Maybe it’s working.
The shadow of the container fell on the queen of spiders.
Jadwiga bolted across the desk and skittered down onto the carpet, up the wall, and into an AC vent.
Damn it. I tossed the container back into the drawer.
The sound of panting made me raise my head. Rooster sat in the doorway of my office, her gaze fixed on a point above her head.
Ah. “My sister got under your skin.”
The empty air tore in random spots and melted into Konstantin in his sunny angel form. He was carrying Arthur’s rubber band machine gun.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he said. “As the best illusion Prime in the world, I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Please, come in.”
He entered, sat in my client chair, and put my nephew’s contraption onto the table. “This awkward weapon came for you by drone. I volunteered to deliver it.”
Nevada reminding me of my promise.
“Have you tested it?” I asked, nodding at the weapon.
He nodded. “Surprisingly it works.”
Rooster put her head on his thigh and looked at me. He petted her.
“Traitor,” I told her.
“It’s not her fault. Dogs like me.”
“How about spiders?”
He chuckled. “Not at all, I’m afraid.”
“Of course now that I know you have subverted your guard, I’ll need to replace her.”
“No need.” Konstantin scratched Rooster’s ear. “Arkan landed in Houston twenty minutes ago under an assumed identity. I would guess we have until dawn. He likes to be dramatic. Also, visibility is particularly poor before sunrise. Dusk would also work, but he doesn’t want to stumble around this massive house in the dark.”
It was all coming to an end.
“A penny for your thoughts?” he asked.
“I’ve realized I’m a talented amateur who has a long way to go and I’m dealing with that.”
“Ah. And here I thought you were brooding in here because Alessandro is talking to his mother. I stopped by for a few moments. It seemed very emotional.”
I smiled at him. “I quite liked my future mother-in-law.”
Rooster decided to lie down, and Konstantin put one leg over the other. “Oh? What is it you like about her?”
“She has excellent aim.”
He frowned.
We sat in silence for a few moments.
“Arkan will attack tomorrow,” Konstantin said. “Have you given any thought to what will come after?”
I had given all sorts of thoughts to what would come after, but my plate was rather full at the moment. “I don’t follow.”
Konstantin’s face shifted.
The golden angel was gone. The man remaining in his place was handsome but very much human. He was still blond, but his skin had lost the perfect golden tan. His features were refined, but harsh. A square jaw, an uncompromising mouth, clear focused eyes under thick blond eyebrows. A scar crossed his left cheek from the temple down to the chin, just missing the corner of his mouth. It was almost the same color as his face, so it had to be old, but whatever had made it must have cut deep.
Rooster let out a soft woof. He bent down and stroked her head, and she went quiet.
“I thought it would be best to have this conversation face-to-face.”
His voice matched the new him. Brisk, to the point, without his usual relaxed informality. He was showing me the real Konstantin and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be flattered or alarmed.
“May I see the wings?”
He showed me his. It was only fair.
I let my wings out. They opened above my shoulders, a beautiful shimmering green. I pushed with my magic, and jet-black rolled over them from my back to the feather tips, turning them bloodred for a split second.
Konstantin raised his eyebrows.
I let the black color in my feathers die and shook the green feathers slightly, keeping all of my magic to myself. “Can you continue with the conversation, or would you like me to put them away?”
“Does it drain you?”
“No. The effort is in keeping them contained.”
“In that, we’re similar. Like you, I generate an excess of magic. Maintaining a slight illusion burns some of it off.” He looked at my wings. “They are mesmerizing.”
That’s the idea. “What did you want to talk about?”
“You understand that Alessandro will die tomorrow?”
Anxiety pinched me. “You seem very certain of that.”
“Have you seen the recording of Alessandro’s father’s death?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Arkan’s magic was unique and terrible. When he unleashed it, he stopped time. It couldn’t be the true nature of his power, but that’s what it looked like. He had gone to the wedding of Marcello’s best friend to kill him, and when Alessandro’s father put himself between Arkan and his target, Arkan had immobilized the entire wedding party. Even their wounds didn’t bleed until the effect wore off. It wasn’t something one would forget.
Konstantin was looking directly at me. He had a magnetic gaze, difficult to meet, but once you did, it held you like a tractor beam.
“Arkan’s magic can’t be countered. Five seconds of pure freedom to do whatever the hell he wants while everyone else stands petrified. His range is twenty-five meters. He can effectively immobilize a chunk of any battlefield. His magic has no name. He’s one of a kind. None of his siblings inherited his power and neither did his son.”
“He has children?”
“Had. A boy. He died. He looked a bit like Xavier.”
“And you kept that fact to yourself.”
He nodded. “You might have hesitated to kill him. We needed Arkan enraged. It’s fortunate that Huracan lived up to his name.”
“You plot too much, Your Highness.”
“It’s an occupational hazard. Alessandro can nullify all the magic around him. In theory, a perfect counter to Arkan. But Alessandro requires a circle to do his ultimate trick, while Arkan does not, and Alessandro won’t use that circle tomorrow.”
Where was he going with this? “How do you know?”
“It’s omni-directional. His power cannot be aimed. He quashes all magic in an eight-hundred-meter radius, an equivalent of a magical EMP bomb.”
It was nine hundred meters, actually.
“Your family requires magic to fight, while Arkan’s people are trained killers even without their powers. If Sasha detonates his antimagic bomb tomorrow, you, your sisters, your cousins, your grandparents, all of you will become ordinary civilians, while Arkan will still have dozens of professional assassins at his disposal.”
He thought Alessandro’s power functioned like an environmental spell, affecting a certain area as long as you were in it. He was wrong. Alessandro’s blast affected people within the area, but not the environment itself.
“Arkan is an excellent killer,” Konstantin continued. “He was trained by the best in the Imperium. Sasha is a superb fighter, true, except he relies on his talent too much. He is younger and faster, but he alone won’t be enough if the rest of you lose your powers. No matter where Arkan will be on that battlefield tomorrow, Alessandro would hone in on him like a guided missile. Whatever plans you’ve made, they will all go out of the window once the two of them see each other.”
A few days ago I might have believed that was true. Even now doubt nagged at me. But Alessandro had made me a promise. Either I trusted the man I loved or there was no way for us to be together.
“You’re probably thinking of your mother and her sniper rifle right now. It won’t work.”
I wasn’t thinking that, but it wasn’t a bad suggestion.
“What I am about to share is a state secret. Technically I’m committing treason.” Konstantin gave me a narrow, humorless smile. “The petrification is Arkan’s active talent.”