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The phone rang again, and when he still didn’t answer, messages started coming through, the separate buzzes chasing each other so swiftly they were practically one long vibration.
Darien swore. He unlocked the screen and checked the messages, making sure it wasn’t Loren trying to contact him, or any news having to do with her—
Finn’s message read, ANSWER YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW.
Another call came through.
Darien swung open the front door and walked out into the cool night, the others following on his heels. He didn’t have time to waste.
He didn’t slow his pace as he swiped his thumb across the screen and answered the call. “Finn—”
“I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you fucked up a lot, you want to know why? Because you’re the new Head Detective, you lying shit.”
“We can talk about that another time, but I need—”
“I’m fucking done with you—”
Finn’s next words were rapid shouts that knifed into his ear. “Darien, GAVEN’S COMING AFTER YOU!”
Behind him, Ivy whispered, “Darien,” at the same time that Travis said, voice hollow, “Oh shit.”
Darien looked up, across the yard—at the silhouetted figures standing on the other side of the wrought—iron gate.
Gaven fucking Payne and his men.
67
“Heard you’ve been playing me for a fool.” Though Gaven spoke quietly, his words were clear, each one picked up by the sharp hearing of the hellsehers standing on the front steps of Hell’s Gate, staring down the threat out front of the property.
Everyone was out here. Everyone but Ivy, who Darien had seen slip away the moment he’d walked out here to find Gaven on the other side of the gate.
“The fuck are you talking about?” Darien said.
“You’re trying to put my men and I behind bars.”
Darien stood at the front of the group. The passing of time was too swift, the moon now a giant red orb climbing above the city, its glow painting everything in sight blood-red.
“You’ve been working with the imperator,” Darien said. “Haven’t you?” Gaven had been supplying Quinton Lucent with the aura magic needed to kill the demons and open the Veil. It was possible that he wasn’t the one directly siphoning the aura magic, but he had a hand in trafficking it.
“Only took you long enough to figure it out,” Gaven said. A cold smile flickered across his face. “It’s been a pleasure working with you, Darien. And, you know, keeping you busy.”
“What do you want, Gaven?” Darien was tired of pissing time away while Loren was being dragged into Spirit Terra. He had to get by these guys, had to get to her—
Gaven gave a cold smile. “I’ve come to see you bleed.”
The obsidian of the Sight engulfed Gaven’s eyes. The rallying of his magic was swift, and—
And visible.
Clouds of deep violet materialized out of thin air as Gaven swept his arms out at his sides, fingers spreading wide, nostrils flaring. Bolts of gold and lilac lightning flashed inside the wall of his magic.
The Aether.
Darien didn’t—wouldn’t wait any longer.
He threw his own magic out in a dark wave that swept like a crackling storm across the yard, swallowing everything in its path. The magic spells protecting the property, knowing the power belonged to him, yielded.
