Ilona Andrews: Magic Rises

“They don’t care,” Aunt B said. “In some ways the Europeans are more reactionary, and in others they’re not. There are a lot of shapeshifters in Carpathians, and beastkin are rare but not an oddity. Andrea will be fine.”

“And Raphael will be joining us,” Andrea said. “So you get twice the backup. Nobody will be killing you on our watch.”

So that was what this was all about. I got a cookie after all. “Aww. I had no idea you cared. I’m touched.”

“You should be.” Andrea bit another bacon slice. “I’m willing to abandon the tender embrace of my future mother-in-law for your sake.”

“About that,” Aunt B said. “I’m coming, too.”

Dear God, the cookie was poisoned.

Andrea’s mouth hung open and I got a view of half-eaten bacon I wished I could unsee.

“I take it that’s the first time you’ve heard about it?” I asked.

She nodded. “That’s not what we agreed on! We agreed that Raphael and I would be coming with her.”

Aunt B shrugged. “That’s the prerogative of the alpha. We can change our minds.”

Andrea gaped at her. “What about the clan?”

“Leigh and Tybalt can run it in our absence. They will survive by themselves for three months.”

“Curran won’t go for it,” I told her. I wasn’t sure I would go for it.

“He will, if you ask him, dear. What I say here must not leave this room.” Aunt B put her fork down. “Any Consort who is agreeable to Mahon is bad for us. If the bear has his way, you, Kate, will never carry Curran’s child. And you”—she turned to Andrea—“you will never sit on the Pack Council. You’re beastkin. He won’t kill you, but you can bet that he’ll do everything in his power to push you out. Your children—my grandchildren—will grow up knowing what it’s like to be one step lower than everyone.”

In an instant the funny blonde vanished, and a cold killer with a thousand-yard stare sat in Andrea’s place. “Let him try.”

“No!” Red, bright like backlit rubies, sparked in Aunt B’s eyes. “We don’t wait for him to try. There aren’t enough of us to be reactive. We think a step ahead of our opponents. We force them to respond. You’ll watch her back, Raphael will watch Curran’s, and I’ll look after our collective interests. You will need panacea, my dear. Trust me. I’ll make sure we’ll get it.”

Andrea raised her finger and opened her mouth.

“That is final, Andrea.”

Andrea clamped her mouth shut.

“Talk to Curran about it. Talk among yourselves. I will be packing. Thank you for a lovely breakfast.”

Aunt B rose and left.

We waited until the doors down the hall shut behind her.

“That woman drives me crazy,” Andrea growled.

“Is she for real?”

“She’s been a bit obsessed lately,” Andrea said. “Ever since I became a beta and then Raphael proposed, all she’s been talking about is how she’ll retire and spend her years cuddling grandchildren. These are theoretical grandchildren. Raphael and I aren’t in a hurry. She says she is tired.”

“Does she seem tired to you?”

“She’ll outlive me. I’ll be an old woman, and she’ll be still promising to retire. I know that look. She’s coming on this trip, whether we like it or not.”

I sighed.

Andrea shook her head. “The Black Sea, right? That’s the place where the Golden Fleece was and Jason grew an army out of dragon teeth?”

“That’s the one.”

“Whatever happened to Jason afterward?”

“He married Medea, a witch-princess who was from Colchis.”

“Did they live happily ever after?”

“He left her for another woman, so she killed their children, chopped them into stew, and fed it to him.”

Andrea put a half-eaten sausage link on her plate and pushed it away. “Well, at least I’ll be there to watch your back.”

And it already made me breathe easier. “Thank you.”

Andrea grimaced. “You’re welcome. I’ve got to go tell Raphael that his dear mother is coming with. He’ll just love this new development.”

I went to look for Curran. Knowing him, he was probably holed up somewhere with Jim trying to finalize the list of shapeshifters we would be taking with us. I bet that “somewhere” was Jim’s not-so-secret lair two floors below the top level of the Keep.

Jim genuinely loved his job, and he somehow always found people who loved it as much as he did. They took the whole spy thing to the next level. Somehow simply walking through their hallway to the break room didn’t seem enough. I should’ve gotten a black cloak and slunk dramatically, flashing my knives.

I was about fifteen feet from the break room when I heard Mahon’s voice and stopped. “. . . not questioning her ability. She’s proud, undisciplined, and she doesn’t take anything from anybody. We’re going into a shit storm. They will attack her appearance, your relationship, and her human status, and I question how well she will hold up under the stress.”

Mahon and I would never see eye to eye. That was the long and short of it. I had decided that I didn’t want or need his approval, so I’d stopped trying.

“Kate will be fine,” Curran said.

“It’s a bad idea.”

“I heard you the first time,” Curran said. “Kate is coming with us. You worry too much.”

I walked into the room. Curran, Jim, and Mahon stood around a small kitchen table. Curran and Jim both had mugs, which probably contained Jim’s patented coffee: black as tar and just as viscous. A piece of paper lay on the table—the list of ten names. Curran and Jim had hashed out the list of who was coming, and I was about to change it.

“I was just going,” Mahon rumbled, and walked out of the room.

“Coffee?” Jim asked.

“No, thank you.” I knew exactly what his coffee tasted like. “Aunt B, Raphael, and Andrea would like to be included.”

Curran raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

“Aunt B says she’s worried about my well-being.”

“She’s mostly worried about getting her paws on panacea,” Jim said.

“Yeah, she mentioned it.” I looked at Curran. “The way I look at it, we’re taking ten people. You get five and I get five. If I take Aunt B, Raphael, Andrea, Barabas, and Derek, that will take care of my half.”

“Fair enough,” Curran said. “I can count Derek as one of mine. It will give you an extra spot.”

“No, it’s cool. You should take the extra spot.”

“I honestly don’t mind,” Curran said.

“I don’t mind either. You’re giving me Aunt B. I probably owe you a spot for that.”

“Damn it,” Jim said, his face disgusted. “You’re like an old married couple who found twenty bucks in a parking lot. ‘You take it.’ ‘No, you take it.’ I can’t stand it.” He put the coffee down and shook his head.

“Fine,” Curran said. “If you want Derek, he’s yours. That fills the list.”

“That means we’re axing Paola from the list. The rats will be pissed,” Jim said.

“I’ll handle the rats,” Curran said.

I stood on the grassy hill. In front of me a garish sunset burned with violent intensity, the scarlet and crimson clouds floating like bandages in the open wound of the sanguine sky. Against the sunset, on the plain below, people were building a tower. Magic churned and roiled around them as the roughly hewn stone blocks rose in the air, held up by power and human will. Far in the distance, another tower stretched to the sky.

I wanted to stop it. Every instinct I had screamed that this was wrong. It was dangerous and wrong, and we would all suffer at the end of it. Something terrible would happen if it was completed. I wanted to go down there and scatter the stones.