The corner of Preston’s mouth ticked downward. “You were heard, and it was barely a minute.”
“Do you have my phone?” Patrick asked after shooting Wade a warning look.
Preston gestured for them to follow him back down the hallway. “There’s a form we need you to sign. It will only take a moment. You can follow me to the back while your friend waits here.”
“Nope,” Wade said, coming to stand beside Patrick. “Where he goes, I go. And who’swe? I thought we were only meeting with you?”
“Ms. Santiago is overseeing the closure of your case. She’s in today for some overtime, which is why we called your counsel,” Preston said.
Wade stuck close to Patrick as they were led deeper into the workspace, bypassing empty offices and cubicles. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, nothing tipped his magic off, and Wade didn’t react to any threat that Patrick’s mundane senses couldn’t pick up. The building was surrounded in wards, just like the PCB and most other government buildings.
Which meant it was all the more shocking to enter Mia Santiago’s office and find Hades and Estelle seated before her desk, a demon looking out of Estelle’s and the US attorney’s face with matching black eyes. Hades held the Trishula of Shiva in one hand, the three prongs at the tip of the weapon glittering with magic that swirled around the room, acting as a barrier.
Maybe the damn thing was a god’s weapon after all.
“Hello, Patrick,” Andras said, the echo of the demon’s voice curling through Estelle’s.
“What the—” Preston said, sounding utterly confused.
Patrick grabbed him by the back of his suit jacket and yanked the man out of the doorway, swinging him around to shove in Wade’s direction. Preston still felt human to his senses as the punch of recognition that spoke of hell and werecreatures finally cut through whatever magic had kept them all hidden. It would be a fucking nightmare if Patrick got charged with the murder of a US attorney after finally clearing his name.
“Patrick!” Wade yelled, scrambling around Preston, one arm outstretched toward him, ready to drag him to safety.
He got his fingers around the hilt of his dagger, got the blade free of the sheath, when burning ropes of a binding ward wrapped around his body.
Patrick had a split second to make his choice—and it wasn’t even a choice.
The gods of heaven had given him the dagger as a weapon, one that could not fall into Ethan’s hands. Patrick knew Jono could find him—heknewthat—but there would be no way to track the dagger if it was stolen from him.
Before the binding ward made it impossible for him to move and cast magic, Patrick snapped his wrist at his hip, sending his dagger spinning away from him toward Wade. Most people couldn’t wield it—the magic embedded in it wouldn’t let them—but Wadecould. Wade grabbed it out of midair, not fumbling it at all, gold eyes wide with desperation.
“Patrick!”
Cold hands wrapped around his shoulders, hauling him backward into the room and through the veil in a way that was nothing how Hermes moved through it. His stomach twisted, unable to figure out which way was up or down as the grayness encompassed everything in his vision.
Then he crashed to the ground, breath driven from his lungs, and he found himself staring up into Estelle’s face, Andras looking out of her eyes.
He tried to reach for his magic, but the binding ward burned through his nerves like a toxin, his entire body jerking in protest. Andras used Estelle’s preternatural strength to press his shoulders to the cold floor, the bones in his joints grating together.
“You will make a wonderful bargaining chip,” Andras said in Estelle’s voice, lips stretched wide in a smile.
“Fuck you,” Patrick spat out, heart pounding so hard he could barely hear his own voice.
The ceiling above looked made of stone in the dim light, the smell of the place like old earth and blood, mixed with the peculiar scent of shifted werecreatures.It took Patrick a long moment to realize he’d been dragged through the veil to the underground stadium that held the challenge ring in Hamilton Heights. Jono had described it once, and it was as trashy as Patrick had thought it’d be.
Hades knelt on his other side, and Patrick’s attention narrowed in that direction. Hades’ hand was cold when he pressed it over Patrick’s chest, shirt rubbing against the scars there. When the god smiled, Patrick was flung down a black pit of memory to Salem and the basement he’d nearly been sacrificed in.
“My wife’s wards hid you well all these years, but since you have chosen to no longer hide who you are, it is time to get rid of her blessing,” Hades said.
Patrick had thought the pain of Persephone branding his bones with the ward anchors for his shields was excruciating. It had nothing on Hades burning out the shape of them down to his marrow.
Patrick screamed so hard he couldn’t breathe at the end, tipping over into a blackness that buried him.
25
Jono wasin the middle of discussing territory boundaries in Brooklyn with Sage, Austin, Amelia, and Tiarnán when his mobile rang. Wade’s name was on the screen, and he answered it like always.
“They took Patrick!” Wade shouted the second the call connected.
