if we find the prisoners before they do, it is further evidence that our task force has merit. And it may just hurt Strang's reputation to boot. So win-win.”

"How many of them are there?" Vida asked, packing up the first aid kit.

"Well, I know it's them as in plural, but Strang wasn't particularly forthcoming with other details. I'm hoping to get more from Sanders when I see him tonight."

That was her hope, anyway. She had no real idea when she might actually be able to see him. Every time she called him, his cell simply pinged that he was out of service.

“Okay, well, we can keep an eye out. I’ll let the pack know to watch for anything suspicious,” Cal said.

“Probably a good start,” Kasey replied. “Once I talk to Sanders and get more details, we’ll start a more measured hunt for them.”

She went to stand up but swayed the moment she got to her feet.

"Where do you think you are you going?" Cal asked.

“Home,” Kasey whispered. “I think I need to take a little bit of a nap.

"You do," Cal replied, “but you're going to have it here. Where the three of us can look out for you. If your friend comes back, we’ll be ready.”

Kasey glanced up at Cal, Stephanie, and Vida. She didn’t want to be a burden to them. Not any more than she already had been. But their faces were resolute, and she suspected in her current state she would hardly make it to the door anyway.

"Very well, I surrender,” she said with a sigh.

"Damn right you do."

She let out a startled shriek as Cal scooped her up like she was a child. He carried her to the living room and set her down. He sank into the recliner next to her couch. With her eyes closed, Kasey heard him making a call.

"Maria, I'll be late home. No, no problems. Just watching Kasey's back."

Kasey smiled as she drifted off to sleep. It was good to have friends she could trust.

Sleep came but it was fitful. The face of the smiling assassin in the felt hat kept drifting through her mind. Time and time again she relived the fight, wondering what she could have done better.

A thud in the apartment startled her awake. Kasey tried to bolt upright.

"Easy," Cal said, placing a big hand on her good shoulder. "You're here, among friends."

It took Kasey a moment to remember where she was. She sat up on the couch feeling a good deal better than she had, though she was still a little weak.

"Where are Vida and Stephanie?”

"They went out to grab dinner a moment ago," Cal replied, “I expect they’ll be back with some pizza soon."

Pizza. Her stomach grumbled. She looked down at her watch. It was almost seven PM.

"Dinner sounds good," she replied as she sat up.

She reached for her phone and opened it, still hoping to hear from Sanders.

There was one missed call.

Her heart fluttered as she opened it, expecting to see Sanders’ number.

It wasn't.

It was Hades.

There was also a message. Kasey flicked down to her messages and read through it.

Couldn't get an angle on what happened inside, but one of my informants caught this on video. Remind you of anyone you know?

Kasey opened the video and pressed play. It was a video taken from the grass outside City Hall. The phone was shaking as the holder faced it at the familiar walls of City Hall. A flare of brilliant golden light punched straight through the brickwork of the building. The blast perfectly formed the round hole Kasey had walked through earlier that day.

The golden light was blinding as it poured through the yawning wound in the building’s side. When the light faded, smoke rose from the exit, but no one moved through it.

Why blast a hole through the building’s wall and then not use it?

The video ended and Kasey scrolled back up to the text message.

Remind you of anyone you know?

Kasey replayed the video, watching the golden light melt straight through a brick wall.

Her heart skipped a beat. She'd seen power like that many times, and it only came out of one person she knew. Or at least, she thought she knew him.

The Summer Ray.

Also known as Noah Sanders, the incumbent Arcane Chancellor and her boyfriend.

But what on earth was he doing breaking convicted criminals out of ADI holding?

Chapter 8

Pizza would normally have been one of Kasey’s favorite meals. But it was hard to enjoy it while the video Hades had just sent her played through her mind on repeat.

Golden light carving a hole right through the wall of City Hall didn’t seem like much of a basis for accusing her boyfriend of staging a jailbreak at the Arcane Council. Just the sentence seemed utterly absurd as she mulled it over in her mind.

Sanders was the Arcane Chancellor. Why would he risk everything to attempt something as dangerous as it was incendiary to his career? He’d spent his working life putting dangerous wizards behind bars. Letting them back on the street went against everything he stood for.

In the back of her mind, she was aware that the video was hardly conclusive proof. The color of the magic in question was hardly enough to go on. She was sure with some effort she could mimic it. But it would be an imitation; she wouldn’t wield it like he could.

Magic that shone like the light of Summer at noon day was not common. And magic strong enough to carve through bricks and mortar like they were paper was even less so. When you added the fact that the jailbreak had perfectly circumnavigated the Council’s defenses and harmed no one, then the evidence was starting to stack up against Sanders.

To muddy the water further, there was the fact she’d got the video from Hades. He’d always been helpful in the past, but if he was as interested in her as he seemed, he certainly had a vested interest in throwing Sanders under the bus.

“Everything okay, Kasey?” Vida asked. “You’ve barely touched your pizza. And that’s not like you at all.”

Kasey eyed the empty pizza box in front of Vida. There was nothing but crumbs left, and he was still looking for more. Turning into a werewolf certainly hadn’t harmed his appetite.

“Just not feeling particularly hungry,” Kasey replied, setting down what was left of her third piece of pizza. “Not all of us are the black hole you are.”

Vida grinned wolfishly. “I’ll tell you what, Kasey. My appetite was something before, but ever since I turned, it’s like my body burns anything I put into it. I’ve never needed so many calories in my life.”

“Is that really the turning though?” Stephanie asked, shooting a coy look at Vida. “Or is it the fact your night life is a whole lot less sedentary than it used to be?”

Vida blushed furiously as he opened his mouth but thought better of it.

“You’re so adorable.” Stephanie laughed as she rested a hand on his cheek. She scooped up the empty boxes and carried them into the kitchen.

“I’ll have you know, I’m a lycanthropic killing machine,” Vida called after her, his fist balled up in mock outrage.

“Rawr,” Stephanie called back over her shoulder. She sounded more like a kitten than a werewolf, which only made Vida blush more.

He shook his head.

“In any other room, I’d be something to be feared. With my friends, I’m still the featherweight.” Vida sighed as he scooped up his coke.

“But you’re our featherweight,” Cal replied, leaning on the table. “And now you’re not just a friend. You’re family.”

Vida smiled and set down his coke. “Not going to lie. It feels pretty good. Had I known this was an option, I might have done it years ago.”

“It’s not for everyone,” Cal said. “And having someone like Stephanie to guide you makes a difference. Life can be harsher for others.”

“So, you’re doing okay?” Kasey asked.

In recent months, Vida had been in the wars. She worried how he’d be taking this latest change in his already fragile state.

“Better than okay.” Vida grinned. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been better, and I mean that.”

Kasey rose from the table and rested her hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad to hear that. You had me worried for a while there.”

The apartment went a little quiet. Vida had almost died. If Stephanie hadn’t been there, he would have. He was lucky to have someone who cared about him enough to risk the Council’s wrath for turning him.

“I’m going to head off,” she said. “You can finish my pizza if you like.”

“Are you sure it’s safe out?” Cal asked, rising from the table.

Kasey looked at the city lights through the apartment’s window.

“Yeah. He caught me by surprise today. That won’t happen twice. I know they’re coming now. Besides, I still have work to do.”

“If you need help, all you have to do is ask,” Cal replied, giving her a hug.

“Thanks, buddy,” Kasey said, then nodded at Vida. “Keep an eye on him for me, will ya?”

“Both eyes,” Cal replied. “He’s almost as good at finding trouble as you are.”

“Hey,” Vida protested. “I’m right here.”

“A fact I’m grateful for every day,” Kasey said as she gave him a hug. “Thanks for the stitches, Doc. See you soon.”

Kasey scooped up the felt hat, tucked it back in her bag, and waved as she slipped out of the apartment. As she headed downstairs, she tried Sanders again. Once more it pinged out of service area and Kasey threw her phone back in her bag in frustration.

For the hundredth time, she hoped he was just busy at work and that nothing had happened to him, but if he wanted to avoid her, he was going to have to do better than that.

As she stepped outside, Kasey noted the breeze and pulled her ruined jacket tight around her. Patience was not one of her greatest virtues, and as she stood there on the sidewalk, she ran out.

One way or another, they were going to talk.

With nowhere else she needed to be, she headed for the one place he’d have to show up eventually: his apartment.

Kasey considered walking but given her condition, she pulled the pin on that idea and called a ride-share. One of these days she was going to need to get her car fixed.

It had been weeks since her car had been written off. Unfortunately, insurers could move pretty slow on a good day. When your car was totaled by gnome hitmen, it appeared to complicate the process. There seemed to be some contention as to whether a car bomb was indeed covered by the policy, and she’d lost patience with the process.

At this stage of her life, if a policy couldn’t cover her for the occasional explosion, she really had to wonder if it was worth having. As far as she could tell, she was far more likely to be attacked than be t-boned in an intersection, or have a fender-bender in a parking lot.

If the insurers did fall through, Seth’s gift would go to funding her next purchase, but right now she just didn’t have the heart to buy another car. The last one hadn’t lasted particularly long, so she thought it best to wait till things settled down in New York City. If a war between the Fae Courts was imminent, it wasn’t going to deprive her of her another car.

A sleek Lexus pulled to a halt and Kasey recognized it from the rideshare app. Climbing into the back seat, she was glad the driver didn’t seem to notice the sliced jacket or the dried blood. She exchanged pleasantries and sank deeper into the seat as he pulled out into the ebbing evening traffic.

Staring out the window, Kasey watched the city lights as they wove their way across Manhattan.

In spite of everything that had happened to her here, she wouldn’t trade living in New York City for anywhere else in the world.

Her phone buzzing roused her from her thoughts.

She reached for her bag so fast her freshly stitched arm screeched its protest. Kasey grunted in pain as her fingers closed around her phone.

“Everything okay back there?” the driver asked.

“Peachy,” Kasey called as she lifted the phone out of her bag.

She’d been hoping it was Sanders but was surprised to see Steven’s number illuminating the screen.

Steven was one of the Feudal Court’s many victims. Unlike most who had been bitten by a vampire, he hadn’t succumbed to the insatiable need to feed. Faced with the choice to take another’s life and complete his transformation into an undying killing machine, or being driven mad by a need to drink blood, he’d found another path.

He’d purchased a funeral home, changed careers, and was doing his best to build a new life as a mortician. It wasn’t glamorous but he’d figured his former employers at the NSA might notice the difference in his routine health checkups. The funeral home ensured a constant supply of blood from those who no longer needed it, and his affordable prices ensured he never went without.

Kasey felt bad for the man stuck between life and death. He hadn’t even seen his family in months. They likely thought he was dead, but she could understand where he was coming from. If you were wrestling with an undying thirst, the last place you’d want to lose that battle was among your loved ones.

It was brave and heart-wrenching all at once, and Kasey was doing what she could to help him.

At the same time, Steven had been using the talents his former employers had taught him to solve a problem for her.

"Hey Steven, how's it going?" Kasey asked as she answered the phone. She took care not to let the pain shine through. She didn't want to draw attention to the fact that she was operating at any less than her best. After all, it had been only a week since there had been a price on her head.

"Kasey," Stephen replied, breathing heavily. "The tracker has stopped."

Kasey sat up, looking at the driver as she decided just how much she was willing to say in such a public setting.

"Stopped, like ran out of batteries?" Kasey asked, panicking.

"No," Stephen answered. “I made it myself. Batteries should have been good for at least a month. So either they found it, or they put it somewhere it can no longer transmit."

Kasey didn't know the first thing about that sort of technology and with everything riding on success, it seemed like a setback she could ill afford.

"Can't transmit? What does that mean? I thought you said you could find it anywhere in the world."

"I can," he replied. "But they started moving yesterday. So either it's no longer on the planet, or they have stuck it somewhere with a Faraday cage.

"What's a Faraday cage?" Kasey. Everything hinged on being able to follow Talora as the sentinels escorted her to the Terminus.

"A Faraday blocks signals in an out. Secure installations often make use of them. So chances are the package you’re tracking has reached its final destination. We know where they are.”

Kasey was giddy with excitement. Finally, some good news. "Where is it?"

"Well, up until yesterday, it was sitting in a storage facility outside of London. I’ve seen satellite pictures of it. The place is set up like a black site, and it’s owned by a series of dummy corporations whose purpose could only be to hide it's true ownership. I’m not sure who you’re dealing with, Kasey, but they are dangerous.”

Steven didn’t know the half of it. The Arcane Congress were the most powerful political body in the mortal world. They wielded their influence in both worlds and were not an enemy a sane witch would want to make. Their black site must have been a holding station of some kind, where they vetted prisoners prior to incarcerating them at the Terminus.

She didn’t need the black site’s details though. She needed to know where Talora was now. She had implanted the tracker deep in the bone, which she had hoped would be enough to mask it from detection.

Kasey was gambling heavily on the fact the Arcane Congress wasn't going to want to get too close to Talora. Wendigo were incredibly dangerous. Kasey knew from her own experience. Even prolonged proximity seemed liable to infect people with the same sickness Kasey had been wrestling with when she returned from the Falls.

Kasey was banking on the hope that Talora’s status in the Summer Court and the danger she posed to the community would be sufficient for them to detain her in their most secure facility. According to Sanders, the Terminus was for those they never wanted to see the light of day again.

She had not accounted for the prolonged detour at the black site, but if the tracker started moving again, that had to be a good sign.

"And where did the transmitter move to?" Kasey asked.

"The Outer Hebrides," Stephen answered, unable to contain his excitement.

"The what?" Kasey said, not wanting to repeat the location out loud.

"The Outer Hebrides are a chain of islands off the coast of Scotland," he said.

Kasey knew what they were. She was just wrestling with why the Congress would pick an island in the middle of the ocean. Surely space would be at a premium there.

The Hebrides themselves were two groups of islands that consisted of thousands of square miles of land and spread across a stretch of the Atlantic that might take days or even weeks to search. She needed something more specific.

“I don’t suppose you know which island?” Kasey asked softly.

“The tracker stopped on Flannan Island. It's a tiny uninhabited island with a lighthouse and a questionable history. I'll send you everything I have."

"Thanks Stephen," Kasey replied. "I owe you one."

"I'll hold you to it. Sending the coordinates now."

Stephen hung up. He wasn't one for small talk.

Kasey punched the air with her good hand. They had a location. Now if Sanders would just answer his forsaken phone, she would have some good news for him.

Perhaps it would be good to lead with that, rather than the accusation about where he'd been the night before.

As she weighed the possibility, it seemed ludicrous to think he'd staged a breakout. But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Somehow, someone had bypassed the Council's most tightly guarded facility. They’d done it without being so much as seen and escaped with an unknown quantity of high-profile prisoners. All without harming a single person.

It stank of Sanders, and when she found him, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

Was he simply practicing for the Terminus? Or had the sleep deprivation finally got to him, and he’d lost his mind?

The car pulled up in front of Sanders’ apartment and Kasey climbed out of the back seat. Shutting the door behind her, she looked up at the building.

Noah lived in a far better part of town then she could afford, so it was always nice to visit.

Something about it just felt a little safer. Maybe it was the fact that vampires had never stormed his residence. Or maybe it was just the fact that everyone including Hades seemed to know exactly where she lived, whether she wanted them to or not.

On top of that, no one bothered Sanders at home. Probably because he held the most powerful office in the Arcane Council. Those who weren't afraid of his title and political clout likely feared him because of the speed with which he'd risen through the ranks of the ADI. He was by most practitioner's reckoning, one of the most capable young wizards of his time.

Of course, Kasey knew what others didn't. Sanders had been provided the luxury of honing his arts for decades while living with the Summer Court in Faerie.

Then there was the small subsection of beings who knew and feared him for an entirely different reason. Sanders was the Summer Ray, Titania's personal retainer and chosen champion. In him had been invested a measure of her incredible power. Sanders wielded it with a deftness that made him a danger to all who would bring him harm.

Kasey made her way to the lobby.

Sanders was also one of the most caring, sensitive, and loving men she had ever met. At least he was if you ever made it past his defenses. She had never planned to, but something had grown between them while they were on the run together. Even with everything happening in the city, they had finally carved out a little time to spend together.

Not much, and not nearly as often as she would have liked. But it was something.

For now, there were simply too many masters competing for his attention.

That was the real reason she was so committed to helping him. She wanted to see the man she cared about freed from the shackles of obligation. Obligations to his office, and the Summer Court. Kasey only hoped they both lived long enough to enjoy it.

Kasey slipped through the lobby and rode the elevator up to Sanders' floor.

It was more modest than Hades’ billionaire penthouse, but Kasey had never been one to care about money. Sure, it mattered when things were tight, but she knew perfectly well you could be both rich and miserable. The Harringtons had taught her that lesson painfully, and she would never forget it.

Kasey wondered how Kendra was doing as she reached the door and opened her bag. It felt good to not have to break-in. Sanders had given her a key and the memory of that morning still brought a smile to her face.

She slipped the key into the lock. It turned easily and she pushed open the door.

The lights were off. No one was home. Kasey sighed. Part of her had been hoping Sanders was here, passed out from exhaustion, his phone flat beside him.

No such luck.

The apartment itself was cozy and well furnished. When Kasey had joked about it, Sanders had told her that it was the benefit of compound interest. Apparently spending time in Faerie while decades passed in the mortal plane could do wonders for your bank account.

Kasey wandered through the apartment, just to be certain that she was alone. If Sanders was there, he would have called out when she came through the door. Someone waiting to kill her would not have.

Some might call it paranoia, but an assassin had already tried to murder her once today. She wasn't going to give them any more opportunity.

Kasey went to set her bag down on the counter, but a pang of pain shot down her arm. The bag dropped, tipping over and spilling her phone, and the bloodied felt hat onto the kitchen counter. Rather than fix it, Kasey left it as it was and made her way into the kitchen.

She needed something to take her mind off the situation, and no doubt Sanders would need something to eat when he got home. So she went looking for something worth cooking.

Unlike her own apartment, Sanders somehow managed to keep his well-stocked. Kasey opened the fridge and pulled out a plate with a pair of steaks on it. She set them on the counter to rest and made her way back to the fridge.

She wasn't much of a cook, but salad hardly required expertise, and a good hearty meal was exactly what the doctor ordered. Or would have ordered if she had bothered to consult one. Maybe it would go down a little better than the pizza.

Heresy.

Kasey cut up a tomato, grated some carrots she found in the chiller, and added spinach and a few cubes of cheddar cheese she found in the drawer. Satisfied that the steaks had been left long enough, she salted both of them and threw them in the pan on the stove. Working patiently, she cooked them to a good sear.

As she went, she tossed a little extra butter in the pan and added some herbs. She basted the stakes as she went.

Just because she didn't cook often, didn't mean she couldn't nail the basics. There was a difference between not cooking because you didn’t have the time, and not knowing how to cook at all.

It only took a few easy steps to make a decent steak taste great. Once she was confident she had reached medium rare, she flipped the steak once.

Within a few minutes, both steaks were resting on Sanders’ timber cutting board.

Wandering over to the window, she looked out over the New York City.

"Where are you, Noah?" she whispered. Her hand shook and she tucked it into her pocket.

Once more, she hoped that nothing had happened to him.

Part of her was convinced the mess at City Hall was his. Part of her couldn't believe that he would make a move like that without consulting her.

As the two opinions warred in her mind, she picked up the phone once more and dialed his number for the umpteenth time that day.

"Pickup." It was more of a plea than an instruction.

But once more, it didn't even ring. Instead, her phone informed her that the number she dialed was not in a mobile service area.

Kasey sighed and made her way back to the cutting board to slice her steak. As she was lifting it onto her plate and setting it beside her salad, a brilliant golden light illuminated the apartment.

It traced its way through the air until it formed a door. The space within vanished as the Veil parted and Kasey found herself staring into another world.

Not the bitter wintry ice scape she had witnessed in Winter's domain, but a verdant forest full of life.

Noah Sanders stepped through the portal.

"Out of service area," Kasey muttered. "Understatement of the century."

Chapter 9

No sooner had Sanders stepped into the apartment, then his phone started blowing up. Kasey watched as all of her messages and missed call notifications came at once now that he was finally back in normal reception.

Sanders glanced down at his phone, still oblivious to her presence in the kitchen.

He wasn't dressed in his usual suit. Instead, he wore loose fitting black slacks and a black shirt with a bullet-proof vest strapped over it. He had a balaclava rolled up and was wearing it as a beanie. Not the sort of outfit one wore for an evening stroll. He couldn't have looked more guilty if he tried.

"Sorry, dear, I may have tried to you a few times. It's been a rough day."

Sanders startled as he spun to face her. His shoulders slumped a little as he glanced down at his phone. He looked back at Kasey who was still wielding the knife she'd used to cut the steak.

"I’m sorry about that. I just had to step out and see to some things in Faerie.”

It was the truth, at least part of it, which Kasey appreciated, but he wasn’t getting off the hook that easily.

The bags under his eyes told her everything she needed to know. She doubted he'd slept much in the last few days, and he looked like he was falling asleep on his feet.

If he was tired, perhaps she could get another straight answer out of him.

"So are you going to tell me why you broke into the Arcane Council? Or am I going to have to wrestle it out of you?" Kasey set down the knife, worried he might take her questions poorly if she was armed.

Behind him, the rift into Faerie closed like a door being shut. Sanders let out a giant sigh.

"I had the suspicion you'd think it was a little reckless. It's the only reason I didn't tell you first. That, and I wanted your reaction to be genuine.”

"Genuine?" Kasey considered picking up the knife again. "What do you mean genuine?"

"When we tunneled into City Hall, I knew Bishop would get called in. Inevitably, you would run into the ADI and that would mean Strang. I wanted your reaction to be surprised and genuine. If you knew it was me ahead of time, Strang might have caught onto it.”

"Well, your little deception worked wonders. Strang seems to be clueless," Kasey said. “I, on the other hand, figured it out an hour ago.”

"You were always the clever one." Sanders chuckled. “I was going to tell you. I swear.”

He pulled off the balaclava and tossed it aside. Resting against the back of the recliner, he asked, "How did you know it was me?"

"Someone managed to tunnel from City Hall to the Arcane Council, break out a handful of dangerous criminals, and escape without being caught. What's more, I'm pretty sure no one was injured and no surveillance cameras caught anything. If it wasn't you, I suspect it would have been a lot messier."

"I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to pull it off in the last century," Sanders replied with something that seemed a lot like pride in his voice.

"Yeah, unfortunately, you didn't take into account the homeless man in the park taking a video of your light show. Golden light added to all the other things, and I figured it was you. Leaving a trail was sloppy. If Strang finds out, we’re both dead."

“I know, I know.” Sanders rubbed his eyes. "I'm not gonna lie. At that point, I was so tired I could barely walk, and so ecstatic that it had actually worked, I didn't quite think it through. I just wanted them to believe we'd escaped into the city.”

"Well, mission accomplished,” Kasey replied. “Though I'm hoping none of those prisoners are loose in New York?”

"That would be a no," Sanders replied. "Those men and women are dangerous, Kasey. I wouldn't let them into the city for any price. They are all holed up in a remote location controlled by the Summer Court. Safe from the eyes and ears of the Arcane Council, and anyone else who might come looking for them.”

“Mind filling me in on why you broke a bunch of convicted felons out of holding?” Kasey glanced down at dinner. It was rapidly going cold.

"We're going to need a team, Kasey. The Terminus is going to be well defended. If breaking into the Arcane Council was foolish, breaking into the Terminus is suicide. If we want to live through it, we need help.”

Kasey picked up the plates and carried them to the table. Setting them down, she went back for the cutlery and handed a knife and fork to Sanders.

"I made us dinner. I figured you'd be hungry." Kasey’s appetite had been coming back as she cooked, but as she listened to Sanders, it was quickly waning again.

Was breaking into the Terminus even possible? Or was she setting herself up for disappointment, or worse, death?

"I’m starving actually,” Sanders replied as he pulled out his chair and sank into it. The timber creaked as he leaned back. “I haven’t eaten in about twenty-four hours.”

That was about the level of self-care she was used to from Sanders.

"What do you know about the Terminus?" Kasey asked as she gripped a knife and fork. “I’m growing tired of being kept in the dark.”

Sanders speared a slice of tomato and threw it into his mouth.

"The Terminus is where the Arcane Congress sticks anyone and anything that it is afraid or ashamed of. Its location is a closely guarded secret. While I was the Director of the ADI, I was hoping for a reason that would justify my inquiring about it. But I never got a chance to speak with the Congress.”

"I thought the Congress killed things that they were afraid of?" Kasey skewered a piece of steak with her fork.

Sanders finished a mouthful of dinner. "It might be easy enough to execute a warlock, but it can be quite a different matter when the being in question is a member of another race in the supernatural community. The Congress are just one party to the Arcane Covenant. They don't dictate how the entire community functions. Nor do they have enough power or influence to ignore the other parties. Sometimes they need a deep dark hole to put someone or something where it will never be found. The Terminus is that hole. Only the Watchman, and a small cadre of his sentinels, know where it is.”

"And the chance of Armando Flint telling us anything is negligible,” Kasey replied, understanding the nature of the man who’d tried to have her executed.

Sanders chewed his way through a slice of steak.

"It was non-existent before he weighed in at your trial. Now that he knows who you are, you can bet your bottom dollar he'd rather confine you in the Terminus than tell you where it is. Your mother too, if he ever got his hands on her.

That thought sent a shiver down Kasey's spine. The Watchman was one of the most dangerous members of the Arcane Congress.

He should have been a hero of the people. Unfortunately, those who wandered across his sights seemed to include both actual practitioners of the Forbidden, and anyone he decided strayed too close to the line. His word meant life or death, and carried the weight of the Congress behind it.

Unfortunately, druids and sentinels had a long history of being at odds. It hadn't improved when the sentinels had killed a number of innocent druids who had been engaged in a ritual. Flint and his sentinels had assumed they were participating in human sacrifice, not knowing how the order of the Druids functioned.

In their attack, they had killed two families. Her mother had arrived on the scene of the bloodbath and responded by wiping out the entire division. Flint had barely escaped with his life and his one good eye.

