Lucien’s regard was never friendly, and Patrick was all too aware of what had happened the last time they were in the same place. Jono let go of Patrick and stood up, putting himself between the two of them. Patrick had to lean to the side in order to watch their interaction.
“Keep your distance,” Jono warned.
“Or what?” Lucien said with a smirk. “This is not your territory.”
“Ginnungagap? Maybe not. But who’s to say it can’t be?”
“Is that a challenge, wolf?”
“More like a warning. You aren’t the only one mixing it up with gods.”
Lucien studied Jono with unblinking eyes, the stillness of his body when not speaking creepy. “Ah. You actually hear your kind’s patrons. You’d be one of the few these days.”
“It’s why they’re both targets,” Patrick said, turning around to pick up his hamburger again. “Him and Marek.”
“A wolf and a useless seer. They’d be better off dead.”
“Hey, now. I like living,” Marek protested. “I’ve been working hard all morning to keep doing that.”
Patrick blindly reached behind him to grab for Jono’s hand, tugging the other man back to his vacant seat. “By doing what?”
“Trying to come up with a plan. Nadine has been helping.” Marek searched for the last fry in his takeout box and ate it. “Skuld said she wasn’t the only Fate looking for a way to win. So did Hades. I’m pretty sure their conflicting futures localizing around you are why I can’t see a way out of this mess. Which means anything goes, really.”
“Is it too late to eat my gun?” Patrick asked no one in particular.
Nadine kicked him in the ankle. “Have you been talking to your therapist?”
“Have you?”
“Bloody hell,” Jono muttered under his breath.
Marek turned his MacBook around so everyone could see the screen. “I made a map of where all the murders happened because Nadine asked me to. Pretty sure I got the correct locations.”
Patrick wiped his hands on a paper napkin before reaching for the computer and dragging it closer. The downloaded map of Manhattan had little black X marks dotting the island. He checked the placements against his memory of the case files and ended up adjusting one or two of them.
“Crude circle,” Patrick said, tracing his finger through each murder location. “Hermes said the City itself was an altar. Ethan could’ve chosen to kill in any of the five boroughs, but he stayed in Manhattan.”
Carmen picked up the remaining Greek coins from the bed, then walked over and dumped them on the table. “We saw what you called down onto the beach. Is there any power left inside these ones?”
Patrick picked up a coin and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. He might have been drained dry of magic, but he could still sense the power inside that innocuous bit of gold. He looked at the map of Manhattan, eyes tracing the edges of the island where it met blue water.
They had ten coins left, and Patrick separated them out in pairs before marking the cardinal points on the map and drawing lines between them. The intersecting point was in Central Park.
“We need to contain the spell and choke off the nexus. We can use the coins to build a circle around Manhattan. The rivers will give us a natural barrier that can help shore up the borrowed magic,” he said slowly.
“You think that’s where the last sacrifice will happen?” Nadine asked, tapping at the spot in Central Park.
“I can guess, but nothing is certain where Ethan is concerned.”
“It’s a shame you didn’t kill him in Cairo like you were supposed to,” Lucien said bitingly. “I have shipments arriving today. We’ll have enough weapons to maybe dent a soultaker or two, but that’s only if the spell happens at night and my people can join the fight.”
“Youssef and Estelle still don’t want us or any other pack to have anything to do with you,” Emma said. The frustrated tone in her voice was a clearyou have got to be fucking kidding mesort. “That’s an order I’m not following. You’ll have my pack for the fight, Patrick. Twenty werewolves and one weretiger.”
“And me,” Marek piped up.
“No” came a chorus of voices around the table.
Marek scowled, opening his mouth to argue. Emma promptly clamped her hand over his mouth.
