thank you for everything and that he died with hope.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “He once said to me that if he had to die for his cause, he would rather die in hope than despair.”
For the second time, I took her in my arms to comfort her over the loss of someone she loved. Vize’s death was without grief for me, yet I didn’t have the satisfaction I thought I would. He went and screwed that up for me by saving my life. He was dead, but he was part of me. I was satisfied in a detached way but not glad.
The blare of a siren startled us apart. The sky overhead had become a smear of black and gray rippling in the wind. A vague sensation draped over me, an essence of a profound nature, wild and untamed, yet constrained by a force of will. Shapes were moving in the shadows of smoky clouds, enormous beings striding across the sky. “What the hell is that?”
Eorla pointed toward the Weird, her hand trembling. “There. Over there.”
The siren blast was coming from the top of the warehouse that housed Yggy’s bar. The old civil-defense horns were going off. I didn’t think they worked anymore, but that wasn’t what made me shiver. Heydan stood beside the siren tower, his head reaching almost to the top, almost thirty feet tall. He glowed white with power, facing the city. He leaned on the tower with his right hand and held a sword in his left, pointing toward the center of the city. The figures in the sky above him gathered together and moved toward downtown.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“He calls the Old Ones to battle,” she said.
“That’s good. We can use the help,” I said.
Eorla turned toward the door. “You mistake me, Connor. It’s the end of the world.”
44
I waited in a room with no windows but two doors, both closed. I wasn’t in the mood to see outside anyway. When Eagan had ferried me across the city, I had seen the extent of the destruction. We had flown along the edge of it, dipping and diving among downtown city streets to elude our pursuers. More than once, we had flown through smoke and fire. The room stank of it because we all stank of it.
Eorla entered with a glamoured Dylan. They placed documents on the table and sorted through several vials of glow bees as reports flowed in from across the city. Dylan looked a little the worse for wear, his uniform torn and covered with dirt and soot.
Keeva arrived next. I hadn’t seen her since she let me escape the safe house. I had doubted her, but she stood with me in the end. I resisted the urge to smile as our eyes met because there was nothing to smile about after her sacrifice. She placed a brown binder envelope on the table. Stone-faced, she unwound the string holding the binder closed and removed a sheaf of documents. She pushed them toward me. “Callin won’t be coming.”
I pulled the papers toward me. “Is he all right?”
“He’s still in AvMem, but he’s weak. We didn’t want to risk his coming here.”
“Risk? What risk?” I asked.
“Look at the documents, Connor,” she said.
The top sheets were index forms, categorizing the rest of the paperwork. Reports were organized like Guild case files, but without any official markings. They referred to people whose names I didn’t recognize. My name jumped off the page on the first case. It was a record almost a decade old, an elf arrested for attempted kidnapping—
“Who is Shadow?” I asked.
“Callin,” Keeva said.
“He’s Shadow? But he was….” Cold realization swept over me. Callin had been kicked out of the Guild for insubordination and failure to perform over a decade ago. His firing had coincided with my return to Boston and the break in our relationship. I cleared my throat. “What was his assignment?”
Joe popped into the air. He hovered over the table, holding the stone ward bowl like a host trying to decide where to put food on a crowded table. He winked, placed the bowl in front of me, and sat next to it. Essence shimmered in it, a soft swirl of blue and white that swelled in reaction to the people in the room.
Keeva frowned. “You. I was his handler. He was personally responsible for stopping seventeen assassination attempts.”
“Well, I helped on three of those,” Joe said.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
Keeva glanced at the other closed door with annoyed hesitation. “You needed protection. We provided it.”
“Protection from whom?”
Eorla and Rand had stopped talking to listen to us.
“Maeve. Donor. Anyone you ever pissed off, which is pretty much everyone,” she said.
I shook my head. “I am so lost.”
The other door opened, and Eagan entered, the Eagan of my youth, strong, healthy, and fully in command. He took a seat at the table and gestured at the binder. “You are the linchpin in a long-term strategy, Grey. The dwarf Brokke had a vision. He foresaw another war for dominance among the fey. He predicted that certain people might be able to avert the war. You are one of those people. We took it as our duty to keep you alive.”
“We?”
Eagan glanced at Keeva. “Your partners were informed. We’ve had someone guarding you at all times.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because Brokke said your knowledge would turn events for the worse. It’s what ruined Bergin Vize. He became obsessed with the vision,” Eorla said.
“Vize tried to start the war,” I said.
Eorla nodded. “He thought if he challenged Maeve to act before she was ready, he would undermine her ability to succeed.”
I looked at Eagan. “You stopped me from killing him at the nuke plant. You could have prevented all this bloodshed.”
Eagan shook his head. “I had to stop you. Vize hadn’t made his full turn for the worse then. We didn’t know which one of you to pin our hopes on. One of you could have died. Neither of you was ready.”
“Why not?” I asked.
Eagan nodded his head. “Brokke said success would come from humility. Neither of you had that then.”
Eagan shook his head sharply. “We could not risk it. Brokke saw what the knowledge did to Vize. He said we had to be more careful than he was with Donor’s people. Briallen’s loyalties are too often obscure. Nigel will always blindly follow Maeve. In fact, I am deeply concerned about his hand in these current events.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. He’s out of the picture,” I said.
“Dead?” asked Eagan.
“No, but just as good,” I said.
Eagan looked about to question me further, but he let it pass. “Trust in this has been paramount.”
I glanced across the table at Dylan. “He shouldn’t be here.”
“He has access to Maeve’s black ops network. We need him,” Eagan said.
“He’s a loyal Guildsman who lied to Eorla, and now you want me to believe he can be trusted?” I asked.
“He has been instrumental in these last few days. His intelligence gave us the location of your imprisonment,” Eagan said.