How her mother had escaped execution for her reprisal was something Kasey wanted to know, but hadn’t had the opportunity to ask.

At least she now understood why people seemed to fear her mother. The high priestess of the Order of Earth magic was not a woman to be taken lightly. If Sanders had asked, Kasey would have considered trying to recruit her for this insane task. Sticking one to Flint would likely have been enough motive to get her to agree.

Kasey set the thought aside. Humorous as she found it, she didn’t want to drag her family into the mess that was coming. They’d already risked enough supporting her in her trial.

This wasn’t their fight.

"I still don't understand why you broke those men out of holding." Kasey sliced through another piece of steak and raised it to her mouth.

"Formidable we might be, we need a team to break in. Beyond the extra firepower, we have no idea what we might be facing there…” Sanders’ voice trailed off. “So I put together a team of talents I thought could tackle anything we might face.”

"We have friends,” Kasey replied. “People who have helped us before. People we can trust. Cal, Bishop, Jack, hell even Vida would help.”

"None of those are lives I am willing to risk." Sanders pushed his salad around his plate. "This was my errand, Kasey. I didn't even want to drag you into it. There is no way I would risk their lives to save mine.”

“So you assembled the Masters of Evil?” Kasey raised an eyebrow. “That seems safer.”

Sanders set down his knife, either not getting the reference or not finding it as amusing as she had.

“I’m telling you, it wouldn’t be fair for them. It's not even fair for you.”

"I'm a big girl now. I make my own choices,” Kasey answered. “They can too.”

"Oh, I’m aware," Sanders replied, “and how do you think I'll live with myself if something happens to you?"

His words both made Kasey's heart flutter and made her feel guilty for pressing him.

"About as rotten as I would feel if something happened to you and I hadn't been there at least to try and help. I'm with you, whether you like it or not.”

"Not," Sanders answered. "Just so we’re clear.”

Kasey leaned back, his words a proverbial slap in the face.

Sanders’ fingers bit into his scalp as he dragged them through his hair.

“I'll be glad for your company, don’t get me wrong. But I fear I’ll spend the entire time worried about you. That's another reason I chose these people. I don’t have to worry about innocent lives being lost. Each of them already faces a death sentence. If the worst befalls them, it is no worse than they would have faced in custody. What’s more, they have everything to lose if we are caught. They will fight like their lives depend on it.”

Kasey still wasn’t convinced. In her mind, a few trusted friends were who she wanted watching her back, not a bunch of cutthroat warlocks desperate for redemption, or at least early release.

“But desperate men can be dangerous,” she said. “I'd rather you were nowhere near them.”

It wasn’t the mission itself that Kasey was worried about though. It was what came next.

“And what happens to them when we get back?" Kasey asked. “You can’t rightly put them back in holding. They would out you in a heartbeat.”

He might have freed them, but Sanders had also given each of them powerful leverage. If anyone were to believe their story, his life would be in jeopardy. Unless he didn’t plan for them to make it back.

It was a sinister thought. Kasey struggled to believe he could be that cold and calculating.

"If we survive,” Sanders began, “they'll have new lives with the Fae. Away from the Council, the Congress, and anyone else who might want them dead for their past crimes.”

"Aren’t they dangerous though?" Kasey asked. How could Sanders countenance them being able to walk free after everything they had done?

"Very,” he replied, scooping up a forkful of salad. "But in Faerie they are the least dangerous creatures around. They get a second chance. The Queen of Summer gets what she wants. We're all happy.”

As Kasey ate, she dreaded to think what sort of men Sanders had actually broken out of prison. They would have to be truly desperate to consider a mission like this. Which meant they were likely men with death sentences awaiting execution, a punishment reserved for warlocks and the most dangerous members of the magical community.

Kasey winced as she cut into her steak. The sawing motion vibrated right up her arm and her tortured nerves didn't like it one bit. Fortunately, Sanders was too distracted with his dinner to notice.

"You need to get some rest.” Kasey sat down her knife. Who needed it when she had teeth? “You look awful.”

"Thanks,” Sanders replied, his sarcasm shining through before his tone changed. “And thanks for cooking dinner. I needed it after everything that's happened the last few days.”

Sanders was clearly struggling to stay upright, and he attacked the steak and salad with the enthusiasm of a man who hadn't seen a square meal in weeks. Kasey was glad she had stopped by. If she hadn't, he likely would have just collapsed on the couch and gone back to the office tomorrow. At least this way she guaranteed he ate well.

She was also happy that he hadn't bothered trying to conceal the truth from her, though she was still a little annoyed that he hadn't brought her into the loop sooner. The less rational part of her mind was a little grumpy that he hadn't noticed her arm. But then again, that was blood on black leather and the only light on in the apartment was in the kitchen. The two of them sat in semi-darkness eating by the light cast from the kitchen.

"So what else have you been up to?" Sanders asked. "You told me it'd been a long day."

"Yup,” Kasey replied, glad he’d asked. “It started with me getting dragged down to City Hall to check out your little sandpit project. Well done on that one, by the way. City Hall is going to take months to patch that maintenance closet.”

"Ah, don't worry about it. The Council will graciously kick in to help repair the damage. It’s the least we can do with our convicts on the run.” Sanders had a coy smile on his lips as he went back to eating.

“How did you even manage to dig that deep a hole in a single night?” Kasey asked.

"I had some help.” Sanders laughed.

Kasey cocked her head to the side. So he hadn't been alone after all.

Sanders noted her disapproval. "Don't be like that. It wasn't a person. It was a Gringor. They are native to Faerie but fortunately not the mortal realm. At the rate they tunnel, they'd be a danger to cities everywhere. The Gringor and I dug my way in, sprung our future colleagues, and carved that hole in the wall in a single night. I ported the lot of them into Faerie where neither the Council nor the Congress will be able to reach them. Summer will shield them until we’re ready to make our move on the Terminus.”

"Can you really trust them not to stab us in the back?” Kasey asked.

Sanders’ shoulders slumped. "Not at all. In fact, I’m almost certain they will try. But it's in their best interest to behave. The Summer Queen has stressed the importance of that as a condition for their continued existence."

Kasey remembered the crushing weight of Titania’s raw will. The Sidhe monarch was with a force of nature.

Kasey was far from convinced, but she could also tell Sanders was doing the best he could under trying circumstances. Piling on wasn’t going to help. So she went back to her day.

“So I spent the morning trading quips with Strang who wouldn't tell me a damn thing.”

“No surprise there.” Sanders laughed.

“Strang seems like she is trying to freeze me out of Council affairs.” Kasey worried that even if everything went well, she’d still end up without a job.

"Not to worry,” Sanders replied. “She will be chasing her tail for days, and when all is said and done, it'll look like the ADI dropped the ball. We can all bask in the glow of Marion getting exactly what she deserves.”

So he had intentionally calculated the jailbreak to embarrass her. If there was something to be said for Sanders, it was his ruthless and meticulous attention to detail. Even while attempting the impossible, he’d found a way to be sure she paid the price for her audacity. Strang had made a dangerous enemy the day she’d tried to take his job.

“After my little catch up with Marion, I went looking for information on our escaped felons.”

Kasey didn't want to mention that she’d stopped by Hades. Not that anything that happened, but she didn't want to rile up Sanders by telling him how blatantly forward the crime lord had been. Jealousy would only unsettle him at a time when he already had far more important problems on his mind.

“I did hear from Stephen though. The tracker moved. It's no longer in London.”

Sanders perked up, sitting up in his chair. “It's on the move?”

“Moved,” Kasey confirmed. “Past tense. As soon as it had, it went off-line. Which means either they found it…”

"Or it reached its destination.” Sanders smiled. “I suspect the Terminus is somewhere Stephen’s satellites won't be able to get a signal. Where was its last known position?”

“An island in the Outer Hebrides,” Kasey answered. “Scotland.”

"Of course it is.” Sanders nodded along. “There are dozens of uninhabited islands out there. Did he tell us which one?”

“I have the coordinates.” Kasey looked about for her phone. It was still on the kitchen counter. She couldn’t be bothered getting up and getting it. “He sent everything he had on the location. Apparently, it's called Flannan Island.”

Sanders was wide awake now, running his hand along his five o’clock shadow.

"Of course. That place has all sorts of myths swirling about it, no doubt spread by the Arcane Congress to deter those who might otherwise head there.

Sanders picked up his empty plate and walked into the kitchen. He set it down on the counter and his eyes played across to Kasey's bag still laying on its side. His eyes skipped over her phone but homed in on the battered and bloodied felt hat.

“Kasey, where did you get that hat?” There was a note of panic in his voice.

Kasey swallowed. “Funny story that. I was attacked today.”

Sanders grabbed the hat and whispered something that Kasey didn't quite catch but the magic flowing out of him, was too obvious to miss. It was as if a warm summer breeze filled the apartment as the hat glowed a rich sapphire blue.

Sanders threw down the bloody hat. "You weren't just attacked by anyone, Kasey. You were attacked by the Winter Shard. I thought I recognized that stupid hat he favors.”

“The Winter Shard?” Kasey asked as she got up from the table.

"My equal in the Winter Court,” Sanders blurted. “What happened? Tell me everything.”

Kasey could hear the panic in his voice. Or was it concern. It was hard to tell.

“He came out of nowhere,” Kasey started. “He was flinging ice shards at me. All day I'd felt like I was being watched, but I just figured I was being paranoid. Then the first ice shard almost killed me. I ran for my life, and when he chased me into an alley, I dropped the hammer on him. Might have killed him if he hadn’t fled into Faerie.”

Sanders shook his head. “Kasey, we've got to go.”

Kasey leaned on the counter. “Got to go? Go where? Didn’t you hear me? I almost killed him.”

"But you didn’t,” Sanders answered. “He didn't forget the hat. He left it for you. He can track it.”

Kasey’s guts twisted themselves into knots as she realized the implications of what Sanders was telling her.

With a deafening blast, the balcony window imploded inward, showering the apartment with a rain of glass.

It was too late. He was already here.

Chapter 10

Kasey dove behind the kitchen island as glass showered the apartment. Flashes of blue arcane trails streaked toward the apartment.

The fusillade slammed into the apartment, the noise deafening as icy missiles tore through the furniture and buried themselves in the kitchen table. Kasey was just catching her breath when something slammed into the other side of the kitchen cabinet.

"What the hell is going on?" Kasey shouted. “Where are you?”

"Coming,” Sanders replied. “Just giving them something to think about.”

Kasey felt the waves of power rolling off him as he returned fire. Summer and Winter met with devastating force.

“The hat, they must have followed it here," Sanders replied, rounding the bench.

Kasey kicked herself for not realizing the danger. She’d just come from a crime scene and her experience told her you gathered evidence, not burned it. She would have to change that habit when dealing with assassins.

"What do you want to do about them?" Kasey called back.

Sweat rolled down Sanders’ brow. “They have us pinned down and likely outnumbered. If you did a number on the Shard, they will have sent an entire platoon. Winter Sidhe, no doubt. We need to run.”

“Run?” Kasey focused on a foot long spear of ice buried in the oven’s glass door. “We’ll be cut down the second we break cover.”

"Not if we head for the one place they can't follow,” Sanders said. He waved his hands and a small rift appeared in the veil between his apartment and Faerie. It was barely a foot tall and just as wide, concealed from the Winter Sidhe.

Truth be told, Kasey was still trying to work out exactly where the attack was coming from. They were several stories off the ground. The Sidhe had to be on an adjacent building somewhere.

Kasey looked at the portal. She would be able to squeeze through, but it would have to be on her hands and knees.

"You first,” Sanders shouted. “I’ll watch our back."

Kasey scurried forward, dropping into a commando crawl and dragging herself through the portal out of the devastated kitchen and into a verdant grassy clearing. The sheer contrast was incredible as she emerged in a forest in the heat of summer.

Sanders was right behind her, shimmying through the rift. No sooner had he cleared it than he gestured behind him, and the portal closed.

As the veil between worlds sealed, a two-foot-long crystalline spear of ice slammed into the grass between his legs.

The shard wavered back and forth from the momentum it had carried.

Sanders looked down at the spear between his legs.

"That's a little closer than I would have liked.”

Kasey rolled onto her back, sucking in a deep breath of fresh forest air. There was never a dull moment, and her nerves were feeling more than a little frayed.

"Why are they after me now?" she asked. “I attacked the Falls weeks ago, and nothing. Were they trying to keep me in suspense?”

“Time passes differently between the realms, Kasey. You know that.” Sanders stood up and brushed himself off. “And fortunately, the King of Winter likely has other problems to contend with. You might have thwarted him at the Falls, but with an entire realm to keep under his thumb, revenge takes time.”

Kasey brushed the leaves off her jeans. “Well, that’s not particularly reassuring, is it? What are we meant to do about them?”

“We’ll ignore them for the time being,” Sanders replied. “If we know where the Terminus is, we must focus on the task at hand. Besides, it’s possible that they are aware of your bargain with Talora and now the Summer Queen. Your consistent alliance with their foes has made you a target. They may not know what Summer has planned, but if they think you're a part of it, perhaps they just meant to take you off the table to stall Titania’s plans.”

Kasey picked a leaf out of her hair. “What if they come looking for us here?”

"We’re safe here. Even if they wanted to follow us, they can’t reach this deep into Summer’s domain.”

"Why not?” Kasey asked, her curiosity piqued.

Though she had travelled between Faerie and the mortal realm a handful of times, she’d never been the one to pierce the Veil. She still wasn’t even sure how it worked.

“You opened a portal. Why can't they?”

"Crossing through the Veil is not as simple as you think. There are limitations.”

Sanders pulled open his shirt and showed Kasey a large oak leaf. It looked like it had fallen yesterday and showed no signs of discoloration, perhaps because it was sealed inside translucent amber. The leaf was ringed in gold that fastened to a chain around his neck.

"Some places in Faerie intersect with the mortal realm. But it’s not true of everywhere. Faerie is vast, and there are other realms beside it. We are on the very far fringe of Summer's domain. Too far from New York for them to manage a gateway. I could only do it because of this. We call it an earthing or linking stone. Or in this case a leaf, I guess. It uses a leaf from this very glade as its focus, allowing me to travel further than I might normally be able to. It is the connection. Without it, we would have ended up a week’s journey away. With no such focus, they have no hope of pursuing us.”

Kasey breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good to know. One of these days you're going to need to teach me how to do that.”

"If we survive, happily,” Sanders replied. "The next time you've spent the day being chased by assassins, care to lead with that instead of small talk about Strang and her ambitions?"

"Don't put this on me,” Kasey replied. “I’ve been calling you all day. And when you finally showed up in your apartment, you looked so beat that I didn't want to make my problems your problems.”

"And we can see how that turned out,” Sanders replied. He was still sweating as he pushed his sandy brown hair back out of his face.

Kasey didn't want to fight but Sanders was definitely on edge. Rather than give him the earful he rightly deserved, she decided it could wait for a better time.

She took in the lush forest surrounding them on all sides. “So, what is this place?"

Sanders slipped his hands into his pockets, relaxing a little. “This is the Oaken Glade.”

Kasey turned, taking in the full scope of her surroundings.

They stood in the clearing of a massive forest, enormous oak trees towering overhead, but it seemed different to any forest Kasey had ever seen. There was power here. She could feel it coursing all around her.

The life here was tangible. Birds chirped happily as they flitted between trees. A gentle summer breeze swayed the branches to and fro. There was a peaceful serene feeling here.

And peace was something Kasey had always found to be in short supply.

High above her structures had been built off the trees themselves at the level of the lowest forest canopy. The entire interconnected city of walkways and dwellings seemed formed from the trees themselves.

A breathy snort pulled her attention back to the forest floor. It was coming from behind a nearby stand of trees. Sanders took her by the hand and led her around them to get a better view.

A massive gray quadrupedal creature pawed at the ground. It reminded Kasey of a rhinoceros but larger. Instead of a singular horn, it had a massive wedge-shaped protrusion of bone on its head.

The rest of the creature was muscle and thick gray hide. It seemed like a living breathing battering ram. In place of hooves, the creature had large, padded paws that resembled a dog, only its toes were longer with multiple joints almost like a hand.

"This is a Gringor,” Sanders said, patting the creature’s thick hide. “He is the only reason I was able to make it from City Hall to the Council cells in a single night. Gringors love to dig, and Carathus, here, is the pride of the pack.”

The creature bucked his head at the praise.

“They can break stone and other obstacles beneath the earth with that battering ram on their head, and then they use these large feet like shovels to scoop and throw the dirt behind them.”

"But we didn't find any dirt or loose debris,” Kasey replied. “How did you get rid of that?”

Sanders’ grin widened. "I had help. A veritable army of faeries worked with me to spread it here where it won’t be found. We didn't have time to dispose of it in the mortal realm.”

A shimmer of gold between the trees before them warned of someone’s approach. A being in golden armor strode out of the forest, passing through the foliage. He was so graceful, he didn’t even disturb the brush as he slipped between two trees. He was humanoid, but taller than Kasey with sharp angular features and smooth unblemished skin. The lines of his jaw were a little more pronounced and his ears tapered to fine points.

From the pictures she had seen in the archives, she knew him to be one of the Sidhe. From the warm summer colors and Sanders’ lack of concern, she assumed him to be one of the Summer Court.

"Summer Ray,” the being said, “I was not expecting you back so soon.”

"Ah, Calinthalus, it’s good to see you. I'm afraid we ran into trouble in our world. Winter increases its resistance. I thought it best for us to rest until we leave on the Queen's errand.

"Anything I should know?" Calinthalus asked. “It is my job to protect the glade in my lady’s absence.”

"The Winter Shard stalks us,” Sanders replied. “You know Silas. He is a wily and dangerous adversary, but Kasey sent him back to his King with his tail between his legs.”

Sanders tossed the bloody hat to Calinthalus who nodded approvingly. “But if you could dispose of that so that we can't be followed, it would be much appreciated.”

"I'll see to it. Will you be staying in your usual chambers? Or with your…guests?” The way he stretched the word guests conveyed only too clearly what he thought of the prisoners Sanders had saddled him with.

“I’ll stay in my quarters. If you could set a guard and keep an eager eye on the other humans, it would be much appreciated. Send word to her Majesty that we are in possession of the location we seek. Tomorrow, we will have what she desires.”

Calinthalus didn't smile. In fact, his countenance barely changed. "It is good. The Summer Sun waxes by the day.”

"Long may the day last.” Sanders gave a stiff nod, which Calinthalus returned.

Kasey wasn't sure what she should do. And she had no real idea as to Calinthalus’ standing in the court. Was she meant to curtsy? Do one of those odd Summer court nods?

Kasey managed an awkward smile and a nod as Calinthalus took the bloodied hat. He vanished into the forest.

"Usual quarters?” Kasey asked the moment he disappeared.

"My station in the Court affords me many privileges. I have a place here for when I want to get away from our realm.” Sanders gestured at the forest. “As you can see, it's quite peaceful. When you compare it to Council life, it is positively glorious.”

Calinthalus mentioned a lady. Does Titania rule here, or is there someone else? Should I meet them?" Kasey asked, trying to absorb as much as she could about how the Summer Court functioned.

"In the Summer Court, this is known as a Glade, one of sixteen ruled over by the Summer Queen. Calinthalus is the commander of the watch, responsible for overseeing the Glade’s safety. You've already met the lady of the Glade. Talora reigns here. Or at least she did, before…" Sanders’ voice trailed off.

Before she turned into a Wendigo. Kasey finished the thought herself.

It was hard to get past the fact that Sanders kept a secret summer house in the woods with a Fae Kasey had long thought was overly familiar with him.

That familiarity had always bothered her, and now more than ever she felt certain that something had occurred between the two of them.

This isn’t the time or place, Kasey told herself as she tried to push the thought from her mind. She’d never considered herself a jealous person, but then again, she didn’t date much either.

She couldn't think of a tactful way of asking if Sanders had ever got frisky with a fae, and given the answer seemed liable to agitate her further, she ejected it from her mind. Instead, she focused on something equally unpleasant.

"Where are the prisoners?” She couldn’t see any concrete walls, or guarded quarters. Were they just being left to roam free?

“In their own quarters,” Sanders replied. “They aren't prisoners here, simply wards of Summer. They have guards watching them, but their reward is contingent on them helping us of their own volition. The Summer Queen won't compel them to do her will.”

"In the same way she doesn't compel you?" Kasey asked, not buying it for a minute. Every interaction she’d ever had with the Fae was them bargaining to gain more than she was willing to give.

"That's different and you know it,” Sanders replied. “Besides, if all this goes well, I’m free. We can put that behind us to.”

"Aren't you afraid your new friends will make a run for it?” She struggled to place the same confidence Sanders seemed to have in his new crew. Convicted felons weren’t particularly noted for their reliability.

Sanders laughed. “Here in the middle of the forest? I doubt they would make it to the next Glade, and none of them know how to pierce the Veil. I was careful in my selection. Wizards they might be, but the creatures that stalk these woods are not anything you would want to tangle with.”

As he spoke, Sanders looked down at Kasey's arm, and in the sunlight of the forest glade he finally noticed the bloodstained jacket, and the horizontal slash running through her sleeve.

“Kasey, are you hurt?” His voice rose an octave. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Her arm still tingled but it wasn’t as sore as it had been. Still, she was glad he’d noticed, and the concern in his voice was reassuring.

She hated how superficial that seemed. She wasn’t used to caring what people thought about her. But right now, all she wanted to know was that he cared.

Love wasn’t familiar territory for her, but warmth flowed through her as he fussed over her.

"Was this from the Winter Shard?"

“It was.” Kasey winced as Sanders probed around the bandage. “Vida stitched it up when I couldn't heal it with magic.”

Sanders’ lips tightened into a grimace. "Yeah, Silas is a little bit of a bastard like that.”

“Silas?” Kasey asked. Just how well did the two of them know each other?

"The Winter Shard. He’s a cold, calculating, and cruel foe. He weaves something into his magic that makes it difficult to heal the wounds. Even the Administorum struggles with them. It’s the essence of Winter itself. A gift from the Winter King if you will. It's one of many reasons that make him a dangerous and deadly adversary. You're lucky it wasn't worse than this.”

“Lucky?” Kasey gasped. “I’d like to think I've gotten rather good at handling myself, thank you.”

"That's not what I meant,” Sanders replied. A pained expression crossed his face, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened.

“Kasey.” He exhaled slowly. “You seem to be spoiling for a fight but I'm not going to give it to you. You're the smartest, strongest woman I know. I'm sorry you got dragged into my mess, but you wanted to be a part of my world, and this is it. So if you want, I'll walk you to your quarters and let you get some rest. I’m sure we both need it.”

“Or…?” Kasey replied, sensing another option.

She loved the gold tinge to his eyes, particularly when they were this close. It felt like he was staring into her soul.

“Or we can head upstairs, and I can take a look at that wound. See if I can't do something to help you ease the pain?”

Kasey shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She had let the jealousy wear on her nerves. She didn’t want to argue any more than he did.

She'd been unable to heal the wound, but maybe Sanders had a better grasp of the magic involved. In either case, it was an olive branch she wasn’t going to let past her.

"Sure, that would be nice.” She smiled as she looked around. “What do you mean by upstairs?”

"Come with me. I’ll show you.” Sanders held out his hand. Kasey slipped hers into it and held it tight, her fingers intertwined in his.

Sanders led Kasey a deeper into the forest. She said nothing, not because there weren't a thousand thoughts running through her mind but because she just wanted to enjoy this moment with him.

There was a peace to this place that overrode the chaos that had ruled her life for months. Sanders led her to a towering oak tree and placed his other hand on its trunk.

“Gradus!” he whispered.

The surface of the mighty oak tree shifted, magic coursing through it as boughs grew from the trunk in a rising spiral. Vines moved as if possessed with a mind of their own, until they formed a balustrade at the outer edge of the living staircase.

The entire tree seemed to react to Sanders’ presence, blooming flowers springing forth from the vines twisted around its immense trunk.

"After you, milady.” Sanders smiled as he gestured to the staircase.

Kasey gingerly tested the first step, worried that it wouldn’t take her weight but as she leaned on it, the proud bough didn’t even budge.

“Incredible,” she breathed as she climbed the stairs. She kept one hand on the twisted vine that served as a rail and tried to focus her eyes forward and upward rather than peering through the boughs at the ground which was rapidly growing further and further away as they climbed.

Around and around the tree Kasey climbed until she estimated that they were a good sixty or seventy feet in the air. As they rounded another revolution of the trunk, they reached a chamber formed from the tree itself, hollowed out to create a small apartment in the forest’s canopy.

"It's no New York penthouse, but it's mine,” Sanders said as he pushed aside a curtain of brown silk edged with gold. A golden sun was embroidered in the middle of the curtain. Kasey stepped into the room, followed by Sanders.

The pod-like apartment was only about thirty feet across, but a large bed sat nestled against the trunk in the middle of the room. The bed had four posts and its framework seemed a part of the tree also. All the furniture seemed fashioned from the tree she was standing in. A dresser rested along one wall, and a table near a window. All of them had the same vibrant grain as the oak itself, with elegantly carved handles on every drawer.

The bed hadn't been made, evidence that Sanders had been here recently. She wondered just how often he came here? He’d never mentioned it to her, but with Sanders that was hardly a surprise.

She made her way straight to the windows, the largest of which looked out to the west toward the setting sun. The dwelling rested in line with the forest’s lower canopy. The sun filtered through the trees above and Kasey looked out over the glade.

Between the trees all manner of wildlife moved. Birds flitted through the forest as small creatures scurried from bough to bough.

Some of the shapes were familiar. It made sense that some creatures had spread to both sides of the Veil. Others, like the rainbow-hued bird with two sets of wings, were new to her. One perched on a branch almost within her reach. Its rainbow tail feathers were the best part of a foot long. Her new friend trilled as she stared at it.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" Sanders asked.

“What is he?” Kasey studied the way the bird’s wings moved as it flitted to the next branch.

“A Falinjer. They are quite common songbirds in these parts.”

