“Then, you’re aware of the complication between Edward and Carlos,” I observed.
“Oh yes. He tried to teach me some way to repair it, but I simply don’t have any such power. It was you who gave him hope it could work at all. But it doesn’t. At least not with me.”
“What? What idea did I give him?”
“Remember back with the organ?”
I nodded. Yes, I remembered the organ that had been the vessel and prison of a vengeful ghost. The case had come to me at the same time as Cameron’s because of my fresh awakening to the Grey.
“You suggested that vampires, being creatures who live in the power of death, might have some ability to channel that power. You remember?”
“Uh . . . yes, I do.” I had to think hard on that point. I’d been very tired and confused by that stage in the investigation and I’d only made the suggestion on an idiotic impulse. Sometimes my unconscious is a lot more clever than my conscious mind, and more prone to blurting.
Cameron’s mouth lifted in a smile that didn’t go any further than his lips. “And it’s partially true, but we can’t direct or control that power. We tried, he and I. But it’s passive. Only a powerful necromancer, like Carlos, can make anything of it. So we failed and he continues to be at Edward’s mercy.”
I nodded, knowing that much from Carlos and my own experience. “But surely the situation between them is different now. I got that impression at least.”
Cameron shrugged. “Yes, but how does it matter? In the current upheaval, he’s unable move in any direction. He can’t reject Edward and secure his position with another faction because of the tie between them, but he can’t do anything to support him either; they’ve been enemies for too long. Who would believe it? So he’s suspect and under attack himself. Not that he’s worried about most of the other vampires; it’s only the Pharaohn that scares him.”
“Anyone should be scared of the Pharaohn,” I said.
“Most of us are. The ones who aren’t are either his own or too young and stupid to survive. But we cleave to power and most would rather be under his protection than on his hit list. They’re just squabbling to prove who’s good enough to be second lieutenant.”
“So, without Edward, Seattle’s vampires are currently in a power vacuum with Wygan poised to topple the dominoes he’s been putting in place for . . . how long?”
“Centuries,” Cameron replied. “And at the moment, he’s the only option we seem to have, outside of willful naïveté. There is no one else capable or in the right position. As far as Carlos and I have been able to determine, that, too, was part of the plan. And we’ve all stumbled blindly into it like sheep.”
“So you two have discussed this in the past few days.”
Cameron nodded, grim-faced. It appeared he knew most of what Carlos knew and I guessed. He probably had a much better idea than I of what Carlos wanted from this conversation. That granted me some relief, but only a little. I still felt a bit like I was walking through a darkened minefield, fighting the pull of the grid and the holes in my own knowledge, but I pushed forward with the idea I was getting about what Carlos expected from us, hoping for confirmation in Cameron’s response.
“What if Carlos could stand against the Pharaohn . . . ?” I suggested. It wasn’t entirely an original idea of mine: The more fractious of Seattle’s sanguinary brotherhood, not privy to the reason it was impossible, had muttered in favor of Carlos toppling Edward for as long as I’d known them. As terrifying as the necromancer was, his evident power was attractive to them over the suave manipulation of their now-missing leader.
“That would be a battle worth seeing,” Gwen’s voice floated from the far end of the sofa.
Cameron and I both turned our heads in her direction.
She gave us a thoughtful smile. “He’d lose, but it would be interesting. And terribly sad.” Her voice was still as soft as ever, but the timbre of it had turned to steel in silk. She still dressed like the subject of a Waterhouse painting, but she no longer drifted through her un-life, it seemed, but floated with a disguised will. Underestimating her would be foolish beyond measure, and yet most people probably did. She had become a frightening monster, indeed.
“Why?” I felt compelled to ask.
“It would be tragic to lose Carlos. Ned, though I love him, is too much a fool and too fond of his own ideas. Any strongman among the Seattle pack could replace him with less impact than the death of a mayfly. They are none of them as clever or charming as they imagine, none of them so well equipped for the job as Alice was. But . . . she’s gone and no one has the power to destroy the Pharaohn alone. It would take cunning, power, and a perfect opportunity. So, unless Carlos can defeat the Pharaohn through craft and subtlety, Seattle will fall to Wygan.”
“Which is worse than you know,” I added, thinking very fast on what I knew of the Pharaohn and his abominable children. “Wygan doesn’t intend to rule Seattle—why should he when it’s chaos and fear that he really craves? If Seattle was all he wanted, he’d have killed Edward already. It just happens that everything he needs to gain control of the flow of the Grey is here. And that includes Edward, and Carlos, and me.”
Cameron scowled. “Carlos said as much, too. But he won’t tell me what the Pharaohn means to do.”
“He doesn’t know; I do,” I said. “Our conversation on the phone was too short for me to tell him.” I had difficulty continuing; the chorus of the grid shouted at me to keep silent, to protect it, to say anything other than what lay on the tip of my tongue. But I had to tell them: It was the only way we could do anything to stop Wygan’s plans, and though I was sure they had the parts, only I—and probably Carlos—had the whole picture, even if my view of it was a little fuzzy here and there. I had to force words out, like cold molasses drawn through a straw. “You know . . . your world . . . is . . . separate. Protected....”
“Separated from the normal world, concealed. Yes. Protected by a guardian beast—the ultimate Guardian, actually,” Cameron finished. “It keeps the normal world from flooding in, and ours from . . . being exposed.”
I nodded, mentally thanking Carlos for teaching his protégé well, but selectively. It made my words flow a little easier, but only a little. “Wygan’s plan. Is. To change the role. To replace. That Guardian.” Some of it was an informed guess, but the heart-stopping difficulty in saying it confirmed I was right.
For a moment they waited, expecting me to go on, but that was all I had.
Cameron figured it out first. “With himself?”
Another nod from me and I could feel the angry constraint of the Grey loosening on my chest. I sagged, catching my strangled breath again.
Gwen finished it. “And from there, magic itself falls into chaos and all creatures such as we are swept up in it. Not just our world, but everywhere that magic flows will become the maelstrom and food for his kind.”
I nodded at her, hating that vision, and offered the only solution I could think of: “If Carlos and I can stop Wygan,” I suggested, “Seattle would be his for the asking.”
“But Carlos has no interest in claiming the city,” Cameron said.
“Are you sure?” I asked him, not turning my head away from Gwen as I glanced from the corner of my eye at Cam.
He gave an adamant nod, also keeping his eyes on Gwen. “Oh, yes.”
“Could it be forced on him?”
Cameron laughed at me. “You try it.”
I shook my head in despair. “So that leaves no one, even if the Pharaohn’s plans are defeated. Which they have to be.”
“Unless you can rescue Edward,” Sarah suggested.
Gwen stroked the other woman’s arm, shaking her head with a woeful expression. “Even then, Ned’s reign is over. He fell to the enemy; he left the city to the mercy of the mob and the Pharaohn. They won’t have him back. Carlos is the only chance we have—and only if he can act independently of Edward.”