His gaze met mine. I wasn’t entirely sure what he saw, but after a moment, he nodded. It was a short, sharp, and extremely unhappy sign of acceptance. “Fine. I’ll notify the crew in London to be ready for your appearance. If you’re going to put on a show, the palace grounds will be the safest location, but they’ll need to patch a variation in the shielding dome to give you access.”
“Good.” The last thing I needed was to make it to the palace only to be bounced away by the magic protecting the place. “I don’t suppose you could also check if there’re any spare Blackbirds who could come up to Ainslyn and help?”
He shook his head. “It’s all hands on deck in London at the moment, and that’s unlikely to change. We’re obligated to protect the current monarch, even if Elysian has found a new hand to wield her.” Amusement briefly flared in his eyes. “You’re just lucky duty and heart have finally crystalized as one in this timeline. Otherwise, I’d be there rather than here, and our souls might have been destined to travel through hundreds of more years before they finally got a fitting resolution.”
If he thought Vivienne had any intention of making it easy for him in this timeline, he wasn’t paying attention. Or maybe it was in fact me who wasn’t paying attention, because his words very much suggested he would still choose duty over love, no matter how strong the pull between us might be.
I pushed the uneasy thought away and forced a smile. “I think my soul would shrivel up and die if it had to wait that long for sex.”
“Even Vivienne wouldn’t be that cruel.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t bet on that.” Mo’s voice was dry. “But given she did say timelines had finally merged, I’d suggest the only thing standing between you two, sex, and my grandbairns, is your survival.”
“Grandbairns will have to wait a while,” Luc said. “While I have absolutely no doubt Gwen and I will be dynamite in the bedroom, we need to discover if we’re actually compatible beyond it.”
Mo waved a hand dismissively. “As long as it happens sometimes in this century, I’m good. I am rolling toward old age in mage terms, remember, so you can’t take forever.”
Luc snorted. “To once again steer this conversation back on track—Ainslyn’s too spread out to successfully defend. That’s the main problem with London.”
“The difference here is the fact we do have time to prepare,” I said. “Barney can order a citywide evac of humans. When that’s done, we draw all witches inside the old city walls and run a shield around the entire place.”
“There will be a lot of casualties, regardless of what we do,” Mo said. “Evacuations are another thing that has been tried multiple times over the centuries, but humans and witches alike tend to think governments are overstating the problem, or that the worst will never happen to them—until it actually does, of course.”
“If they believe what is happening in London can’t happen to Ainslyn,” I snapped, “then maybe they deserve their fucking fate.”
Mo raised an eyebrow. “You don’t actually mean that.”
I sucked in a breath in an effort to calm the flare of anger and fear. “There’s a part of me that does, you know. We’re risking our lives for these people, so the least they can do is act reasonably and do what they’re told.”
“There has always been a minority of people—witch or human—who can stare fact and science in the eye and utterly deny its existence or worth. You cannot abandon principle or duty of care to the majority because of those few.” Mo’s lips twitched. “Though I will admit it is sometimes very tempting.”
“And if everything does go to plan in London?” Luc asked. “What then? Where will you meet your brother?”
“Exactly where all this shit first started—on King Island.”
“Why there? Logistically, it offers no great protection from demons, and your presence there will have them flooding the area. It’ll make Ainslyn’s defense that much harder.”
“Yes, but—” I hesitated. “It’s Elysian’s original home, even if the fake later took her place in the stone. It is also the resting place of the shield. I’m not sure why, but it just feels right to have the final confrontation there.”
“But why would Max risk going there after what you did to Winter?”
“He won’t believe I was responsible for doing that,” I said. “Even if he did, he won’t think it possible I could best him in any sort of magical battle, given his years of training. He basically said that to me, not so long ago.”
“Vanity has always been one of his major faults,” Mo agreed heavily.
I nodded. “It’s also vanity that won’t allow him to believe I could possibly be more worthy of Elysian than him. He will meet me, and he will try to take her from me.”
“I agree, and that’s why you won’t be going there alone.” Mo’s voice held a note that said there’d be no arguing on this point. “Luc and I will be there with you. As you’ve said already, he won’t come alone. I understand the necessity of a final confrontation between the two of you, but that doesn’t negate your need to be protected against his treachery.”
I hesitated and then nodded. “The High Witch Council will need to be advised of our plans.”
“I’ll contact them when we arrive on the outskirts of London,” Mo said. “At this point, I think it best we work on a ‘need to know’ basis. Everyone defending the palace would have been checked by now, but we still have no idea how far the wraith infection has spread through the rest of the government.”
“If you do manage to grab Winter alive,” Luc said, “it’d be advisable to shield him magically while you’re transporting him. It’s possible he and Max have some means of tracking each other, and they might well hit you before you can get back to Ainslyn.”
“Oh, you can be sure I’ll be shielding him,” Mo said, a glint in her eye.
I raised my eyebrows. “I take it the shielding might be a little unpleasant?”
“It doesn’t have to be, but let’s be honest here, the occasion does warrant it.” She smiled, the glint anticipatory. “I’ll update the rest of the crew and get things rolling. You’d better go grab something to eat. We’ll fly to London within the hour.”
With that, she turned and left.
I sucked in a breath to calm the sudden influx of nerves and then sat back down on the bed, this time facing Luc. “You will be careful, won’t you?”
He smiled and touched my cheek, a gentle caress that caused inner havoc. “I’m not the one flying into the middle of a battlefield.”
“No, but you might find yourself in one regardless. We can make as many plans as we want, but there’s no guarantee Max will react in the way we hope.”
“If there’re two truths in this whole mess, it’s the fact that he wants the sword and that he’s spent a lifetime underestimating you.”
“I know. It’s just—” I hesitated and shrugged. “For all my tough words, for all my determination to put an end to my brother’s crimes, I’m worried that Winter is right and I just won’t have the courage to do what has to be done.”