THE DAY DAWNED COLD AND GRAY. SHE STEPPED out of the limo on some swanky street in New York City. Mira had never visited this place, knew nothing about it, and she was hardly paying close attention to their surroundings at the moment. The best she could do was note the winter-barren expanse of Central Park that lay across the street. At least, she suspected it was Central Park. It was a really big park at any rate. They were at Thomas’s apartment, not very far from Duskoff International.
Mira glanced at the lightening sky, her breath showing white against the cold air. She’d slipped from Jack’s bed during the night. He’d be waking up soon to find her gone, but she wasn’t going to think about that.
Thomas placed a proprietary hand to her lower back and steered her into the building, past the doormen, the front desk person, and to the elevator. Several witches trailed them. More would follow.
Thomas’s New York digs were all Mira had come to expect—hardwood floors, expensive furnishings, huge floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of the park. It was beautiful, but Mira noticed little beyond the obvious. All her thoughts were centered on Annie.
She pulled her coat off, and one of the accompanying witches took it for her, shuffled it away somewhere. She sank down onto Thomas’s couch and stared out the window. Behind her the phone rang. Thomas picked it up and spoke in muted tones to the person on the other end.
Thomas approached her after hanging up the phone. She didn’t bother to look at him. “They know we’re here. They say 4 P.M., at Duskoff International. The pretense is that you’ve agreed to exchange your life for Annie’s, but we all know that’s not the way this is going to happen. We’re here to fight. They know that well enough. They’ll do all they can to take you from us. We need to be ready.”
Mira only nodded and kept staring out the window. A curious sense of power had stolen over her, a feeling of confidence. All her fear was locked somewhere deep inside her. She couldn’t afford fear right now, not while Annie was with Crane and needed medical attention. There was no time to waste on feelings that did no good, did nothing to get Annie back. Everything seemed so crystal clear to her.
“Where is Duskoff International in relation to your apartment?” she asked Thomas mildly.
“Five blocks north of this building.”
“Thank you.” She stood and walked down the hallway, seeking a quiet place.
“Mira? Where are you going?”
She turned. “I’m a witch. It’s time I started to act like one.”
“Do I need to worry about you? You seem too calm.”
“You don’t need to worry, Thomas.” Mira turned back around and continued down the hallway, finding one of the bedrooms at the back of the apartment. She sat cross-legged in the center of the bed, closed her eyes, and let her consciousness drift deeper, drift until she couldn’t sense her physical body anymore.
She heard a little pop as her consciousness freed itself, and she directed it out of the room and into the main part of the apartment.
Her awareness was the air itself, and she could point her attention anywhere she chose. Regulating the sounds of the witches in Thomas’s apartment so they faded to nothingness and managing the loud clamor of the street beyond, Mira turned northward and sought the Duskoff Building and Annie.
The gunmetal gray building stood on the corner of a large intersection. A tall, wide, carved granite sign in the common area in front marked it as the building she sought. Despite it being Saturday, many people walked the street outside the frosted double glass doors. Mira tried to send her consciousness into the building but couldn’t get past a heavy barrier that ran around it.
Warding.
She’d forgotten that the Duskoff Building would probably have some serious protective wards around it. She remembered what Jack had told her once. The barriers were meant to allow non-magickals through, but not just any old witch. No magick other than what the wardweaver had decided was safe could pass.
That meant she was definitely locked out. She was not safe to them.
Mira slid along the barrier, finding what felt like a seam in the magick. She followed. Maybe she could find an imperfection of some kind, a mistake or a back door. That’s what the wardbreakers had found at Jack’s apartment, according to Thomas. Completely perfect wardings were a fluke. Some wardings were better than others, but no witch could get a barrier up that was completely solid.
This warding seemed perfect.
She explored for what felt like hours and found nothing. Mira searched until she felt despair rise up from the center of her. There seemed to be no imperfections anywhere in the sleek magickal barricade or along its perfect seam.
Just as she was about to admit defeat, she found a tiny crack at the base of the southern wall. She went right over it at first because it was so small. Mira came back to it and worried at it with her own magick, trying to make it rip, but it held fast. She was incorporeal after all; she couldn’t hope to have that much effect.
Taking a different tact, she pushed and squeezed until she forced her awareness through the miniscule tear and into the building. She felt her consciousness ooze through like a viscous liquid.
Now to find her godmother.
The moment she put her focus on Annie, Mira experienced a zoom stop straight to her, as though merely thinking of her had some kind of magnetic attraction. Her godmother was being kept in a storage room somewhere in Duskoff International.
Annie lay on her stomach on a cot. Black and red, blistering burns marked her back where her very clothing had ignited and burned away. Shivers wracked her body, either from the cold or from her injuries.