Kasey shook her head in disbelief. "You know, in hindsight, I'm a little disappointed you didn't bring me here on our last date. It certainly beats pizza at home.”

"I’ve never brought anyone here, Kasey. Besides, if I come or go too frequently, people would start to notice.” He pulled her away from the window. “Come over here. Let me take a look at that arm.”

Kasey peeled off her damaged jacket and tossed it on the counter. He rolled up her sleeve and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Stand here and let me take a closer look at it.” He pointed between his feet.

Kasey moved a little closer, turning her injured arm towards him.

"Good stitch work,” Sanders mused.

"Sure is. When I couldn't heal it myself, I paid Vida a visit. I didn't want to bleed out and was even less excited about going to the Administorum with Strang so hostile. I figured she was a step away from arresting me just to get me out of the way of her investigation.”

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Sanders said as he gently examined the wound. “Not that she could make it stick. The trial may have damaged her reputation, but it would appear her ambitions survived unscathed.”

“To think I was so excited when she was appointed,” Kasey muttered. “I thought it would be nice to have a woman in charge.”

“Me too,” Sanders said. “It's a shame because she was such a promising agent. Channeled properly, her focus has the potential to be a force for good not only at the ADI but on the council as a whole.”

“What do you mean?” Kasey looked down at Sanders who didn’t meet her eyes.

“I won't be the Chancellor forever, Kasey. It would have been nice to have someone with her previous disposition to take over my role. If she hadn’t been so impatient, I would have made sure she was my successor. It's crazy how much people change when they get a little power.”

Sanders whispered something that sounded like Latin and his eyes illuminated. It was almost as if the irises were leaking a golden haze as he studied the wound.

"Definitely Winter's bite,” he said. “If I see Silas again, he’s going to rue the day he stepped foot in my city.”

Kasey smiled. It was adorable that Sanders thought he could beat her to it. He might be overprotective, but she had an axe to grind with her Unseelie assassin.

"He couldn't even stand up when I was through with him,” Kasey replied. “He is going to be feeling all the worse for wear. I doubt he’ll be back in a hurry.

“You never told me how you got the best of him. From what I saw of his hat, it had to have been nasty. What did you do?”

Kasey grinned. "I tried a little earth magic, and turned the pavement he was standing on into a frag grenade. It was effective.”

"I'll bet it was,” Sanders replied with a broad grin. “Ready for me to take a shot at healing this?”

He placed his hand over the wound and Kasey tried not to wince. The nerves were still tender.

"Calor Aestatis,” Sanders whispered.

A warmth like the rays of the summer sun flowed over her. The sensation relaxed the taut muscles in her arm. Before her very eyes, the wound glowed gold, as droplets of water condensed between the stitches and rolled down her arm. Each of them was ice cold to the touch and shone with an unnatural blue light before falling to the floor at her feet. When the last one fell, Sanders looked up at her, his eyes glowing gold.

"Would you like to keep the scar? Or shall I get rid of it too?”

"I can do without another scar.”

Sanders swept his hand over the wound and the flesh knit together.

The warmth of summer’s magic rolled over her. The tingle of his skin brushed against hers had nothing to do with magic though. She smiled as the wound vanished, the stitches falling to the floor.

“Much better,” Sanders replied, admiring his handiwork.

He looked up at her, his golden-brown eyes meeting hers. There was something in his stare. He just didn't look at her the way others did.

"Kasey," he whispered as she placed a hand on his cheek, her thumb pressed over his lips.

"Shh," Kasey whispered as she swung her leg over his, straddling him on the edge of the bed. Sanders pulled her close, and Kasey pressed her lips against his.

Her heart soared as a tingle of excitement went right through her. It started at her lips and ran down her spine.

When she finally came up for air, Sanders grinned from ear to ear. "Most people just say thank you.”

“They better not thank you like this.” Kasey laughed.

She knew what she wanted. She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him backward onto the bed.

Sanders looked up at her, she could almost see herself in those big brown eyes.

His hand brushed against her cheek, before gently pulling her down on top of him.

“I love you,” she whispered as she melted into his embrace.

Chapter 11

Kasey woke feeling better than she had in months.

She yawned as she stretched, her fingers playing across the sheets as she looked for Sanders. When they reached the edge of the mattress and found nothing, she opened her eyes.

She bolted upright, searching the small room, but he was nowhere to be found. Where had he gone?

She shuffled to the edge of the bed and swung her legs over it. Pulling the sheet around her, she got up. She wasn't quite sure where all of her clothes were, but right now she was more worried about her missing boyfriend.

Holding the sheet around herself, she ran to the window and looked out it, but couldn’t see any sign of him. She raced to the door and stopped, teetering on the edge of a sixty-foot drop. The stairs were gone. She was trapped.

Her mind replayed the events of the previous evening. Everything had been wonderful, magical even. So why was she waking up alone? And why was marooned in a treehouse sixty feet above the ground?

"What's going on?" she muttered. Then she realized.

She had given him the location of the Terminus. Nowhere in her mind had she considered the possibility that he would leave without her. Probably because she would tear him a new one for it.

She groaned in frustration. People didn’t leave people they loved stranded in a treehouse while they walk alone into a deadly situation.

Unless your name is Noah freaking Sanders. She grew angrier by the moment. She had to catch him. But first she had to work out how to get out of this stupid tree, get out of Faerie, and get to Flannan Island before Sanders managed to get himself murdered by his unreformed convicts.

She stood in the doorway, a fresh breeze blowing through it as she peered down the tree. With care, she hoped she could make her way from branch to branch. Of course, she had been wrong before and being wrong sixty feet off the ground seemed like an excellent way to get killed.

She also needed to find some clothes.

Perhaps once she did, she could just holler for the summer Sidhe and one of them could surely get her out of the tree and perhaps even back to Manhattan.

She imagined Sanders had left instructions intended to delay her, but Kasey was the one who was here and she could be pretty persuasive when needed.

Throwing the curtain shut, she fumed as she went looking for her clothing.

She found one of her boots sticking out from beneath the bed. "Flipping Sanders, when I get my hands on him, I'm going to…"

"Going to what?" Sanders asked. His voice had a note of amusement to it.

Kasey turned and found Noah climbing down the tree trunk in the middle of the room.

"If you used a glamor to sneak up on me, I'm going to end you!” Kasey shook her empty boot at him.

Sanders held up both his hands to placate her. "No glamor, I swear. I was just upstairs.”

He pointed toward the roof of the chamber.

She took a closer look and realized that there were handholds in the tree trunk itself that led through a small gap in the roof to another chamber upstairs.

In his arms he held a change of clothes.

"I thought you might want something fresh to wear before we head down for breakfast.”

"You keep a spare set of women's clothes here?” Kasey asked as she examined them a little closer. “In my size?”

Sanders looked guilty as sin as he cleared his throat. "No, I keep a set of your clothes here. I took them from your drawers at my place. I was hoping to whisk you away for a romantic getaway after work, but things got so crazy we never got the chance.”

Sanders was in fact holding a set of her jeans and a T-shirt that she'd been missing for weeks.

"I wondered where those had got to,” she said, taking her clothes from him.

“I figured you might want something to change into after work. I'm sorry if that came across a little creepy. Is everything okay? You seem a little upset.”

She’d been so mad at the fact she thought he’d left without her, that she’d still been taking it out on him. And the whole time he’d just been his usual thoughtful self.

Now he was doubtless incredibly confused at her current mood after everything that had happened.

Kasey took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It seems I crawled out of the wrong side of your bed. It really was quite sweet that you would think of that. Thank you.”

Sanders nodded slowly, still looking more confused than she could ever recall seeing him.

"I'm sorry. I've been out of the dating game a long time. Did I do something wrong?”

Kasey thought back to the night before. He hadn’t seemed rusty at all. Heat rose in her cheeks as she blushed.

Perhaps her opinion was grounded in her own lack of experience. Either way, she thought the night had been wonderful, and now she was spoiling the whole thing by rushing to judgement.

She thought it best to come clean. "When I woke up, and you weren’t here, I figured you had gone to Flannan Island without me.”

“Oh,” Sanders replied, pulling her closer. “And why would I do that?”

Kasey shook her head. "I don't know. Probably some misguided notion about trying to keep me safe from this suicidal mission.”

Sanders hugged Kasey tight. She was still wearing nothing but the sheet.

"It is dangerous, but I am planning on living through it. I want more of this. I want to share my life with you.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, still feeling a little sheepish. “I can be a little…you know,”

“Incredible?” Sanders finished for her, but not with the word she’d been thinking. “And I want to be free from all of this madness. To do that, we just need to live through the next twenty-four hours. I can't do it alone. I need someone I can trust watching my back, and I trust no one more than you.

Kasey kissed him.

"I'll watch any part of you," she whispered, feeling corny but good at the same time.

"Behave yourself.” Sanders chuckled as he let go of her. “Once you’re dressed, we'll head down and grab some breakfast. I’ll introduce you to the others. They aren’t all what you’re expecting so try and keep an open mind.”

Kasey didn’t know what he meant by that, but given she’d been so quick to rush to judgment on his absence, she took the point.

"Is there somewhere I can freshen up?"

"Yeah, there is a shower upstairs. One moment, let me get you a towel.” Sanders made his way over to the dresser and plucked out a plush cotton towel. While he went about getting ready, Kasey swapped the bed sheet for the towel, tying it tight before throwing her clothes over her shoulder.

She’d never climbed a tree in a towel, but today seemed like it would be a day for firsts, so she reached for the first rung of the tree ladder and started working her way to the second floor.

It was easier than she’d expected, and soon she found herself in a small chamber above the main room of the apartment. Here too, everything was shaped from the oak tree itself.

The room had a sloped roof, higher toward the center but lower on the outer edge. It was as if the entire structure was shaped like a bulb.

Off to one side of the trunk sat a closet with more timber drawers and clothes racks. On the other side was a shower, and a basin. At least it looked like a shower. The entire head was fashioned from wood, as were the taps.

Kasey set down her clothes in the closet and placed her towel over a hook on the wall, then stepped into the shower. As she turned the knob, water blasted from the wooden shower head.

She’d expected cool water, given there was no sign of normal plumbing anywhere, but to her surprise warm water rained down. She didn’t understand how, but she was grateful for it.

She pulled a bar of soap off the shelf. It smelled like lilac and lavender, and she went to work freshening up.

She was relieved Sanders hadn't left without her. It was exactly the sort of stupid attempt at chivalry he might try.

The Arcane Chancellor heading into a high security facility with a bundle of ex-cons and warlocks at his back wasn't so much a recipe for success as it seemed a sure-fire recipe for mutually assured destruction.

And you are determined to join him.

She certainly wasn’t going to let Sanders go it alone. She finished up her shower, dried off, and dressed before climbing back down to the ground floor. Sanders was waiting at the door, looking out into the forest.

Kasey plonked herself down on the bed and pulled on her boots. Remembering her earlier frustration she asked, "How does the staircase work? Just in case I ever need it?”

“The forest is alive. Here you just tell it what you need. In this case, we need a staircase.”

Kasey stepped up next to him.

“Gradus,” he whispered.

Kasey noted the word he used this time, just in case. The tree sprouted fresh boughs, just as it had the day before, vines moving to hold everything in place and form a rail they could grip as they made the steep descent to the forest floor.

"Good to know,” Kasey smiled. “Lead the way, Summer Ray.”

Sanders stopped. "Here our guests only know me as the Chancellor. It is probably best we keep it that way. Just in case.”

"Got it,” Kasey replied.

It made sense. No need to give their prisoners any more leverage than they already had. Doubtless they would already be questioning Sanders’ pull with the Summer Court. In the off chance they escaped, they could cause significant problems for him.

Kasey and Sanders climbed down the staircase and walked through the forest, Sanders leading her until they arrived at a massive log cabin.

The structure reminded Kasey of trips they'd taken when she was a child. Many of those trips they had stayed in cabins where one large cooking and communal hall was often adjoined by lots of small family-sized cabins.

Chatter flowed out of the log structure through a series of windows that were ajar.

Just how many people had Sanders busted out of jail?

He pushed open the door and the chatter abruptly ceased.

Kasey followed him inside and found herself standing before a large square table, around which six other humans sat. The table was laden with a truly dizzying variety of food: fruit platters, cereal, bacon, eggs, and even waffles.

"Nice of you to join us,” a voice called from the other side of the table.

The cynical edge to the voice was an abrasive reminder that the people in the room were not friends or comrades, but foes compelled to help Sanders in a desperate last-ditch attempt to save themselves from death row.

The man who spoke had swept back silver-gray hair that ran to his shoulder. He wore silver half rimmed glasses that sat low on his nose, and a simple set of black robes that swam on him as if he hadn't been eating properly of late.

He had to be at least fifty, maybe older, and Kasey had to wonder if he was really a good fit for this particular mission.

"Methuselah, I know your memory isn't what it once was,” Sanders said, “but as I told you when I sprung you from your cage, this is my rodeo. I'm in charge. I come and go when I wish, and if you all live up to your end of the bargain, you get new lives safe from the reprisal of the Arcane Congress and its allies. Am I clear?”

Methuselah picked up a slice of orange. "How can I forget, when you keep reminding me?"

While it was fun to watch Sanders work, Kasey was famished. She still couldn’t get a bearing on time in the forest, and she was unsure of just how long she had been asleep.

She picked the empty seat before her and flipped a waffle off the tray onto a spare plate.

Plucking up a steel gravy bowl that appeared to be full of maple syrup, she poured it over her waffle. Then she heaped fruit on top.

It was the picture of a well-balanced meal, at least as far as she was concerned.

She grabbed her cutlery and was about to dig in, when she looked up and realized everyone was staring at her.

"Might I at least ask who our newest guest is?" Methuselah said. "I wasn’t aware we were expecting anyone else."

"You’ve been inside too long, Methuselah. That is Kasey Chase," a smooth voice said from the left-hand side of the table.

The voice belonged to a short man dressed in grays and black. He was clean-shaven with short black hair parted on one side. He was lightly tanned, and it was difficult to place his accent. Like his appearance, it was almost unremarkable. His was the sort of face you might forget as soon as you passed over it in a crowd.

“Ms. Chase has made quite a name for herself in New York City. Not a con like the rest of us but handy in a fight, if the stories are to be believed.”

"Another set of hands is good," a man sitting beside the first added. "By the sound of it, we could use all the help we can get."

His accent was unmistakably Russian, deep and baritone. He didn't even look up from his meal as he spoke. He was a great hulking bear of a man who wore a camouflage army singlet, and dark green slacks.

"Too right, Boris," Sanders replied, still standing by the table. “Let me make some introductions.”

"As Maxwell has pointed out, this is Kasey Chase, a colleague whom I met while we were both on the run from the ADI. She has been prosecuted by the council twice and while neither conviction has stuck, she is about as big a fan of the Council as you lot are. She is also one of the most dangerous witches I have ever met. Trifle with her, and I won’t bother to save you.”

Kasey's lips drew into a tight line as she eyed the table. It was inherently difficult to look threatening while eating a waffle, but she did her best. These were dangerous beings. She didn’t mean to show them any weakness and hoped the lack of regard she’d shown when entering and filling her plate at least sent that message.

Based on the way Sanders had introduced her, Kasey got the distinct impression he did not want their new companions to know the depth of their relationship. No point giving hardened criminals potential leverage over them both.

"Here on my left," Sanders said, pointing at the man who had identified her, "is Maxwell Dark. Famous thief and practitioner of shadow magic, he moves like a ghost and will be invaluable in helping us infiltrate the facility.”

Kasey had seen shadow magic before. Hades had used it to hide from the vampires when they were being pursued. He'd also used it to cut several of them to pieces. It was dangerous and from the calm ease with which he sat at a table with warlocks and murderers, Maxwell Dark was as dangerous as anyone else at it.

What had he done to land himself in the Council’s custody?

"Beside him we have Boris and Anita Ivanova, famed performers at the Cirque de Supernaturale. They were incarcerated by the Council for killing five of their colleagues and releasing the circus' many magical creatures into the wild, some into the mortal realm."

"They hurt the beasts." Boris shrugged. "We hurt them."

"Apparently that is a crime," Anita replied, looking at the back of her hand, utterly unphased by the fact she had been charged for her part in five murders. Anita was lean and muscled, with blonde hair cut short at the shoulder. She wore a halter top with her slacks that showed she was every bit as fit as Kasey wished she was.

"The Ivanovas are expert animal wranglers and provide guidance should we run into any magical creatures on our journey," Sanders explained.

The old man with the gray hair didn’t wait for an introduction. "I am Methuselah, and I need no one to speak for me. I suppose I am here to do what must be done, when others don't have the stomach for it."

A shiver ran right down her spine. Methuselah reminded her of every sociopath she had ever met. With her gifts, there was no way she ever wanted to come in contact with him. She didn't want to see any vision of his past, let alone his future. Given his personality and his obvious penchant for being unpleasant, she was hoping he wouldn’t have much of one anyway.

She swallowed hard, trying not to pay Methuselah the attention he so clearly craved. Instead, she cut a piece of her waffle free and popped it in her mouth as Sanders carried on.

"Here on our right, we have the last two members of our expedition."

Sanders gestured to the first of two women. She had jet black hair, cut to her shoulders, and wore an attention-grabbing deep cut black blouse and skintight leather jeans. Her leather coat with deep pockets seemed unusual for the warm weather, and she accessorized with a belt that had a series of leather pouches attached to it. Kasey wondered what was so important she was willing to lug it around while she ate breakfast.

"This is Lilith St. Death, and her significant other, Mallory Winters."

Kasey’s eyes must have lingered a little long on Lilith because when she looked up at the redheaded Mallory, the woman was staring daggers at her.

"Lilith is an expert in poisons, potions, and other alchemical arts. Mallory is our healer. Trained at both the Administorum and New York General, she is a talented healer and will prove invaluable should we find ourselves in hot water.”

Mallory looked like she wanted to wrap her fine porcelain fingers around Kasey's throat. Mallory was dressed for a hike, perhaps the most practical of those sitting at the table, other than Maxwell who looked ready to storm a secure facility.

Kasey held Mallory’s stare and just smiled.

Mallory, it seemed, was the jealous type. And misplaced as her jealousy was, Kasey figured her assumption might throw the others off the scent. The fewer people who suspected she and Sanders were together, the better.

With everyone introduced, Sanders took his seat.

Kasey wasn’t feeling particularly chatty, so she dug into breakfast while Sanders picked at the fruit platter. The atmosphere around the table was guarded.

Most of the party seemed content to largely ignore everyone else, which was fine by Kasey. This was a mission, and she was determined to tackle it one impossible step at a time.

The two women, Lilith and Mallory, finished first and observed the other participants.

Methuselah’s plate had been clear when Kasey walked in, and he didn't add to it the entire time she ate breakfast. He simply alternated between staring at Sanders and staring at Kasey.

Everything about the man was unsettling. Kasey resolved to keep a close eye on him once they were on the road. If she started now, it seemed more likely to result in a staring contest than anything else.

As the group polished off breakfast, Methuselah placed his knife and fork together on his plate.

"So, Sanders, are you going to tell us why we are here? What exactly is this mission that we are running for the Summer Queen?”

Kasey gulped. He hadn't told them yet?

Well, this was going to be interesting. A bundle of prisoners recently broken out of their own incarceration, only to discover that they were about to sneak into a Congress black site.

"It is very simple," Sanders replied, setting down his own cutlery. "And incredibly dangerous. We are going to break into the Terminus."

"The Terminus?" Methuselah hissed. "I thought you were mad when you broke me out. Now I see that you have lost your mind entirely."

"What's the Terminus?" Mallory asked, glancing from one side of the table to the other.

"It is the place where the Arcane Congress puts those that it is most afraid or ashamed of. Warlocks it can't put to death. Creatures of power and darkness. No one returns from the Terminus.” Methuselah pushed his silver wire-rimmed glasses up his nose.

"Rumors and fearmongering,” Sanders replied. “No doubt spread by the Congress themselves so that no one will attempt what we are about to do.”

"You want us to break into another jail? Right after you broke us out of one?" Maxwell asked, raising a glass of juice.

"One prison is much the same as another prison." Boris shrugged as he bit an apple in half right through the core.

"It most certainly is not," Methuselah replied. “Let me assure you, I have seen my share. Prisons, like hell, have layers of misery. I am confident the Terminus is closer to the ninth circle.”

"We are breaking into it, not moving in,” Sanders said. “I am very much attached to the idea of living. We are going to be the first witches and wizards to ever lay eyes on it without being interred within it. The only reason you've heard nothing but rumors about it is that the sentinels that guard it have sworn an oath of secrecy. They believe it is safe in its secrecy. Fortunately, we know where it is.”

"What does the Summer Queen want with it?" Methuselah asked. “I’m no one’s pawn.

"I'm not at liberty to disclose that," Sanders replied. "And as long as we want to live, we are all her pawns. Suffice it to say, the Congress took something from her. She believed it had been lost. Now she knows it is in the Terminus. We have been tasked with retrieving it. If we achieve this, the Summer Queen will give each of you new lives. You can live here in Faerie, free from the influence of the Council or Congress in relative luxury for the remainder of your days. Or you can have new identities and try your luck in the mortal world. The world is your oyster.”

"Yes, and all we’ve got to do is survive this suicide mission," Methuselah replied.

"Look at it this way." Sanders rose from the table. “You were on death watch in the Council’s cells. All of you had exhausted your appeals. If you remained, you would certainly die. It was simply a case of when. Now you have a fighting chance not only to live, but to be free. I am not here pretending it will be easy, but I would not be walking into a death trap. I happen to like my life and wish to return to it, so put aside any petty grievances we might have and set your mind on the task ahead. Remember, we must move cleanly. If the Congress learns that we were there, they will stop at nothing to hunt us down.”

"You really think we can pull this off?" Maxwell asked.

"I'm willing to bet my life on it,” Sanders replied. “Are you?”

Maxwell dark looked at Methuselah, seemingly taking his lead from the old man.

"A chance of death, or certain death. Not much of a choice if you ask me but I will go,” Methuselah said.

“We are also in,” Lilith added.

Boris cracked his neck. “As are we. We would very much like to live here, where nature runs its proper course.”

“Then let us gear up," Sanders replied.

He led the party outside where tables had been set up while they had been eating. Layered on top of them where all manner of supplies, including bullet-proof vests and enough firepower to fight a small army. Pistols, assault rifles, and even one of those massive, belt-fed machine guns. On another table, there were packs, medical supplies, and military MREs. Meals Ready-to-Eat weren’t exactly fine dining but they were compact and nutritious.

“Take whatever you want,” Sanders said, “but you must be able to carry out.”

Kasey grabbed a bullet-proof vest. Anything to stop Methuselah shooting her in the back. She fastened it on tight and helped Sanders into his. Sanders avoided the guns, but Kasey stuck a pistol in a holster on her belt.

Taking a small backpack, she tossed a few MREs and a first aid kit in the bottom of it. She didn’t want to be weighed down, but she had no idea just how long they would be in transit.

Lilith St. Death went with a pair of pistols herself, strapping them both to her belt. She looked like a gunslinger in the long leather coat.

The healer, Mallory, favored a submachine gun. The same MP5 Bishop was partial to. She carried it on a leather strap over her shoulder.

Boris grabbed a pack and stuffed a dozen MREs into it. He seemed to be concerned he might run out of calories. Content that he wouldn’t starve, he picked up the massive machine-gun and layered some spare belts into his pack.

Anita took an assault rifle. Unsurprisingly, she chose the Russian made AK-47. Interestingly, neither Methuselah nor Maxwell took any guns. But as Maxwell fitted his bullet-proof vest, Kasey spotted the hafts of at least a dozen knives beneath his coat.

Methuselah simply folded his arms and waited for the others to dress.

"Where is the Terminus?" he asked. “And how are we getting there?”

His persistent questioning was started to get on Kasey's nerves.

“Are we there yet?” Lilith asked, her voice comically high.

Kasey chuckled. She wasn’t the only one growing tired of him. Maybe she could prevail upon Sanders to leave him here.

"It's on the Flannan Isles,” Sanders replied, “in the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland.”

"That's the other side of the world." Methuselah groaned. “We’ll be days just getting there. Most of us are on the no-fly list. Are you intending to take a boat?”

"Yes, but not from New York. Be excited, Methuselah, you’re all going to be learning something new today.”

If Methuselah thought he was going to get an answer, he was bitterly disappointed.

Sanders instead strode off to talk to a pair of Summer Sidhe who were quietly observing the proceedings.

"What do you know of this gambit?"

Kasey spun to find Methuselah standing uncomfortably close behind her.

"Stay out of my space," Kasey replied. "I have a bad track record for hurting those who wander too close."

"My apologies for the intrusion," Methuselah said, devoid of any sincerity. "But my question remains. What do you know of the Chancellor and his plan? You were not brought here with the rest of us. What is so special about you?"

Methuselah was fishing. Fortunately, she'd been in enough interrogations with Bishop to know how to deal with it.

"I was last here because I needed to find the location of the Terminus. That's what's so special about me. I found that which is not meant to be found. As for the Chancellor and his plan, I have no idea. I just want to get through this alive. The Summer Court is my retirement plan. So you stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."

"A reasonable enough proposition, Chase," Methuselah whispered, his voice grating on her nerves. "I suggest you watch your back. The Chancellor only cares for himself. We are all expendable in his eyes. We are the tools, nothing more. Don't forget that."

Sanders returned from speaking with the Summer Sidhe and studied the party. Kasey looked around. Most were wearing packs and looked ready to travel. She tried not to laugh when she realized Lilith was wearing high heels.

"Alright, follow me,” Sanders called. “The forests here are full of creatures who would kill you as soon as look at you. Here, we are food. Do not let your guard down, even for a moment."

Everybody fell in behind Sanders as he led the way out of Talora's Glade. The Summer Sidhe watched as they filed off into the jungle, and Kasey wondered if they knew what had befallen their leader.

Sanders picked his way through the forest. He had no compass or GPS and still seemed to know precisely where he was going. The foliage grew thicker as they moved. Massive trees and entangling vines wove together everywhere. At one point, Kasey had to climb over a root that was half as big as she was. Following it into the distance, a massive tree towered over everything around it. Other than the tree that housed the Earth Spirit, it was one of the largest she’d ever seen.

