I handed Mo the phone, but before she could ring, her own phone rang. A heartbeat later, so did Luc’s.
Coincidence? Something within doubted it.
My pulse began beating a whole lot faster as the two of them rose to retrieve their phones, then glanced at the screens and answered. Luc walked to the far end of the room, speaking softly but urgently to the caller. Whatever had happened wasn’t good, that much was clear.
I returned my gaze to Mo. She wasn’t saying anything, but her expression grew ever darker. I clenched my fists against the urge to rip the phone out her hand and put it on loudspeaker. I could wait. I could.
The minute she hung up, I said, “What’s happened?”
Her gaze rose to mine, her expression bleak. “The worst. London is on fire and the palace is under siege.”
Chapter Ten
“Fuck,” I said. “How bad is the damage? And is the royal family safe?”
“First reports say the palace’s protections are holding, but things are chaotic in the surrounding streets, and demons are everywhere. Full details remain somewhat sketchy at this point.”
“Are they going to move the royal family to a more secure location? There are tunnels under the palace built for that purpose.”
Luc might have said they wouldn’t unless it was absolutely necessary, but if things were already this bad …
“They’ll only evacuate if the palace is in danger of falling—and not just because Layton’s magic protects it. There’s been no time to screen all the staff at the other locations for wraith infections.”
I swore again. “Was it just the palace and its surrounds that were hit?”
“The five main business districts are all under some degree of attack. The council’s air witches are calling in storms to take care of the fires, but demons flood the streets, killing anyone and everyone they come across.”
“Which plays into their game plan of causing utter chaos in order to prevent police, military, and witch coordination.”
Mo nodded. “A level-three emergency has been declared by the government, which means COBRA, the Civil Contingencies Committee, and the High Witch Council are working together to coordinate engagement and response, so it won’t remain chaotic for too long.”
“What the hell is COBRA and the CCC?”
“The government departments whose duty it is to deal with the various levels of disasters and emergencies.”
Obviously. And I guessed the “who” didn’t really matter as long as there was a coordinated, real-time response to this disaster. I thrust a hand through my wet hair. “What are we going to do now? Go to London?”
“There’s little point in doing so—there’s nothing either of us can do right now.”
“We can fucking fight—”
“Gwen,” she cut in gently, “London is not our battlefield. We need to find your brother and stop him before what is currently happening in London is repeated across every city and town in the United Kingdom.”
“And how in the hell are we going to do that, given he’s apparently protected against any of your finder spells?”
“By starting with your suggestion—destroying their way stations and blocking their gates.”
“Riona will only know the location of the station they were being taken to. She wouldn’t be able to tell us about the rest.”
“Perhaps not, but there has to be some means of differentiating a way station’s gateway from a regular one. Your regular type of demon isn’t the brightest spark, and they’re not magic capable, so it would have to be something fairly obvious. Once we know the indicator, we can send an urgent request for all gateways to be checked.”
“That’s not going to get us any closer to finding Max, though.”
“It depends entirely on what the way stations are used for. I doubt they were devised solely as a means to teach the twins the dark arts. It’s also doubtful they’d go to such lengths to provide a safe resting place for weary demons.”
“Not given how little their commanders value lives,” I muttered. “I still think Winter is our best bet. We do have the body of one his clones—”
“We do?” Mo cut in sharply.
“I didn’t mention it?”
“Obviously not.”
“Ah, well, I buried the bastard in a wave of earth and stone over on King Island.”
“Clever girl.”
“It wasn’t so much clever as desperate.” My voice was dry. “It’s amazing what you can achieve when you’re staring the possibility of death in the eye.”
“As motivators go, there’s certainly little better.” She pursed her lips. “I’ll ring Jackie and see if they’re able to question Riona tonight. We’ll fly back to the island in the morning and use that bastard’s DNA to spell find the rest of them.”
I frowned. “Why not go now? The sooner we find him, the sooner we can drag Max out of hiding.”
She lifted an eyebrow, her amusement evident. “Have you already forgotten you barely escaped a hellhole?”
“Hardly, but that doesn’t alter—”
“They’ll have all their forces out tonight looking for you. Not only is it safer if we lie low until dawn, it has the bonus of giving you time to fully recover.”
“But—” I stopped and waved a hand in frustration. “I need to be doing something.”
Because I didn’t want to think. Not about my brother, and not about the task that lay ahead of me. I might have accepted the need to kill him, but I had no doubt the decision would haunt my dreams. Not just now, but long into the future.
And the saddest thing of all was the fact that—had the situation been reversed—he would have killed me without a second thought and continued to sleep very soundly at night. He’d proven that on the bridge.
Mo leaned forward and wrapped a hand around mine, squeezing lightly. “I understand. Trust me, I do. But you can’t risk running yourself into the ground. It’s going to take all your strength and cunning to end your brother’s madness.”
“That sounds like you think I’m the only one who can deal with him.”
“I do.”
“But why? Because we’re twins?”
“In part, but mostly because we’re at the end of a very long game. Remember what Vivienne said—that destiny and blood has converged in this current timeline.”
“Which doesn’t explain anything at all when it comes to Max.”
“Old gods and goddesses find nothing more enjoyable than a good old battle between light and dark—between good and evil. And if that battle is between fraternal twins on opposites sides? Practically orgasmic.”
“I’m seriously beginning to hate the old gods and goddesses,” I muttered. “The world would have been much better off—”
“No,” she cut in softly. “It wouldn’t. Trust me on that.”
Given her age and familiarity with the gods, I had no choice but to believe her. It still didn’t make me like them any more.
I glanced around at the soft echo of footsteps. Luc’s gaze met mine, his expression grim and unhappy. “We had a traitor in our midst. The royal family came under attack.”