The amount of damage that had been done to Annie stunned Mira into nonreaction…a moment before perfect rage filled her. Mira could feel her physical body shaking from it back in Thomas’s bedroom.
Mira attempted something she’d never tried before. She pulled a thread of magick and created a warm breeze in this remote location. It caressed Annie until she no longer shivered.
Annie pushed up, wincing at the pain the movement caused her. “Mira?” she whispered.
Mira could feel tears running down her physical cheeks, but she had no way to answer her. Instead she created another steady breeze in the room, warming the air for her. It was all she could do.
She let herself drift out of the room, examining the building and the location where Annie was being held. She could tell by the views out of the windows that it was somewhere high. By finding the lobby and elevator, she discovered which floor it was for certain.
Eventually, she came to a large boardroom. Two men stood near the long table in the center. The older man had his back to Mira. The younger, handsome man she recognized right away as Stefan. As the two men spoke in low voices, she noticed that Stefan’s visage had a brutal set that he didn’t allow the world to see.
This was the man who’d taken Annie and who had burned her.
Mira’s anger flared, and Stefan jerked his head up. He put his hand on the older man’s shoulder, helped him into a chair, and then circled the room, looking up at the ceiling. He knew they weren’t alone.
Had she inadvertently caused a disturbance in the air, or was Stefan simply sensitive to other magicks?
She had no time to wonder further. Stefan flicked his wrist, and all Mira saw, tasted, and felt was fire. Her consciousness slammed back into her body, making her gasp. The coppery scent of burnt blood filled her nostrils and the persistent sense that she’d been seared lingered along her skin. She touched her face and chest, making sure she hadn’t truly been burned, but it had been an illusion.
She collapsed to her side and closed her eyes, her heart thumping wildly. Her legs had fallen asleep, and she suffered through the pins and needles. When her heartbeat had slowed to an acceptable level and the pain in her legs had receded, Mira opened her eyes. She knew where Annie was being held within the building, and she knew what they had to do. They wouldn’t wait until it was time to meet and battle it out.
They would take them by surprise before then.
She slid off the bed, stalked into the other room, and told Thomas as much.
“You’re forgetting about the warding, love,” said Thomas. “They’ll drop the warding before 4 P.M. so we can get in. We can’t break through before that time, not even with our top wardbreakers working nonstop between now and then. They need more time.”
“But I know where there’s a chink in the warding, Thomas. It’s how I got in. It’s a hairline crack at the base of the southernmost wall, but maybe it can be exploited with the right magick. I know exactly where it is.”
“Whoa, calm down.” He took her by the upper arms and guided her to sit on the couch. “What are you talking about?”
“In the bedroom I just…I don’t know…traveled to Duskoff International. I wanted to see if I could locate Annie. I ran into the warding, but after spending some time exploring the seams, I found a little chink and worked my disembodied awareness through it.”
Thomas shared a look with a male witch standing behind the couch. The guy was about six three, blond, and built like a tank. Mira thought his name was Brandon or Brian or something.
“She’s powerful,” said Brandon or Brian.
“First, it’s incredible that you managed to do that.” Thomas shook his head in disbelief, sending his loose hair sliding over his shoulders. “But it’s because you have the magick of air. It needs only the tiniest of cracks to squeeze through. Getting in physically is something altogether different.”
Mira closed her eyes for a moment in frustration. “Stop telling me what can’t be done, Thomas. If I can give the wardbreakers the exact location of the imperfection, can’t they worry away at it until it rips?”
Thomas pushed a hand through his hair. “Andrea?”
A sleek redhead who was leaning against the foyer wall with her arms crossed spoke up. “Maybe.”
“Mira, this is Andrea, our best wardweaver and breaker.”
The redhead smiled. Mira let a ghost of a smile pass over her lips in return. She didn’t have time to make new friends at the moment.
“Try it,” said Thomas.
JACK STRODE DOWN THE CORRIDOR TOWARD THE office of the one person who would know where both Mira and Thomas had gone. He’d woken to a cold, empty bed and the knowledge that Thomas, Mira, and the top fifteen most powerful witches—except him—in the Coven were gone.
Anger made his magick restless, made sparks jump from finger to finger when he wasn’t actively suppressing them.
Last night, Mira had kissed him, curled up against him to fall asleep…and then left him sometime this morning to put herself in Crane’s way. He was sure of it.
He’d believed her yesterday when she’d told him that her meeting in Thomas’s office had been of a personal nature. She’d told him that it had been about her family. She’d seemed depressed and subdued all evening, but he’d equated it to her nightmare. Now Jack suspected that for unknown reasons, Thomas had whisked Mira away from him.
