Shatter the Earth (Cassandra Palmer 10)

“We won,” I told him.

“Knew you would.”

“But Aeslinn got away.”

“Son of a bitch. How?”

“He wasn’t there to begin with,” I said, pushing hair out of my eyes. “After Jonathan warned him that we were coming, he left, along with some of his senior nobles. A glamouried servant remained behind in his place. Mircea found out after he cut the servant’s head off and the magic dissolved.”

“Damn,” Billy said, and let out a smoky breath.

“Yeah. Everyone’s looking for him, but he could be anywhere. Probably wherever Tony is holed up, because he and the rest weren’t there, either.”

“So, it was all for nothing?”

“No. Jonathan is dead and Aeslinn’s power is largely broken, with his lands temporarily under Caedmon’s control. His ability to help the gods—or anybody else—is severely weakened. It was a big victory.”

I looked at him. “It wasn’t worth it.”

“Don’t.”

“Billy, I—”

“Tell me about this thing with Pritkin,” he said, cutting me off. “What the hell is up with his demon half, anyway?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s tuned in to power, like all demons, so maybe it figured a few things out after Mircea and I combined forces. It did some math, realized that the three of us might be able to do something extraordinary, and that we might need to. So . . . it decided to help out.”

“By attacking you?”

I nodded. “Twice.”

“Twice? When was—”

“The first time was at Gertie’s. I thought it was Jonathan, partnering up with some incubus at first. And later, I thought that Jonathan had brought it back in time, to assault me. But I don’t think so now.”

“Why? Because its power came in handy? That don’t mean it was trying to help you!”

“No, but it expended a lot of the power at Gertie’s. I think it made a room of old artifacts come alive, trying to talk to me. And it did—it told me that there had to be three, I just didn’t understand what it meant.”

Billy looked skeptical. “Then how’d it get back there, if Jonathan didn’t take it?”

“I think it used the conduit I had with Mircea. His power worked there, even in the past, and the link we had was based on incubus energy. But I wasn’t in Lover’s Knot with Pritkin at the time, so his demon needed a power boost to talk to me.”

“It could have just talked to you here.”

I shook my head. “Pritkin had it on lockdown. Something happened in Hong Kong and he’s been even more paranoid about it than usual. I think the only way it could contact me was when he was somewhere else. Or somewhen.”

“So that’s why it, uh, took matters into its own hands at HQ?”

I nodded. “It knew we needed power, and couldn’t wait for another opportunity that it might not get.”

Billy thought about that. “How did Pritkin take it when you told him?”

“Um . . .”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“I will. I mean, he knows about the second attack anyway—”