Sanders noted it too, only his reaction was different. He turned to the party and announced, “We’re here.”

"Here where?" Methuselah asked, looking a little bothered.

"The entrance to the Ways." Sanders pointed at the tree trunk.

On the other side of the tree, a massive cleft split the trunk, and nestled inside it, something that looked like a rift in the Veil. Only it was nothing like the ones Kasey had seen as she’d passed from the mortal realm into Faerie and back.

This one featured stars against a black night sky. It was as if we were stepping out of the jungle and into space itself.

"Sanders?” she asked. “What exactly are the Ways?"

Chapter 12

Seeing the night sky inside a tree was as strange as it was entrancing. Standing before it, the lights moved as if she were staring at a time-lapse.

"In we go. We don't have all day,” Sanders said, ignoring her question.

The little band stood in a semicircle facing the oak tree’s portal, all staring at the star-strewn rift.

It was one thing to look at, and another thing to simply stroll into space.

"I'm not stepping into that until you explain what it is we're doing," Methuselah said, folding his arms.

"Getting us where we need to go,” Sanders replied. "You wanted to know how we cross the world. This is it. Faster than a plane, train, or boat. This is how we get to the Terminus.”

"Or,” Methuselah said, “hear me out. This is all just an elaborate prank to have us commit suicide. Perhaps the Council cells were at capacity, so you bring us here, feed us a last meal, and then have us wander to our death. No need for bothersome appeals if we do it ourselves.”

"For someone whose name means bringer of death, you're awfully skittish at the possibility." Sanders shook his head.

"Yes, I bring the death to others. I don't hasten to embrace my own,” Methuselah said. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“If I wanted you dead, I needn’t have jumped through all those hoops. I’d have done it in the cells when you couldn’t fight back.” Sanders scratched at the nape of his neck. “Look, I would have thought you’d have been excited to learn something new. I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

“Tell us what it is, and how it works.” Maxwell jammed his hands into his pockets. “Then I’ll be the first one through.”

“Fine.” Sanders approached the portal and thrust his hand into it. Slowly, he withdrew his hand. It was still whole. “We don’t have time for a lecture on the finer make-up of the supernatural world. But you can think of our world like an onion. The mortal plane is the outer layer of the onion. As we travel inward, we find other layers. Next, we have the supernatural world. Faerie, the realm of the gods, and other organized matter within a supernatural sphere.

“You know, or are at least aware, that people can travel across the world swiftly by moving through Faerie. That’s how I brought you here. Fairy intersects with the mortal realm in many places making travel much faster. But even that has its limits. If we dare to venture further in, we have the Ways, a place beyond the order we know and understand.

“It links places within Faerie, allowing those that know and are bold enough to traverse them to move vast distances in the supernatural world in a single jaunt. Using both the Ways and Faerie, I intend to travel from here, all the way to the Hebrides in a brisk morning stroll.

“On the other side we’ll find a boat. It will ferry us to the Terminal. Any other questions?”

His description made sense in a way she had never considered before. Sanders really was a skilled teacher. Kasey’s curiosity was piqued but the others swapped nervous glances with each other.

"Well, you all can stay here and die. I have somewhere to be.” Sanders strode through the rift and into space.

Kasey looked about and figured anywhere was better than being in the forest with Methuselah, so she raced after Sanders.

The Ways were a whole new world, a place where the rules of reality as she knew them didn’t seem to apply. The ground was firm underfoot, as if they were in a tunnel, but in every direction was nothing but starry sky. There was atmosphere and she could breathe, which was a relief, but all about her, stars glittered and moved in constant motion. It was dizzying.

“Worlds have layers. Ogres have layers,” Kasey teased as she caught up to Sanders. “Personally, I liked the explanation, but it could have gone better.”

“The Ways have been a part of my life for decades. Sometimes I forget what my first time was like.”

“I suspect that with most our new friends, the carrot will be more effective than the stick. Except perhaps Methuselah. That guy gives me the creeps.”

“You really don’t like him, huh?”

“Not even a little bit.” Kasey shook her head.

“He’s a necessary evil, but your instincts are good. Keep an eye on him.”

One by one, the other members of the party stepped into the Ways.

Sanders motioned for them to follow. "Stick to the path, and do not touch anything.”

"Why not?” Lilith asked, her heels clicking against the starry floor as she walked.

"Because in the Ways, nothing is as it seems,” Sanders answered as he continued walking.

Kasey lengthened her stride to keep pace with him. "Don't you worry that you've just provided six killers with a blueprint for traveling faster than anyone else could possibly pursue them?”

"Not particularly," Sanders replied. "It takes years to learn enough about the paths within the Ways to brave walking them alone. They are more likely to die here than escape.”

No part of that was particularly comforting, and Kasey regarded the starry tunnel with renewed caution.

“In here, you can encounter anything. Summer Sidhe, Winter Sidhe, Fae creatures, and mythical beasts. Once, I met a man who spoke only Greek and wanted to have a philosophical debate I had no interest in. I’m convinced he's either mad or has been stuck here since about 300 BC wandering these paths. How he hasn’t starved to death, I don’t know.”

Sanders slowed so the others could catch up.

"I'm only going to say this one,” he said to the group. “In our world, people might have feared you. Here, no one and nothing will. We are the bottom of the food chain, and everything will make a meal of us. So pick up the pace. Move swiftly, and silently. Don't use your power unless you have to, and don’t draw attention to our passage. Do you understand?”

The others nodded, and Sanders set off again. There was still a lot of ground to cover, and all of it was dangerous.

The Ways were quiet in a way that was unsettling. As Kasey’s eyes adjusted to the strange panoply of lights, she realized the tunnel she was passing through had a distinct shape. The ground she was walking on was solid, almost as if it were stone, but it was transparent and she could see the stars beyond. Or perhaps they weren't stars at all, simply moving lights designed to confuse and disorient whoever had made it into the Ways.

As she moved, transparent contours gave the tunnel shape. She considered touching them but remembered Sanders’ warning.

Kasey wondered as she walked if places like this were actually made by someone or something, or whether they simply always were. She tried to wrap her head around Sanders’ explanation. If she considered the world an onion, it made sense that the fastest way between two points was to travel through it. But that was as far as the model worked.

Everything Kasey understood about the structure of the mortal realm, and the supernatural world, was that the mortal realm was at the heart and beyond it lay Faerie, the supernatural world, and beyond it was the unknown.

It seemed back to front, but perhaps he'd just used the onion because it was easier to picture.

Or maybe he just wanted to get them into the damn tunnel.

Sanders was in a hurry and moving with purpose. It was almost like he had a train to catch. Or perhaps it was the fact that his freedom was within reach. Freedom from obligation to the summer Court. All they had to do was storm a prison guarded by the most dangerous body of wizards in the known world.

Yeah, piece of cake.

Kasey experimented by moving toward the edge of the tunnel. As she did, she noted the ground beneath her feet seemed to grow spongier. The sensation increased the closer toward the edge she became, and she quickly abandoned her experiment. She might simply pass through the floor, or it might give way beneath her. Lost in this place between worlds, she might never escape.

The tunnel opened into a vast chamber. Overhead, the roof of the chamber was strewn with colors: blues, greens, and all manner of shades in between. It looked just like the pictures of the northern lights she’d seen.

"It’s beautiful,” Kasey whispered.

Sanders didn't seem to hear her. He was too busy navigating through the cavern. He turned right and led them north, if such a bearing even existed here.

As Kasey stared up at the brilliant light show, a swathe of blue vanished, a patch of black replacing it. She watched it, figuring it would just be a shifting in the pattern.

The colors returned, but the black void moved closer, tracking across the roof of the cavern. It was moving closer.

Vast swathes of light vanished as the black void surged forward. It was moving toward them.

Kasey tracked the motion as she tried to identify the shape. Against the shifting lights everything was blurry, but the black void was moving quickly and with purpose. And it was heading straight for her.

"Sanders," Kasey hissed.

"Shh," Sanders replied, his eyes fixed on the path ahead.

"Do not shush me." Kasey raised her voice. "There's something in here with us. Look!"

She pointed up above them. Sanders looked up, scanning the path ahead.

"Look at where the lights vanish. They mark its passage.”

Sanders’ face went pale.

"It's a Waybeast. Run!" Sanders launched into a sprint, racing through the cavern of lights toward it.

“You’re going right at it,” Kasey shouted. “What are you doing?”

“We have to get past it. We don't have far to go, just keep moving,” Sanders shouted, all pretense of being quiet shed now that they’d been discovered.

Kasey went after him, her heart pounding as she ran. Anything dangerous enough to evoke that reaction in Sanders was simply terrifying. Unfortunately, the others didn't seem to grasp the urgency.

Boris made it about a dozen paces before he lost steam. Rather than run, he raised the machine gun, taking aim at the shadow closing in on them fast.

The M249 machine gun spewed bullets in a wave of death. The staccato gunfire filled the cavern. Orange flare spewed from the barrel in the darkness. Wherever they struck the cabin, fine mist blossomed from the wall and then evaporated.

Still the shrouded black creature plunged toward them, its massive wings blotting out everything behind it.

Boris adjusted his aim, raising the barrel to meet the Waybeast. Anita joined him, racking the AK-47 before firing on the creature. The combined weight of fire found the beast as it dove. The weapon fire traced a line straight up the creature’s hide. Great chunks of matter blasted free from the body of the midnight black creature, but turned to dust and rained down on the cavern below.

Still the beast came on. As it closed, it tucked its massive wings tight against its body to avoid being shredded by the heavy machine-gun fire. The party scattered as the creature landed with a thud that shook the cavern. With a lunge, it brushed Anita aside, sending her flying across the cavern.

Boris opened fire at point blank range, firing indiscriminately into the creature.

The Waybeast seemed utterly unperturbed. The creature struck Boris’ arm. The black claw carved through his arm just above the elbow, and the machine gun dropped to the ground.

Boris might have been a bear of a man, but the shriek that came from him was deep and primal. The creature spun, its mouth opening as a maroon tongue lashed about, licking and hissing amid a maw full of white teeth.

The Waybeast was a nightmarish blend of demon and dragon that seemed immune to mortal weapons.

“Discedere!” Sanders shouted.

Brilliant golden orbs slammed into the creature’s head and body, sending it reeling.

The creature launched back into the air, searching for the source of the attack. Bolts of lightning arced after it, Methuselah adding his own magic to the fight.

With the Waybeast distracted, Sanders propped up Boris, getting beneath the big man's shoulder.

Boris reached for the machine gun with his good hand, but Sanders shook his head.

"Let's go. Leave the gun. It will only slow you down, and it’s no good here.

Blood poured from the wound as Kasey rushed to help. Together, they guided Boris through the cavern before the Waybeast could return.

Sanders panted, his face red with exertion.

"I said run, not fight, you idiot. You need to listen, or you will die."

"That creature took my arm." Boris grunted.

"It will get the rest of you if we don’t pick up the pace,” Sanders said.

As they moved through the cavern, another tunnel branched off from the main thoroughfare. Unlike the one they had entered through, this one had no lights whatsoever, and its walls seemed to be carved straight through sheer rock.

"In here, quick.” Sanders led the group out of the main thoroughfare into the darkness of the smaller passage.

It was tiny, and claustrophobia inducing, particularly in the darkness. At best, the tunnel was about seven feet tall to the roof, and about the same distance wide. With the Waybeast circling for another attack, the group sprinted into the darkness.

No sooner had Maxwell entered the passage, bringing up the rear, than the Waybeast landed. It reached its long black claws into the tunnel, raking at the stone.

Maxwell leaped backward out of range. Its claws gouged great gashes in the stone.

“If we get out of its reach, it should abandon the effort,” Sanders said as he continued plodding into the darkness.

Kasey trudged on, eager to put as much distance between her and the nightmarish creature as she could. When it was clear the creature could no longer reach them, Sanders brought the group to a halt.

Kasey leaned against the rocky tunnel, panting.

"Give me a look at that before you bleed out," Mallory said as she approached Boris.

Always interested in seeing a healer at work, Kasey watched over the woman's shoulder as she examined the wound.

The Waybeast’s claw had gone through muscle and bone like it was nothing. Mallory, undeterred by the blood, examined the wound. There was no growing back the arm. All she could do was seal the wound, knitting the flesh and muscle together before he lost any more blood.

Mallory closed her palm, the golden glow fading from her hands. "I'm sorry. That's the best I can do under these conditions.”

Boris looked down at the stump of his arm and moved it about.

"That's a lot better, thank you."

The fact that Boris wasn't on the ground was testament to both his grit, and Mallory's healing prowess. His pale complexion, however, told Kasey he’d lost enough to slow him down. She’d have to watch him in case he passed out.

Sanders alternated between scanning the path ahead and looking back toward the cavern of lights.

"What was that creature?" Methuselah asked.

"A Waybeast," Sanders answered. "They are native to this place, and they are the very reason we were endeavoring to not dawdle or draw attention to ourselves."

"You knew they were here, and brought us in here anyway?”

"Yes, I told you this was dangerous. And that I expected you to listen carefully. You can't cross the world in an hour without risk. But I've walked the Ways many times and still live. Largely because I followed the same simple directions I gave you all when we entered.”

"Boris lost his hand," Methuselah said, raising his voice.

"We're lucky he didn't lose more than that," Sanders snapped back. “Instead of running for his life, he fired a machine-gun at a creature not native to the mortal plane. He’d have been better off spitting at it. And would have done as much damage.”

Boris looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. It was my reflexes. I've never seen anything like that before."

"And if we're lucky and move quickly, we won't see any like it again," Sanders replied. “The Waybeast prey on everything, even each other. If we loiter here, the chance of danger grows.”

"How far is it?" Anita asked, her arm resting on her brother’s shoulder.

“Not much longer,” Sanders said. “This particular branch of the Ways will take us back into Faerie at a place that intersects with an island off the Scottish coast. From there, we are to take a boat ride to Flannan Island. But I can’t drag you all through this. I need you to work with me, and I need you to listen. Do you understand me?”

"Flannan Island?” Lilith sidled up next to Kasey. "Isn't that the place where the lighthouse keepers vanished?"

"Congress propaganda, no doubt,” Sanders replied. “It’s those sorts of lies that serve to keep nosy visitors away. Now if everyone is quite finished, can we go?"

Anita checked on Boris who was leaning against the rock wall.

"I'll be fine," he reassured her. “It’s just a scratch.”

In her mind, Kasey could hear the Black Knight from the Search For The Holy Grail, or perhaps that was just Vida’s voice parroting it for the thousandth time.

Some people were just tougher than others. Kasey knew how to take a beating but even she respected that sort of grit.

Methuselah, on the other hand, was a whiner. Kasey had half a mind to throw him back out in the cavern and hope the Waybeast spared them all his company for the rest of the journey. If it wasn’t for Sanders insisting he was necessary, she might have given it a shot.

Sanders turned and whispered something. A small light flickered into existence above his palm. It was faint, only bright enough to cast a dim light across the narrow tunnel.

As he started walking, Kasey raced to keep up with him, and the others fell into line behind. No one wanted to linger near the Waybeast.

"That could have gone smoother,” Kasey whispered.

"Just our luck," Sanders muttered. “You can pass through the Ways dozens of times and never see one. Yet today when time is everything, one is here waiting for us.”

"Boris is going to be a little slower now,” Kasey whispered, “and losing the machine-gun means we’re down on firepower.”

"The gun isn’t much of a loss. Boris is here for his knowledge,” Sanders replied. "Few people alive know as much about magical creatures as he does. I'm hoping if we encounter anything other than a Waybeast, he’ll be worth his considerable weight in gold.”

“You figure there will be other creatures guarding the Terminus?” Kasey asked.

“Almost certainly,” Sanders said. “The Congress plays dirty. I suspect we’ll need his expertise. For now, we're lucky the creature didn't take off his head, and he can still walk. So all in all, it could be much worse.”

They trudged in silence, and Kasey was glad she wasn't claustrophobic. The tunnel wasn't wide and the air felt still and stagnant, but she pressed on without complaining.

The exit to the Ways was located in a deep cave somewhere in Faerie. Without the light from Sanders’ spell, she might not have noticed moving from one to the other.

Sanders and Kasey waited for the rest of the party to catch up.

"From here,” Sanders said, “we pass back into the mortal realm. We'll be in a cave on the Isle of Lewis, roughly thirty miles from Flannan Island. That is as close as we can get. I sent scouts last night. Their attempts to pass through the Veil closer were unsuccessful. It simply cannot be breached. I don't know why, but my best guess is that it is some sort of working by the Congress to protect the island.”

“Anything else we should know?” Methuselah asked. “Are we expecting the Loch Ness monster to pay us a visit on the way?”

Sanders wasn’t in the mood. “The nature and strength of the Congress’s defenses are an unknown. So stay together, help each other, and keep moving. We will be traveling by boat to the island. Our escort are Summer Sidhe who know the waters well. That said, the seas can be rough and storms common.”

Methuselah looked like he had something to say, but he kept it to himself.

Sanders opened a gateway through the Veil, and they passed from the cave in Faerie into another on the Isle of Lewis. This particular cave emptied onto a beach and was a lot shallower than the expansive tunnels the group had passed through.

Kasey wandered out onto the beach, grateful for the fresh sea breeze.

A small launch waited with its captain, an auburn-haired Summer Sidhe. It was dusk, and the Summer Sidhe was dressed in a heavy coat to keep the wind at bay.

"Altarius,” Sanders called. “Good to see you again. Are you ready?"

"The seas are rough, Sanders. It would be best if we made our approach in the morning. The dark could complicate matters.”

"The dark is our friend, Altarius. We can’t afford to be spotted. There will be Sentinels.”

The Sidhe looked about as comfortable with that prospect as he would wearing a set of iron underwear.

“I will do what I can,” the Sidhe answered.

Altarius ferried the party from the beach to a larger vessel moored offshore. It took two trips, but the waiting forty-foot yacht with its sealed cabin seemed like a much more comfortable option for reaching the Terminus.

Altarius tied the launch to the back of the yacht and set the ship off into the night.

At Sanders’ direction, the craft moved without lights. Far more dangerous that the sea itself was the Sentinels that would inevitably be guarding Flannan Island.

Sanders peered out of the cabin, studying the night sky. "We are lucky there is no moon out. It should make it easier to approach undetected.”

"You’re confident they’ll be waiting for us?” Kasey asked.

"Almost certainly,” Sanders replied. “Flannan Island might be uninhabited, but tourists and other travelers still pass by. Hopefully, they mistake us for tourists run astray in bad weather. It might buy us the element of surprise.”

Sanders placed a whole lot more confidence in that might than Kasey did. Seldom did plans survive first contact with the enemy. They weren’t shoplifting; they were storming the Terminus.

She leaned against the window and tried to get what rest she could as the boat bobbed across the waves.

But rest never came. The closer they drew to the Terminus, the choppier the water became. Soon, great waves crashed over the bow of the yacht.

“Sanders,” Altarius called. “We’ve lost the GPS. Something is blocking the signal.”

“Keep going,” Sanders shouted, as rain started falling in great sheets. “It has to be the island’s defenses. We’re getting close.”

In the corner of the cabin, Anita looked a little worse for wear. The sea didn’t agree with her.

Beside her, Boris had his eyes closed and was snoring.

The yacht lurched as a wave struck the vessel amidships. Kasey reached for the wall to steady herself as the yacht listed dangerously to one side.

She held her breath, worried the whole vessel was going to capsize. But at the zenith of its rotation, the yacht lurched back the other way. Kasey breathed a sigh of relief.

Outside, the darkness and the driving rain made it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond the edges of the ship.

The waves calmed a little, and Kasey started to relax.

A grinding tear brought the yacht to a screeching halt and threw her from her seat.

Chapter 13

The yacht twisted and pitched as it struck rock. Kasey tumbled across the floor, and was joined by Maxwell Dark and Mallory.

Rolling over Mallory, Kasey hit the opposing wall. The others grabbed for furniture in an effort to stay on their feet.

The sound of stone tearing through fiberglass was deafening.

"We’ve run aground," Altarius shouted from the cockpit.

“No kidding.” Maxwell grunted, dragging himself to his feet. “A little warning next time would be ideal.”

The storm beat furiously against the yacht as it started listing to starboard. Water seeped into the cabin from somewhere down below.

“We have to be close,” Sanders shouted over the chaos. "Abandon ship and make for shore.”

"Careful leaving the ship. We’re in the shallows,” Altarius added.

Kasey noted the warning. The last thing she needed was to bust her ankle jumping into rocky shallows.

Even with one arm, Boris was first out the door. He barely seemed to register the crash. As he fled the sinking cabin, Kasey looked around to make sure everyone was still conscious.

Anyone left behind stood a very real chance of drowning, even in the shallow water. But the entire crew seemed to be moving. She breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t like it, but these people were her best chance at succeeding in the Summer Queen's mission. Whatever their past crimes might have been before, they were now her best hope for a future with Sanders.

One after the other, they climbed down the back of the yacht and into the water.

Mercifully, in the face of drowning, even Methuselah found the will to shut up.

Old warlocks tended to be cunning, powerful, and wily. It was the only way they survived those who hunted them. They had to outrun the ADI, the Arcane Congress, and bounty hunters just to survive.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Kasey stepped out into the rain. In the darkness, she could make out the silhouette of an island about sixty feet away. Rocky shorelines rose swiftly to a hill face that towered overhead.

Kasey grabbed the rail, and climbed down the back of the boat and into the water. She was already soaked, but it was cold, and her teeth chattered as she forced herself to let go of the boat.

The water was up to her waist with the rocking waves forcing her to jump to avoid going under entirely.

Sanders splashed into the water beside her. The last off the boat was Altarius. He stood on the back of the yacht, looking around as if he were searching for other options.

"I guess I'm coming with you,” he called to Sanders as he climbed down the ladder.

At least the Summer Sidhe was someone they could count on. In a crew of cutthroats and killers, Kasey only really trusted Sanders. Altarius at least could be relied on to honor the Summer Queen’s wishes.

Sanders didn't look at all pleased about it though, frowning as he waded through the waist high water.

"What's wrong?" Kasey asked. "We can use all the hands we can get, right?"

"There is a reason the Queen picked us, and not a crew of her own court. We're all human. If we fail, the Queen has plausible deniability. If one of her own are found inside the Terminus, it could cause problems for her politically. Perhaps even drive a rift between the Summer Court and the Arcane Congress.”

"That would be bad," Kasey agreed. It was the cooperation and collaboration of the Sidhe courts and the Congress that had brought stability to the supernatural community. The three of them in a united front had forced the other races to the table. That status quo accounted for much of the relative peace between the supernatural and mortal realms. And now all of it potentially hinged on Altarius making it through this mission alive.

"If anything happens,” Kasey whispered, “we’ll make sure there is nothing to find. I've done it before."

Fire hot enough could destroy any trace evidence that Altarius had ever been here. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, but given no choice in the matter, she would do what must be done.

She followed their ragtag collection of convicts through the dark waters to shore. There was no beach to speak of, just a rocky ledge to scale if they wanted to be free of the freezing water. The nine of them huddled in the dark waters off Flannan Island, staring up the ominous hill at what Kasey hoped was the location of the Terminus.

She couldn't know for sure. All that she knew was that the signal had stopped here. So either they were walking into an ambush, or they were about to storm a secure facility belonging to the most dangerous governing body of wizards in the entire world. Neither option was particularly palatable, but her future lay on the other side of the latter.

"The only structure on the island is a lighthouse." Sanders spoke softly so that his voice wouldn’t carry through the driving rain. “I believe it is a gate to the Terminus. The fact that the Fae cannot breach the Veil here is evidence that the Congress has tampered with it. I suspect so that they can house their facility in some isolated corner of Faerie. In any case, the key is in that lighthouse."

Kasey wondered how he could possibly know that. But Sanders had spent decades preparing for this moment, so she put her confidence in his planning.

"There will be sentinels somewhere on the island,” Sanders said. "Hopefully they are taking shelter during the storm. If possible, we need to take one of them alive. It will be much easier to enter the Terminus with their assistance.”

Kasey gulped. Trying to take a prisoner while someone was determined to kill you was a dangerous game.

"Hopefully the storm masked that mess." Methuselah nodded toward the wreckage of the yacht.

"We should move swiftly,” Maxwell Dark said, his teeth chattering. "The longer we stay in this water, the worse the cold will grip us. You want to get to that hill face and get flat. Anyone attempting to keep watch will have a hard time spotting us.”

He was right. With torrents of water running down the hill face, they would be practically swimming uphill through mud and over rocks, but they should also be virtually invisible to anyone watching for their approach.

Maxwell was the first to move, pulling himself up and out of the water, before commando crawling across the rocks. Lying flat against the hill face, he turned to beckon the others to follow him. Boris and Anita scrabbled to safety, albeit a lot less gracefully than Maxwell had done. When they were safely across, Kasey went to move but Sanders put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Not yet. We'll bring up the rear."

Lilith and Mallory made a break for it and reached the cliff face without incident.

Altarius went next. He managed to climb out of the water, but he became distracted when the yacht listed and started to sink.

Kasey and Sanders were already moving, climbing out of the water, when the gun shot rang out.

Altarius stood taking one last look at his boat. The back of his head was blown out by a high-powered rifle round.

Sanders raced to catch the Summer Sidhe as Kasey scrambled across the rocks to the safety of the cliff face.

“Sanders,” Kasey called.

Noah was crouched over the body of the Summer Sidhe, trying to rouse him.

“He’s gone, leave him,” Kasey shouted. She’d seen the aftermath of the shot and knew there was nothing that could save the captain.

Sanders must have realized it too, because he straightened up and raced for the cliff face.

Another shot cut through the stormy night. The rifle shot drowned out even the rain for a moment. Kasey looked up, praying the shot went wide, but Sanders spun violently, before sliding between two boulders.

"Sanders, no!" Kasey screamed.

Another shot rang out, striking the top of the boulder, stone chipping off at the impact.

