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As usual, his face gives away nothing. “Despite the dodgy Council’s attempt to suppress the news? Yes.”
Lucan crosses the room to stand beside me. “The past few days have been alarming. And it will grow worse.”
“Indeed.” I weigh my next words carefully. “The Doomsday Diary has been found.”
He can’t hide his shock. “Bloody hell! Where is it?”
As if I would tell him. “When the time is right, we’ll secure it.”
“It must be far beyond Mathias’s reach.”
On that point, we agree. That’s the reason I invited Ice. “Naturally.”
Lucan sends me a quelling glare. “If we’re going to ask him to defend the book and magickind, he needs to know what’s happening.”
My best friend only says that because he doesn’t know Ice like I do. He barely knows the wanker at all. Not shocking since they never socialized in the same circles. I certainly learned my lesson slumming it.
“Marrok of—”
“Lucan!” I rebuke him.
“Shut up.” He lashes back. “Marrok of Cadbury has the diary. He’s upstairs with his mate, a Le Fay. The Anarki attacked them earlier this morning. We all fought. We barely escaped with the book and our lives.”
“Fuck.” Ice swears more, using language so filthy even I grimace. Then his eyes narrow in a glowing, furious green. “Why tell me?”
Now that Lucan has divulged everything, I have nothing to hide. “We need your help. Unless you want more abducted women to suffer your sister’s fate—”
“Don’t you dare use Gailene as some rallying cry!” He stabs his finger into my chest.
“It’s the best way to help you understand the urgency. Already, there have been other abductions, starting with Auropha MacKinnett.”
“So the rumor is true?”
“Unfortunately.”
Ice swears again.
I scan the rest of the wizards in my office. Lucan silently provides support with a nod. Duke looks on with a studied air of boredom, but I’m hardly fooled. He’s sharp and shrewd…and surprisingly dedicated to saving magickind. In fact, he’s barely left my house or seen his human family in days.
“I’m deeply concerned about the frightened younglings forced to perform unspeakable magic, sometimes against their own families. Perhaps, if we hurry—”
“Hurry?” Ice cuts in, shaking his head. “If he’s already got those little souls, they’re lost forever.”
I hate to admit it, but he’s right. “We can’t wait for Mathias to grow more confident or for the Anarki to swell with those they’ve managed to bewitch. We must take action.”
Ice raises a disdainful brow. “Won’t your precious Council have a problem with that? After all, they wouldn’t want to be seen as the incompetent, self-serving group of buffoons they are. Tell me, when do they think we should finally do something about Mathias? When he’s knocking down our doors and threatening all we hold dear?”
Like last time. He doesn’t say it; he doesn’t have to. Everyone in the room knows magickind was slow to act during Mathias’s previous ascent to power. Only a handful of brave wizards managed to defeat Mathias and rid magickind of his cancer.
“Do you want to malign the Council so you can feel that superiority you so desperately seek? Or shall we stop wasting time and talk about what needs to be done?”
Ice grinds his teeth. “You and your personal opinion can fuck off. If you want to be serious, go on.”
He’s right.
“We all know who brought Mathias down last time,” I continue.
“The Brethren,” Duke murmurs.
