Emerald Blaze

by Ilona Andrews

  And now I had a choice to break my heart or his. I picked mine.

  “Don’t roll your eyes at me, missy. I know men.”

  I put my hand out. “TMI.”

  “He looks at you the way Shadow looks at bacon in the morning. You look at him like you have to put a straitjacket on yourself every time he is near. You tried breaking up. It didn’t stick, because wild horses couldn’t drag the two of you apart.”

  “Grandma, he’s been back for less than forty-eight hours. When did you even see any of this?”

  “I spied on you talking with him in the driveway through the security cameras.”

  Once this was over, we had to buy a new place. One where I could have a tiny crumb of privacy.

  Grandma Frida pounded her fist on the table. “Listen to me, you dummy! Most men can’t even hold a conversation with you because your brain is too fast. You say two words to him, and he knows what you mean. You only have so many chances to connect with a person. You can always walk away, Catalina, that’s the simplest thing. I don’t want you to push him away and then regret it for the rest of your life.”

  “Grandma, I’m an adult. I will sort it out. I love you, but you have to butt out of my relationships.”

  “Well, I am an older adult. I’ve lived a long time, and when I look back, I don’t regret the things I’ve done. I regret the things I didn’t do, chances I didn’t take. Because you can’t get those back. At least give him a shot.”

  The timer on the stove went off. I grabbed two cutting boards and slid pizzas onto them one by one.

  “Nobody is saying you have to marry him.”

  I sliced the pizzas and brought the cutting boards to the table.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “Yes, Grandma.”

  I put two plates on the table.

  Grandma Frida shook her head. “How did I end up with all these smartass grandchildren?”

  “Genetics.”

  “Ooo.” Grandma Frida wagged her finger at me and took a slice of pizza.

  I winked at her and bit into my slice.

  Bern walked into the kitchen. “I smell food.”

  “There’s plenty,” I said.

  He went to the cabinet to get some plates. “I ran the statistics on the Pit. It’s been steadily growing, at about three to five feet per year. Three months ago, the rate of erosion quadrupled. It’s no longer uniform either. Stretches of land disappear in random places. It’s not natural.”

  The Abyss was expanding its territory. If it just stayed in the Pit, it could be contained, but it wouldn’t. As Regina said, the Abyss would grow, because it was no longer a construct. It was alive. Life expanded, devoured, consumed, and expanded again. A cold, slimy surge of anxiety squirmed through me, dragging nausea in its wake. We had to stop it and I had no idea how.

  Bern brought two plates over. I made a point to look at them.

  “You realize this is silly, right?”

  Bern shrugged and reached for Grandma Frida’s pizza slice. She slapped his hand.

  “Mine. Get your own.”

  I got up. “You can have mine. The antivenom shot isn’t sitting well anyway.”

  Grandma Frida blinked at me. “Why did you need an antivenom shot?”

  “Love you, Grandma, gotta go.”

  I escaped and went to my room. My body felt heavy and tired. Brushing my teeth and changing clothes was almost too much. I forced myself to do it anyway, and then I called Marat.

  “Kazarian,” he answered.

  “This is Catalina Baylor. I’ve learned more about the being in the Pit. Marat, we have to shut down the site.”

  “Out of the question,” he said. “I gave you everything you asked for.”

  “This isn’t about the investigation. This is about your safety. The creature in the Pit is extremely dangerous. It’s been enlarging the Pit, and it will attack you.”

  “Every day we don’t work, we sink deeper into the hole.”

  “Would your wife and children rather have you or a pile of money? My father died and I would do anything for just one more day with him. Please shut it down. At least until we figure out how to kill it. Please.”

  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 n
eed 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.”

  “Of course,” Cornelius said. “Smile, Bunny.”

  Bunny bared a forest of teeth.

  Three minutes later, armed with new IDs, we took the elevator to Tatyana’s office on the fifth floor.

  I had imagined cherrywood and black glass and possibly random flames jetting out of the floor. Instead, I got white marble floors, pale walls, indoor plants, and tons of sunshine streaming through the massive windows.

  Tatyana sat behind a beige desk molded from a single block of plastic into a curved ergonomic form. The desk supported a computer, a two-foot-tall glass sculpture shaped like a tongue of flame glowing with red and orange, and a cute kitten made of frosted glass with blue eyes and a swipe of glitter on its ears.

  There it was, the difference between Cheryl and Tatyana in a nutshell. Both women were somewhat close in age and income. Both had gone through the same schools. Both ran multimillion-dollar companies and dressed the part. But Cheryl would rather be dead than have a cute glass kitten on her desk. She micromanaged her image. Tatyana didn’t give a damn what other people thought of her, because she had nothing to prove. She was powerful and confident, and if she wanted to have a kitten with glitter on its ears on her desk, she would have one. I pitied anyone who tried to tell her it was unprofessional. That would be a good show to watch.