Kasey leaned against the hill face, rain and tears streaming down her face as she looked for any sign of life from Sanders. More bullets pinged off the rocks around where he had fallen, but the snipers above seemed unable to get a bead on him, laying as he was between the rocks.

Sanders’ foot twitched, and Kasey’s heart skipped a beat.

It wasn't much but it was something.

"Noah!” she cried, but got no response.

She needed to get to him. Eventually the snipers would reposition, and Sanders would be dead.

If he isn’t dying already.

Kasey’s mind raced a million miles an hour. She’d seen enough gunshot wounds in the morgue to know the danger he was in. If he was alive, he needed to be moved. She needed to get closer, but she didn’t dare make a break for it.

She looked to the rest of the party for help. They all huddled against the cliff, looking at her.

Angry tears streamed down her face. Was that what they were staring at? Right now, she couldn’t care less.

As she searched their faces, she realized they weren’t judging her. They were looking to her for guidance. After all, she was the one who had found the location of the Terminus. Perhaps they supposed she knew the best route through its defenses.

She didn’t have a clue, but she wasn’t about to tell them that.

She looked up the cliff. She’d been in her share of firefights, but usually she could at least see her foe. In the wind and rain, it was nigh on impossible.

"We’re caught in a crossfire,” Kasey shouted. “If we stay here, eventually they are going to reposition and we’ll all be dead. We need to make a move."

"How do you suggest we do that?" Methuselah called. “If we break cover, we’re as dead as they are.”

Just the words hurt her soul, forcing Kasey to consider the possibility.

"If we don't, we'll be dead anyway,” she shouted back. “Can you see them?”

"There are at least three,” Maxwell Dark answered, and then pointed. "One on the rocky outcropping out there to the right. He has the best line of fire because it juts out over the hill face. There is another off to the left somewhere. I can't say for certain where, but I imagine as we make a break for it up the hill, we’ll be exposed to his fire. And I suspect the third is covering the lip of that path that winds up the hill.”

Kasey followed his finger and realized that there was a rocky trail snaking up the hillside. Through sheer bad luck, they’d come ashore at the most obvious landing for the island.

“If we take the easiest route, we’ll be walking straight into a firing squad,” Kasey muttered.

Her heart pounded. She knew they couldn't stay. And the longer they waited, the greater the chance the Sentinels would raise an alarm, if they hadn’t already. Reinforcements from the Arcane Congress would be the death of everybody.

"I'll deal with those on the rocks,” she called. “Boris, Anna, and Methuselah, you deal with the one on the left. With them both down, we can flank whoever is guarding the path.”

"How exactly do you intend to accomplish that?" Methuselah asked, rain running down his glasses.

She was not in the mood for his questions. Disregarding him entirely, she moved along the hill face channeling all her fear and anger as she summoned her will. Slapping her hand against the rock face, she cried, “Tirlithriad!”.

The hillside shook as her magic carved a crevasse into the stone.

The rift travelled up and out, racing away from her. It headed for the rocky promontory. The rend in the earth grew deeper and deeper until the entire promontory broke free.

“Mother of mercy." Lilith gasped as tons of rock slid down the hill in a deafening landslide. The sniper, the promontory, and everything within fifteen feet of him slammed into the rocks two hundred feet from their current position.

The other shots abruptly ceased.

"One down," Kasey called. “The others are going to be more hesitant to reveal their positions. Anna, Boris, Methuselah, go! I'll recover Sanders. Mallory, you’re with me. Lilith, check that one.”

She pointed to the rockslide.

“Check it for what?” Lilith asked.

“Make sure he’s dead. I don’t want to be shot in the back. If you find the body, search it, just in case. Bring back anything of note.”

Lilith moved off along the base of the hill, staying flat against it just in case.

Methuselah and the others likewise headed off, looking for their own sniper.

“Maxwell.”

Kasey was about to give him directions when he simply faded into the shadows, disappearing entirely.

"Get whoever is watching the hill path,” she said, hoping he was listening. "Mallory, you stay here. I'm gonna get Sanders.”

Mallory looked out at the fallen leader of party. Sniper rounds had pock marked the stone on either side of him.

“That's all you,” she whispered. “Get him back here and I’ll see what I can do for him.”

Gunfire cut through the rainy night. Not a high-powered rifle shot, but the tinny fire of the AK-47 as Anna hunted their rogue sentinel.

Taking a deep breath, Kasey made a break for it. As she raced across the wet stone, she was relieved when no more high-caliber rounds struck anywhere near her. She grabbed Sanders by his bullet-proof vest and dragged him back to the hill face.

Sanders lay still as she pressed his back against the wet stone. She felt around in the dark, looking for blood, but everything was wet and it was difficult to see in the darkness.

Mallory started conjuring a light to see by.

"No light,” Kasey hissed. “We don't want to give away our position until we know they are all down.

"Oh.” Mallory extinguished the light, looking a little sheepish. “Got it. I’m sorry. I'm not really used to these sorts of things.”

"How did you end up here in the first place?" Kasey asked. “You don’t at all seem like the rest of them.”

“Aiding and abetting,” Mallory replied. “Lilith killed a number of very bad men. Unfortunately, that's still a crime. When she ran, the ADI winged her. I was nursing her back to health when they found us both. Because I helped her, they gave me fifteen years. She got life. I didn’t bother appealing my sentence.”

Kasey's mind reeled. “You love her.”

“Of course. I’d rather be with her in prison than away from her forever. We do foolish things for the ones we love.” Lilith looked at Kasey and then looked at Sanders.

Kasey didn't want to acknowledge the truth of her suggestion but denying it was pretty fruitless at this point. They'd all seen how she’d reacted to him being shot.

"The heart wants what the heart wants," she answered.

Mallory felt over the front of Sanders’ vest. "Here, the bullet struck the vest. It didn’t go through, but the knockback would have been substantial.”

“Why isn’t he responding?” Kasey asked.

“He probably hit his head when he fell,” Mallory said, feeling around his sandy hair. “Yep, definitely some blood back here. You loosen the vest. I’ll deal with this.”

Kasey worked to loosen the vest and give Sanders room to breathe as Mallory chanted something, her fingers glowing gold as she worked her healing magic.

His lips parted as a groan of pain escaped them.

"Relax,” Mallory said, holding him still. “The vest saved you from the worst of it, but that was a high caliber round. Even these Sidhe vests won’t protect your ribs from the impact. Let me take a closer look.”

Sanders nodded, his breath coming in quick gasps. Kasey couldn’t help but smile through the rain at him. He was going to be okay.

Mallory resumed her chanting, her voice a hushed whisper as she passed one hand over Sanders' chest. The second she placed over his forehead as a faint golden light bathed him.

Mallory's talents put anything Kasey had seen to shame. Kasey was guessing if she dug deeper into Council records that she would discover that Mallory's previous employment had been at the Administorum.

Sanders managed a full breath, his head rolling to the side as he looked for Kasey.

"It's okay, we’ve got you,” Kasey told him.

Sanders’ eyes came into focus on Kasey. "What happened?"

“Snipers on the hilltop,” she said. “They got Altarius, and would have killed you too if it wasn't for the vest. What were you thinking?”

Sanders pat the front of his battered vest. “Good work, my old friend.” He chuckled as he looked up at Kasey and Mallory. “And thanks to the both of you.”

Kasey squeezed his hand tightly.

Sanders looked around. "Where are the others?"

Even on his back, Sanders was still focused on the mission.

“I dealt with one of the snipers. The other four are looking for the others. I suspect they might have gone to ground. Lilith has gone to check the body of the one I got.”

"Good," Sanders replied. “If the Terminus is accessed here, there has to be a gate or key or something. We couldn’t part the Veil, but clearly, they can. We need to know how.”

"Can you walk?" Kasey asked.

Sanders took another deep breath. "Yep, I'm good. Thanks for the help. Mallory, you’re a godsend.”

As he went to get up, she tightened her hand around his. "You made me a promise. I expect you to keep it.”

"I'm a man of my word,” Sanders answered quietly. “You don't need to remind me.”

The look in Mallory’s eyes told Kasey she had doubts. Something was bothering her, and Kasey made a mental note to keep an eye on the woman.

What deal had Sanders made with her?

Kasey helped Sanders to his feet and together they made their way up the hillside, keeping a low profile. It was muddy and messy, but it was better than being shot.

More gunfire erupted off to the left, followed by brilliant flashes of arcana illuminating the night sky. Green, blue, and red orbs of magic slammed into an emplacement high on the hilltop.

The sniper fire vanished once more, and Kasey supposed that Methuselah and the others had got the job done.

The hill was so steep that she could touch the hill face in front of her. Much steeper and it would have been considered climbing, and in this rain, that would have been suicide.

They made steady progress, emboldened by the lack of fire from the sentinels. When they reached the top of the trail, they found a man with the embroidered black robes and blue heraldry of the sentinels. He was on his knees, Maxwell Dark’s knife at his throat. His rifle lay discarded by the wayside.

Not far from him were the bodies of two more sentinels.

"I took this one alive, just like you asked," Maxwell said. “The other two could not be convinced to stick with us.”

Part of Kasey felt a pang of guilt. These sentinels were guarding a prison, presumably full of some of the worst and most dangerous beings the Congress had ever come across. These men were really just doing their job and now they were dead.

It was impossible to reconcile that with the hero she had always tried to be. She could call it self-defense, at least for the one she'd killed in the landslide, but the reality was if they had never come, these men would still be alive.

But then she would have no future.

The older she got, the harder it grew to see life and its rules as black and white. What had the Congress done for her, but attempt to get her executed? She didn’t owe these people anything.

"Well done, Maxwell," Sanders called as he approached the sentinel.

"You're all dead," the sentinel spat. “Every last one of you.”

"Feeling very much alive right now,” Sanders countered, “and you will remain the same if you tell me what I want to know.”

"I will not tell you anything, warlock."

He was fit and muscled, and had the complexion of a man who'd spent his life out in the sun. Likely guarding this very island.

"If you tell us how to enter the Terminus, I will spare your life. If not, you will join your companions."

"You are a liar," the sentinel answered. “I’ve seen your faces. You cannot let me live. The second I reported this breach to the Congress, you would all be dead men.”

He looked at Kasey. “Dead women too. The top of our most wanted list with a bounty so high even your family and friends would turn on you. Bounty hunters from across the world would come looking for you. Your life would be forfeit.”

"Only if you could remember what you had seen,” Sanders replied. “I have the means to wipe your mind. You will remember nothing of this night. But you will live to see your family again. Think of them.”

"I'd rather die than help you,” the sentinel hissed, leaning forward in an attempt to slit his own throat on Maxwell's knife.

Maxwell was far too quick. He slapped the man across the back of the head, sending him staggering into the dirt. Maxwell was on him in a flash, twisting his arm behind his back.

"You die when the boss says so. Don't be in such a hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil."

Slurping footsteps warned of the approach of others. Kasey turned to find Lilith trudging through the mud, her heels buried deep in the muck.

"Not much of note on the body,” she replied. “All I found is this.”

She raised a simple leather thong from which a piece of Amethyst dangled.

The sentinel’s eyes lingered on it and a flash of anger crossed his countenance. It was there for a moment and then it was gone.

"See that reaction?" Sanders nodded at the sentinel. “It's important. Check the other bodies."

Kasey felt like a grave robber as she stooped down over the nearest fallen sentinel. Patting down their black cloaks, she found a similar sized lump beneath his shirt. She pulled the necklace from around his neck and lifted it off him. The necklace was a small piece of obsidian, cut in the same hexagonal prism as the other.

Mallory produced a piece of jade from the third sentinel.

"We got him," a Russian voice called, announcing Boris’ return.

“And he had this on him," Anita said, holding a piece of ruby on a leather thong.

"What are they?” Methuselah asked. “It seems inert."

"It doesn't need any power of its own,” Sanders answered. “But I suspect they combine to form something of an earthing stone, designed to join two places together through time and space. It's the key to the Terminus. Or at least one part of it.”

Maxwell reached beneath the last sentinel’s cloak and yanked an emerald necklace from around his neck.

"Tell us how the gateway works," Sanders said, “and you live. This is your last chance.”

"We don't have time for this." Methuselah shook his head. “Let me at him. I'll get what we want to know.”

Sanders shook his head. “I gave my word. Give the man a chance to make a choice.”

"They will have raised the alarm," Methuselah said. “The sooner we are away from this place, the better.”

"You might not care about such things, but I won't see your power used if there is any other choice.”

"We have none," Methuselah replied. “Can't you see the look in his eyes? He is life-long devotee of the Arcane Congress. He’d sooner die than give you what you want. We didn't come here to fail.”

Sanders held up a hand to stop Methuselah.

“Come on, Noah, let me do what must be done. This is why I’m here. We both knew it would come to this.”

Sanders and Methuselah stood eye to eye staring each other down, the latent power moving around them evident even in the rain.

Sanders seemed to be resisting and Kasey wasn't sure why. What was it Methuselah was threatening to do? What was his talent?

The sentinel scoffed. "If you succeed, you will all die in there. But I won't be the one to open the door for you."

"There you have it, Methuselah said.

Sanders sighed and stepped aside, allowing Methuselah to approach the sentinel. He crouched down beside the man's head, closed his eyes, and began to chant. The words brimmed with power, but she couldn't understand them.

When Methuselah opened his eyes, they seemed unfocused, almost dazed. Then Kasey looked down at the sentinel. His eyes mirrored Methuselah’s. Then they returned to normal.

"Tell us how to enter the Terminus?" Methuselah said.

The sentinel shook, the veins in his neck bulging as his hands trembled.

"Tell us how to enter the Terminus!"

A faint rasp of breath escaped the sentinel’s lips.

"What's he doing?" Kasey asked Sanders, who was standing beside her.

“It's a compulsion,” Sanders whispered. “Mind magic and definitely forbidden. Using your power to override the free will have of another has always been a violation of the Arcane Covenant. It's everything practitioners should never do.”

"Yet it is exactly what you need.” Methuselah gloated. "Where are your principles now, Chancellor?”

The sentinel shook and then went still.

"You killed him,” Lilith whispered.

Methuselah held up a hand to silence her. “His mind is strong. The Congress trains them well. But they all break sooner or later, and his time has come.”

"Tell me, how do we enter the Terminus?”

"Climb the lighthouse. It is the entrance,” the sentinel said, voice raspy. “In the canopy there is a stone, polished and smooth. Turn it over and place the keys in it. A bridge will form between this world and the Terminus."

The sentinel shook as he wrestled body and soul against the compulsion. "Evil lies within those walls. You don’t know what you do.”

"Of course we do. Why do you think we are here?" Methuselah replied, twisting his wrist in the air. The sentinel’s neck snapped to the right. No one was touching him, but Methuselah caused the sentinel’s head to turn so violently he snapped his own neck.

Kasey winced as the man went still.

"We need to move quickly,” Sanders said. “We have no idea how far Congress reinforcements will be, but they are almost certainly on the way. We need to get in and get out before they arrive.”

“At least we have the keys. They can't follow us in,” Maxwell added.

“Unless they have spares,” countered Mallory.

"Or they can surround the lighthouse and stop us getting out,” Kasey said. “So let's move.”

The party advanced in silence, trudging through the stormy night. Flashes of lightning illuminated the old lighthouse. Kasey stayed alert for any sign of trouble, but it appeared the five sentinels were the Terminus’ only protection.

For a facility harboring such high-profile prisoners, she had expected more. Perhaps the Congress never anticipated anyone to be able to find it. Or perhaps they expected the sentinels to take their secret to the grave. Sanders’ begrudging alliance with Methuselah had left the facility vulnerable.

The lighthouse door was open, and Maxwell took point. He slipped inside, knives still drawn as he swept the building.

"It's clear,” he called as he reappeared at the door.

Sanders entered the Lighthouse, with Kasey right behind him. Sanders gripped the five earthing stones in his good hand.

The bottom floor of the lighthouse was a sparsely furnished kitchenette and a dining table. Quarters for the sentinels adjoined the building and was accessible through an internal door.

Sanders made straight for the spiral staircase leading upstairs. If the sentinel had spoken the truth, the entrance to the Terminus was waiting for them.

Kasey followed Sanders up the staircase to the lantern room. Unlike the other lighthouses she had seen, the lantern room had no beacon of any kind. Instead, a round stone the width of a large pizza, sat in the middle of the beacon’s fitting. It was pitch black, and hummed with a steady trace of power.

With Boris and Anita’s help, Kasey flipped over the stone, and set it back in the fitting.

On the now revealed facing were five hexagonal settings.

"How do we know which order they go in?" Methuselah asked. “There could be a hundred possibilities.

"If you hadn't killed the sentinel, he might have come in helpful here,” Sanders replied. “As always, you are quick to pull the trigger.”

"He was far from willing,” Methuselah countered.

Sanders ignored him, crouching down over the stone. Taking the emerald, he passed it slowly over the stone.

As it hovered over the grooves, one of them emitted a faint emerald light.

"On the other hand, perhaps the stone will tell us.” Sanders pressed the emerald into the gap until only half an inch of the stone stuck out. He repeated the process with each of the other earthing stones until he reached obsidian.

There was only one slot left, the one in the very center.

Sanders took a deep breath and drove the earthing stone into the final bracket.

The light passing through each of the stones grew brighter and brighter until the entire plinth rose out of the fitting of its own accord. The stone pointed out into the open air, the multihued lights vanishing amid the cloudy sky.

Lightning flashed through the sky as the light pouring from the stone intensified.

The illumination grew brighter, forming a round tunnel of glowing light that hurtled into the starry sky.

Without warning, they pierced through the fabric of reality itself.

The lights had punctured the Veil, forming a tunnel from the lighthouse lantern room to a stone chamber beyond the veil.

"We found it,” Sanders whispered. "That’s the Terminus."

Chapter 14

The entire lighthouse structure vibrated underfoot as it channeled the magic required to sustain the bridge to the Terminus.

The bridge and rift led straight into a stone structure, so there was no telling exactly where the Terminus was located.

Was it in Faerie? Or somewhere else altogether? The multi-hued bridge spanned from the mortal realm to some other plane. A construct created by the Arcane Congress to hide its secrets from everyone, including other supernatural beings.

"Are we just going to stand here all day?" Lilith asked. "Or are we going to get this over with?"

Sanders stepped forward onto the bridge, testing its strength under his weight. Light rippled out from wherever his feet touched, like ripples on the surface of the water. The curtains holding back the veil stood bunched to either side of the gate bridge.

As Kasey approached the bridge, a voice echoed in her mind.

Kasey, what did I tell you?

The Earth Spirit’s voice was deep and insistent.

You told me to kill the Wendigo, Kasey thought back hastily as she stared at the bridge. And I did exactly that.

Yes. And that was so that you would never find this place. I never thought you would be so reckless as to blindly follow the whim of the Summer Court. Abandon this scheme, before you destroy the balance we have fought to maintain.

Kasey's hands balled into fists as her frustration mounted. Balance? What balance? We’re running a simple errand, not opening a coal mine.

There is only one thing the Summer Queen wants in there. And you want no part of it. There are evils in that prison that could doom us all.

Kasey shook her head. You know, you could be a lot more helpful the rest of the time. Rather than cropping up whenever you need to shatter my dreams.

It is not your dreams, I would thwart but hers. Balance is best for everyone. Even Fairy Queens.

Kasey’s nails bit into her scalp as she looked down at the ground. I don't care about the Queen. I just want Sanders. I want my life and my future. I think I’ve earned that much, haven’t I?

I did not choose his fate, but this will surely hasten it. Turn back before it's too late.

The Earth Spirit's warning was as vague as it was frustrating. There was nowhere to turn back to. The yacht had sunk, the launch nowhere to be found. Was she meant to swim home?

Sanders was halfway across the bridge.

She couldn't turn back now. If he walked into the Terminus with no one to watch his back, he was as good as dead. And she would have let it happen.

And if by some miracle he survived, he would never forgive her.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but these vague warnings aren’t nearly as helpful as you think they are. So if that’s all, I have work to do.

The Earth Spirit’s silence didn’t surprise her at all. She was as moody as she was morose.

"Are you going to cross or not?" Methuselah asked.

Kasey jumped. He was so close behind her, she could feel his breath on her skin.

"Age before beauty," Kasey replied as she stepped aside.

She wanted the mind mage where she could keep an eye on him.

“Suit yourself.” Methuselah ventured off across the rainbow bridge, and Kasey followed behind him.

Maxwell, Lilith, and Mallory set out behind her.

The two Russians were the most hesitant.

"You won't want to stay here," Kasey called over her shoulder. “The Congress is going to be all sorts of pissed when they show up."

Boris and his sister exchanged glances. They'd come this far, and Boris had already paid a price for it. No one knew what waited for them in the Terminus, but one thing was certain: death would come swiftly when the Congress arrived.

That was enough to motivate them both onto the unnatural bridge.

Kasey picked up her pace. She too found the bridge a little unsettling. It felt solid enough underfoot, but she could still see through the colored arcana she was walking on. Sixty feet above the ground, she would break every bone in her body if the bridge gave out.

She raced through rift and leaped off the bridge onto the polished stone floor of the Terminus.

The stone chamber was the size of a basketball court. At the end of the bridge was a raised plinth formed from the smooth black stone. On top of it rested a five-by-five grid of marble squares. The colored stone alternated black and white, like a chessboard, and Sanders stood staring at the grid.

No sooner were the Russians off the bridge, than the entire arcane apparatus vanished. In its place was a solid stone wall. A towering arched doorway was set in the middle of it, only the entire doorway was bricked up with the same stone that made up the rest of the chamber.

“Where did the bridge go?” Lilith asked. “How do we get out of here?”

“This plinth,” Sanders replied. “I think it serves to activate the bridge from this end. It’s formed from the same material as the stone in the lighthouse.”

“I don’t suppose you know the sequence that will activate it,” Methuselah asked, drying his glasses as he approached the plinth.

“No, but I’ve seen such devices before,” Sanders said.

“So we’re stuck here, waiting for a squad of sentinels to cross that bridge and murder us all.”

“Or you could say we’ve done the impossible in entering the Terminus and are one step closer to freedom for you all.”

“That is the sort of mindless optimism that is going to get us all killed,” Methuselah grumbled.

Lilith and Mallory stared at each other. Boris shifted slowly from one foot to the other, while Maxwell studied the room. None of them looked particularly pleased with the accomplishment. Methuselah’s naysaying was starting to undermine their confidence in our mission.

“Sanders, am I right in believing that Methuselah has already fulfilled the purpose for which he was brought?” Kasey asked, looking sideways at the complaining old mind mage.

In the entry hall of the Terminus, it was a question from which only a single conclusion could be drawn.

Sanders paused as if considering the question. “My chief goal in recruiting him for this endeavor was for his inevitable assistance with the sentinels.”

Kasey nodded slowly. “So if I was to tire of his ceaseless whining and wanted to spare the rest of us the burden of his company, I wouldn’t be inconveniencing you at all?”

“Well…” Sanders’ voice trailed off as if he was considering her proposition, though Kasey knew he’d never go for it. He was sending a message and so was she.

Methuselah clenched his fist tight as he stepped into Kasey’s face. “Child, I could end you with a word.”

“Try it, warlock,” Kasey said, drawing on her power until the air around her was thick with it. “You will find you aren’t the first to try to enter my mind. You’ll be dead before you finish the thought.”

Methuselah’s lip twitched as he gathered his own power.

Kasey wasn’t afraid. She’d tested her mental defenses against the Wendigo. Methuselah might be good, but she doubted he had that sort of power. When it came to more offensive magic, she placed her confidence in the fact she was an Earthborn elementalist. She’d versed Shinigami and Vampire lords. What could he do to her?

“Methuselah,” Sanders warned. “Toe-to-toe you don’t stand a chance. You can continue if you like. I won’t stop you. Or you can heed the lady’s request to…”

“Quit your bitching,” Kasey finished his thought. “Because there is no situation so intolerable that whining about it can’t make it worse.”

Methuselah went quiet as he pondered his choices. In the face of Kasey’s sheer will, he was the first to blink.

“I am sorry if my concerns have worn on your nerves, and hope that we can resolve this amicably.” He delivered the words through gritted teeth, but it was better than nothing.

“Apology accepted,” Kasey replied, her smile stretching from ear to ear. “Let’s get this done, and we can all go our separate ways in peace.”

He backed down, but his eyes never left her. She’d made an enemy. But as far as she was concerned, he’d always been a danger. Now he just knew his place.

And everyone else knew it too. The influence of his constant negativity would be diminished, and that was a price worth paying.

The mission hung by a thread. They couldn’t afford to have their team second guessing Sanders’ leadership. It had almost got them killed in the Ways, and the danger had only risen since then.

In Kasey’s mind, the only way was forward.

Fortunately, at the Terminus, there seemed to be few other options.

The rest of the chamber was bare stone but for a pair of stone statues guarding the gate at the other end of the chamber.

“We’ll solve the plinth after we’ve concluded our mission,” Sanders said. “Let us press on.”

“What if the Congress arrives before we can?” Lilith asked.

“Then they will have opened the gates for us,” Sanders said. “And we’ll deal with whoever they send through it. Any further questions?”

The group looked at each other. The prospect of facing more sentinels clearly didn’t excite them. But absent a better plan, they shook their heads and fell in behind Sanders as he headed for the other end of the chamber.

"Alright, let's stick together.” Sanders crept through the hall. “We have no idea what to expect in here. There could be more sentinels or other guardians. Be alert, and do not touch anything.”

"What exactly are we here for?" Methuselah asked.

"That is none of your business,” Sanders replied. “Your job is simply to convey us safely to it. Once we have it in our possession, we will return to the mortal realm and make our escape.”

"How will we do that when we have no boat?"

"We will acquire the means while we are here," Sanders replied.

Kasey wasn’t entirely convinced he had a plan, but she didn’t want to rock the non-existent boat, so she let it slide.

As they approached the arched gateway leading into the next room, they had to walk between the two towering statues flanking the gates. On closer inspection, the statues were wearing the familiar cloaks and insignia of the sentinels. These bore the same flat featureless battle masks that Armando Flint’s taskforce had worn when they had dragged Talora away to the Terminus.

