The toy blue lamb, Squiffy, butted Steve’s ankles.
“The immediate threat is over,” Fay said. “And it was never directed against the portals. It’s personal and I’m dealing with it.” Her hand tightened around Steve’s. “We’re dealing with it.”
Cynthia looked at him. She wore a quilted robe knotted at the waist and covered in a forget-me-not flower pattern. Her dark hair was untidy. “I recognize you. You watched my portal.”
“I was waiting for Fay.”
“What about the other watchers, Cynthia,” Fay broke in. “Are the Collegium guardians still there?”
Cynthia eyed her shrewdly, obviously lining up facts and concluding that the Collegium was the source of attack against Jim’s portal.
Fay braced herself. Most magic users would assume that the Collegium naturally had right on its side, and were going after her for a reason. If the other woman attacked them…Fay glanced around at the soft toys. Death by smothering? They’d have to get out. The woman was Jim’s friend. They couldn’t attack her.
But Fay had misread the situation.
Cynthia sank onto her recliner and Squiffy leaped into her lap. “It was only yesterday I realized you’re Richard Olwen’s daughter. So this is Collegium trouble. Paul O’Halloran, the official New York porter, got his knickers in a twist when he couldn’t track you through the portal. I assume you used Jim’s tokens?”
“Yes. What about the Collegium guardians, the other watchers who were here before?”
Steve squeezed her hand. Keep calm. Don’t push her.
“They pulled out after I had a visit from a block of granite. He called himself Captain Lewis Bennett.”
“Ah.” Fay stopped vibrating with the two competing needs: for answers and to get the heck out of there and to the Collegium. She focused intently. Information was vital, especially if it meant allies.
Cynthia petted Squiffy. “Gee, was the captain ticked. Apparently his people hadn’t been watching for you by his orders. He sent them off sharp and asked me if I knew where you were. I could have guessed.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t know. I told him it’s not my responsibility to keep track of everyone who passes through my portal. Then he asked why I hadn’t informed the Collegium of my portal and how many more secret portals existed. So I kicked him out.” She set Squiffy on the floor. “Did the Collegium attack Jim?”
“Yes, but not for the portal. They were after me.”
“It’s interesting, though, how quickly they guessed Jim had a portal,” Steve said. “They came prepared to break its protections.”
“What did they use?” Cynthia asked tensely.
Fay hesitated. Despite everything, old loyalties made her wince away from admitting the truth. And then, she didn’t want to start a panic.
“They won’t use the weapon again,” she said. “The team brought two demonologists who used the channeled magic of bound demons to break Jim’s portal protections.”
“Demons,” Cynthia repeated.
“I know it’s wrong, but it’s not the whole Collegium that’s sick. I’m going to take out my dad, then the Collegium can heal itself. There won’t be more demons, even if I have to exorcise them myself.”
“Still,” Steve said. “I expect Jim will be working on protections that can withstand even demon-channeled power. Perhaps a loop that drags in and uses the power of the attack to stand stronger.”
Cynthia nodded slowly. “I’ll talk with him. Later.” She reached a decision. “If I’m ever not here, Squiffy will let you enter my portal. I’m sure Jim’s given you tokens. If you need to run, run here.”
The two women’s eyes met.
“Thank you,” Fay said. Cynthia understood they were going up against the Collegium. Despite Fay’s anger and power, and the justice of their cause, it could go devastatingly wrong. Steve probably had a were network retreat lined up. It was good to have her own escape route, even one known to the Collegium.
Interesting, that Lewis hadn’t known of the watch for her. He never bluffed. So if he’d told Cynthia the watch for Fay wasn’t on his orders, he’d be furious that someone had gone behind his back to control his forces, his guardians. Even with his magic powers burned out, Lewis’s anger would be formidable. His loyalty to the Collegium’s founding aims was absolute. That was why although he’d burned out his power, Lewis remained head of the guardian forces.
He’d be an ally for her and Steve within the Collegium—or at least willing to listen.
