Or had Mainet himself been to the city at some point and set it all up? Had he come to the city unbeknownst to the master of the city, working evil under Amaury’s nose, from the hidden house? Crap.
Right now maybe the whys, whos, and whens didn’t matter. They might never matter. We had enough for any grouping of paras to be part of a Rule of Three, forchaining an angel and a demon. And at any moment Mainet would get tired of trying to come through a circle and find a better way.
I had to end this war and kill Mainet Pellissier.Right. Short-term goal: kill Mainet.
CHAPTER 23
So Much for Cornbread
Stretching my shoulders, which were hurting and still bleeding beneath my armor, I searched the sky for the arcenciels. They had floated closer, fully visible to human eyes, Pearl glistening like the inside of a thousand seashells, Opal glowing like the stone for which she was called. Both arcenciels were staring at the circle, their eyes lustrous, their mouths snarling, with all those horrible fangs. Their frills were rippling with fury, tails lashing.
Mainet appeared again. Opal snapped at him. Yelped. Jerked back, as if she had been burned.
Her voice ringing like bells, Pearl said, “The circle is powered by the darkness of the realm of no return.”
Demon smut coated the ward. Yeah. That was what I had seen when my team fired at Mainet. Demons... Maybe they had to use the transport circle to help a demon manifest? Or vice versa?
Opal said, “Behold, that drinker of blood is the one who ordered the death of our sister, Storm. In this time, he carries her blood upon him. As he appears from thepast, he has not yet taken her blood. If you kill him from the past, she will not die.”
Storm had been killed by Mainet’s henchman, and her blood had been stolen, taken away in a cup. Back to Mainet. The Mainet who, if he came through from his younger time, into this time, if he was successful, would have different weapons from the ones used by this current Mainet. And crap. Would I be dealing with two Mainets? One from then and one from now? We needed to kill the old Mainet before he stopped trying to get through and went to Plan B. But if I killed him here, from another time, that would break the time cycle, and change the present, where I might then not be here to kill him. Time travel stuff made my head hurt. Was Mainet a butterfly in the pathway of time?
“We will kill him if we can,” Pearl said. “We will fill him with our bites until he no longer exists.”
Those words lingered on the night air. In some way, the arcenciels might be our allies tonight. Or perhaps our worst enemies who would just kill us all and be done with it.
Mainet appeared. I threw Hayalasti Sixmankiller’s shattered stone at thedeath hedge. The stone bounced off. The Heir disappeared.
I asked into my mic, “Why tonight? What’s so special about tonight, versus say, last night or tomorrow night?”
“Historically, nothing. Celestially, it’s the new moon,” Alex said.
Over a high-pitched engine in the background, screaming loud, Koun said, “Black magic is strongest on a new moon.”
“But he could have taken a jet and walked in any night of any new moon.”
“But you would not have been here, then, My Queen,” Koun said. “This is likely to be the only new moon that you will spend here, in all of your life.”
Okay. And if he had a seer, he might know I had the Glob and other stuff he might want. Right. My stomach did a gainer and I swallowed back more bile, wishing I had a Coke to settle me.
Mainet appeared again. Stabilized. He was dressed inwhat looked like a modern black business suit. Every weapon focused on him. Jermaine and Koun moved closer, swords raised in case he dropped thedeath hedge.
Mainet lifted his hand, holding something in his fist. He started to step through the circle. And vanished. “What’s stopping him?” I asked. And then it hit me. I reached up and touched where the null sticks had been threaded through my armor. There had been six. I had pulled three and stabbed a witch. I had no idea where they were. There were only two still threaded in my armor. “Somebody shine a flash into the circle. See if I dropped a null stick in it.”
Tex gestured his dogs to sit and stay, then he moved closer. Fawn adjusted her aim to compensate for his position and to provide a wider arc of cover. Tex knelt well outside the circle and pulled a small penlight, which he shone across the well-turned ground.
I was still prone behind the bench and scooted across the dead grass to see better, but beneath the line of fire of my guards.
Tex chuckled softly. His Texas-voice a vamp-thrum, laced with delight, he said, “The Heir saw through time and space, Queenie, or his seers saw through time and space, to this time, this place, and you. He knew that you, the Dark Queen, would be here, tonight, and that the angel partially trapped here by his brother, or Immanuel, or who-dang-ever, could be made to manifest, tonight. But he didn’t look close enough. Damn fool. He didn’t see your blood and a null stick in his witch circle.” Tex stood and backed away. “That, I declare, he did not see.”
“Hey, everyone,” I said into my mic, pushing myself back into safety and into a sitting position. I didn’t feel quite as sick, so that was good. “Toss a null stick into the edge of your circles. It doesn’t close them, but it makes them impassable.”
I heard several replies. But not Molly’s.
“Molly?” I asked.
“We’re on the way to you,” Big Evan said. “We’re part of your backup.” He didn’t sound happy. And instantly, Mainet’s appearances stopped, as abruptly as they began. There was silence.
I realized a hum I had felt in my bones more than heard stopped as well. Much closer, crotch-rockets screamed. Sirens wailed as if law enforcement followed them. Three gunshots sounded from a few blocks over. Possibly unrelated to supernatural conflicts. Robbery. Mugging. Gang fight.
