Илона Эндрюс - Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy)

He heaved a sigh. “Okay. I’ll get our people out of there tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

I hung up and crawled into my bed. Shadow jumped up, made three circles on the covers, and settled by my feet.

“What are we going to do?” I asked her.

Shadow drummed her tail on the covers.

I wished Alessandro was here. I wished I could kiss him and feel his arms around me. I missed him so badly, it hurt.

Everyone was allowed a moment of weakness once in a while. I decided not to beat myself up over it. Instead, I closed my eyes and sank into sleep.

I walked into the kitchen at eight and made a beeline for the electric kettle. Someone had already warmed up the water and put my loose black tea into my tiny glass teapot. This almost never happened.

I poured hot water into the teapot, turned around, and looked at the three people sitting at the kitchen table. Cornelius, Leon, and Arabella gazed back at me. All three wore business clothes. Cornelius chose slate-blue trousers and a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. A pair of shades hung from his collar. Nevada told me that when they first met, Cornelius was perfectly put together. In the three years he’d worked with us, his style had evolved into dressed-up but laid-back. He always wore formal clothes, but he somehow managed to look casual in them.

Arabella picked a blue dress with a plunging neckline that miraculously exposed no cleavage. It had lightly padded shoulders and lines that signaled trench coat rather than dress, with lapels, fitted sleeves, which she rolled up, and a skirt that reached to midthigh. She cinched the whole thing with a light gold belt that should have been gaudy but somehow looked elegant and paired it with high-heeled gold sandals. Her hair framed her face in gorgeous waves, her makeup was professional photoshoot quality, and she had hung a light pink purse on the back of her chair. Gold-rimmed sunglasses sat on her head. It was a killer outfit and she made the most of it.

Leon wore light grey pants cut like jeans, a matching sports coat, and a blue-grey dress shirt. He’d combed his hair, but hadn’t shaved, and his stubble was just the right length to be fashionable. Leon never cared about fashionable and he was usually clean shaven. Barely twenty-four hours had passed since we found out Audrey had died.

I poured my tea into my cup, blew on it, and sipped.

My sister raised a plate. “Would you like a muffin?”

“What are the three of you up to?”

“I would like to accompany you to Tatyana’s interview,” Cornelius said.

Arabella raised her phone. “Questions for Stephen Jiang. I worked very hard on them. I won’t say anything. I just want to be there.”

I looked at Leon. “And you?”

“I’m tired of sitting around the house. I’ll come for protection.”

He’d only had to sit around the house for a day.

I sipped my tea. “I understand all that, but why are you all in blue?”

The three of them looked at each other.

“Did you plan this? Am I supposed to coordinate?”

Arabella opened her mouth.

My phone rang. I glanced at it. Linus. I held up my hand and put the phone to my ear.

“I’m borrowing your Italian,” Linus said. “You will have to do without.”

What did he mean, borrowing? “For how long?”

“Until we’re finished.”

He wouldn’t tell me. Whatever it was had to be dangerous, because Linus Duncan didn’t require backup. He was the backup, the strike team, and the field artillery, all by himself. Anxiety pinched me. My pulse sped up. Linus must’ve calculated the odds and decided he needed Alessandro. I wanted them both to come out of this alive.

“Do you need my help?”

“No.”

Argh. “I need to talk to you about the Pit.”

“It will have to wait. Carry on.”

He hung up. I resisted the urge to slam the phone down on the counter. It was a very strong urge and I had to resist very hard.

I looked up at the three in blue at the table. I had to give Cornelius his moment with Tatyana. Arabella couldn’t transform in city limits without causing panic and massive problems for us as a House. If the telekinetic made an appearance, having Leon could mean a difference between life and death.

“Will you please come with me?” I asked.

The Pierce Building sat on two beautifully landscaped acres off Wilcrest Drive, just north of Westheimer Road. Unlike most Houses, pyrokinetic mages were barred from owning commercial real estate inside the Sam Houston Tollway Loop, because they tended to start fires. Even outside the Loop, the municipal regulations dictated a certain distance between their buildings and others, which is why the Pierce Building rose in the middle of a park all by its lonesome.

Built in the 1980s, the six-story structure resembled dominoes placed on their sides and leaned against each other, so each rectangle protruded a little farther from the one before it. Built of sunset-red granite with black patches and veins, it looked at the world with rows of floor-to-ceiling black windows. The whole thing looked foreboding, like some dark fortress.

“You’ve reached your destination, the Bastion of Evil,” Arabella announced when we got out of the car.

“We shall assume our vigil,” Leon said and headed to the nearest bench.

We all agreed that marching the four of us into Tatyana’s office would be overkill. It would signal that we were afraid of her. Cornelius and I would be enough.

“Have fun.” Arabella sat next to Leon and pulled out her phone.

“How long before I should rescue you?” Leon asked.

Cornelius held the door open, and Bunny jumped out of the car. The Doberman Pinscher sniffed the air, poised, his frame corded with muscle under a black-and-tan pelt. His ears twitched.

“I don’t believe we’ll need rescuing,” Cornelius said with a soft smile. “If we don’t come out in half an hour, wait some more.”

Cornelius and I started up the curving sidewalk to the building. Cornelius walked briskly. Bunny must’ve picked up on the tension he was emitting, because the Doberman glued himself to the animal mage’s side.

“We are here for information,” I murmured.

“I haven’t forgotten. Don’t worry. As much as I despise House Pierce, I won’t abandon my professional obligations.”

I had sent him a detailed email last night, outlining the situation with Cheryl. The mission for today was to find out if anyone helped her.

“I spoke with my sister,” Cornelius said. “She went to school with Tatyana. Peter, Tatyana’s older brother, was a late bloomer. The full extent of his magic didn’t become apparent until he turned eleven. Up to that point Tatyana, as the oldest Prime, was groomed to be the head of the family. According to Diana, Tatyana told her that the day she found out that Peter manifested as Prime was the happiest day of her life. I personally didn’t interact with her that much.”

Interesting. “Everyone I’ve spoken to said she has a temper.”

“Perhaps that will be useful.”

It certainly would be. “I bet you a dollar there will be flames at some point.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Cornelius said.

We went through the glass doors and submitted to a security check. The tall Hispanic guard looked at Bunny but made no move to approach.

“Is this a service animal, sir?”

“Yes.”

In the hands of an animal mage, the Doberman wasn’t just a dog. He was a loaded shotgun that would take down his attackers with terrifying speed. I’d seen him take on a dinosaurlike arcane summon that was three times his size. Bunny had jumped six feet in the air and torn the beast’s throat out.

The guard nodded. “I need to take his picture.”