I opened the balcony door, stepped into the mound of snow, and trudged through it into the cold and the dark of night. The snow just a few inches from the invisi-windows was two-and-a-half-feet deep, up to my knees. Some meteorologist somewhere would claim it to be the largest accumulation in decades. Mega-blizzard. Every storm was always mega to the media.
Once, back when I was a kid, enemy witches working together had created a rainstorm that inundated New Orleans. That storm had been strange, had felt funny to my magic. This didn’t feel like a magic storm. No abnormal energy currents rode the air. But the storm had stalled over the mountains and snow blew in a sideways slant in an off-and-on-again whiteout, piling heavier on the street side of the balcony than the back, overlooking the parking area.
“Back of the building, Grizz,” I said, monotone, detached, as I felt the futures shuffle intobeing.
Someone cursed.
“Be careful of your words,” I said, sliding through the less-deep snow next to the wall of invisi-windows. “Someone—something—is listening.” I peered over the balcony wall into the parking lot. “Alex, tell the guard in the tent to get away from all electric vehicles. Safest spot is…No. Tell him to get out of the parking area. About a fifty percent chance we’re going to lose a lot of cars.”
Below, a man raced through snowdrifts that were higher than his waist, hopping and shoving, his body a battering ram to get away, leaving a path of disturbed snow. He raced into the street, slid and nearly fell, and disappeared toward the front of the building.
Behind me, Villetti stepped onto the porch. Ifelthimwithout looking. Iknewwhere he was, how he was armed. How he had overridden my protocol would be a topic of discussion later. “Get on your knees, Lee, deep in the snowdrift. Hide in it. Aim to the front.”
“The front? But—”
“Do it,” Alex said over comms.
EJ slid out behind Villetti. Into the snow.
“Baby brother,” I said, my tone emotionless as the futures shuffled again, like a deck of cards. “More drones from above. Look to the alley. I can’t feel them. Can’t see them.”
“I hear them,” EJ said softly. “More than two.”
“I have some of the family toys,” I said.
EJ laughed, a low, vicious sound.
I said, “Uncle Alex. The big drone is both a bomb and a distraction. Several smaller ones are hidden in the snowfall.” Comms went silent for a dozen heartbeats, before I added, “Minimum of four. They’ll be here soon. Less than a minute.”
“I’ve got a shot on the big drone,” Grizz said.
“Not until it’s level with me,” I said. “It’s got a demon signature. A red and sick green energy pattern, like tentacles all over it. Camera five, Alex.”
“Copy that. Camera five,” Alex said. In the background, at the queen’s HQ, other voices chattered. Alex said, “Grizz?”
“Target acquired with IR,” Grizz murmured, her tone emotionless, the too-soft reply of the born warrior.
“We have everyone on visual,” Walter said. “Ready. Aim.”
I lifted my cloak and ducked behind the folds, knowing its position was paramount to our safety. Just so, or the energies would move laterally. I pointed the staff where the drone would appear as it dropped down the side of the building, white on white, no lights. But leaking massive energies. I hadn’t fought in the war and had limited firsthand experience with EEBs, theextradimensional energy-basedthings, but combined with basic general knowledge I had picked up, and the potentialities offered by my gift, I was learning fast.
Red and sickly green magic indicated one (or more) ????? ? ???????, Russian for a powerful interdimensional energy, trapped in a box. ?????s were far more powerful than green sprites orchorts, or evenshedims. These energies were more powerful than a singleBes. If there were several big demons in this drone, the bomb could take down the entire city.
The immediate futures didn’t claim that. But—
Behind me, EJ whistled up a protective working, an air witch’s version of awyrdshield.
The huge drone dropped lower, appearing out of the falling snow and the dark, visible to myseeingworking as raw energy and multicolored lights. It was huge. The futures coalesced into one. “Now,” I murmured into comms.
“Target in position. Grizz, take the shot,” Alex said.
A shot rang out. Two more.
Everything happened at once.
The drone lurched to the side.
Red and green light blasted out. Blinding me for an instant.