Torches burned in sconces along the walls, Whether they were always alight, or simply the Terminus’ reaction to the group’s presence was impossible to tell. The gateway leading to the next chamber was two feet wide, with a polished steel portcullis raised overhead.

The portcullis seemed a little medieval, but when magic was involved, seldom were things as they seemed.

Above the gate, carved in stone, was a simple inscription.

The Terminus. The end of all who enter.

"Well, that's not ominous at all,” Maxwell muttered as he stared at the inscription.

"Just the Congress being melodramatic,” Sanders replied. “Big believers in their own publicity. Pay them no heed.”

Beside the gate was two panels, one silver, one a red-tinged metallic plate with a rune inscribed in it that Kasey couldn’t recognize.

She pointed it out to Sanders. “What’s that?”

“I suspect the silver opens the gate. The other is a glyph of warning. I expect it is used in the unlikely event of an escape to lock down the facility,” Sanders replied.

Passing through the gates, they moved into the next chamber. Massive stone pillars held up a roof that towered so high overhead, the light from the torches didn’t reach it.

A central thoroughfare ran down the length of the chamber between the two columns.

The hall was perhaps two hundred yards long, but they had barely made it past the first set of pillars, when Kasey stopped dead. There, resting just off the beaten path, were the gnawed out remains of a human body.

Its bones were bleached white and picked clean. One of the femurs had been bitten clean in half.

“Sanders,” she whispered, pointing at the bones. “No human did that.” Kasey looked around for evidence of what might have left the remains. They had clearly been here for some time, but in the silent chamber there was no way of knowing if whatever had done this still lingered, or had long since died.

“There’s more,” Sanders whispered, pointing further off the track.

More bones scattered throughout the hall. The further from the path one looked, the more that were visible. Some were stacked in neat piles. Others were strewn about wildly, like a pack of animals had torn it apart.

“Boris,” Sanders called quietly, “have you ever seen anything like this?”

Boris stooped down and examined the bones.

“Hmm, definitely more than one. You can tell by the eating habits. Some are clean and precise. Others savage in their intensity. Large creatures, jaws at least the span of my hand.” Boris held up his meaty hand for emphasis.

Kasey shook her head. She didn’t want to meet anything with a mouth that wide. Particularly if its idea of a good time was tearing flesh from the bone.

“What are we dealing with?” Sanders whispered.

Boris looked about. “I don’t know. There is no waste, or sign of them. They might feed here, but they don’t live here.”

“Keep your eyes open,” Sanders said.

The group moved a little quicker, anxious to get out of the graveyard.

Every step of the way, Kasey listened for signs of life. They hadn’t seen anything but bones since they’d left Flannan Island. If there were sentinels here, they were certainly masking their presence well.

Kasey was more concerned by whatever had fed on the hapless souls in the hall. There had to be more than a hundred carcasses strewn through the chamber.

The hall was eerily silent, but for the footsteps of the party as they moved deeper into the Terminus.

Boris took point, leading them through the bone-strewn chamber.

They were about halfway through the hall, when he stepped on a stone that sat slightly higher than the others around it.

There was a grinding thud as the stone settled into place. The sound of the mechanism sent a chill down Kasey’s spine.

"Run,” Sanders called.

Kasey didn’t need to be told twice. Every instinct in her body told her that Boris had just triggered some sort of trap. If they could just reach the other end of the hall, they could shut the massive portcullis behind them.

A roar filled the chamber.

It was deep, primal, and was soon joined by others. Great feathered wings beat overhead as shapes soared through the darkness.

Kasey ran for it, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

To her surprise, the others seemed to keep pace with her, even Methuselah. There was nothing like the prospect of being eaten alive to build motivation.

As she went, Kasey spotted more of the raised stones. She leaped over them just in case. While it seemed like chamber’s trap had already been triggered, there was no knowing what other misery the Congress had planned in its defense.

More roars echoed overhead. It was difficult to tell exactly where the creatures were in the darkness, but they were moving quickly.

It didn’t take Kasey long to deduce the creatures were moving far quicker than she was.

Her heart raced as she realized they hadn’t attacked. Instead, the creatures had gotten ahead of them, intentionally cutting them off from the next hall.

"They are everywhere," Mallory shrieked.

At times it was easy to forget they weren’t all hardened killers. She wasn’t used to this sort of madness. Kasey, on the other hand, felt right at home. Which was something she determined to speak to a therapist about, if she ever made it out of this room alive.

A symphony of hungry roars echoed through the massive hall. Kasey tried not to look at the discarded bones and their chilling promise of what lay in store for her and the group.

The steady beat of wings behind her warned Kasey that danger was close. She drew on her will.

Maybe the Earth Spirit had been right. Was this really worth it?

Kasey lashed out, sending an orb of fire hurtling over her shoulder and into the darkness.

She glanced back behind her, tracking the missile as it blazed through the pillars toward the sound of the creature stalking her.

The fireball illuminated the darkness, striking a pillar several rows away from the central path. As fire played up and down the stone, Kasey caught her first glimpse of her pursuer. It had four legs, and a coat of golden fur. The beast had the head of a lion, surrounded by a thick mane of black hair. A set of black feathered wings beat in powerful movements to keep it aloft as a long chitinous black tail trailed behind it.

"What the…?" Kasey murmured as the beast roared.

"Manticore!" Boris shouted.

While the unknown was terrifying, putting a name on it didn't do anything to calm Kasey's racing heart.

"How do we bring them down?" Kasey yelled. "We’re never going to make it to that gate."

The creatures were simply too fast, and doubtless the hall had been designed with that in mind.

More and more bones littered the sides of the path the deeper they went, evidence of those who had tried to outrun the manticores and failed.

The door looked closer than it was, an illusion promising hopeful thieves deliverance while death closed from above.

“Avoid the tail,” Boris called back. “Its sting will kill you as surely as the teeth.”

The manticore dove, swooping straight for Kasey. Ducking off the central path, she rounded one of the stone pillars.

The weight of the creature’s momentum thundered into the pillar where its wings caught, spinning the manticore out of control. The massive beast crashed to the floor.

Kasey rounded the pillar, raised both hands, and bellowed, “Gwynt fflam!”

Fire billowed out of her hands, bathing the manticore in broiling flames at point-blank range. The creature howled as it cooked alive, but in spite of the heat, it still struggled to its feet, enduring the inferno.

The manticore lunged at Kasey, its jaws yawning at her leg as she leaped away.

Teeth slammed shut mere inches from her jeans.

The tinny noise of an AK-47 opening fire punctuated the howling roars of the circling manticore. The charred beast closing with Kasey bucked as the salvo slammed into it at point blank range.

"The heart is just behind the legs," Anita called. “They are big beasts that fall quickly when the blood stops pumping. The muscles, they seize up. Otherwise, they fight like hell itself."

"Thanks,” Kasey called, taking stock of the rest of the party and their progress.

If she had thought the danger was past, she was sorely mistaken.

Dozens of roars echoed in response to the death cry of the manticore Anita had finished. The entire chamber was filled with the sound of beating wings.

Sanders brought down two of the manticore with a blinding salvo of golden arcana. Maxwell Dark moved like a wraith through the shadows, his long daggers punching straight through creature’s hides. When the manticore would turn to devour him, he'd be gone.

He seemed to be able to move from shadow to shadow as if he were teleporting. But whether it was that, or him simply blending with them as he moved, was hard to tell.

Boris used his one good hand, casting magic at the manticores. He threw them away from the others like rag dolls with waves of kinetic force.

Through it all, Methuselah stalked toward the end of the tunnel, seemingly having extricated himself from the fray. A manticore followed close behind him.

At first, Kasey expected it to dive at him, but instead it turned and began guarding his retreat.

"He can use his magic on those beasts?" Kasey asked.

“The simpler the mind, the easier it is to suggest,” Sanders said. “And the greater the risk that it might act contrary to his command. It’s far from a sure solution.”

Kasey considered the damage Methuselah could cause as another manticore, this one with gray streaks in its mane, barreled across the stone floor of the chamber toward her. It was old and wily. A seasoned hunter. It moved with its wings pinned close to its side, its tail raised like a scorpion’s overhead.

Remembering Anita's instruction, Kasey focused her will into a singular lance of power and aimed at the charging creature’s chest.

“Gwaywffon o rym!”

A beam of incandescent ruby red arcana carved a hole through the manticore the size of a tennis ball. She had no idea just how big the heart was, so she'd erred on the side of caution.

It was a modified version of the spell she'd used to kill more than a few vampires of the Feudal Court.

The creature’s eyes registered the shock of the killing blow. The manticore’s legs buckled and the creature went down, tumbling across the hall, collecting Kasey as it went.

Kasey groaned as the manticore’s corpse slammed her to the stone floor and rolled over the top of her. The beast weighed hundreds of pounds and Kasey felt every bit of it as the creature passed over her.

Something in her chest cracked. Pain shot through her left side.

The creature came to a halt beside her, and Kasey breathed a sigh of relief. If it hadn’t cleared her, she would have been trapped. As it was, she was struggling to get her body to move.

Overhead, a black shape hovered above her face.

The manticore’s tail!

The razor-sharp barb at its tip caught in the light before thundering toward her.

Grunting against the pain, Kasey rolled out of the way as the stinger slammed into the stone.

The stinger struck with enough force to break the creature’s tail. The sound of bones snapping made Kasey wince. Even in its death throes, the creature’s malicious spite shone through.

All around her, Sanders and the beleaguered crew were fighting a desperate rearguard action against a tide of manticores that seemed to grow by the moment.

Methuselah had reached the gateway to the next room.

Kasey was close with Anita not far behind. A few paces beyond her, Boris had come to the rescue of Lilith and Mallory who were locked in a dual with a grizzled manticore. In spite of his blood-soaked fur, the creature fought on. Lilith had a shallow slash down her arm and a rend across the front of her bulletproof vest that would have gutted her.

Mallory was hobbling and bleeding from the wound on her thigh. In the chaos, she hadn’t the time to see to her own wounds.

"Sanders," Kasey called as she pushed herself to her feet. “There are too many. You need to make a run for it.

When he didn't respond, Kasey shouted again. "I'll cover your retreat. Just move your ass!”

Sanders let out a blinding flare of light, bathing the manticore pack and stalling their advance.

With the creatures blinded, he made a run for it. He grabbed Mallory as he went.

Kasey drew deep on her power as she reached for the massive pillar beside her. With an effort of will, she broke through the stone.

She angled her magic down on a diagonal slant right to the floor. There was a screeching grinding crack as the weight of the massive pillar caused it to break free.

“Timber!” Kasey bellowed as the pillar teetered.

The stone pillar toppled forward, crushing three manticore beneath its massive weight and creating enough space for the others to make a run for the gate. As the creatures took to the sky, Kasey hurled fire at them, trying to discourage the pack. When they were not deterred, she increased her efforts.

Kasey conjured a wall of fire and sent it hurtling at the pack of manticores. Several broke and ran, trying to outpace the fire as it swept through the chamber.

Unfortunately, many of the pack flew higher to avoid the blaze. No sooner had it passed than they resumed their attack.

"Damn their wings," Kasey muttered. In the heat of the battle, she was starting to lose focus. She hurt all over and was pretty sure the dying manticore had cracked or broken a rib, maybe more.

Clearing her mind, she realized she didn’t need to stop them all. She just needed to reach the next room.

If they could close the gates, they’d be safe. Trapped, but safe. It seemed unlikely that the Terminus would have more than one exit. But she was just going to have to cross that bridge when they came to it.

Kasey and Sanders brought up the rear, as they slipped through the gateway into the next room.

There were only a few yards between them and the gate, but a massive black furred manticore was gaining on them. The wily creature dodged spell after spell as it darted through the columns.

Kasey was so close to the safety of the portcullis she could almost feel the relief already.

But when the manticore dove at her, she took her eyes off the floor and missed one of the raised stones.

Her boot caught the lip of stone and she toppled backward. Her ribs screamed their protest. The pain was so intense, she almost passed out.

It was all she could do to try and push herself backward with her boots, inching toward the gate.

Her heart stopped as she realized she was out of time.

The manticore loomed over her, jaws spread wide as it relished its victory.

Chapter 15

Kasey could make out every detail of the manticore looming over her. Its mouth stretched wide, the long teeth sharply tapered to a point as saliva beaded on its tongue in anticipation.

Its stinger waved gently back and forth, moving as if with a mind of its own.

"Kasey," Sanders shouted.

She’d expected the teeth, and was readying a spell to ram right down its throat.

The creature pressed its chest to the ground and swung its stinger towards her.

Kasey wanted to move, but her whole body growled its own angry protest.

Not like this.

Kasey groaned. After everything she’d been through, she was not going to be dinner.

But try as she might, it was as if she was mired in quicksand and her body just wouldn’t listen.

She felt helpless as the stinger descended, its barb plunging toward her neck.

A flash of golden light carved through the air above her, cutting through the manticore's tail at the point it joined the creature’s back.

The creature bellowed in rage as its tail flopped uselessly to the ground beside her.

As the manticore opened its mouth, Kasey’s legs finally got the message. She rolled onto her side as the muscles in the manticore’s legs tensed, ready to pounce.

Kasey drew on her power but before she could unleash it, another manticore collided with the beast threatening her.

The two manticores growled and brawled, slashing at each other with tooth and claw. Boris stood over her, reaching down with his good hand to pull her to her feet.

"Come on, Kasey, you’re almost there.”

He pulled her to her feet with ease and wrapped an arm around her to support her. Kasey felt a sharp pain as his meaty hand hit her shoulder.

She groaned as the blow shook her.

"Are you okay?" Boris asked, clearly not aware of his own strength.

Kasey staggered forward, leaning on him more than she would have liked. "Just a little tender, I guess.”

"Sorry," the big Russian winced.

Pain was nothing new for Kasey though, and with the two manticores fighting, she hobbled as quickly as she could for the gateway.

More manticores approached, but with Sanders and Methuselah watching their back, Kasey and Boris made it through the gateway.

Sanders smashed his palm into the metal plate.

There was a hum, as the mechanism whirred to life, and then a rumble as the steel portcullis descended. One manticore tried to race the gate. He rammed his head through before the heavy steel caught him at the base of his neck, crushing it against the ground and killing him instantly. The other manticores roared their defiance through the bars.

"Down, kitty," Boris taunted the creatures through the grill.

The steel was so thick, there was no getting through it. Hungry and deprived of their meal, the creatures turned on their own fallen.

"Thanks for the assist," Kasey muttered as she extricated herself from the big man's sweaty arm pit.

"There is no I in team," Boris answered with a smile. “We all stand a far better chance together.”

"They are going to make leaving this place very difficult." Methuselah stared through the portcullis at the raging manticores.

He was talking to Sanders, his doubt in the plan evident, but at least he wasn’t whining. Perhaps he had learned his lesson.

As Kasey gingerly checked her wounds, she reflected on the manticore that had intervened to save her. She was a little surprised Methuselah had bothered to help her after she’d threatened him. It would have been easy for him to simply let her die. Perhaps she had misjudged him.

"One problem at a time, Methuselah,” Sanders said as he watched the manticores. “Besides, if the chamber is full of those creatures, it will be just as hard for any response team to reach us.”

"We can’t stay here forever." Lilith examined Mallory’s wound, ignoring the blood running down her own arm.

"I have a plan," Sanders reassured her.

"Feel free to share it any time,” Lilith answered. “We’ve got nothing but time.”

Sanders shook his head. "That's not how this works. If you want to get out of here, you need to ensure I survive. Just in case any of you are considering an alternative arrangement to the one we discussed. I suggest you do your very best to see to my well-being. Without me, you’re all going to be here a very long time."

So Sanders did have a way out. Kasey smiled. It was his ace in the hole, leverage to keep the rest of the crew in line. It was clever, just the sort of thing he would do.

Methuselah grumbled quietly to himself. If anyone was going to try something, Kasey would have gambled on him. At least she would have before he saved her life.

"Don't look so glum, Methuselah. We’re here,” Sanders replied, gesturing around them. “Welcome to holding at the Terminus. You just might be one of the only warlocks on earth to look on them without being interred in them."

“My life’s ambitions realized at last,” Methuselah muttered.

"Where are all the guards?" Kasey asked. "There has to be more than those five manning the island."

"There aren't any,” Sanders answered. “Or at least I don’t think there are. The type of beings they keep in here, they can't trust anyone to have prolonged exposure to the prisoners. The hidden nature of the entrance, the unknown location of the island, and the manticores’ presence is meant to be sufficient deterrent. I suspect the only times any other humans roam these halls, are when prisoners are brought in.”

“Is no one going to mention how many bodies are in that hall?” Maxwell Dark asked. “That isn’t a lone thief or an escaped prisoner. That was the bones from literally hundreds of bodies. Are the Arcane Congress feeding their manticores a human diet?”

Kasey had never really considered how the Congress executed its prisoners. Now she worried what the answer might be.

"Wouldn't they have to feed the prisoners though?" Mallory asked. “There must be staff somewhere.”

"Look for yourself." Sanders pointed to the wall.

The room was smaller than the massive antechamber they had passed through, the size of a basketball court, with smooth stone floors. Along each wall were a series of alcoves. Each alcove was filled with some sort of blood-colored crystal. Suspended inside of each, trapped in crystalline stasis, were the inmates of the Terminus.

"Are they dead?" Maxwell asked. “Is this a morgue or a prison?"

“Definitely a prison," Sanders replied. “The Congress might decry their crimes, but it also hordes knowledge and power. There is knowledge in these minds they fear they may one day need. So they store them here in an endless sleep, dulling their power so they can't escape. I have seen its like before."

"Where?" Kasey asked.

Sanders swallowed. Clearly, he had said more than he'd intended to and consequently, Kasey had backed him into a corner.

"Yes, Chancellor, do tell," Methuselah pressed. “Does the Arcane Council also store its prisoners like lab experiments waiting to be dissected?”

Sanders turned on Methuselah. “I would never allow it.”

“Ah yes, your principles.” Methuselah scoffed. “If you've never been here before, how is it you know so much about it?"

"I've been planning this expedition for years,” Sanders said, his face red with frustration. “The Terminus might be a well-kept secret, but there are certain patterns that must be followed. Prisoners are no good when dead. You can't experiment on powerful creatures of myth and legend if they are dead. If they weren’t kept subdued, a larger staff would be required for their maintenance and care. The larger the staff, the more likely information might leak. As little such exists, I drew an informed conclusion. That is all.”

"You didn't answer my question," Methuselah replied. “About seeing this sort of stasis.”

Sanders sighed. There seemed to be no avoiding it.

"I once visited the Winter court," Sanders began. "The Winter King is quite fond of encasing those he wishes to punish in ice. Not normal ice, mind you. It's woven with magic like this. It preserves those within, keeping them in a barely conscious status as he torments and punishes them for their failings. I suspect the Congress learned this particular trick from him.”

"It's barbaric," Anita said softly.

"It's bureaucracy and fear,” Methuselah answered. “The Congress fears that its enemies will gain more power than them. This is their insurance policy.”

The group ventured slowly into the chamber. Those encased in stasis seemed to be asleep, but that was the extent of the likeness. Each prisoner differed wildly in appearance. Some were dressed like they had been placed here recently, the clothes reflecting the styles of past years and decades. Some wore suits. Others casual wear. One wore a hoodie that cast most of his face in shadow.

But as the group moved deeper into the Terminus, the outfits changed, growing steadily older.

"Just how old is this place?" Kasey asked as she passed a man dressed in the uniform of a British red coat.

“Centuries,” Sanders replied, “at least, but it’s difficult to tell.”

Passageways ran off the central chamber, and Kasey examined them as they passed. Each hall seemed full of more stasis chambers. There had to be hundreds, perhaps thousands of people stored in the various wings.

Like the gates between rooms, each alcove had a similar smooth steel plate to the gate’s control panel affixed to the right-hand side. It glowed, or perhaps that was just the red hue cast by the crystalline prisons. The lights were dim, and Kasey struggled to make out the faces of those they passed.

"How many of them are there?” Maxwell muttered as they walked.

No one had an answer for him, but the further she walked, the more tired Kasey felt. Her muscles ached and she was fairly sure she’d cracked a rib.

They were so close to their goal that she didn’t want to force everyone to stop for a cracked rib. She glanced at Mallory and Lilith. They were moving slowly too. Perhaps they needed a break for the same reason she did. Lilith’s arm wasn’t too bad, but Mallory’s slacks were stained with blood.

She considered saying something, but Sanders had his eyes on the prize and was moving toward the next gate.

He was hellbent on driving deeper into the Terminus.

Kasey found herself breathing heavily as she moved. The fatigue bothered her. Sure, she had run through the manticores’ lair, but her breath continued to grow more erratic. Her heart raced as a dull throbbing headache set in behind her eyes.

She stopped. Maybe she just needed a moment to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Sanders asked.

"I'll be fine,” she replied, but even as she said the words, she didn’t believe them herself. Something was wrong.

"If you need to rest, we can take a moment,” Sanders said quietly.

"The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get out of here," she said. "This place gives me the creeps."

If he had a plan to escape, they were better off getting whatever it was the Queen wanted and making a run for it before the Congress arrived.

With the manticores giving up their pursuit, the stone passageways were eerily quiet.

"Not much longer now," Sanders reassured her. "We're almost there, Kasey."

The party moved through the next wing. The chamber was smaller than the previous, but still Kasey felt like it took an eternity.

She couldn't help but look into each alcove as they passed. Most of the prisoners were human. But there were other creatures too. She counted at least three werewolves. There were also gnomes, and several pixies, all trapped in the crystalline cages.

As they neared the end of the hall, Kasey had to pause again and catch her breath. Her eyes were feeling hot, like a fever was burning through her. She rested against the cool stone wall and found herself staring into the alcove.

Staring back at her was the unmistakable visage of a vampire. His fangs protruded prominently, his face locked in a grimace as he found himself trapped in the eternal sleep of the Terminus.

Kasey staggered backward.

He might have been trapped, but he was still wholly too close for comfort.

The shock of seeing a vampire caused her to stumble. Without warning, her legs gave out and she collapsed.

The cold stone felt good against her skin as she took quick shallow breaths.

"What's wrong?" Sanders called as he hastened to her side. “Where does it hurt?”

"I don't know," Kasey whispered. “I just feel so weak.”

Mallory crouched down beside her, pressing a hand against Kasey's forehead as she checked her temperature.

"She is running a fever," Mallory replied.

Settling onto the stone floor beside Kasey, she placed her cool hands on Kasey’s head and started chanting. Her healing magic rolled over Kasey in waves. The pain in her chest subsided but her muscles still felt like she'd done three workouts back to back. They ached and she didn’t feel her usual strength or vigor at all. The longer she lay there, the more she felt something was wrong with her.

"There is something else at work here," Mallory replied.

Sanders’ hand was on hers.

"Did any of the manticores touch you, Kasey?"

"Good thinking," Mallory said. “It could be poison.”

Kasey racked her brain, but everything was fuzzy. She thought she had avoided the stinging barb of the manticore. How had it stung her?

It didn't make sense.

Kasey motioned to Sanders. “Check my back. Near my shoulder."

Sanders pulled down her collar to try and get a better look. There was a prick as Sanders pulled something out of it. He held up the shiny black chitinous barb of the manticore. It was barely an inch long. It must have snapped off when the creature stung her.

But when?

"One of them must have got to you in the chaos,” Methuselah said.

Kasey's head swum. She managed to place a hand on her temple and tried to massage the throbbing ache. Her mind was clouding over as she racked her memory for what had gone wrong.

Something wasn't right. She didn't remember being stung. How had it happened?

Her memory just wasn’t what she was used to.

"Lilith, we’re going to need an antidote," Mallory called. “I can’t stop it alone.”

Lilith sat down beside Kasey and removed a short steel bottle that hung from her waist and screwed off the top. Reaching for the leather pouches, she pulled out powders and leaves and threw them in the empty bottle. From her jacket pocket, she produced a pestle and started grinding everything in it to dust.

"Manticore’s poison is particularly potent,” Mallory said. “Fortunately, Lilith knows her poisons. You’re lucky she’s here.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Sanders replied. “We prepared for this. Kasey, you’re going to be fine.”

"I'm going to need some water.” Lilith looked around for help.

Boris set down his pack and handed her his canteen. Lilith emptied it into the concoction she was brewing.

Last but not least, she drew a few large purple flowers from her pouches and dropped them into the bottle. Lilith focused intently on the concoction, but Mallory paused. Her healing magic keeping the poison at bay ceased, and Kasey shook.

"Mallory, what are you doing?" Kasey asked. “It was helping.”

Mallory stared at Lilith. "That's Larkspur. In her current state, that will kill her."

Lilith shook her head. “It’s an African Violet. You're mistaken. Here, drink this, Kasey, before it’s too late.”

Kasey looked up at Lilith. Her eyes lacked focus as she lowered the canteen to Kasey's lips. There was something in that gaze that bothered Kasey, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"No," Kasey whispered, trying to push the canteen away. Sanders glanced from one woman to the other, not sure who to trust.

"Lilith, poison," Kasey muttered.

Lilith tried to force the bottle to Kasey's lips. "Drink this. You'll feel much better."

Kasey shut her mouth tightly, as the fluid ran down her face.

That vacant stare was familiar. Kasey searched for Methuselah, only to find him staring off into the distance, his eyes closed.

"Hey," Kasey whispered, pointing at Methuselah. “It’s him.”

Chapter 16

Anita racked the slide on her AK-47.

Gunshots shattered the silent solemnity of the terminus as Anita fired her weapon indiscriminately into the roof of the chamber.

"Anita?" Sanders called. "What are you doing?"

She lowered her weapon and pointed it directly at him.

"Not her, him.” Kasey pointed at Methuselah. Her body might have been in agonizing pain but her mind had finally managed to put together the pieces.

The only person who had touched her in the entry hall was Boris. That sharp sting had to have been him burying the manticore’s stinger in her back with his heavy-handed hug. She had brushed off the pain as a tortured nerve.