How many other senior members shared his outrage?
Peak hour crowds meant Fay and Steve set off for the subway rather than try for a cab. It was standing room only in the subway car. Not that it mattered. She was too edgy to sit.
As for Steve, his very stillness was a threat. He blocked the press of bodies from her and radiated a controlled ferocity that had even blasé commuters stepping back.
They got out at their stop and jogged up the stairs.
“Do you have a plan?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m going to take Dad out.”
“What does that mean?” He shot her a glance, keeping pace when she moved to a run, his breathing even.
They wove through pedestrians. Those who saw them coming shrank out of their way.
“Dad brought the Collegium into this because it’s his powerbase. But the Collegium is about service, about controlling power, not abusing it. I’m going to take Dad’s power from him, his position as President and the respect he’s enjoyed. Not just senior members, everyone has to know what he attempted.”
From the outside, the Collegium building looked ordinary, just another city building, tall, angular, and inward-looking. But the elegant steps were empty. No one entered, no one left.
“Lockdown,” Fay murmured. “Do you sense—“ She broke off. As a were, the spell wouldn’t affect Steve. “The Collegium is in lockdown. There’s a repelling spell in place for mundanes.”
“No witnesses or collateral damage.” He understood the implications. “Suits me. Will you be able to get in the door?”
“It’ll be us getting out that the Collegium guardians will resist.” She rolled her shoulders, shook them, and spread her fingers, shaking loose. She’d been a guardian. She knew what they’d try. But she’d also trained with them for years, and they’d never taken her down. Besides, they’d attacked her family. She wanted answers.
“Well, then.” Steve glanced up from the bottom of the steps. “Shall we?”
She pulled magic and wrapped it around herself and him.
“I can feel that.” He looked at her from topaz eyes, a heartbeat from shifting to leopard form.
“Protections. We’re walking out of here when I’m done.”
The polished concrete steps were slick from a spring shower. They climbed carefully, unhurried, and didn’t break stride as the automatic doors recognized her magic and slid open.
The foyer was filled to bursting with people talking, gesticulating and eddying. Fay recognized faces, added names, sifted and analyzed the scene. The movement of people from group to group wasn’t random. It was a physical expression of loyalties. More than the senior members had gathered at the Collegium this morning. Someone had to have put a call out.
Weather mages and foretellers, demonologists and gremlins with their affinity to all things mechanical, and warrior mages, the group Fay had belonged with, the frontline troops of the guardians. Captain Lewis Bennett was the center of that group, though he stood silent, watching Fay and Steve’s entrance.
His silence spread as others turned and recognized them, too.
Fay looked for Nancy. But Richard’s secretary, mistress and general go-between, the woman who mediated between the Collegium and its president , wasn’t there. Fay wondered what it meant. Had Nancy fled or was she emphasizing her loyalties and staying with Richard in his office? After all, when he lost power, so would she.
“Fay!” Emma Jonker, the woman Fay and Steve had saved from Oran’s attack, broke from a h
uddle of demonologists. A short, older woman followed in her wake. “Fay, President Olwen denies everything. He says it’s all treachery and lies. But it’s true. We saw it. The demon, the kills. Angus drank acid in his apartment.”
“Acid. That’s not suicide,” Steve said. “The man was too much a coward to choose such pain. That was punishment.”
Fay squelched a cold shiver. Punishment indeed. Someone had been very angry with Angus, and they’d had the power to defeat his protections and enter his home.
“I am now Chair of Demonology, Gilda Ursu.” The older woman introduced herself, but didn’t offer to shake hands. She had wary eyes, blue beneath drooping lids. Her hands were short-fingered, strong looking. She appeared both sensible and capable—not someone who’d have enjoyed working under Angus.
Emma ignored her new boss. “You have to make the President stop, Fay. Demons are dangerous. They shouldn’t be bound forever. They erode the bindings. They connect to humans. They eat our humanity.” She sucked in a sharp breath, clearly hearing the note of hysteria in her own voice. When she continued, her tone was level. Committed. “We need to banish them.”
