“Everyone out! Now!” His command was so quick, so immediate, that Zahide reacted as though she’d heard a shot. She ushered Lawless through the door and out into the hall, where Parker was pacing back and forth, only held back by Avila’s stern gaze.
“What’s wrong?” Parker asked immediately.
“I know who the next target is,” Nick said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Who?”Zahide asked immediately.
“Us,” Nick answered, gesturing between him, Zahide, and Lawless.
“What?” Parker asked, a sheen on him, the beginning of a glow that Nick recognized as his magic coming to life.
“It didn’t catch us, not yet,” Nick said. “But the last layers, Zahide, did you see?”
She shook her head, a frown of hesitation scrunching her brows. “No, I was still trying to read the central circle.”
“The spellwork is custom—that means it was designed for the person, not a generalized spell,” Nick explained before Parker could ask. “And you were right, Parker. It does transport, but it transports in a really specific way. Acustomway. It was preparing to jump into the three of us.”
There was a moment of silence before everyone began talking at once.
“Are you suggesting the person controlling it is in the building? In the room?”
“What does that mean, ‘preparing to jump’?”
“That isimpossible, King. What you’re suggesting is that someone couldon the flycreate a custom spell. I can’t do that. Can you? Could your father?”
Parker’s voice cut over all of them. “You said ‘it’ was preparing to jump. Are you saying the spell is alive?”
There was dead silence again, and the elevator door dinged open. Nick knew there were people around them—other members of the CDC, cops, the civilian employees—and he glanced over his shoulder to confirm that his boss was on his way down the hall toward them with every other high-ranked member of the SAPD.
“Yes,” Nick said. “I’m saying that the spell is acting like a parasite. I noticed three separate names on three circles. One for me, one for Zahide, one for Lawless. As soon as the circles got big enough, they’d explode, but by that time, those specific circles would have transported to us. There’s no way that someone could know we were going to be in the room far enough in advance to draw the circles specifically for us. Which means that the spell itself is adapting.”
“The growth,” Zahide said. Her eyes narrowed. “It’s growing exponentially. It started with one victim, now two…”
“I think it’s more than that,” Nick said. “I have no proof, but I think that it jumps before it explodes. I think it’s making achoiceof who to jump to, not just picking random victims.”
“What?” Captain Tate said, and Nick swallowed, schooling his expression because there wasimpossible, there wasunlikely, and then there was the reality of what he and Parker faced every day. There was the reality that Parker could drain circles, something that Nick knew was impossible. There was the reality that he was married to a fae changeling who would eat Pop-Tarts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if he had his way.
There was the fact that Nick’s powers had grown more in the two years he’d known Parker than they had in the decade beforethat. He was a better alchemist, he was a stronger alchemist, and he was also much, much less likely to discount something just because it had never been seen before.
“The spell adjusts itself to spread,” Nick said. “While we were in the room, it adjusted itself so that it could spread to the three of us next.”
“Are you off your meds? That is straight out of a shitty horror movie. Not even a good one. One of those ones they make for ten dollars with an iPhone!” Falk’s voice rose until he was shouting.
“Does that mean that it’s unlikely it spread to anyone else in the building?” Rios asked. “If it needs a target?”
“I can’t say for certain,” Nick hedged. “Based on the fact that it waited until we were in the room to begin creating the spell that would attach to us, it implies that proximity is important.”
“So it doesn’t spread through blood or air?” Rios asked. “Because it’s getting hot in here without the A/C, and if we could turn it on, tempers would cool.”
Nick licked his lips, his own suit suddenly hotter. He knew the right response was that they didn’t have enough information, they needed more time to study, but by his clock, they had ten minutes until the circles on Gile touched each other, and his instinct was saying that whatever this was spread that way, not through air or blood.
He glanced at Parker, who was frowning at the door to the interview room, but looked over as soon as he felt Nick’s eyes. One of Parker’s eyebrows quirked, and Nick knew it meant that Parker trusted him to have the right answer.
“I don’t think it does,” Nick said. “The fact that it needed a specific host means it needs a target who’s close.”
“In the same room?” Rios said.
