Curse the Dawn

"I'm not wearing a corset." For once, Augustine had refrained from trying to asphyxiate me.

"Then would you mind attempting to look a little less like you're about to fall over? You are supposed to be projecting an aura of strength."

I took the champagne, but my hand was shaking enough to spill a few drops onto my bodice. "I'm trying!" I hissed as someone began weeping softly. "And what the hell is that?"

"Us, going up in flames," Casanova said, leaving as abruptly as he'd come.

Augustine was looking a little smug. "Okay, what did you do?" I demanded.

"Call it insurance," he said cryptically as more leather-trench-coat-wearing «tourists» filtered in through the door. They were war mages, the Circle's version of a police force, FBI and CIA all rolled up into one maniacal package. I'd expected to see at least a few of them around as a precautionary measure. This was more than a few.

I did a quick visual survey and decided we might have a problem. Because the agreement Pritkin had worked out explicitly stated that each side could have no more than a dozen members present at the meeting. Ours were scattered around the room, mostly vampires on loan from Casanova. The mages had also fa

One day I was going to find allies who didn't try to kill me on a regular basis. One fine, fine day.

Francoise, the pretty brunette witch flanking me on the other side from Augustine, shifted uncomfortably. "Pritkin, 'e ees 'ere, no?" she asked, her French accent more pronounced than usual. That meant she was nervous. Probably because, while she still had a little trouble with English, she could count as well as I could.

"Yeah."

"I do not see 'im."

"That's kind of the point."

I'd have preferred to have Pritkin glued to my side, in case this went the way of every other encounter with the Circle I'd ever had. But he'd argued that he could keep a better eye on the overall scenario if he had more freedom of movement. Francoise was there to run temporary interference if things got out of hand.

I wouldn't have told her for anything, but that didn't make me feel a lot better. I didn't doubt her ability, but the fact was that the Circle didn't play by the rules. Sometimes, I didn't think they even had any rules. And they were supposedly the good guys. No wonder I was always in trouble.

"Zere are too many mages," Francoise muttered, casting a glance at the entrance, where two more were sauntering over the bridge that separated the land of the living from the underworld. Below them, a couple of Charons were poling boats laden with clueless tourists across the Styx, or what passed for it. The vacationers were laughing and tossing coins into the water, making the usual jokes about paying the ferryman.

"They won't try anything surrounded by norms," I said, more to convince myself than her.

"Zey are already trying somezeeg!" she pointed out, frowning like someone who badly needed to be cheered up by some decent leadership. I kind of felt that way myself; unfortunately the one in charge was me.

"Are you pla

"If I leave, what then?" I asked reasonably. "We need the Circle."

"And we need you alive!"

"They haven't done anything yet."

"Other than deceive us," Pritkin said in his let-me-explain-this-to-you-in-little-words voice. "We said a dozen; I've counted more than twice that many. And if they will break one promise, why not another? We'll have to try again."

"And what if they refuse to meet again?" They didn't like me already; a deliberate snub might be the last straw. If we were ever going to reconcile, someone had to take a risk and show a little trust. And it didn't look like it was going to be them.

"Miss Palmer. ."

"I thought we'd agreed that you were going to call me Cassie."

"There are a few things I'd like to call you. Now get out of there!"

"I'll shift out if there's trouble," I promised.

"If they explode a null bomb, you won't be able to shift!"

"We discussed this," I reminded him. "If they use a null bomb, it will cancel out all magic in the area—including theirs—and Casanova's boys will wipe the floor with them. I only want to talk to Saunders for a few minutes."

"He isn't here! He sent one of his lieutenants instead. Richardson. He just came in."

And sure enough, three mages had broken off the pack and started toward me. I didn't have to ask which one was in charge. The man in the center was middle-aged and distinguished looking, with startlingly blue eyes and graying auburn hair that was swept back from a high forehead. He was wearing a business suit in a neat gray pinstripe with a bright blue tie. He looked more like a diplomat than a warrior. Maybe they actually did intend to talk.

"Get out now!" Pritkin repeated, sounding furious.

"If I leave, what then?" I whispered. "We don't have a Plan B."

"And if you die, we'll never have a chance to form one!"

"Damn it, Pritkin. We need the Circle!" He didn't reply. Maybe because Richardson and his cold-eyed buddies had arrived.

"I thought we'd agreed no more than twelve per side," I said, and immediately wished I could take it back. I hadn't pla

Richardson didn't look ruffled, however. "Had we met at a neutral site, we would have kept the bargain. But this" — he swept out a hand to indicate the gothic gloom of Dante's lobby—"is not neutral."

"It's a public place! And if you had an objection, you might have mentioned it before now!"

"A public place owned by your master and run by his servants."

"I don't have a master."

He smiled condescendingly. "That is what the vampires said. They speak highly of you." It didn't sound like a compliment.

"But you don't believe them."

"Tell me about Nicholas," he said instead of answering.

It took me a second to respond, because I'd known Nick only by the abbreviated version of his name. He'd been a war mage acquaintance of Pritkin's, one who had turned against the Circle but hadn't joined my side. He had preferred his own.

I paused, wondering how to explain the complex series of events that had left the only book with a translation of Artemis' spell in Nick's hands, forcing Pritkin to kill him to keep it safe. I really hoped Nick and Richardson hadn't been friends. "He was going to use the Codex for his own ends," I finally said.

"Yes, so we were told. Unfortunately, there isn't a shred of evidence to that effect. Unless you perhaps still have it? Even a page—"

"It was burnt."

Richardson pursed his lips. "How unfortunate."

"Pritkin did what was necessary—"

"On your orders."

I started to argue the point but shut my mouth without saying anything. I hadn't ordered Nick's death, but I'd known how Pritkin worked and what his solution was likely to be. And I'd made no attempt to stop him. It was one of many decisions weighing on my conscience these days, although I still couldn't see another alternative. If Nick had succeeded, we'd all be dead now—probably even him.

"We did what we had to do, whether you choose to believe that or not," I told him.

"We all do," Richardson commented mildly, offering his hand.

This conversation wasn't going as well as I'd hoped, but at least we were talking. It was a start.