“I know.” Fay glanced beyond her, speaking to Lewis Bennett’s quiet approach. “Dad attacked me in my mom’s home an hour ago. He used Collegium guardians and two demonologists to do so. They used demon-channeled power to break a portal’s protections. Dad endangered mundanes. He’s not fit to be President nor to wield any magic.”
Lewis’s mouth went tight.
“But you’re here, alive.” A middle-aged man in a stained tie and unpressed grey suit thrust the insinuation at her.
“I’m here to challenge Dad,” she said to Lewis.
“You haven’t proven need,” the unknown man insisted.
“Who are you?” Gilda snapped.
“Derek Hanny, a low level illusion talent,” Lewis supplied. “All purpose trouble-maker.” His voice was emotionless. “However, others will make the same charge.”
The crowded foyer was silent. Everyone listened.
“Fine.” Fay met the challenge. “Where is Ethan Drogan and his team?”
Lewis’s expression didn’t change. “Ethan went after you?”
“Nothing like guilt to add a touch of viciousness,” Steve said.
The two men locked gazes; both knowing Fay and Ethan’s romantic history, his betrayal.
“Ethan and his unit went silent twelve hours ago,” Lewis said. “No one knows where he is.”
“I do. He’s drying out after a swim.” Fay started for the elevators. “I thought they needed a lesson. No one attacks my family.”
“So you say.” Derek Hanny was brave in a crowd. He had an anonymous murmur of support. “But where is your proof?”
“I was there,” Steve said. “Do you challenge my word?” His voice rumbled with a make-my-day dare.
Derek backed away.
Lewis shook his head at Steve. “Leave him.” He looked around at their audience, at all the fascinated, reluctant and uncertain watchers. “The Senior Members are here. I called them in. They read your report. I investigated. President Olwen bypassed me to order the guardians to watch and attack Fay when she returned to New York two days ago.”
“The President has been busy. Angus bound the demons and used them with Olwen’s approval.” Gilda folded her arms. “Angus shouldn’t have, orders or no orders. But the Presidential approval was there. I won’t have it. Demons are too dangerous to gamble with.”
Over her shoulder, Emma nodded vigorously.
But others weren’t so sure. There was a movement, a ripple through the crowd. People didn’t want to believe the truth.
Fay studied the senior members. Their resentment at being called to act was obvious in their expressions and body language. By concentrating power in his hands her father had done more than consolidate his position, he’d robbed others of a sense of their own responsibility. She met the senior members’ accusing gazes with her chin up and scorn in her eyes.
Lewis broke the deadlock. “Enough. President Olwen has incited you all with talk of treachery. We are in lockdown because of the uncertainty.” Lewis addressed everyone. “It must end.”
“I will end it.” Fay dared anyone to deny her right to challenge her father. It was part of the Collegium’s charter. Challenge to the president was allowed if there was need. Demons being used to attack magic users and endanger mundanes definitely met the criteria set out for “need”.
Derek Hanny mumbled and retreated into the mass, but someone, in a faceless whisper objected. “Fay. But not the animal.”
The animal. The were. Steve.
Fay’s rage lit from ice storm to volatile inferno. Screw them. She was done playing by the rules. The steel bones of the building groaned as her magic reached out.
Steve’s hand closed around her wrist, halting retribution. He clasped her hand, interlacing their fingers.
Col Ellingham, another guardian, raised his voice. “I’ve fought with Steve Jekyll and I call him friend. Which is more than I’d do for many of you. Bigots. If Fay wants him with her, he has the right.”
“What right?” An elderly weather mage pushed forward, a senior member.
“The right of having shed blood for the Collegium,” Lewis intervened, his voice cold. “Steve’s worked and bled for us in the past.”
The demonologist Gilda smiled victoriously. Blood right couldn’t be ignored. The challenge would proceed.