At first, the conclusion made no sense. Boris had no reason to poison her. That was when she realized he had been acting a little different since they’d encountered the sentinels. He had said more in the last half an hour than in the entire rest of the time she’d known him.

And it was her fault.

She had made a mistake in sending Methuselah and the two Russians to deal with the sniper. He had to have used the opportunity to bring them under his control. She’d had no idea at the time what he was capable of. Now they danced like puppets on a string following his every whim.

No wonder mind magic was so loathed by the magical community. Methuselah was clearly a master of his arts, to be able to maintain his influence over them both while fighting and dealing with the manticores.

Lilith was the real surprise. He must have worked that particular influence while we were distracted with the manticores.

It was the only thing that made sense. Why would she try to poison Kasey, otherwise?

With Kasey out of the way, it would have been Methuselah and his cronies against Mallory, Maxwell, and Sanders. A fight Methuselah was confident he could win.

Kasey should have dealt with them in the entry hall when she had the chance.

Sanders seemed to recognize the threat too, but with Anita's AK-47 inches from his face, there wasn't much he could do about it.

"Methuselah, this wasn't the deal." Sanders’ voice was firm and even.

"Yes, but with your little girlfriend flat on her back, I thought now might be an ideal opportunity to renegotiate our agreement. I have no intention of living as a thrall to the Summer Queen. I control. I am not controlled."

Sanders let out a low sigh. "I worried that your greed would get us all in trouble. How do you expect to get out of here without me? Release the others and we can all walk out of here alive. Continue this course, and I'll reduce you to ashes. You and anyone foolish enough to choose you over me.”

"Don't listen to his bluff and bluster.” Methuselah scoffed. "You're with us too, aren't you, Maxwell?"

The shadow mage’s lips were a tight line. "I'm sorry, boss. I always go with the numbers. It’s how I’ve stayed alive this long."

Methuselah turned to Mallory. "You can abandon your attempts to save that one. She is as good as dead. Let the poison do its work."

Mallory grit her teeth. "Let Lilith go this instant."

"I will—the moment you do what you're told. Back away from the girl and leave her to her fate. Or…" Methuselah paused as Lilith produced a knife from her belt and pressed it to her wrists. “I'll have your lover slit her wrists in front of you. Make your choice."

Mallory shook her head, her hands hovering over Kasey.

"I swore to do no harm," she whispered.

“We all make choices we aren’t proud of, Mallory. The question is will you live to regret yours, or will you die with your lover?” Methuselah asked, his tone cold and impassive.

Mallory closed her eyes and bellowed, “accipe fortitudinem meam!”

Golden light flooded Kasey as Mallory poured magic into her. Kasey's mind cleared as a tsunami of arcane will and adrenaline surged through her.

“Kill them all," Methuselah shouted.

Anna's fingers tightened around the trigger. Maxwell kicked the barrel of the AK-47 away from Sanders. Gunfire stitched across the chamber wall. The first round clipped Mallory’s shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain as she collapsed.

The next few rounds cratered across the stonework before the rest of the magazine shattered the crystalline cage containing the vampire. The red crystal broke, falling to the stony floor where it turned to liquid.

Maxwell's daggers were in his hands. He buried one straight in Methuselah’s back, missing the old man’s spine by a couple. Boris backhanded him with his one good arm. Maxwell soared across the room and hit the stone floor.

"Mallory," Lilith cried, her eyes regaining their focus as blood ran from the wound in her lover’s shoulder.

Maxwell vanished into the shadows.

Sanders slapped the floor beside Kasey. “Sol videt fraudem!”

Sanders shone like the sun, as power coursed from him in a wave of expanding force. Kasey felt it building as it rolled over her and exploded in front of the Russians.

Boris caught the brunt of it. He was vaporized as he stepped in front of Methuselah. Certainly not of his own accord but driven by the merciless control of the old warlock.

Whether driven by Methuselah or acting in her own rage at her brother’s death, Anita fired a burst at Sanders and Kasey.

Sanders had erected a golden shield around them both.

Kasey’s mind finished clearing as Mallory’s spell coursed through her.

If the woman hadn’t been able to heal her before, what had changed. As Kasey stood, she looked at Mallory unconscious on the floor. Her wounds were at odds with her current condition.

Which meant she’d given something of herself to help Kasey.

Methuselah made a break for it, running down the wall. He pressed his hand against the control panel for containment after containment. The crystals melted into a viscous red liquid and drained out of each vessel in turn, revealing occupants that stirred from their slumber.

"Methuselah, stop this! You will get us all killed,” Sanders called after him.

"I promised I would be the death of you," Methuselah said. “The day you took me from my people, I swore it. I am also a man of my word! We will all die here, but at least I will live long enough to see you fall.”

Kasey glanced at the vampire’s cage and saw that it was empty. The other prisoners were raising their heads as the din of battle roused them from their slumber.

"We need to move,” Kasey shouted. “There are too many. We're going to be overrun.”

"We need to go deeper,” Sanders replied, pointing at the wall filled with waking prisoners. “There isn't anyone here that's going to side with us over him."

Sanders held the shield while Kasey and Lilith carried Mallory between them.

Maxwell Dark appeared behind them, watching their back.

Together they set off for the next chamber.

There was a burst of gunfire as Anita opened fire once more.

Kasey looked back over her shoulder, but the bullets weren’t meant for her. The vampire was racing across the chamber at the Anita. Bullets stitched their way across his chest, but somehow none found his heart. The vampire hissed its outrage as it yanked the AK-47 from her hands and snapped it in half. Grabbing Anita’s blonde hair in one hand, he yanked it back, exposing the woman's neck.

Kasey wanted to spare her from her fate, but other prisoners were stirring.

Sanders hurried the team onward as the vampire sunk his teeth into Anita's neck. She fought until his venom flooded her system and her resistance crumbled. Her destiny now inextricably linked to her new master. She'd soon be food, or the first thrall of a new court.

As more prisoners emerged from their containment, Kasey and Sanders guided the others into the next chamber.

Sanders took one look at the chamber behind them and slammed the red button by the gate.

The portcullis hammered into the ground, cutting them off from the other chamber. Then two massive steel doors rolled out of sunken recesses, obscuring the previous containment chamber from sight.

The four of them sunk to the floor, utterly exhausted.

Kasey's second wind was waning, and she felt the poison’s influence surging to the fore once more.

Lilith hunched over Mallory as the healer started to stir. "My love, what have they done to you?”

Mallory looked around, slowly. “Where are they?”

“The next chamber,” Sanders said. “We’re safe. For now, at least. I locked down the facility.”

Lilith fussed over Mallory’s shoulder. “We need to see to your wounds.”

"It's just a scratch, dear. Help Kasey before the poison kills her. We’re going to need her if we want to get out of here alive.”

Lilith reluctantly let go of Mallory and approached Kasey. She was tentative and kept looking down at the floor.

It was all Kasey could do to keep her eyes open as Mallory’s magic wore off. She rested her head in Sanders’ lap as he sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Can I trust you to help her?" Sanders asked, his voice a whispered plea. “If you try to hurt her again, I will end you.”

“That wasn’t me, I’m sorry. He was in my head.” Lilith’s voice trembled.

“That’s why I buried my knife in his back,” Maxwell Dark added. “He seemed to find it much harder to maintain his focus while bleeding out.”

“Thank you for that,” Lilith said. “It feels good to be myself again.”

"Methuselah is as cunning as he is callous,” Sanders replied. “But he misjudged Dark. Maxwell and I go way back.”

Kasey had wondered why the shadow mage had sided with Sanders over Methuselah.

“If you can help Kasey, all will be forgiven,” Sanders said, gripping Kasey’s hand.

Lilith had lost her bottle in the chaos, but that didn't stop her. She emptied the contents of one of her pouches onto the stone floor, then added some leaves from another.

"It's not the most hygienic, but we're out of time.” She produced two roots from another pouch and a handful of blue flowers from her pocket. Dumping all on the top of the pile, she pulled her pestle from her pocket and started grinding it all to dust.

"What is it?" Sanders asked.

"Panacēa, a blend of palomar root and flowers of the oria tree. It should work. I just hope we’re quick enough.”

She ground everything into a fine powder and then scooped it into her hands. Shoving open Kasey’s mouth, she shoveled in as much of the powder as she could.

Kasey coughed. The dry powder parched her throat as she felt her grasp on reality fading. Darkness pulled at the corner of her vision.

Sanders raised a canteen to her lips and poured ice cold water into her mouth. The water, particularly its temperature, was a shock to her system, startling her.

Kasey almost spat out the mixture. But Lilith clamped her hand over Kasey's lips.

"You'll want to swallow that, dear. I don't have enough for another."

Kasey swallowed, and the elixir burned all the way down.

“That's it,” Lilith encouraged as she tested her temperature. “Drink it all. You'll feel much better soon.”

Lilith turned on Mallory.

"Now that I've seen to the girl, show me your shoulder, woman."

Kasey rested her head in Sanders’ lap as the antidote burned through her.

Lilith examined Mallory’s wound. Fortunately, the bullet had only grazed her. It could have been much worse.

"You're making something out of nothing,” Mallory replied. “It’s just a little scratch. I’ll see to my wounds in a moment. My strength is coming back to me.”

"If I can't fuss over you, what good is living?" Lilith asked.

"We have him to thank for that.” Mallory threw a nod to Maxwell, who stood watch.

Lilith nodded at Maxwell, her lips forming a quiet thank you. The shadow mage nodded once in acknowledgment. He stood there in silence, watching Sanders.

"You really had me going there," Sanders said. “I worried you might have lost faith in me after all this time.”

Maxwell shook his head. "I needed him to believe he had us where he wanted. But you and I both know that a sociopath sees none as his equal. To him we are only slaves to be used.”

“He is a scourge on the planet,” Sanders replied, “but we needed him for the sentinels. Everything I know about them told me they are too committed to cave under duress. The only way in here was to gain the knowledge that was in their heads, and the only way to get it was with his help. Much as I might loath it.”

"And now he gathers an army of the most dangerous beings the Congress has ever dealt with,” Maxwell replied.

“Perhaps he will bleed out,” Kasey offered. “That wound looked deep.”

“I should have taken his throat out,” Maxwell replied. “Cockroaches never just die. You must grind them to dust.”

"I will deal with him,” Sanders replied. “He will come for me, and I will end him. This place was always going to be the death of one of us. Fortunately, Methuselah is too arrogant to believe it will be him.

"How do you expect to beat an army?" Kasey asked.

Sanders laughed. “There will be no army. They will tear each other apart until only the strong survive. We will have to face whatever is left when they are done killing each other. We will prevail. We’ve come too far not to.”

A can-do spirit was not going to get the job done. Even as Kasey’s muscles received new strength, she knew what little remained of their crew were going to be vastly outnumbered.

There had been so many prisoners in the prior chamber, and its adjoining halls. Kasey couldn't fathom how Sanders expected to win. But they were still breathing and as long as they were, there was a chance. She tried to focus on that chance.

Mallory healed her grazed shoulder and the wound in her thigh. Once she was done, she dealt with the wound in Lilith’s arm. After taking a breath to steady herself, she made her way over to Kasey.

Fatigue filled Mallory’s eyes. She was pushing herself to the limit. Much more and she risked burning out.

"Let me see how you're doing," Mallory said as she lowered her hands over Kasey's head.

“Careful, Mallory,” Kasey whispered. “It’s not worth hurting yourself.”

"Shh,” Mallory whispered. She chanted and her hands pulsed with a faint yellow light.

The antidote had burned its way through her system. In contrast, Mallory's healing magic soothed her weary frame, lifting pain and fatigue and reviving her waning spirit.

As calm rolled over her, Kasey remembered the Earth Spirit's warning. Why did the spirit have to be so vague?

A simple warning about Methuselah might have done the trick. All this might have been avoided.

As Mallory purged her fever, Kasey felt some strength returning.

“I'm feeling much better.” Kasey lifted her head off Sanders’ lap.

"Take it easy,” Mallory said. "Your body has been through a lot.”

"I will rest when we are safe," Kasey replied, as she pushed herself to a seated position. The world swum, and she closed her eyes, resting a hand on Sanders as she tried to gather her wits about her.

Kasey looked about the chamber for the first time since they'd entered. It was as large as the one before it, only instead of tiny alcoves holding human prisoners, it had ten massive alcoves, five lining each side along a vast hallway. At the end of the room stood another doorway, sealed shut by steel reinforced doors. No doubt a result of Sanders activating the emergency lockdown.

Each of the massive alcoves stood thirty feet high. Nine of them were full of the red stasis crystal. Only a single alcove remained empty.

"What do we have here?" an unfamiliar voice spoke quietly. It carried through the chamber.

Kasey looked about for its source but couldn't find it.

I'm not out there. I’m in here. In your mind, the voice answered.

Kasey checked on her companions to see who else could hear the voice. Was it speaking to everyone? Or just to her?

Who are you? Kasey asked back.

There was a lull, and she wondered if the voice had heard her. An awkward pause grew until the voice spoke once more.

I am eternity. Have you come to set me free?

Chapter 17

Eternity’s request lingered in Kasey's mind like a seed taking root. She felt a deep instinctive urge to find and free it. Her feet moved of their own accord, and she found herself searching the chamber.

Kasey didn’t know how she knew, but it was as if Eternity was guiding her progress. She made her way down the right-hand side of the chamber.

No being deserved to be imprisoned like this, locked up and confined for centuries. With nothing but the comfort of their own thoughts. Surely it would drive you insane. Thoughts flooded Kasey's mind. At first, she thought they were her own, but they quickly grew more extreme, as images of burning fields filled her mind.

She’d been here before. While suffering from the Wendigo’s psychosis, she’d been forced to endure thoughts that were not her own.

She grabbed at her head, as pain shot from temple to temple. Inside the mind, it was so hard to tell the difference between physical and psychological pain. She massaged her temples, but it didn’t help.

"No!" Kasey cried out loud, as if doing so would grant her greater power against the creature invading her mind. After the Wendigo, she knew the dangerous slope of letting something inside her head.

Eternity was trying to enthrall her. And she wanted no part of it.

If the being was locked here, in the vault of the Terminus, there had to be a good reason.

"Kasey, what's wrong?" Sanders called after her.

"You can't hear that?" Kasey asked. If the creature could reach into her mind, weren’t they vulnerable too?

The party stood there watching her.

Sanders shook his head. “I can’t hear anything. Why?”

The vacant stares of the others convinced her that she alone had heard the voice.

"We’re not alone in here,” Kasey replied, “and they aren't all asleep.”

"What do you mean?" Sanders asked, looking about the chamber.

"There is something in here that is very much awake, and it wants to be released. I can hear it in my mind."

It was no small feat to project one's thoughts over a distance, and while Kasey had never worked out how to do it herself, Eternity was managing to do it while locked in stasis. It spoke to the being’s strength and sent warning klaxons ringing in her head.

"They can't hear me," Eternity whispered. “But that's okay. I don't need them to hear me, Kasey. Or should I call you Elizabeth? You prefer Kasey, right?”

Could it read her thoughts? Kasey tried to block out the voice.

As she did, she played one thought over and over again in her mind.

Don't bother with me. If you're in here, you're in here for a reason. I won't let you out.

Laughter echoed in her mind.

I'm in here because of the hubris of men. And my freedom is inevitable. I am merely offering you a deal to expedite matters.

Deal? You’re locked in a cell. What could you possibly do for me?

Oh Kasey, you don't even know what you don't know. I have always been. My mind knows more than the collective knowledge gathered by humanity in their fleeting existence. I could show you the world as it was, and as it will be once more. I can give you knowledge and power, enough to carry out your deepest desires.

You know nothing of my desires, Kasey hissed back.

Don't I? Some lust for power. They are simple creatures. But you don't want to subject others to your will. You just want to keep him safe. I could help you, Kasey. I could protect you both. Ensure you live out the peaceful solitude you so badly long for.

Kasey’s heart skipped a beat. How could you know that?

I told you Kasey, I know everything. All you need to do is release me. I can show you the safe path through the madness ahead.

Kasey looked down and realized she was walking once more. Her feet brought her before one of the towering alcoves.

Inside the chamber was a black cloud of static particles, encased in crystalline stasis. It was almost as if the Congress had frozen a sandstorm, or one of those billowing clouds of ash from a wildfire.

Do it! Release me! Eternity insisted. The command echoed through her brain, and her hands shook.

She massaged her temple, fighting back against the malignant influence. Never.

I could give you everything, the creature promised.

You would just as soon destroy it all, Kasey replied as she stared at the cloud of chaos. In her soul she was certain that she was staring at a creature so dangerous, it threatened existence herself. Was this why the Earth Spirit had warned her?

Why was the creature even here? The Congress should have killed it. Perhaps they couldn't? Was that why it was sealed in here? All of a sudden, the lack of sentinels or other living staff in the Terminus made sense. If it could reach into her mind, it could surely invade theirs.

In any event, Kasey knew better than to treat with the malignant creature.

She whispered, “Dur yw fy meddwl. Ni allwch fy nghael.”

In the aftermath of the Wendigo’s psychic assault, she had spent time researching ways to guard her mind. She was far from an expert, but brick by brick, she layered walls of will around her mind, steeling herself against the creature’s seductive whispers.

Eternity screeched with impotent rage, but Kasey continued strengthening the barrier. Soon, its screams trickle to near silence. A faint whisper in the distance.

Eternity was locked in stasis. If it were free, its untethered power would have been terrifying.

“Kasey?” Sanders called, racing to her side.

She didn’t want to worry Sanders. If he thought she were compromised, it might distract him from the task at hand. “Sorry, I just wanted to see it for myself.”

“See what?” Sanders asked, studying the containment. “What is it?”

The part of her that was tied to the Earth Spirit put into words the feeling that filled her soul.

“The enemy,” Kasey whispered.

Sanders looked up at the cloud. “What do you mean?”

“I don't know,” Kasey replied. “I just do. It’s powerful and definitely not asleep. It tried to influence me.”

“To what end?” Sanders asked. “What did it want?”

“It wants to be let out,” Kasey whispered. “We need to make sure that doesn't happen.”

Sanders nodded slowly. “If it tried once, it will try again. Let’s keep an eye on the others.”

“If any of them come near this panel, we’re going to have to stop them,” Kasey whispered. “I could hear it in my mind. It can influence people like Methuselah, but it knows things. Things nobody should know.”

Sanders held her stare. Curiosity evident in his eyes, but Sanders just nodded slowly. “We'll make sure that doesn't happen. Come on, we’re so close.”

As they made their way back to the others, Maxwell stared at the alcove. “What is that?”

“Death,” Sanders answered. “But come, we are close. What we want is through those gates.”

He pointed to the steel reinforced gates at the end of the hall.

"If the facility is in lockdown, how do you expect to get through them?" Mallory asked.

Sanders sized up the gates before he answered. "Brute force, and I’ll have some help in that regard.”

Kasey smiled, figuring he was talking about her. Together, they ought to have been able to carve through just about anything. Her smile broadened as she remembered robbing the Night Crew’s vault.

The party moved inexorably toward the sealed gates, sticking to the path running down the center of the hall.

One alcove was occupied by a massive cyclops. Another by an actual dragon. Its emerald-green body reflected the chamber’s lights as they played along its scales.

Kasey’s jaw dropped.

“A dragon?” Lilith gasped. “Is that an actual dragon?”

"Extremely rare and just as dangerous,” Sanders replied. “If you think Methuselah's mind magic is unpleasant, you should see what a dragon can do when it puts its intelligence to work. Usually, they hide themselves to avoid the Congress. They aren’t party to the Arcane Covenant, and they don’t care for the laws imposed by others. I wonder how this one got itself caught.”

They wandered through the inner cells, marveling at the creatures contained in them. The next two contained winged figures. They were humanoid but stood seven feet tall. Each had porcelain smooth skin but for a glyph seared in their forehead. Great black wings stretched out behind them.

“Are they angels?" Kasey asked, pointing at them.

"Fallen,” Sanders replied. “Everything an angel isn't.”

The closed eyes of the fallen, and the brazen brand on their forehead, gave her the creeps. She hurried her step.

The final cell on the left was completely empty but the alcove opposite contained a familiar figure: the massive skeletal frame of Talora, the once Summer Fae now twisted into the loathsome form of the Wendigo.

Talora looked just as Kasey remembered her. It was difficult to forget a nightmare. Her eyes glowed a dull yellow, rather than the brilliant gold they had once been.

Her wings were nothing but membrane and bone stretched out behind her in the stasis prison. It was difficult to see her like this, knowing all she had once been.

Talora was a tangible reminder of the danger of succumbing to the Wendigo’s powerful psychosis. She had once been dainty and beautiful, possessed of all the charms of the fae.

Kasey felt terrible. They had defeated the Wendigo but not before Talora had paid a terrible price for it. Then, they had used her to find the Terminus and now here she was incarcerated at the Congress’ black site.

It seemed unfair that she had lost so much in the queen’s service. Her help had got Kasey her prescience back. But it had cost her everything.

"Excellent,” Sanders began, staring up at her. “I was hoping she would be in here.”

Kasey raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you're not thinking…"

Was he mad? She was a Wendigo. After she’d changed, she’d tried to kill Kasey. If they let her out, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t try again.

She’d subdued Talora, but she’d had the help of the Queen’s bramble wand.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking,” Sanders replied. "We need help getting through that door. If we do it ourselves, we’ll have no fight left to get out of here."

As if to emphasize Sanders’ point, a massive clang reverberated through the chamber as something collided with the door that had sealed off the previous chamber. The prisoners were trying to force their way in.

Shouldn’t they have been trying to escape?

Kasey couldn’t believe her ears. “You’re mental. I know what this means to you, but she is a full-blown Wendigo now. Just proximity is dangerous. Her psychosis could turn us all.”

“Yes, but she is not of the Winter Court,” Sanders replied. “And we have an advantage.”

"Oh, and what is that?" Kasey asked, pretty skeptical about Sanders’ plan. She would rather tear through the door herself than risk letting another Wendigo free.

“You bound her with the bramble wand. She serves you now,” Sanders said.

Kasey’s hands shook. She had performed the binding, but it was her first time. And she’d only been trying to subdue Talora. She doubted she had the strength to do so again.

Besides, she didn’t have the wand. This Talora would not be so easily swayed.

"You won the war of wills,” Sanders replied. “She will not harm you.”

Kasey stared up at the massive skeletal form of Talora and wasn't nearly as sure as Sanders seemed to be.

"If you're wrong, she's going to kill us all," Kasey said softly.

"If I'm wrong," Sanders replied, “we’re all about to die when they come through that door. We've come this far, Kasey. Trust me one more time.”

It was madness. But with the amount of power being thrown at the door behind them, it was beginning to become apparent how much it would take to get through the one in front of them. Even if they made it through, they would be in no condition to fight Methuselah and whatever army he was bringing to bear.

Sanders was right, though it appeared only mildly less insane than releasing Eternity from his bondage.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Kasey muttered, and pressed her hand to the control panel. The red crystal began to melt, flowing into drains set in the alcove itself.

"What is that creature?” Lilith asked. “And why are you letting it out?”

"Our friend," Kasey replied. “At least she was once. Let’s hope she remembers us that way."

“She doesn't look particularly friendly.” Mallory stepped back, behind Lilith.

"Yeah, but that didn't stop you staying in her house and eating her food last night,” Sanders replied. “She brought us all this far. We owe it to her to at least try to save her.”

Crazy as it seemed, that was a line of reasoning Kasey could get behind. Talora had been a friend and ally when she'd needed it. She was only a Wendigo because she had taken Kasey to the Falls. She had held off the creature while Kasey underwent her initiation.

"But just in case,” Sanders added, “you all might want to take a step back.”

“Not reassuring at all,” Maxwell Dark muttered before stalking to the other side of the chamber.

The alcove drained completely, and there was a grinding crack as Talora stretched her bony joints. The fae blinked her great yellow eyes as she focused on Kasey and Sanders.

"You," Talora hissed.

"The creature that did this to you is dead,” Kasey called. “It has no power of you anymore. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to rescue you.

"Why should I listen to anything you have to say?” Talora bellowed, her voice scratchy and abrasive, nothing like the melodious singsong vocals of the Fae that Kasey remembered.

“Because your Queen is grateful for your service.” Sanders raised his hands to draw her attention. “And if you will return with us, she will do everything in her power to restore you to your former self.”

"I'm a monster.” Talora gasped, her wings cracking as the bony protrusions flexed behind her.

"You're a hero," Sanders replied, “and all the court will learn what you did at the Falls, and the role you played here.”

"So you can stay here,” Kasey called, “or you can return with us and take your rightful place at your Queen’s side. She will need you in the fight that is to come. We have risked everything to come here. Do not make our journey be for nothing.”

“Tricky little witch. First you tried to bind me. Now you would beg for my help.” Talora laughed at the absurdity of the role reversal.

"Ask for,” Kasey replied. “I am not begging you for anything, nor am I trying to compel you. This is on you.”

There was another deafening clang has something massive struck the outer door.

"What is that?" Talora hissed, darting her head about in search of an ambush.

“People who wish to kill us,” Sanders replied. “So we’re going to need you to make up your mind quickly. We don’t have all day.”

"I'm not going to force you,” Kasey replied. “If you want to stay here, you’re more than welcome to.

Talora lunged forward, her wings and bony fingers gripping the outside of the alcove.

“I won't stay here." She lowered her head until it was mere feet from Sanders. “But if you betray me, I will kill you all.”

"That's the spirit!” Sanders pointed to the barricaded doors of the Terminus’ inner sanctum. “The object of the Queen's desire is in that chamber. If you can open it, she will welcome you home a hero.”

The doors were at least twice as thick as the ones sealing them off from the other prisoners. Thick steel bands crisscrossed over the door, reinforcing it further. Each steel band glowed with runes, no doubt intended to prevent them from what Talora was about to attempt.

“You want me to break through those doors?" Talora asked, cocking her head to the side.

"That's right.” Kasey started walking toward them. “The sooner, the better.”

Another clang told them the prisoners hadn’t forgotten about them.