Fear flicked through him. Was Thomas in league with Crane? No. He gave his head a sharp shake to rid himself of the notion. Impossible. But what other reason would cause Thomas to take Mira and leave him behind when he’d been the one tasked with keeping Mira safe?
He reached Ingrid’s office and stood in the doorway, watching her shuffle papers on her desk.
She looked up, caught sight of him, and sighed.
“Tell me.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
He stalked to her. “Tell me.”
“I can’t tell you anything. You’re wasting your time.”
“Ingrid, I love her.”
She looked away. “I’m under orders, Jack.”
Jack took her by the shoulders and made her look up at him. “I love her, Ingrid,” he repeated. “Don’t do this to me, please.”
Ingrid sighed, swore, and softened. “Stefan kidnapped the godmother to draw Mira out. They’re holding her at Duskoff International. Mira went with the others to try and get her back.” She paused. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make sure she’s safe. I’m killing anyone who gets in my way.”
She nodded slowly. “That’s a good plan. Simple. Brutal. Effective. Easy to remember.”
“I think so.”
“They didn’t tell you because—Jack? Jack?”
He was already on his way to New York.
MIRA GOT A FASCINATING CRASH COURSE IN wardweaving and wardbreaking with Andrea, an earth witch. Apparently, only earth witches could construct or deconstruct a warding because it was all done with plants and potions and things that remained elusive mysteries to Mira.
She and Andrea set up operations in Thomas’s kitchen, using a dozen small vials and beakers of various liquids and powders. It looked more complex than chemistry class.
They brought in a sample copy of the warding where Mira had found the rip from around the Duskoff Building, sort of like a metaphysical carbon copy, and set about trying different combinations of potions to tear it down. Mira helped by describing the texture of the fissure. She was the only one with that knowledge since she’d squeezed through it. Andrea and another earth witch named Devon worked to exploit it.
Finally, at 2 P.M. something in the kitchen went boom. Not a big boom, just a little one. Enough to make Mira’s ears pop.
“Bingo,” declared Andrea.
Thomas walked into the kitchen. “Damn, you’re good, Andrea.”
“Yes, I am. I deserve a raise,” she answered, beaming. “I must say that Mira made it happen, though. Without the knowledge of the inconsistency and location of that tear, I couldn’t have broken it.”
“So, we’re going then?” asked Mira impatiently.
“We’re going in five minutes,” said Thomas loudly as he pulled Mira to the side. Everyone jumped to get ready to leave. “Listen, about Jack. I think you should know before we go in that—”
She held up her hand to stop him. “I can’t think about him right now. I feel bad about leaving him behind, and it’s important I channel all my concentration on getting Annie out.”
He pursed his lips together. “Okay. I just want you to know that you always have a place at the Coven. You always have a job with us. When this is over—”
“You mean if we don’t get killed,” she added.
He inclined his head a degree. “If we don’t get killed, you have a home and a career waiting for you in Chicago.”
She gave his shoulder a warm squeeze. “Thank you, Thomas. If we make it through today, I’ll consider your offer.”
“We could use someone like you. You’ve grown incredibly powerful over these last few weeks, so I’m not asking you just because you’re family. I’m asking because soon you’re going to be kicking some serious magickal ass, and I want you at my side.”
Mira smiled and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re my cousin, Thomas.”
“Now I’m speaking as a cousin. I know I’d have to tie you up and lock you in the bathroom to keep you from coming with us and not even that would work because of your magick. So, I’m putting you with Brian,” he pointed at the blond witch who was built like a tank. “And Craig, and Alex,” he pointed at two more witches built like tanks.
“Thomas…”
“And James,” he pointed to a good-looking witch with curly short-cropped red gold hair, glasses, and power that fairly radiated from him. James was an earth witch, she could feel it. A strong one.
She started to protest, but he put his finger to her lips. “No. Not a word. You left Jack behind. That means I get to say who you go in with. You don’t leave their side. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
Thomas sighed. “I wish Jack was here.”
Mira did, too, but she didn’t say it.
THEY HAD THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE UNTIL THEY were actually in the building. When the warding broke, all the witches in the Duskoff Building knew it.
Mira clapped her hands over her ears when Thomas and Andrea used the potion to dissolve the warding. It twanged like a heavy cable on a bridge snapping when it went.
Thomas had taken fifteen of the best and brightest from the Coven, but more witches had joined them in New York. They all had converged at Thomas’s apartment during the day, trickling in by twos and threes. He’d broken them into groups and given them instructions before they’d left to break the warding. While they were busy breaching the Duskoff ’s defenses, the witches left his apartment piecemeal so they wouldn’t attract attention.
