“Then we have to finish the ritual as quickly as possible.” I bit my lip. “We can’t go back to the museum basement.”
“No,” he agreed. “We need a new location. We’ll have to build the circle array again, let it charge, then perform the ritual.”
Aaron paced across the living room. “The array creation could be done in half the time if we can get Robin and Amalia to work on it nonstop instead of only at night, but the charge time won’t change.”
“So a week or a little less,” Ezra concluded. “That’s how long we have to avoid capture.”
“Every combat guild in the city will be hunting you.” Makiko closed her laptop. “The bounty on Ezra is three hundred thousand dollars. That’ll bring in other guilds.”
“And there’s Xanthe to worry about,” I added grimly.
Makiko pursed her lips. “I can think of a few obscure locations where you could hide for a week and prepare the ritual. It’s just a matter of getting you there without drawing any attention.”
“We’ll need Robin and Amalia too,” I said. “We aren’t sorcerers. Even if we knew how to set up the array, it wouldn’t work for us. How will we contact them?”
Ezra, Kai, Aaron, and I had destroyed our phones before arriving at the condo. Technology could be tracked.
Makiko set her laptop aside, walked into the condo’s second bedroom, and returned a moment later with a flip phone. She handed it to me.
I dialed Robin’s number—good thing I had it memorized by now—and listened to it ring. It clicked to voicemail. I ended the call and redialed. It rang over and over, then went to voicemail again.
Flipping the phone shut, I glanced across the guys. “Do you think … did they get away safely?”
“Even carrying two people, Zylas is faster than a human,” Ezra said. “There’s no way they didn’t escape the Odin’s Eye mythics.”
I wrapped both hands around the cell. “I’ll try again in a few minutes.”
Makiko tugged her black sweater straight. “Then I’ll pick a location and begin preparations for smuggling you out of the city, and—”
A phone rang loudly, and I eagerly opened my hands—but the flip phone’s tiny screen was dark.
Makiko pulled a sleek black phone from her pocket and lifted it to her ear. “Yes?”
The tinny sound of another voice leaked from the phone.
“How long ago?” she asked brusquely. “I see … Report back to them that I’ll present myself within the hour.”
She ended the call and tucked her phone in her pocket. Her dark gaze turned to Kai. “I’ve been summoned to the MPD precinct for questioning about the charges against you.”
My fingers dug into the cushions, but I was the only one who seemed shocked. “But what about getting us to a safe location?”
“I’m Kai’s GM. If I don’t present myself, it’ll look suspicious.” She offered a faint smile. “I’ve dealt with the MPD before. I’ll tell them I have no knowledge of a demon mage and promise to deliver Kai into custody as soon as I can locate him. It’ll buy us some time.”
As she collected her jacket, I fought the urge to protest. I didn’t want her to leave. Makiko wasn’t my favorite person by any stretch, but she was cool-headed, competent, and the acting GM of a powerful guild that could shield and hide us.
She set the TV to the security channel, which displayed the video feeds of all the cameras positioned throughout the condo building, then picked up her jacket. “Get some rest. I’ll be back before noon.”
I waved half-heartedly as she headed for the door. Kai followed her, and they murmured together for a moment before she slipped out. He bolted the door behind her, armed the security system, and turned to face us.
The silence was back, heavier than before.
There was nothing we could do except wait. The Court of the Red Queen had outmaneuvered us again, but they didn’t know we were planning to transform Ezra from a demon mage into a regular aeromage. If we succeeded, we’d turn this all back on them.
We could make it happen. Somehow, we had to.
Chapter Eleven
Murmuring voices drew me out of a restless sleep. Groggily, I lifted my head off the pillow I’d jammed against the sofa armrest. A heavy weight pinned my legs—Ezra had slumped sideways in his sleep and had his head pillowed on my thigh.
At the kitchen island, Aaron was prodding Kai’s upper arm. The skin around the sutures was red and inflamed, and Kai flinched with each press of Aaron’s fingers.
“I don’t know, man,” he muttered as he examined his friend’s wound. “It doesn’t look good. Might be infected. You need proper medical attention.”
“If Makiko were willing to risk calling a MiraCo healer, she would’ve done it.” Kai lowered his arm. “Wrap it up and I’ll take a vitality potion.”
Nodding unhappily, Aaron pulled a thick white pad and a roll of gauze wrap from the first aid kit. As he positioned the pad on Kai’s wound, my gaze swung toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, where daylight leaked around the blackout shades.
“Makiko isn’t back?” I asked.
Ezra stirred sleepily and raised his head. He blinked at me, then at the other two.
“Not yet,” Kai answered as Aaron wound gauze around his bicep. “She should be back any time now.”
“What time is it?”
“Twelve-thirty.”
She’d expected to be back before noon. Nervous energy buzzed in my chest, and I slid the burner phone from my pocket. No messages from Makiko explaining the delay. Did she know this phone’s number?
I dialed Robin. It rang and rang, then went to voicemail. I called again. And again.
No answer.
Slowly, I lowered the phone. “Something happened to Robin. Something’s wrong.”
Kai and Aaron didn’t reply, their silence confirming my worries. The chances that she was sleeping or missing my calls were diminishing by the hour, but there was nothing else I could do except keep calling.
Staring at the phone, I considered all the numbers I could call. Darius. Clara. Sin. I could reach out to almost anyone from the Crow and
