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“I’ve got Lady Northcott on the line,” Ruiz said. She swiveled in her seat to hold out her phone to me. “Fill her in on whatever your thinking, and if she agrees she can get started on coordinating.”
“Thanks.” My lungs were tight as I accepted the phone. “Lady Northcott—hello.”
The head of the Assembly’s measured voice filtered through the speaker. “Lady Hallowell. Please tell me this idea of yours is something we can implement immediately.”
I choked on a desperate laugh. “Maybe. Let’s see what you think of the plan first.”
* * *
We didn’t witness any sign of panic until we reached the suburbs. A minivan came racing past us on the opposite side of the freeway, the driver weaving erratically from lane to lane to gain every bit of distance she could. One glimpse of her pale face made my stomach sink.
She’d seen the demon. I had no doubt about that. And recently enough that she was still in flight mode.
The closer we got to the edge of the city, the more speeding vehicles zoomed past in the opposite direction. Where the streets on either side of the freeway started to give way to wilder land, a blockade had been set up on our side. The hum of magic in the air told me those police officers were only enforcers in costume. They were keeping as many people as possible away from the site of the demon’s impending arrival.
The officers waved our vehicles through while turning back everyone else. The driver put his foot down on the gas pedal as soon as we were passed in on the less crowded stretch beyond. We flew across the asphalt and skidded around the exit ramp to reach the smaller road where we were going to make our stand.
If the demon didn’t change directions as well as pace in the next several minutes, that was.
The terrain looked like as good a spot as any for an ambush on this short notice. We parked at an overgrown field, a sign at the edge announcing that it would be built up into a little townhouse development sometime next year. A familiar truck was already stationed partway into the long grass, where workers were moving around the sprawled bars of the refurbished cage. I spotted Seth’s brawny form and Jin’s leaner one next to him, and my pulse hitched.
“Fan out!” the sergeant was shouting near the car she’d arrived in. The enforcers were streaming around her to encircle the field. Our supplies hadn’t arrived yet, from the looks of things, but how could I have expected them to? It’d taken a few minutes to walk Lady Northcott through my plan and several more before we’d hashed it out to the point that she’d felt we had something solid—or at least more solid than anything they’d already come up with. The delivery she’d sent would take time to catch up.
“I’m waiting for the magicking materials,” I told Ruiz. “I’ve got to talk to my consorts first.”
She gave me an unreadable look and a brisk nod. I realized she’d never really indicated what she thought of my unusual choice of consorts. I supposed she couldn’t be too bothered by it, anyway, or some derision would have slipped into her attitude toward me by now. Not everyone was totally caught up in their prejudices.
A distant rumbling crept through the clouds overhead. Another gust of wind tossed my hair as I jogged across the field to where Seth was stalking along the perimeter of the trap. Its base was still set on the truck’s flatbed, the flaps dangling around that square.
Seth raised his head at the sound of my footsteps. His eyes brightened, but the smile his mouth formed was grim.
“How close is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. The sergeant must have had an idea—she’d be getting reports from the enforcers tracking the thing. From the increasing urgency in her shouts, it clearly wasn’t that far off. “Close, I think.”
Before I could say anything else, he grasped my shoulder. “I’m staying this time. Some of the walls of the cage still need some work. I’ll get as much as I can done as quickly as I can, until it’s too late.”
An ache filled my chest, but what could I say to him? We did need him here, maybe more than any of the others working on the cage. If I was willing to put myself in the line of fire where I could help, I had to let him take that risk too.
“I get it,” I said. “But as soon as it comes close…”
“I won’t do anything stupid,” he said. He dipped his head for a kiss, fast and hard, and turned back to his work.
“I overheard some of the enforcers talking about some new plan,” Jin said, coming up beside me. “They mentioned glyphs. If you could use some extra manpower in the drawing department…?”
I shot him a grateful smile, even though my heart squeezed all over again. He’d never had to face the demon directly before either. Now two of my consorts were going to be coming so close.
But having him working with us could make all the difference.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll show you.”
I fumbled for something to draw on, and Jin produced a small notepad and a pencil from his pocket. With a few quick strokes, I sketched the glyphs I’d used to cast the calming spell over the recovering witches’ dorm rooms.
Jin studied the paper, his finger tracing the lines. “Where do you want them?”
“All around the field,” I said. “In a semicircle, so the demon doesn’t have to cross any to come inside but it’ll be nearly surrounded then. Just alternate between the different glyphs. You can use—” My gaze caught on a truck speeding along the road toward us. “I think the tools I asked for to make breaking the ground easily will be here in less than a minute.”
“What’s all this do?” my consort asked. “Whatisthe plan?”
