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“And what if they refuse to meet again?” They didn’t like me already; a deliberate snub might be the last straw. If we were ever going to reconcile, someone had to take a risk and show a little trust. And it didn’t look like it was going to be them.
“Miss Palmer . . .”
“I thought we’d agreed that you were going to call me Cassie.”
“There are a few things I’d like to call you. Now get out of there!”
“I’ll shift out if there’s trouble,” I promised.
“If they explode a null bomb, you won’t be able to shift!”
“We discussed this,” I reminded him. “If they use a null bomb, it will cancel out all magic in the area—including theirs—and Casanova’s boys will wipe the floor with them. I only want to talk to Saunders for a few minutes.”
“He isn’t here! He sent one of his lieutenants instead. Richardson. He just came in.”
And sure enough, three mages had broken off the pack and started toward me. I didn’t have to ask which one was in charge. The man in the center was middle-aged and distinguished looking, with startlingly blue eyes and graying auburn hair that was swept back from a high forehead. He was wearing a business suit in a neat gray pinstripe with a bright blue tie. He looked more like a diplomat than a warrior. Maybe they actually did intend to talk.
“Get out now!” Pritkin repeated, sounding furious.
“If I leave, what then?” I whispered. “We don’t have a Plan B.”
“And if you die, we’ll never have a chance to form one!”
“Damn it, Pritkin. We need the Circle!” He didn’t reply. Maybe because Richardson and his cold-eyed buddies had arrived.
“I thought we’d agreed no more than twelve per side,” I said, and immediately wished I could take it back. I hadn’t planned to start off sounding so suspicious. If this meeting had taken place a month ago, I’d have handled it differently. But weeks of constant runn
ing, almost dying and frequent betrayal had sharpened my usual defensiveness to something approaching hostile paranoia.
Richardson didn’t look ruffled, however. “Had we met at a neutral site, we would have kept the bargain. But this”—he swept out a hand to indicate the gothic gloom of Dante’s lobby—“is not neutral.”
“It’s a public place! And if you had an objection, you might have mentioned it before now!”
“A public place owned by your master and run by his servants.”
“I don’t have a master.”
He smiled condescendingly. “That is what the vampires said. They speak highly of you.” It didn’t sound like a compliment.
“But you don’t believe them.”
“Tell me about Nicholas,” he said instead of answering.
It took me a second to respond, because I’d known Nick only by the abbreviated version of his name. He’d been a war mage acquaintance of Pritkin’s, one who had turned against the Circle but hadn’t joined my side. He had preferred his own.
I paused, wondering how to explain the complex series of events that had left the only book with a translation of Artemis’ spell in Nick’s hands, forcing Pritkin to kill him to keep it safe. I really hoped Nick and Richardson hadn’t been friends. “He was going to use the Codex for his own ends,” I finally said.
“Yes, so we were told. Unfortunately, there isn’t a shred of evidence to that effect. Unless you perhaps still have it? Even a page—”
“It was burnt.”
Richardson pursed his lips. “How unfortunate.”
“Pritkin did what was necessary—”
“On your orders.”
I started to argue the point but shut my mouth without saying anything. I hadn’t ordered Nick’s death, but I’d known how Pritkin worked and what his solution was likely to be. And I’d made no attempt to stop him. It was one of many decisions weighing on my conscience these days, although I still couldn’t see another alternative. If Nick had succeeded, we’d all be dead now—probably even him.