Even though their cover was blown, Thomas sent in witches with the specific task of taking down the building’s surveillance, so that Crane and his minions wouldn’t know exactly where in the building any of them were located.
The group that went in right after that group had orders to engage the warlocks who would rush forward to defend their building. Those witches were their first line of defense…well, offense in this case. The Duskoff were on the defensive now.
Mira liked that a lot.
The rest of the Coven witches entered from several different points on the ground floor after Thomas had confirmation the security cameras were down.
Mira and her men entered from a side door that led into a long corridor with many doors leading off on either side into offices and meeting rooms. Their shoes were silent on the tan marble floor, though Mira was sure everyone could probably hear how loud her heart was beating as they progressed.
The good thing was that the Duskoff had driven their only air witch to suicide, so at least they couldn’t tell where Mira and her guards were remotely. The bad thing was that Mira wasn’t experienced enough yet her in her abilities to send her consciousness out while she was nervous and distracted and therefore could not tell where they were remotely.
Another good thing was that this battle would take place within the walls of the Duskoff Building, well away from the awareness of any non-magickals.
They progressed down the corridor as quietly as they could. Their goal was to make it to the fortieth floor. That’s where Annie was located.
Noise came from further down the corridor. Mira and her guards all ducked into empty rooms, but no one came down the hallway. Mira cautiously peered past the doorframe. The sounds seemed to be coming from the main lobby at the end of the corridor.
Well, hell. They had to go through there to get to the main stairwell or the elevator.
The witch beside her, James, crept out of the room and inched down the hallway. He waved them out behind him when he deemed it safe. Together they made it to the end of the corridor. From the lobby came loud voices, yells, and the sound of a fight already underway.
Mira crouched down and peered around the corner of the hallway where it opened into the lobby. Coven witches had engaged the warlocks, but were getting their metaphysical asses kicked. They needed help. Plus…
“We have to get through them to get to Annie,” Mira whispered to James. Was there an edge of panic in her voice? Shit.
“Then let’s go,” answered James eagerly. His magick seemed to pour off him in waves of steady, crushing power. Mira could tell he was chomping at the bit to let all that luscious, rich magick off its leash.
Mira drew a steadying breath. They could do this. She could do this. For Annie’s sake, and her own, she had to.
She wouldn’t go in cowering, afraid. She’d go in there like the powerful witch she’d become and put the fear of the Goddess in them.
It was time to make an entrance.
“Okay. Everyone ready?” she whispered to the men beside her.
Brian and James nodded. She couldn’t see the others, but no one objected.
Her stomach swarmed with nervous butterflies, but underneath that lay Mira’s absolute resolve to get Annie out of there alive.
Mira closed her eyes and pulled a thread of her magick, a sizable one, and readied it. Around her she heard and felt the men get their magick ready too.
She rose from her crouching position and stepped around the corner, raising a tempest along with her. Wind rose gently but became stronger fast. It ripped her long black coat and blew her hair around her head until she probably looked like Medusa. Adrenaline surged through her body, but she put everything she had into maintaining an aura of dangerous confidence. She even swaggered a little.
There were about thirteen warlocks in the lobby and only a couple of Coven witches left standing.
Once the wind kicked up, all eyes turned to them. She couldn’t do the tornado trick like she’d done in Jack’s apartment because the effort might leave her unconscious, and also because she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t hurt any of their own people.
The warlocks advanced on them. Her guards engaged, and fighting began around her, but she never faltered in her forward march. Walking toward them, she lifted her hand and tossed a warlock backward to hit a wall when she felt him raise a strand of power. Another tried to throw fire at her, but she sucked the air out of it like Jack had taught her. One of the warlocks doused her in water. She felt it grow colder and colder, but she raised a warming wind around her, drying her skin, hair, and clothes before the warlock could freeze her.
Mira kept advancing on them, but now they were retreating. One by one, feeling her power rising within her, she tossed the warlocks backward to get them out of their way.
She almost felt giddy. Now she understood the power of air. No one could defeat air. It was too vast, too supple, and easily managed by the witch who wielded it.
Who could stand against her?
No one, that’s who.
New power skittered over her skin—dark and strong. Earth magick. A spell woven from the magick of the earth herself. A strand released itself from a curvy, diminutive blonde warlock to her right. Mira turned just in time to block her blast of energy with a wall of air, dissipating the spell before it reached her.
“Come on, guys,” she shouted, elated. “Is that all you’ve got? I could do this all day!”
Something hit her throat. She gagged and reached up to feel a pointy object sticking out of her neck.