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The library door opened, and we both glanced back. Ethan walked in. His expression was too neutral for me to gauge his mood, but his magic was all over the place.
“Your grandfather just reported in. Detective Jacobs got a judge and got a warrant for Reed’s downtown offices. They’re preparing to execute it right now. He also called Nick Breckenridge, advised him of the search. He’ll be in place if they collect anything.”
Nick Breckenridge was a family friend, and a very well-respected journalist in Chicago. He had a Pulitzer for his investigative journalism, and would do a thorough job with Reed.
“They’ll collect something,” I said. “I don’t know what, and I don’t know how much, but Reed’s too arrogant not to have something about the Circle close at hand. He thinks he’s invincible. That will have made him sloppy.” I frowned at Ethan. “That’s good news, so why do you look unhappy?”
“If Reed doesn’t already know, he’ll find out. That may accelerate whatever else he has planned.”
“That’s a risk,” I agreed. “That’s why everyone is doing their part.”
He looked at the easels. “And how are you doing?”
“Good on the magic,” Paige put in. “Dire on the results.”
Ethan crossed his arms, expression transitioning to Masterly concentration. “And how does it work?”
Paige gave him the summary. “It’s very clever,” she concluded. “And narcissistic, and a smidge sociopathic. But very clever.”
“That sounds about right. Will it work?”
“Kyle Farr is evidence it already worked,” she said. “But on a smaller scale. We figured the symbol had to have a purpose—some reason to use that much magic, that much energy, for it to just be a laser light show.”
Ethan slid his hands into his pockets and regarded us with Masterly suspicion. “Why do I feel like you’re preparing me for something?”
“Because we are,” Paige said. “We think it’s a boundary. Or, maybe more accurately, a net.”
“A net . . . ,” Ethan began, then trailed off as realization struck him. “For the supernaturals in its border. The magic is supposed to reach all the supernaturals within its territory?”
Paige nodded.
“That’s hundreds of square miles,” he said. “And if the QE works the way the sorcerer’s sample with Kyle Farr did, he’ll control every sup in that area?”
“Yeah,” Paige said with a nod. “If you weren’t scared before, you should be now.”
• • •
We left Paige to call Mallory and coordinate on the countermagic while we worked in the Ops Room on the House’s response to the more general threat of Adrien Reed.
That Jeff, Catcher, and Mallory were walking in the front door when we reached the first floor—and that they’d come to the House together without even a warning phone call—didn’t ease my concerns.
“What’s happened?” Ethan asked, apparently of the same mind.
“A lieutenant in Vice, one of the men on the Circle task force, got a wild hair,” Catcher said. “He learned about the document pull, decided this was the time to come down on the Circle and on Reed. His team raided Reed’s home about an hour ago.”
“How did that happen?” Ethan asked.
“There was a leak, probably an informant in the department or the judge’s office that issued the warrant. We aren’t sure; Jacobs is looking into it. Anyway, Reed’s lawyers met them at the door, but by the time they made it inside, the Reeds were gone.”
“He’ll escalate,” Ethan said. “He’d been waiting for the right time to move. This is probably it.”
Catcher nodded, and his expression was bleak. “That’s why we’re here. The Vice guys were going through Reed’s house when a group of River trolls—two men and two women—showed up. There was a shoot-out. Four cops were killed, and all four of the trolls.”
They were the fruitarians we’d discussed a few days ago, large men and women who lived primarily beneath the bascule bridges that crossed the Chicago River.
“Jesus,” Ethan muttered, low and sorrowful.
There was pounding on the stairs, and Luc raced into the front room, magic flurrying around him. He stopped when he reached us, and his expression was as cheerless as Catcher’s.
