Kirsten and Julie were waiting for us when we descended the stairs.
“What was that explosion?” Kirsten asked.
“The Palace of Commerce,” Mychal answered, looking at this phone screen. “Someone set off a magitek bomb.”
I gaped at him. “The place is warded, and the walls are magikally enhanced.”
“Yeah, that’s why I think it was a magitek bomb. Reports say there’s extensive damage and casualties.”
The Palace of Commerce was where the Families regulated and tracked trade. The Families, and anyone wanting to do business with the Families, negotiated and filed contracts there, and that was where the Families adjudicated disputes with one another. I couldn’t imagine who would want to bomb the place. It would throw the whole world into chaos.
My phone rang.
“James,” I answered.
“Are you all right?” Whittaker asked. “Is Novak with you?”
“Yeah, we’re okay. We’re down at the harbor. How about you?” Metropolitan Police Headquarters was only a block from the Palace.
“We’re fine. The bomb went off in front of the Palace’s main lobby. Danica, we could use both of you. There are a lot of people trapped in the rubble, and hopefully some of them are alive.”
“We’ll see you soon,” I said and hung up. Five faces stared at me. “Whittaker says they need Mychal and me for search and rescue. Can you guys get to our place if we give you a police escort to the freeway?”
We buttoned up the shop, and Kirsten cast additional wards on the greenhouses. Mychal and I accompanied the two women and their Findlay escorts to the edge of the downtown area and onto the freeway, then turned back toward police headquarters.
What we found there was an apocalyptic disaster. The Palace of Commerce was constructed in a U shape, consisting of a wide center building with two wings. The bombers had driven a truck into the middle of the complex and detonated it. The center section was reduced to rubble, as was part of the north wing. The south wing was still standing, but most of the windows were blown out.
Whittaker was leading the effort to find and extract anyone who survived the collapse. We found him—dirty and harried—at the disaster command center under the portal of the Arcane Division wing of Police Headquarters.
“About time you showed up,” he said when we presented ourselves. “Novak. There are collapsed floors. I need you to work with the other aeromancers to try and lift them so rescue workers can go in to find any survivors.”
He turned to me. “Dani, I don’t know what you can do, but anything will be appreciated.”
I turned around and surveyed the scene. There were a few bulldozers and cranes, with more arriving as I watched.
“Boss, Mychal and I speculated that the riot downtown might be a distraction. Have you thought about what this is distracting you from?”
He barked out a laugh that ended in kind of a sob. Taking a deep breath, he said, “No, I haven’t thought of that.” He picked up a phone and spoke into it, telling one of his captains to organize a war room to collect reports and track what was going on in the Metro area.
When he hung up, he said, “Next?”
“Your aeromancers should be used for macro lifting. If they combine their efforts, they should be able to lift entire floors. I can work with the machinery operators to enhance what they can do, help on a micro level digging through the wreckage between floors.”
I saw his shoulders sag. “You can do that? Work with machinery in real time?”
“Yeah. But I can work with only one machine at a time. Try to pull in all the magiteks you can. I know everyone’s in a hurry, but you’re going to have to be patient.”
Chapter 47
“Your mother is on the phone. She’s worried about you,” Kirsten said holding my shoulder and shaking me awake. “Tell her you’re all right.” She shoved the phone in my hand. “And when you’re through talking to her, your grandmother has called half a dozen times. I can’t put her off much longer.”
“What time is it?”
“Two o’clock in the afternoon. I tried to let you sleep.”
I had dragged in at five o’clock in the morning, bone tired, hungry, and feeling like I’d been beaten. We had pulled hundreds of bodies from the rubble, and far too few wounded.
“Mom?” I said, trying to open my eyes.
“Are you all right? I’ve been trying to call you, and you don’t answer. I finally called Kirsten.”
“Yeah, I’m fine, just tired. I was working all night.”
“My father called. He extended an invitation for you and me to come stay with him. They’re worried.”
All of a sudden, I was wide awake. If the Fae were worried, things were far a lot worse than I thought.
“You should go,” I said.
“Right. And leave you behind without even a bolt-hole? Level with me. What in the hell is going on?”
I took a deep breath. “Mom, I don’t know. Findlay is worried about a war with Akiyama. Ashvial is involved, but no one knows how or what his interest is. Some of the Hundred Families seem to be in the process of evening scores. There was a major incursion of demons through the Rift yesterday. The Palace of Commerce was bombed, and everyone assumes the bomb was magitek enhanced. There have been attacks on Family holdings and Rifter riots all over the world. So, you tell me what in the hell is going on.”
Silence on the other end of the line. The three smartest people I’d ever known were the people responsible for my existence. Dad I barely knew. I’d always considered it a toss-up as far as intelligence between Olivia and Mom. Very different interests and priorities, but minds as sharp and quick as anyone’s in the world. Definitely smarter than me. I waited, hoping she would suggest something different than my own dark thoughts. I waited quite a while.
“War,” she finally said. “Dear Goddess. The demons have convinced some of the