  Tatyana saw us, stood up, and walked around her desk. She wore a seafoam dress with a square neckline. Her makeup was expertly applied, neither too much, nor too little. She’d twisted her hair into a knot and stuck a pencil into it. Her feet were bare, her taupe-colored heels lay abandoned under the desk.

  Tatyana crossed her arms over her ample chest, looked at Cornelius, then looked at me. “Good move bringing him.”

  “She didn’t bring me. I brought myself,” Cornelius said.

  “Of course you did. How is Diana?”

  “She’s well.”

  Tatyana nodded at the chairs. “Sit.”

  I took the chair on the left. Cornelius chose the one on the right. Bunny lay down on the floor by Cornelius and stared at Tatyana like she was a striking cobra. She glanced at the ID clipped to his collar. The corners of her mouth curved, threatening to stretch into a smile. She caught herself and killed it.

  “Let’s start with July 15th,” Cornelius said.

  Tatyana leaned her butt against her desk. “Is this necessary? Montgomery’s goons already verified my schedule.” She glanced at me. “How does that work, by the way? Are you taking orders from Augustine?”

  “That’s not relevant,” Cornelius said.

  “On the contrary, that’s very relevant. Morton drove a truck to MII’s headquarters and dumped a load of money on their doorstep. Montgomery sprang into action before ever talking to any of us. Agents everywhere, staff questioned, witnesses contacted. Then twenty-four hours later he drops the case in your lap. You’re what, twelve? Are you sleeping with him? Because really, he’s too old for you.”

  Cornelius leaned back. “Does this type of misdirection usually work for you?”

  “You would be surprised,” Tatyana told him.

  “It will go faster if you disclose whatever it is you want to hide,” Cornelius said. “I’ll ferret it out eventually and it would save us time.”

  Tatyana looked at me. “Do you ever speak?”

  “Yes,” I told her.

  “Hallelujah.”

  Cornelius threw one long leg over the other. His expression turned stern. Uh-oh.

  “I see that House Pierce hasn’t changed. I used to wonder if Adam was an aberration, but now I see that he was a direct product of his upbringing and environment. Not surprising.”

  Tatyana stared at him. Behind her, flames shot out of a hidden fissure and for a moment she was silhouetted against a wall of fire. Wow.

  “Choose your words more carefully,” Prime Pierce warned.

  Cornelius reached into his pocket, took out his wallet, pulled a dollar out, and handed it to me.

  The flames died.

  “When I wa
s a child,” Cornelius said, “I took the blame for Adam’s mistakes and I endured his punishments for him. Your family turned me into a whipping boy.”

  Tatyana flinched.

  “When eight-year-old Adam was caught stealing and burned the face of the store owner’s relative, disfiguring him, I was grounded for a month because I failed to help him make good choices. When twelve-year-old Adam set a girl’s clothes on fire, because she refused to let him grope her, and her entire body blistered, I was put on restriction for three months. My electronic privileges were revoked, my food intake was cut in half, and I couldn’t step a foot out of my room unless I was going to school. I went three months without direct contact with any of my animals. When Adam was sixteen and he burned down a club because they refused to let him in, the dog who had been my friend and protector since I was nine years old was put down as my punishment.”

  Oh my God.

  “I loathe your family, Tatyana. I’d like nothing more than to ruin House Pierce entirely. Unfortunately, I’m bound by professional ethics. They dictate that my priority is to obtain the information I need. You have a choice to make. You know which path I would relish more.”

  Tatyana looked at him. The office fell completely silent.

  She uncrossed her arms and rested them on the desk on both sides of her.

  “You’re right, Cornelius. My younger brother is a sadistic little shit. I don’t know if God made him like that or he got warped along the way. I do know that my father ignored it and my mother made it infinitely worse. Either way, you’ve suffered, and I am sorry for it.”

  Well, knock me over with a feather.

  Tatyana leaned forward. “However, your family is just as complicit in your torture as mine. They chose to put you into this situation by deciding to use you to buy my family’s patronage. They chose to inflict the punishments. All of them. And they may not have loved you the way parents should, but at least they ignored you when Adam wasn’t trying to torch everything in sight. You could go home and be safe, Cornelius. I never got to be safe. I had to go back to the hell that was my family every day and try to survive between my father, who ratcheted the pressure because I was never good enough, and my mother, who punished me for the smallest infraction I committed. When Peter’s magic manifested, I cried in my room. These weren’t sad tears. I cried from happiness, because I realized they would now let me be. So yes, we are all fucked up. You are not special. Get over it or don’t. Your choice. I refuse to allow my parents’ shadow to rule my life. They fucked up my childhood, they don’t get to fuck up the rest. I’m an adult, I make my own decisions, and I own my mistakes. Your future is your responsibility, not theirs.”