He broke off, brows drawing down at our appearance—and obvious tension.
The room wasn’t small, but it felt cramped with nine people in it. Along with Aaron and Kai, Girard, Alistair, Felix, and my favorite ice queen Tabitha were already scattered among the three desks.
“Where’s Darius?” Ezra asked urgently.
The door to the GM’s office opened in answer, and Darius swept out to join us with his cell phone in his hand.
“Is there a problem—an additional one?” he asked.
“Looks like it,” I replied. “Justin, my brother—he’s a cop—just called and told me the police are evacuating eight city blocks, and the Crow and Hammer is right in the middle of the evacuation zone.”
Darius pressed his lips together, and I really didn’t like the sight of our infallible GM’s disquiet. Before he could reply, a phone chimed—his cell this time. He tapped the screen.
“Darius here. You’re on speakerphone.”
“Mr. King. It’s Agent Shen.”
I had to strain to hear Lienna’s voice, not because the volume on Darius’s phone was too low but because the agent was whispering so quietly.
“Are you safe?” Darius asked quickly.
“For the moment,” she breathed. “Mr. King, you need to evacuate your guild immediately.”
My fear turned icier.
“Söze’s gone nuclear,” a male voice added in a low growl. “I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking.”
I had to assume that was Kit, but he didn’t sound like a disarming jokester anymore.
“Shortly after we helped you escape,” Lienna explained, still whispering, “a Keys of Solomon member arrived at the precinct to meet with Söze. After their meeting, he announced the MPD was ordering Damnatio Memoriae and assigning the Keys of Solomon as the prosecuting guild.”
“Ordering what?” Darius asked.
“It means ‘condemnation of memory.’ It’s an emergency provision dating back to ancient Rome that authorizes the complete eradication of the condemned, erasing them from existence and history. It allows the MPD to unconditionally sanction one or more guilds to use as much deadly force as necessary against the offenders.”
No one moved. No one spoke.
“That … that can’t be real,” Felix muttered, shaking his head. “The MPD isn’t that barbaric.”
“Damnatio Memoriae hasn’t been enacted since the nineteenth century,” Lienna replied. “It’s a last resort for when all standard procedures have failed, and only for cases that risk publicly exposing magic—like mercenary mythics looting and burning villages.”
“The Crow and Hammer isn’t looting Vancouver!” Girard protested furiously.
“Söze claims most of your members are violent and your guild is preparing to attack the precinct en masse. He talked about your guild stockpiling weapons.”
“We have been stockpiling weapons,” Darius said. “In preparation for a battle with the Court of the Red Queen.”
Ezra folded his arms. “We can probably assume the Court is in control of the Keys of Solomon now.”
“That would explain why the Keys want to destroy us,” Tabitha said, her eyes flashing. “But why does Söze want to destroy us? What’s his stake in this?”
“Hell if we know,” Kit interjected. “He’s a slippery bastard. Before this, he was really subtle, and now he’s behaving like Dr. Evil. I’m just waiting for the sharks with laser beams to show up.”
I snapped straight. “Wait. The Keys of Solomon member he met with—was it a woman with black hair?”
“Yes, actually,” Lienna answered in surprise. “Do you know her?”
“Xanthe,” Ezra snarled. “She controls the Court.”
Aaron frowned. “I thought Xever was the leader.”
“He’s the visionary, but Xanthe is the one running the show.” Ezra looked at the phone. “Is she still in the precinct?”
“She was accompanying him earlier, but I’m not sure where she is now.”
“If she’s still around, she could be manipulating him,” I said urgently. “The woman is a mentalist. She can make people do anything she wants as long as she can see them.”
Kit’s quiet curse filtered through the phone.
“I see,” Lienna said quietly. “If she’s still here, we’ll deal with her—but that won’t stop Damnatio Memoriae. The Keys of Solomon guild has brought in four teams and they’re already moving into position around your guild. You need to evacuate now, before you’re trapped.”
Four teams of hardened combat mythics who specialized in dangerous kill bounties and thrived on violence? I didn’t know how many men that equaled, but any number above zero was bad.
Darius stared down at his phone for several long seconds. “Do what you can, Agent Shen, Agent Morris. And stay safe.”
“Safe?” Kit mused. “Not unless we plan to hide in this closet all night. It’s kind of cozy, but—”
“We’ll be in touch,” Lienna interrupted, and the call clicked as she disconnected.
Darius slid his phone back into his pocket, and we all watched him, waiting for his response.
“Justin said it would take the police about four hours to clear the neighborhood,” I revealed hesitantly. “If we assume the Keys won’t move until that’s complete, then we have time to evacuate the guild … right?”
“We aren’t evacuating.”
I twitched, wondering if I’d misheard him.
The GM surveyed us, then focused on his four officers. “There’s no way to evacuate over forty mythics without the Keys following us, which would leave us in the same danger but in a less secure location. We could possibly sneak small groups past them, but then we’d be leaving those members with minimal protection.”
“But if we can’t evacuate,” Tabitha whispered, her face white, “what will we do?”
Our guild master raised his hand, palm tilted toward the ceiling. Darkness plunged over the room, then the lights flickered back to life. Darius’s gray eyes gleamed.
“We will defend our guild and the members we swore to protect.”
I lingered near the bottom of the stairs, listening as Darius addressed his guild. The four officers, including Aaron, flanked him in silent solidarity. As the GM spoke, the expressions on his audience’s faces slowly morphed from confusion to trepidation.
We were going to fight. We were going to defend our guild.
The Keys were professional killers, but we didn’t have to defeat however many of them came after us. We just had to stand our ground. We would stand
