“I don’t know, but the Death King called us to meet with him,” he said. “When he heard you were missing, he told us to go to Elysium. I think he figured out you’d gone to the House of Fire.”
“And there I thought he’d forgotten I existed.” I picked up the pace when the node came within sight. “Tay escaped, too. The House of Fire tried to blame me for helping her out of her cell. That’s why they locked me up.”
“Your friend is working with the enemy again?” said Shelley.
“I don’t know.” Her absence was an ache in my chest, but what if she’d been involved in the enemy’s attack? I couldn’t go looking for her either way, not when I had zero clue where she’d gone. Besides, we had bigger problems on our hands.
We ran down the narrow street, blasting down any assassins who got in our way. The closed-off streets gave me claustrophobia, but I made it to the node without being cornered. “The Death King had better be able to spare some people to help us.”
“That’d be welcome,” said Shelley, catching me up, “considering we helped him, and he repaid us by abandoning us in the middle of nowhere.”
“C’mon,” said Miles. “Coast’s clear.”
Our group hopped through the node and landed in the swampland. The quietness disturbed me, as though part of me had expected to find the Court of the Dead under attack as well. Instead, outside the gates, the Death King stood nose to nose with a vampire. They appeared to be engaged in a heated argument, but when I tried to enter the grounds, Liv barred my path.
“Where have you been?” she said.
“Elysium,” I replied. “I take it you know the Houses of the Elements are under attack?”
“The Houses?” Her brow furrowed, and she turned to the vampire who stood arguing with the Death King at the gates. “You didn’t say the Houses of the Elements were under attack. That’s a world away from a handful of mages stirring up trouble.”
“I’m terribly sorry my report wasn’t accurate enough for you,” said the vampire.
Liv’s eyes narrowed. “Look—you do realise Elysium overlaps with London, aka the site of the next Order meeting?”
“The Order?” I said. “What’s going on with the Order?”
Liv turned to me. “The Order is under the control of the enemy and we’ve just found out that Hawker and his allies have access to a major gathering in London. We think he might be planning to seize power by unleashing a massacre.”
The Order? They’re attacking the Order as well as the Houses? For all I knew, their real target was the ordinary world on the other side of the nodes, but knowing the Family, it might well be both at once.
“Holy shit,” I said. “Why would he do that?”
“The Order is the centre of the magical community on Earth,” Liv replied. “Plus it’s an easy way to cover up a coup. Hawker and his allies already did it once.”
Behind me, Miles gave a low whistle. “Scumbags. The other Spirit Agents are on their way here.”
“Good,” said Liv.
With her no longer blocking my path, I slipped through the gates, followed by Miles and Shelley. I could feel the Death King watching me from behind, but he continued to argue with the vampire, no doubt trying to convince him to lend a hand. I’d have to tell him about my experience in the House of Fire later… not to mention Tay’s escape.
“Not sure the other Spirit Agents will want to help in London,” said Shelley. “They know what they do to spirit mages over there.”
“Not sure they’d be keen on me, either.” The Order, though, wasn’t my priority. The assassins had blocked off the entire centre of Elysium, including the citadel. I knew the Family must be involved, but in order to figure out the extent of it, I needed to talk to my brother first.
“Bria.” Ryan walked across the grounds towards me, dressed in full armour. “Where have you been?”
“Locked up in the House of Fire,” I said. “Didn’t the Death King tell you?”
“He sent Shelley and me after her, but he didn’t know she was locked up,” said Miles. “That, or he didn’t trust the other Elemental Soldiers not to leave her there to rot.”
“That—” Ryan broke off. “Look, Liv didn’t even wake up from the coma she fell into after returning from the citadel until an hour ago, and then she casually dropped the bombshell on us that the Order is hosting a meeting tonight. Which would explain why Hawker left his citadel unattended. He has his eye on bigger things.”
“It isn’t him who’s attacking Elysium,” Miles put in. “The House of Earth is, along with those weird assassins.”
“The Family’s assassins,” I clarified. “Not practitioners, but they’re carrying cantrips which boost their strength and speed. If they’re going to London, no way are the ordinary people prepared to face that shit. Even the Order won’t have seen them before.”
“So they don’t use magic at all?” said Ryan.
“They use cantrips, that’s enough,” I said. “Nasty ones, too.”
Like the ones that killed the jailor and the other guard.
“Sounds familiar,” said Ryan. “At the last event they attacked, they used inferno cantrips to kill and injure Order members when they were off duty. While everyone was distracted, they swooped in and took over Birmingham’s branch of the Order. They’re probably doing the same in London. The only difference is that we’re forewarned this time.”
“Assuming Liv is right,” I added. “Hawker must be sure he has enough people on his side to take on the Houses as well as attacking London at the same time.”
“It’s not just him,” said Ryan. “There are traitors within the Order itself.”
And then there’s the Family, too. No doubt they were waiting in the wings to scoop up whatever was left behind after the dust settled.
Felicity and Cal walked up to join Ryan, also dressed in full armour and
