Cari stepped back out of the guards’ line of fire, satisfied. Kaye might’ve gotten inside Dolan House, but she was not leaving it alive. Her father had wanted the High Seat of the Council for Dolan; well, this was Cari’s chance.
Kaye glanced impassively over her shoulder at the guards, then back to Cari. “I could have killed you when you were crying in the hallway.”
Cari saw Zel’s gaze flick to the service entrance. No more hiding there. No more hiding anywhere.
Cari shrugged at Kaye. “Too bad for you.”
“And”—Kaye opened her hands—“I am unarmed.”
“You’re never unarmed.” Brand was a fire mage.
“I came to help,” Kaye said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You should’ve thought of that before you spread your legs.” Dolan had never been allied with Brand, but still Cari’s father had respected the House, at least until it was clear how Kaye had risen so quickly in power and who her protectors were. Vicious angels.
Dolan House did not support the Council, would not, with Brand in the seat. Lines had been drawn.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kaye said. “Point is, you’ve been targeted.”
“We know who our enemies are.”
Protect the House. Her father’s voice again.
Cari looked to Zel, who was peeking back in the office. “Get out, get everyone away from here, but stay inside the Dolan wards.”
Zel shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”
“It wasn’t a request,” Cari shot back. She had a duty to her family. “Get everyone out.” Brand might not be contagious, but she was deadly.
With a long, desperate look, Zel fled the study. The guards stood their ground. Dolan only employed the loyal. The voices in the great hall rose for a moment, then broke into disparate pieces of quiet as her family fled to the sub-houses or shelters on the property.
Now it was just Dolan against Brand, and by the pitch of Shadow, Dolan would prevail. Cari would not disappoint the memory of her father. She would be enough for this. She’d make his memory proud.
Kaye shook her head. “No one knows which House is responsible for the recent deaths. There is no faction among us that has been left untouched.”
“Then whoever is doing this is simply covering their tracks.” Didn’t take a seat on the Council to be able to figure that out. “Kill someone from their own side to avoid reprisal.”
Kaye looked thoughtful. “Excellent point. And what if your father was murdered, your House challenged, not because of his own power and clout, but as a decoy in a larger plot?”
Took a second for the word “decoy” to attach to “father” in her mind.
No.
Couldn’t be. Her father was too great a man to die as a mere decoy.
Brand smiled. “And the killer left an inexperienced young woman in possession of Dolan House.”
“I’m only a year younger than you.” She could handle herself. She could be her father’s daughter. A gale of emotion was battering her like a cruel wind, but she turned her face into it. She wouldn’t fail him.
“I was not inexperienced when it came time for me to act.”
“I don’t want your kind of experience.”
The insult seemed to sail right past Kaye. “Nevertheless, it is still time for you to act.”
“I’ll do what I have to.” Cari was done crying at least. She could thank Brand for that much.
“I know,” Kaye said, “which is why I’ve come to help you.”
Cari shook her head no. Brand help Dolan? What a crock. Brand would take advantage of the turmoil in Dolan House to get Cari to do what she wanted.
Cari would fight her instead. Dolan Shadow was old and powerful. Brand fire against Dolan’s umbra.
“How about some incontrovertible facts?” Kaye winked. “Jack Bastian, my . . . significant other . . . works very hard to see that I am safe.”
Cari snorted. Significant other. Maybe it was her angel lover that was picking off mages one by one.
“But eventually whoever killed your father will attempt to kill me. Perhaps he or she already has tried, and Bastian’s angel light has kept the killer at bay.”
Cari smiled. “Or maybe the killer thinks you’ll be the instrument of your own destruction.”
“I admit, I am my own worst enemy.” Kaye smiled back. “But I don’t want to die. And I want this killer found before he can get to me. There is one House, and only one House, I know of that can identify the person responsible.”
Cari’s belly twisted. Something had been nagging at the back of her mind, something she’d refused to think about.
Kaye continued, “I was wondering if you got a sense of the killer when he attacked your father.”
“The sickness came out of nowhere.”
“But surely you searched for the antumbra before it dissipated into Shadow?” Kaye was direct, all business now. “You’d be able to recognize the mage from whom the tainted Shadow originated if you were to meet him or her again.”
By the time her father had fallen, Cari had already been feeling the effects of the poisoned Shadow. She hadn’t thought to search for the antumbra, the unique trail of magic a mage leaves behind. The ability was a Dolan property of magic—to see into the shadow souls of mages, past and present. To name them, to know them. The guards had dragged her away. And even if they hadn’t, she’d been too overcome to think . . . to act. She’d been caught in one extended, silent scream. Father!
She could’ve named his killer.
Kaye dropped her gaze to her hands, obviously waiting for Cari’s horrible realization to pass. “I’ve made some very painful mistakes myself.”
Cari burned; Kaye was right. She should’ve fought harder, thought harder. Her father would’ve still died, but she would have his murderer.
“But your mistake,” Kaye continued, “can be undone. You have only to investigate the scene, perhaps the next death, to discover the information you missed the first time. And in so doing, you could show magekind that Dolan House is still strong, still able, and is out for blood.”
That’s right.
She could try again.
She had to try again.
“And as you survived the plague, it stands to reason that you are immune. Very few have survived this.”
Cari put a hand to a welt on her neck, still so sore. She’d survived, was stronger than the plague. It suddenly occurred to her that the scars she would bear would show everyone that Dolan Shadow had been stronger.
“I propose a temporary alliance.”
Cari frowned at Brand. Fire wanting to ally with umbra?
“For the sole purpose of combining our talents and information to destroy the House responsible for the plague ripping through our people. We can’t afford to be weakened now; there are too many threats, from too many directions, to suffer this plague from one of our own kind.”
Kaye was talking like Cari’s father had, making sense. Yes, there was too much to worry about to let a mage destroy them from the inside.
Kaye cocked her head, surprise flexing her expression. “I’m glad you agree.”
“This mage needs to be stopped, his House broken.”
“We agree again.”
Cari couldn’t believe she was about to cooperate with Kaye Brand of all people. “I presume you have a plan as to how I would go about finding the next victim before the killer’s trail is lost.”
“Not a plan. More like a partner, another survivor,” Kaye answered. “He’s loyal to the Council, so that should appease those who won’t trust Dolan alone with this task. The pairing will keep everyone, or most everyone, cooperative.”
Kaye was deluding herself on that point, but Cari pressed on. “Who is it?”