Talora lurched forward, her bony frame creaking as she strode past. She approached the door in large purpose filled strides. She stood and stared at the door, before lunging at it with a keening shriek.

It was a strange sight, watching the golden light of Summer pulse through her frame. Then she turned it on the door.

The runes on the door glowed an angry red as Talora's bony hand struck it.

She wrapped her fingers around the steel bands. The entire chamber was thick with the arcane might being unleashed as the Fae-turned-Wendigo tore straight through two of the bands.

"Oh my." Lilith’s eyes went wide as Talora cast aside a handful of steel from the reinforced door like it was scrap metal. She chuckled at her victory, before unleashing a beam of golden power like the summer sun at noon day. The beam struck the doors where they met and caused them to glow. Warning runes flared across its surface as the door itself started to change color.

"I will not be denied," Talora bellowed, tearing at the door with her renewed vigor. More steel bands were cast aside until a small pile of them rested beside her.

Talora kicked the door. It creaked, creases appearing in its surface.

Emboldened by her progress, Talora channeled more magic at the door. Each wave was full of the same warm power Sanders exuded.

He was right. She might have turned, but inside she was certainly still more Summer than Winter.

Kasey drew nearer to the door, her own curiosity intensifying as they approached Titania’s goal.

What was it the Summer Queen wanted so badly?

Talora’s progress was visible, but the sound behind them grew too. The prisoners wanted in, and the thought of them gaining access to this chamber terrified Kasey.

As Talora tore the reinforcing bands off the vault door, the magic holding it together started to fail. Talora was relentless, using her entire body as a weapon which she brought to bear with devastating effect.

The Wendigo might have looked frail, but Kasey knew from experience those bones were as strong as steel.

The door bowed, and Sanders clenched his fist in triumph.

They were so close.

Talora took a step back, her entire body glowing with an unnatural golden light. She took two more steps back, then lowering her shoulder, she charged the door like a massive battering ram.

There was a deafening shriek as the doors caved inward. Talora smashed through them like a battering ram.

As the inner sanctum was revealed, Kasey crept toward it. She had to know what was inside. If there were angels and demons hidden here, in this dark recess of the Terminus, what was so dangerous it lay beyond?

She edged toward the door, Sanders right beside her as Talora tore the doors off their now-revealed hinges.

As Sanders reached her, Talora stopped him in his tracks. “Tell my Queen I expect her to fix me."

"You can tell her yourself,” Sanders replied. “You’re coming with us.”

Talora stepped out of the way, revealing small stone chamber. In it was a single alcove. It contained a stasis prison.

Only this one wasn’t red. It was emerald-green.

On seeing it, Kasey realized it wasn't something the Summer Queen was looking for at all.

It was a someone. And as the massive Wendigo moved out of the way Kasey found herself staring at the unmistakable form of a Sidhe.

Chapter 18

The single fact that the arcane Congress placed the Sidhe here, in the deepest vaults of the Terminus, beyond fallen angels, dragons, and other monsters, made Kasey stop in her tracks.

The Sidhe stood with her eyes closed, long golden hair flowing down past her shoulders. She wore a silken dress that was blood red and split to the knee, revealing knee-high black leather boots.

Sanders stepped past Kasey into the room.

"Who is she?" Kasey asked.

"She is who we've been sent here to extract," Sanders replied, staring at the figure in stasis. "She is freedom."

Kasey was having second thoughts, but Sanders strode right into the chamber and pressed his hand to the silver control panel.

Uncertainty gnawed at Kasey as the emerald crystals turned to liquid and drained out of the chamber.

With the stasis chamber thawed, the Sidhe dropped to one knee.

Sanders rushed forward. "Are you okay?"

She sat there, her hands keeping her steady before she slowly raised her head.

She opened her eyes. One was autumn gold, the other sapphire blue. It was unsettling and mesmerizing, all at the same time.

The Sidhe took one look at Sanders, before staring at Kasey and the rest of the party.

"You are not with the Arcane Congress," she said.

"No," Sanders replied. "We have come to free you."

The Sidhe seem to be gathering herself, and Kasey wondered just how long she had been imprisoned here.

"Who sent you?" she asked, her voice gaining strength by the moment.

"Your mother," Sanders said, his voice soft.

Mother? As Kasey stared at the newly freed Sidhe, she could see the resemblance. She had the same smooth complexion and sharp features, the same tapered ears, and the hair, if it was full of flowers, as Titania's had been, the resemblance would have been uncanny.

It was the eyes that were different.

"Mother always was the softer touch." The Sidhe smiled as she rose to her feet.

"Forgive my haste, but we must move," Sanders said. "Other prisoners are loose, and the Congress will be on the way."

"Let them come. Five centuries they have trapped me in this stark little hole. I owe them every misery they have inflicted on me."

"And you would be justified, my lady," Sanders answered tactfully. "But we know neither the numbers, nor the strength, and your mother is most anxious to see you again."

The Sidhe regarded Sanders. "You serve her interests keenly. Who are you?"

"I am Noah Sanders, the Summer Ray."

The Sidhe smiled. "Oh, that my own retainers had been as faithful, I might never have been here. I am Marissa."

“It is my pleasure to serve, Marissa. Come, we have to move.”

Another clang resonated through the halls.

“What is that?” Marissa asked.

“Other less amenable occupants of this facility,” Sanders replied. “They would see us dead.”

“Then we shall have to disappoint them.” Marissa’s smile made Kasey entirely uncomfortable. There was no kindness in it, only cunning.

Kasey and the others fell in behind Sanders and Marissa as the pair strode through the chamber. Talora brought up the rear. It spoke volumes that the Sidhe didn’t think twice about the presence of a Wendigo.

Kasey glanced at the imprisoned creatures as they passed. The fallen stood there, their wings frozen in time and locked in their stasis. As they passed the dragon, Marissa stopped.

“Tariyon, my sweet, what have they done to you?” Marissa stared up at the great emerald dragon, confined in stasis.

There was a splintering of steel as the door started to give.

“My lady, we can’t dawdle,” Sanders said. “They’re coming.”

Marissa fixed him with a stare.

“If I remember rightly, this cesspool has only one entrance.”

Sanders paused.

“So we must deal with them all the same. You know what they say, Noah. Many hands make light work.”

Noah. It was so familiar. So out of place. The Sidhe was starting to wear on Kasey’s nerves.

Marissa crossed the hall and pressed her slender hand against the control panel.

The stasis crystals thawed, and the alcove drained rapidly.

At this rate, there wasn’t going to be anyone or anything left of the Terminus, but what was done was done.

The massive dragon shook its head and huge drops of the stasis fluid rained down over the floor.

“Tariyon, old friend. It’s good to see you,” Marissa called.

The dragon opened its eyes. Huge emerald-green irises regarded the group.

It opened its mouth, and Kasey backed away.

"Marissa." The dragon’s voice was deep and sonorous. “I didn't think I would see you again."

"Nothing is forever, my old friend. Only humans with their infinitesimally small lifespan could hope to keep us here for eternity."

"The ignorance is matched only by the audacity,” Tariyon agreed.

"We are right here,” Kasey called. “And it was our audacity that sprung you from the brig, so give us a little credit.”

The dragon lowered his great scaly head, regarding Kasey. "Dinner?"

Kasey could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. “No, thank you. I’m already taken.”

Marissa laughed. "Behave, Tariyon, we best be going before the Congress return.”

The dragon lumbered out of its alcove, tucking its massive wings close to its body just to fit through the gap.

"Sanders, this is getting out of hand, quickly," Kasey whispered.

Sanders nodded slowly. "I couldn't exactly tell her no, now, could I? I doubt either of us could have stopped her if we wanted to.”

"Well, let's just hope she isn’t best buds with the fallen too,” Kasey whispered. “Or we could be in all sorts of trouble.”

Sanders’ face went a little pale. "Let’s both pray that isn’t the case.”

The doors of the chamber exploded inward. A wave of prisoners burst into the room.

"We can't let them release the others," Kasey shouted. “They’re too dangerous.”

Marissa looked about the chamber, taking note of the other occupants. “Agreed.”

Kasey’s heart rate eased to know the Sidhe wasn’t that reckless.

“Tariyon, dinner is served, my dear. Don’t hold back now.”

More prisoners streamed into the chamber, only to come face to face with the great green dragon lumbering toward them. Tariyon opened his mouth and a great gout of fire spewed forth, bathing the charging prisoners.

Frenzied cries rose from the masses. Pinned together between the throng behind, and the charging dragon before, they were trapped.

One or two managed shields but the fire washed over the others in a tsunami of searing heat.

Panicked cries turned to screams that echoed through the Terminus.

Watching it all, Kasey doubted she would ever be able to get the image from her mind.

Tariyon advanced, an unrelenting force, supported by the Sidhe lady. Marissa moved in his wake, targeting anyone that seemed to survive the baptism by fire.

Great entangling vines shot from her outstretched hands, coiling around the prisoners, trapping them, before strangling them to death. Their spells died on their lips as they were unable to speak the words necessary to manifest there will.

Three or four warlocks broke off from the main group, charging deeper into the chamber, hoping to get clear of the chaos unfolding in the gateway.

The warlocks raised a shield to stay the dragon’s fire but they never saw the rain of icy shards that bored down from overhead. The missiles fell like rain, razor-sharp daggers slicing through flesh and bone. In less time than it took Kasey to process the threat, all of them were dead.

Kasey was already exhausted, and it was taking everything she had to stay on her feet. Watching Marissa and Tariyon work was both gratifying and terrifying. The inmates of the Terminus didn't stand a chance. They were simply out of their weight class. Heck, they weren’t even in the same competition.

Kasey kept an eye out, watching for Methuselah to make an appearance but the old man was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he had been killed by the same prisoners he had released. Or maybe Maxwell had done more damage than they had supposed.

Hope springs eternal, Kasey told herself.

Marissa strode through the doorway, into the next chamber. Tariyon didn't fit nearly so easily but using his scaly bulk as a battering ram, he drove what was left of the doors back into the recesses from whence they had come.

The tide of prisoners thinned out. Perhaps they had grown tired of the massacre.

As Kasey made her way into the next chamber, she realized she was wrong. Many of them had already turned on each other.

Long before the survivors had tried to break into the room housing Tariyon and the others, they had rehashed old grievances. Only the strong had survived. And the strong had been nothing before Marissa and Tariyon’s pent-up rage. The pair swept through the chamber, purging what remained of the prisoners.

Kasey paused in the doorway. There didn't seem to be any movement, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Placing her hand on the stone wall she chanted, “Llewyg!”

There was a rending rumble as a great chasm opened in the stonework.

"Kasey, what are you doing?” Lilith called.

"Sealing the chamber," Kasey shouted as she raced away from the wall. The crack spread through the masonry, branching out through the arched stonework over the door. The arch collapsed, along with tons of stone from above it, sealing Eternity and the other prisoners inside. It wasn't a perfect solution, but hopefully it would hold until the Congress was able to clean up the mess.

"Nicely done," Marissa called, glancing back over her shoulder.

Kasey wasn't quite sure how to take the compliment, so she said nothing. The Sidhe made short work of the gates blocking them from the manticores’ lair, though she managed it with an effortless grace that somehow managed to undermine the sincerity of the compliment she’d just given.

No sooner had Marissa entered the chamber than the roar of its enraged inhabitants echoed above.

They were answered by the Tariyon’s bellow. The dragon’s roar drowned out the creatures.

And not one of them showed their mangy faces.

"Are you kidding me?" Kasey asked as they walked through the chamber in near silence. “We had to kill a dozen of them just to get through here earlier.”

"It is the nature of things," Marissa replied. “The oppressed always kick downward. Here, Tariyon is the top of the food chain. They want to eat, not be eaten."

Kasey grumbled to herself as they strode through the main chamber. It didn’t matter now, but she stepped on as many raised stones as she could out of sheer protest.

Maybe a little part of her wanted to see a dragon eat a manticore.

Talora brought up the rear as the party charged back into the entrance chamber.

Sanders and Marissa reached the plinth.

“This is the earthing stone. It leads to Flannan Island,” Sanders said.

The plinth began to glow, multi-hued lights spearing through the bricked-up gateway.

The light bridge was starting. But they hadn’t even touched it.

Kasey’s pulse quickened.

Someone was coming.

Chapter 19

The light pouring through the bricked-up gateway intensified. Any moment, the bridge was going to come pouring through into the entryway of the Terminus and with it the Congress. Kasey did not want to still be here when that happened.

"It's the Congress," Sanders shouted. "They got here first."

"Not yet they haven’t," Marissa said, placing her hand on the plinth. The stone buttons started to shift. Several sunk into the plinth, others rose. The lights disappeared abruptly.

It was as if Marissa had hung up on their attempt to dial the Terminus.

Power poured from her and bathed the gateway. The bricks vanished, and a rift opened that completely filled the door. Only this time there was no lighthouse. No storm-stricken Flannan Island.

The other of the portal revealed a massive forest of towering redwoods. The redwoods formed an unbroken wall, their trunks having grown so densely together that they formed a solid fortification of wood. Dense foliage topped them, but among the branches wove a network of walkways, rope bridges, and fortifications. Turrets and parapets contoured from the trees themselves.

It was nature’s castle.

Tariyon took in the vista.

Marissa placed her hand on his scaly leg. "You're free, my old friend. Go where you will.”

The great forest dragon dipped its head and charged through the portal. No sooner had he cleared the gateway than he stretched his wings and bounded into the air. With steady beats, he climbed over the forest, vanishing into the sunny sky.

"Are you going to wait here for them, or are you coming?" Marissa asked.

She strode through the gateway, leaving the Terminus behind as she crossed the verdant green grass.

Kasey and Sanders followed close behind. Lilith, Mallory, and Maxwell trailed after, though they moved a little closer when Talora brought up the rear.

When Talora cleared the gateway, Marissa simply waved a hand like she was dismissing a servant and the entire gateway vanished from existence.

As it closed, Kasey’s shoulders sagged and she breathed a sigh of relief.

They’d done it. They had actually succeeded in their task.

Marissa was back in Summer. Titania was going to be thrilled. Kasey had never laid eyes on this place before, but the glade surpassed Talora's by several orders of beauty and serenity. She knew without being told that this was the domain of the Summer Queen. The abundance of life and the energy flowing through it was unmistakable.

Against all odds, they had survived. It had been close. S he had almost died, first from the manticore’s venom, and again at Methuselah's hands as he’d puppeteered Lilith into his scheme. But none of that mattered now. She had made it. The Earth Spirit had been wrong. They had managed to make it back.

Now they were in the heart of Summer, far from the Congress’ reach. The Terminus might have been trashed in the process, and an unspeakable number of its prisoners dispatched to their eternal rest, but Kasey was determined not to lose any more sleep over them.

Part of her even smiled thinking of Armando Flint’s face as he arrived in the now near-empty Terminus.

She had done it. She had fulfilled her promise to the Summer Queen, and Sanders had fulfilled his oath. They were free.

A thousand thoughts flooded her mind as the gates opened.

Inside them, Summer Sidhe stood rank upon rank watching their arrival with keen interest. They were tall proud warriors, with perfect unblemished complexions and fine delicate features. Only these Sidhe wore armor of brown and gold, and were arrayed for war.

Standing before them was the Summer Queen Titania in a spotless white dress, a gold chain cinched about her waist. Her golden hair was worked high, with dozens of flowers woven through it.

She smiled as Marissa strode through the open gates.

“Daughter, Foraoise Síoraí welcomes you home.”

“It means the Eternal Forest,” Sanders whispered.

"It's breathtaking," Kasey whispered.

Marissa approached her mother. The resemblance between them was uncanny. As they embraced, Marissa whispered something in her mother's ear.

The Summer Queen smiled and put an arm around her. "Don't worry, dear, I'm sure your father will be delighted to hear you've returned."

“I very much doubt that,” Marissa said. “Given that it was he and the sentinels that imprisoned me in the first place.”

Titania smiled. "I know, dear, his hubris knows no bounds. Always quick to tell others what must be. Do not worry. His age is coming to an end.”

"Father?" Kasey whispered, “Sanders, who is her father? I thought the Summer Queen ruled alone."

"She does.” Sanders leaned closer. “But it was not always so. Marissa's father is Oberon, the Winter King."

Kasey's eyes bulged.

"You're kidding? Why would he put her in the Terminus?”

"I am not sure," Sanders replied. “It happened long before I was born. Marissa is the offspring of Summer and Winter. She possesses a measure of both of their natures. She is the Autumn that welcomes winter, and the Spring that thaws it and warms the world for Summer’s embrace. She was the balance of them both until something went wrong between them.”

Kasey didn’t like the sound of that.

"Please, daughter, head to my chambers. We have much to discuss."

Marissa nodded. Turning, she waved at Sanders before she vanished through the ranks of Summer Sidhe.

Kasey liked that even less.

“Talora,” Titania began, as she examined the twisted form the fae now bore. “My most faithful servant. We couldn't have done this without you. Go to the Glade of Renewal, and I will see you made whole once more."

Talora nodded but said nothing, though Kasey thought she spied a tear running down Talora's face.

"Were there not six that accompanied you, my Summer Ray?"

Sanders bowed deeply. "Yes, my Queen, but the hearts of some were fickle and their treachery was their undoing. We left what remains of them at the Terminus."

Titania shook her head. “Their loss. The rest of you, I welcome to my kingdom. As promised, you have a place with us, should you wish to stay. Relax, eat, and rest. Be refreshed and then let us talk of your future.”

Titania gestured for a party of Sidhe to escort them from the grove. Maxwell Dark seemed to linger.

Sanders turned, resting his arm on Maxwell's shoulder. "It’s fine. Go, my friend. I promised you freedom and you have it. I'm sorry it took this long.”

Maxwell pulled Sanders in for a tight embrace. "I never thought I would see the day."

The two men hugged it out, and when they parted, Maxwell followed Lilith and Mallory out of the grove.

"Summer Ray, you have excelled yourself,” Titania said. “And we will talk more of your future. Rest here, regather your strength, and whatever you wish, I will make it so.”

Sanders glowed, basking in the queen’s approval. His eyes found Kasey's. There was warmth in that smile, and a hint of the future she longed for.

The warmth drove away the pangs of panic that had gripped her since the moment they had freed Marissa. Everything was going to be okay.

Kasey smiled and let out a small breath of relief.

"And you, Kasey Chase,” Titania said. “You have done exactly what you promised. I have not forgotten our bond. Consider your debt paid.”

Titania stretched forth her hand, just as she had when the bargain had been struck that fateful night in Sanders’ apartment. The Queen had spared her from the Council and their ridiculous trial. Now, more than ever, Kasey was sure that Titania had infiltrated the jury and steered them toward her own end.

But that wasn't what Kasey had asked of her. She had asked for Sanders’ freedom. That was what she wanted more than anything in the world.

Kasey took the Summer Queen's hand. A tingle of power ran through her entire being, but as it did, a thick green mist descended, blocking her vision of the Eternal Forest, and the beauty of the Summer Queen.

A vision? The only person she’d touched was Titania.

Kasey’s stomach churned as she considered the ramifications.

As the mist cleared, Kasey found herself once more in the Earth Spirit's field. Hovering overhead, like a raven drifting on the windy thermals.

"I tried to warn you," the Earth Spirit said.

"But we lived," Kasey replied. “I'm still here. I will protect you. Isn’t that what you wanted?"

That was what she’d thought the Earth Spirit had been afraid of. If she died in the Terminus, what Earthborn would be left to protect her tree?

The drums of war rang over the field and in the west, Winter advanced, blighting the fields before the Winter King. He sat astride a massive bear, just as he had last time.

Only now there was someone at his side. A human woman she sat astride a majestic black unicorn. Its coat glistened like the night sky. Together, they rode at the head of Winter’s war host.

"Winter would rather fight then wane into oblivion," the Earth Spirit said.

Kasey turned to the east where Titania stood at the head of her mighty host of Sidhe and woodland Fae. But now, beside her stood Marissa, riding on Tariyon’s back. The great green dragon dwarfed all around it.

"With Spring and Summer united, the world's balance is lost. Winter might want this war, but they cannot win it."

"What do I do?" Kasey asked as the Sidhe charged toward one another.

"For the first time since I have been, I don't know,” the Earth Spirit said. “If you can't fix it, Summer will consume us all."

The green mist descended and when it cleared, Kasey found the Summer Queen staring down at her, a perplexed look on her face.

"Are you all right, dear?" Titania asked.

Kasey's breath caught in her throat.

"Yes, my Queen," Kasey replied, a forced smile spreading across her lips.

"Excellent. Go and get some rest. Tonight, we feast to celebrate my daughter's safe return. Summer has been made whole once more."

Sanders took Kasey's hand and led her away. "Kasey, what's wrong? You have that look about you like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Kasey swallowed to clear the lump forming in her throat.

"Noah, we've made a terrible mistake."

Chapter 20

The Terminus was quiet and still. Methuselah cursed his luck.

He seemed forever destined to be thwarted by Noah bloody Sanders. The Chancellor and the rest of his party had passed like a whirlwind of death.

Methuselah wasn't a coward, but that Sidhe and the dragon had been unknown variables. He didn't dare show his face to either of them. He’d watched through what remained of his shattered half rimmed glasses as they had gone through the escaped prisoners in a symphony of destruction.

He'd hidden himself in one of the empty alcoves to save his life. And now as he dragged himself upward, he wondered if he had the will to continue.

On he pushed, climbing over one broken piece of stone at a time. His hands were covered in blood, much of it his own.

In the dark recesses of his mind, a voice urged him on.

Methuselah, pay your broken body no heed. The prize you want is here. Immortality. All you must do is climb.

Methuselah dragged himself over the rocks that Kasey had tried to block the path with. It had taken him hours, but eventually he’d found a hole. It was small, perhaps only a foot and a half wide. Still, he could see through it into the next chamber.

Pulling himself through the gap, Methuselah began the painful descent.

He might have staunched the wound, but the blood loss was getting to him. He was weak and on the edge of losing consciousness. He dragged himself down the pile of broken rubble and on reaching the floor, he sank to his knees. Unable to muster the strength to walk, he pitched himself forward, onto his face, and dragged himself through the chamber.

That's it. You're almost there, the voice said.

Methuselah looked up. A massive alcove towered overhead. Inside it, a cloud of black mist seemed frozen in place.

Release me, and I will give you vengeance.

Methuselah reached for the wall, leaving a bloody handprint as he dragged himself up to his feet.

He slipped, his shoulder slamming into the wall as his head came to rest on the cold stone. Slowly, Methuselah raised his hand and pressed it to the steel control pad.

Jubilant laughter filled his mind as the crystal prison collapsed.

The cloud of mist surged from its containment as Methuselah felt his strength waning.

"You promised," he whispered as his weary frame sagged.

Indeed, I did. The voice reverberated through Methuselah’s fading mind.

His mouth opened to curse the creature but as he did, the cloud descended, pouring into his open mouth. It was everywhere, surging up his nostrils with every breath until the entire cloud vanished.

Methuselah dropped to the floor, as pain seared through his being. He clenched his fists, his white knuckles resting on the cold stone floor.

"You liar!" Methuselah howled.

"No,” the voice answered; this time Methuselah heard the words with his own mouth. “We are eternity."

The End

Kasey will return in Natural Selection. Grab your copy here.

A Word From The Author

Welcome back, I know it's been a little while! I hope you Death Sentence. I knew what I wanted this story to be from the moment the title came to mind.

We learn so much more about the Summer Court here. No doubt we all have some conflicting feelings about Sila now! For those of you who haven't read the Magical Midlife Crisis series, you're missing out on a treat. At the same time all of this is occuring in New York, the Outer Hebrides and the Summer Court, other significant events are transpiring in Australia, Ireland and the Winter Court.

Chaos is coming, as Kasey's latest vision showed. Will she be able to avert disaster before the drums of war sound? Find out in Kasey's next adventure, Natural Selection.

I’ve also about to add a new short story, Vida’s Gambit to the Kase Files, so if you haven’t read them, follow this link and join my newsletter you’ll get it and more! Find out about the night Vida and Stephanie met, as well as other exclusive short stories only published there.

If there’s anything you want to tell me about Death Warmed Up, feel free to leave me your honest review here. It helps more than you will ever know.

Cheers,

S.C. Stokes

P.S. For all the updates, new release alerts and adrenaline-fueled short stories, join my reader newsletter here.

About the Author

Sam is a writer of magically-charged fantasy adventures. His passion for action, magic and intrigue spawned his Arcanoverse; a delightfully deluded universe that blends magic, myth, and the modern world in a melting pot that frequently explodes.

When he isn’t hiding away in his writing cave, his favorite hobbies include cooking, indulging sugary cravings, gaming, and trying to make his children laugh. You can find more of his work at www.samuelcstokes.com or connect with him at the links below.

Also By S.C. Stokes

Conjuring A Coroner Series

A Date With Death

Dying To Meet You

Life Is For The Living

When Death Knocks

One Foot In The Grave

One Last Breath

Until My Dying Day

A Taste Of Death

A Brush With Death

A Dance With Death

Death Warmed Up

Death Sentence

Urban Arcanology Series

Half-Blood’s Hex

Half-Blood’s Bargain

Half-Blood’s Debt

Half-Blood’s Birthright

Half-Blood’s Quest

A Kingdom Divided Series

A Coronation Of Kings

When The Gods War

A Kingdom In Chaos

Bones Of The Fallen

A Siege Of Lost Souls

Table of Contents

- 1. Chapter 1
- 2. Chapter 2
- 3. Chapter 3
- 4. Chapter 4
- 5. Chapter 5
- 6. Chapter 6
- 7. Chapter 7
- 8. Chapter 8
- 9. Chapter 9
- 10. Chapter 10
- 11. Chapter 11
- 12. Chapter 12
- 13. Chapter 13
- 14. Chapter 14
- 15. Chapter 15
- 16. Chapter 16
- 17. Chapter 17
- 18. Chapter 18
- 19. Chapter 19
- 20. Chapter 20
- A Word From The Author
- About the Author
- Also By S.C. Stokes