We’d gone to ground in a rundown industrial neighborhood in the Eastside. Our car was parked in a back lot, and we’d broken into a small, shabby office building belonging to an HVAC company—a struggling one, by the look of things.
“Did Robin and Amalia go home after the Odin’s Eye ambush last night?” Aaron muttered as he swept past. “I know their address isn’t registered, but still not smart.”
“Robin isn’t a combat mythic.” Ezra tugged on the blinds, closing the gap he’d been looking through. “But Zylas is a hunter. He knows the danger. If they went back, it’s because they had to.”
“Who attacked their apartment? Was it that Grand Grimoire team?” I thought of how swiftly Zylas had plowed through combat mythics in the museum basement. Would those Grand Grimoire mythics have even slowed him down? “Was Zylas the one who blew out the wall?”
“He’d only use magic as a last resort.” Ezra folded his arms. “Same reason I can’t use Eterran’s magic to defend us.”
Claiming the charges against Ezra were bogus would be difficult to pull off already; if anyone saw him using demon magic, we’d have no chance of convincing MagiPol not to execute him. And Robin had the same problem. She couldn’t afford any witnesses blabbing about her illegal contract with Zylas.
“Does it matter who attacked them?” Aaron growled, pacing back across the room. “We can’t contact her and we can’t search for her—not while every guild in the city is hunting us.”
My hands clenched. “We have to search for them. Without them, we can’t do the ritual.”
Aaron came to a halt and pressed both hands to his face. He pushed his fingers up into his hair, and when he finally turned to me, his expression was as bleak as I’d ever seen it.
“We’ll be caught before we have any chance of finding her … and we don’t even know if she’s alive.”
Silence fell as we let that terrifying possibility sink in.
“Can we hire an Arcana mythic to set up the ritual for us instead?” Ezra asked.
“If Kai were with us, maybe.” Aaron paced another circle. “We could look for a rogue Arcaner, but—shit, guys. I’ve never hired a rogue before. We’re just as likely to walk into a sting as find a rogue guild.”
I pressed my hands tightly together. I could think of one mythic who knew his way around the rogue underground, but I had no way to contact him—and no desire to put Ezra’s life in his hands a second time.
“All mythic attention in the city is on us,” Aaron continued, “and even rogues will have heard about a demon mage bounty. Approaching anyone would be a huge risk.”
“Then what?” I asked. “How do we set up the ritual?”
“I think …” He blew out a breath. “I think we need to get out of the city.”
I was shaking my head before he even finished. “We can’t do that.”
“We run for it,” he repeated. “We fall back on the plan we made with Darius six years ago in case Ezra was ever discovered. Everything’s already arranged. We flee north to Alaska, and once we’re far enough away, we can find a mythic who’ll do the ritual.”
I stood up, shoving the office chair. It rolled into the wall with a thump. “But what about Kai? He’s in MPD custody right now! Are we just going to abandon him? What about the Crow and Hammer? The guild could be disbanded. One week to prepare the ritual is already pushing it. If we disappear for two or three weeks, we’ll never be able to convince the MPD that Ezra is innocent!”
“I know, Tori.” Aaron’s gaze was quietly distressed. “I just don’t see any other option.”
Turning away from him, I shoved the chair into the wall again. Despair warred with a dozen other emotions—frantic fear, seething fury, suffocating guilt. Everything hinged on the ritual, and without Robin or Amalia, we were screwed. Why had they disappeared? Why weren’t they helping us? We’d made a deal! I’d given them the damn amulet!
I shoved the chair a third time. The impact jarring up my arms didn’t distract me from the churning fear and anger. The bang of it hitting the wall didn’t drown out the voice in my head telling me we were doomed.
It wasn’t fair! We’d been so close! We’d been minutes away from separating Ezra and Eterran. Now every possible worst-case scenario was playing out before our eyes and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Nothing!
As a shout of despairing fury wrenched from my throat, I grabbed the chair and swung it into a filing cabinet with all my strength. It struck with a ringing clang, but it didn’t help, and I reached for the chair again.
Ezra stepped in front of me, blocking my reach, and wrapped me in his arms.
For a second, I considered shoving him away. I didn’t want comfort. I wanted to rage and scream and curse at the whole damn world.
His arms tightened, sturdy and unyielding. “Breathe, Tori.”
I realized my chest was heaving with fast, furious inhalations. Jaw tight, I buried my face in his shoulder and focused on slowing my lungs. Gradually, the agonizing tension in my muscles released and the raging storm of emotions quieted.
Ezra rested his cheek on my head. “Kai is in MPD lockup, not a dungeon. He may not be comfortable, but he’s safe. And Darius knows how to handle the MPD. He’ll protect the Crow and Hammer.”
Eyes squeezed shut, I didn’t answer. Kai wasn’t being tortured, but I had no reason to trust the MPD. And neither did Darius, who could only play loophole chess with them for so long before he ran out of moves.
Nothing was guaranteed. No one was safe.
Including us.
I gripped fistfuls of Ezra’s shirt. The worst thing for Kai, for Darius, for the Crow and Hammer, and for us would be getting caught. Ezra would be killed. Kai, Aaron, and I would be convicted of
