He’d done it as a lad, and the reminder wasn’t lost on him as he headed for the nearest Underground station. While Jono might have changed over time, London’s streets and its Underground hadn’t, and his feet took him down the route he’d walked growing up as easily as breathing.
13
“The British governmentisn’t pleased with your actions,” Setsuna said over the phone.
Patrick rolled his eyes even though she couldn’t see it, too tired and annoyed to care. “Would they have preferred a hoard of drekavacs running rampant through dense social housing and feasting on their tenants?”
“There were only ten. That’s not a big enough hoard to justify the incineration spell you used.”
“If someone had died, the British government would be bitching about why Ididn’tuse the spell.”
“Since that didn’t happen, we’re stuck smoothing over your actions. Again.”
“There’s a goddamn necromancer running around London. Just because the British government is pissed they can’t find the fucker doesn’t mean they need to blame us.”
“Your attitude and decisions make diplomacy harder.”
“We’re lying to our allies on the president’s authority. Don’t blame me when the commander-in-chief okayed the damn mission.”
“Then dobetter,” Setsuna snapped. “Too much is at stake for you to run roughshod through another city, much less a foreign one.”
Patrick ground his teeth, staring at the car stopped ahead of them at the intersection. Nadine was driving them back to the Sanderson after spending hours stepping on diplomatic landmines with the WSA. He was hungry, tired, and not in the mood for the dressing down Setsuna was giving him.
“I’m doing what I was ordered to do byeveryone. What else do you want from me?”
“To not risk the mission.”
“Sure thing,” he said acidly. “I’ll just risk my life instead.”
He ended the call, too angry to continue the conversation without saying something he’d regret. Patrick gripped his phone so tight the edge dug into the big muscle near his thumb, making it throb.
“Doesn’t sound like that went well,” Nadine said as she kept her eyes on the road.
“You think?”
“Don’t get pissed at me. I just spent hours trying to smooth things over with Albert on your behalf. You know better than to use an incineration spell within city limits. I didn’t think you could even cast that spell anymore.”
Patrick unclenched his teeth, jaw aching from the release of pressure. “I tapped a ley line through Jono.”
Nadine frowned, her voice sounding worried rather than accusatory. “Should you have done that?”
“Would you rather have bodies for the Met’s morgue to handle?”
“Drekavac victims we can explain. You being able to do higher-level spells again is a little harder to ignore.”
“We’ll say the SOA issued me an artifact with the spell embedded in it. If the WSA asks for it, we’ll deny them. If someone sends a request up the chain of command, Setsuna will cover for me.”
“You are making my job so much harder.”
Patrick kept his mouth shut, not wanting to take his anger out on her. She’d had her hands full since appearing on the scene at Rainriver earlier in the day. Nadine had expended a lot of personal political capital to soothe all the ruffled feathers at the WSA that Patrick’s actions had caused.
Nadine sighed. “What’s done is done. Let’s get to the hotel and bring Spencer up to speed.”
Patrick loosened his grip on his phone, watching the cars around them. Friday night in London was busy, especially on Oxford Street. The upscale shopping district was clogged with vehicles and people, the stores brightly lit beyond the sidewalks. Nadine had taken him shopping in the area once years ago, some months after they were both discharged from the Mage Corps. If there was an Olympic sport for shopping, she’d win a gold medal.
By the time Nadine turned off Oxford Street and made it to the Sanderson, Patrick was ready for the entire fucking day to be over with. Except he knew what waited for him upstairs in Sage’s penthouse, and when they entered the suite, Patrick got an earful despite the silence ward embedded in the walls.
“You fucking asshole,” Spencer said from where he was sprawled on one of the two white couches, not bothering to lift his head at their arrival. “You go and get yourself soulbound to a god pack werewolf and you don’t even have the courtesy totellme?”