The crowd opened in front of Fay and closed behind her, pushing forward, surging to accompany her to the President’s office.
“A challenge is not a spectator sport,” Steve said. Menace laced his voice.
Lewis nodded, then jerked his head at the warrior mages. They spread out, blocking the crowd. “Senior members only. To bear witness.”
Seven men and women, plus Lewis entered the elevator with Fay and Steve. She put her back to the doors and faced them. Four of them met her eyes directly.
“You’re glad to see me,” she charged.
“Damn right we are,” the weather mage said, though he edged away from Steve. “Richard’s unstable and he’s infecting the Collegium. He sees treachery everywhere—except in himself. And you know the position of the President. We can’t truth spell him to get at the truth. It would have to be voluntary, and he refuses.”
“Too jealous of his power,” Gilda said.
“President Olwen has shut himself in his office. Ties of loyalty mean we can’t force him from the President’s position, but we can withhold our powers somewhat.” Lewis pressed a button, holding the doors closed for a few extra seconds. “If you challenge him, Fay, it’ll be as a man and your father, not as the President with all the power that’s traditionally entailed.”
Chapter 17
The elevator doors opened. Fay stepped out, with Steve beside her. The echoes of her last visit engulfed her. Then, she’d been alone, raw and desperate. Now, as awful as the situation was, she could feel Steve’s strength. He would be there for her, fight with her.
She bumped her shoulder into his.
He glanced at her, the corner of his mouth turning up.
His return bump would have staggered a lesser woman. Fay was still smiling, remembering how it had all started at LaGuardia airport, when the corridor ended and they entered the outer office of the Presidential suite: Nancy’s domain.
The large glass vase that Fay had shattered when she’d broken her ties to the Collegium, had been replaced with a beaten copper vessel. It sat on a low table, and Nancy stood beside it. In front of the door to Richard’s office.
Nancy looked good. Her suit was a crimson red, bright and defiant—the color of fresh blood. She’d painted her fingernails to match, and they were on display with her hands at her hips, the nails filed to pointed tips. Black high heels had equally sharp toes.
And Nancy’s smile was sharpest of all. “Fay. I always hated you.”
Everyone stopped, just inside the room. It was odd how hate i
mmobilized them. The power of Nancy’s emotions throbbed, filling the space and pushing out the light.
Fay glanced at the windows. No, not just Nancy’s emotions. A storm was rolling in, pressing against the top floors of the building, closing in with furious intensity. It made the artificial lighting in the office starker.
A trick of reflection seemed to concentrate the light on the bronze sun disk that hung on the wall behind Nancy’s desk.
“You made your hate clear.” Fay walked forward.
Steve walked a pace behind her, protecting her back.
“Not as clear as I should have,” Nancy said. “But then, you were always hard to kill.”
Someone among the senior members gasped. Closer, Steve growled a low warning.
Fay felt the threat in the air, aimed at her. It whined and buzzed and whipped around the room. Nancy barely registered as a magic talent. It was in her employee file, part of the reason she’d been cleared to act as the president’s secretary. So where was the threat coming from? Fay looked over Nancy’s shoulder, at the door to Richard’s office.
But again, a flash of light glinted from the bronze sun disk, distracting her.
Her breathing hitched a fraction before deepening into battle-readiness. The disk wasn’t distracting her attention. It was claiming it. Guardian-honed magic instincts screamed at her.
Fay ignored the drama Nancy represented and focused on the sun disk.
It shimmered. Jagged flashes of light rippled over it, and spread through the room.
“Everybody out!” Fay shouted, even as she reached back and grabbed Steve’s arm. He had to stay. He’d fought demons before, and survived. “Out!”
Of course, these were senior members. No one listened to her.
And the demon stepped out of the sun disk.
It took the glimmering form of an elegant middle-aged man, short black hair just silvering at the temples, mouth seductive and full, body beautifully muscled and supple beneath a thin silk shirt and tailored trousers—all in the bronze of the sun disk.
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