Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,29

looked grim. “If you want out, you know I’ve got your back, but it’s going to be an uphill climb and they’re going to be dicks about it the whole way.”

I rounded a curve and the enormous mansion came into view in front of us. A half-dozen black Court SUVs were parked out front. Enforcers patrolled the grounds, alert for any signs of trouble. The recent uptick in violence against supes had everyone on edge.

“If they want to play rough, I can play rough,” I said as I parked to the right of the wide front steps.

“They won’t just target you,” he reminded me. “Like Moses, they’ll have no hesitation about going after those around you. I’m not trying to talk you out of it, but they’ll go to war if they think it’s necessary.”

I glanced up at the mansion and turned off the ignition. “So will we, Malcolm. If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get.”

I was met at Northbourne’s front door by an enforcer I knew. Carlos Rodriguez and I met during the first case I’d ever worked for the Court, when I was still an apprentice mage PI working for my mentor Mark Dunlap. We crossed the enormous lobby. Malcolm floated at my side, on high alert.

“How are you, Carlos?” I asked.

“I’m well, thank you,” he told me. “We’re going downstairs.”

I’d expected to be escorted to Valas’s audience chamber. “I thought I was meeting with Valas.”

“You are.” He led me down the hall to a wide stairwell. “She awaits you in one of the workshops.”

I disliked venturing into the sub-levels beneath Northbourne. Being underground made me antsy. I was also surprised Valas was downstairs; I got the impression she rarely left her suite unless the Court was in session in one of the courtrooms. With my status as Sean’s partner, Malcolm at my side, my wolf on high alert, and the amount of magic I had running through me, I felt quite certain I could protect myself if Valas’s intentions weren’t what they seemed, and get out of Northbourne if push came to shove. Still, there’d better be a damn good reason for meeting in the basement.

We followed Carlos down to sub-level one. He placed his palm on the scanner beside the double doors that led to the magic workshop area. The doors unlocked and Carlos held one open for me. “After you, Ms. Worth.”

Our little group walked down a long concrete hallway, passing doors I knew led to workshops used by mages, witches, and practitioners of other kinds of magic. One was marked with an inverted pentagram beside the door. I hurried past it. I’d faced black witches twice in that room, and none of those memories were pleasant.

Carlos led us to a set of unmarked doors near the end of the hall. The wards on the room sizzled on my skin.

“Damn,” Malcolm said, clearly impressed. “Heavy-duty containment wards and a bunch of Gandalf wards too.” Gandalf wards were what Malcolm called wards designed not to let anything through—as in You shall not pass. “Whatever’s in there, they don’t want anyone getting near it, or anything getting out.”

I had a pretty good idea what was in that room. It was priceless, and quite possibly the most dangerous object in the building. And it was meant for me. Hooray.

The doors opened, revealing Matthias. I could see almost nothing of the room beyond, which was large and dimly lit. “Ms. Worth, welcome,” he said, sounding very formal. “Madame Valas awaits you.” He used two fingers to draw a rune on the wall near the doors and the wards formed a doorway.

I stepped inside with Malcolm right behind me. Carlos stayed in the corridor. Matthias closed the doors and the wards flared again.

The room was almost as large as Valas’s audience chamber, but without its high vaulted ceiling. My senses tingled, alerting me that a lot of magic had been used in this room, including unfamiliar forms of occult magic and blood magic too. We were in a dark magic multi-purpose room, apparently, with embedded containment and perimeter wards for containing and protecting people and things kept inside.

A dozen large candelabras illuminated the middle of the room, leaving the rest in darkness. In the center of a wide stone circle inlaid in the floor was a tall, thin object covered with a red silk sheet: the mirror Valas had obtained from Elizabeth, the head of the Chicago Vampire Court.

Glyphs and runes filled the stone circle. Some were mage