“Not as well, no. Guild City is fairly unique in that. It’s part of our culture—our laws—to require all supernaturals to keep careful control of their signatures. Only powerful supernaturals can do that, which requires everyone in the city to work hard at it. The rest of the world doesn’t care as much.”
“Humans don’t notice that supernaturals have magical signatures?”
“No. Their senses are less attuned to it, and when they do pick up on it, they blame it on something else.”
“Yet Guild City is fanatic about it.”
“It’s been that way for hundreds of years. It helps us hide better. We’re one of the few cities of our kind—enormous yet hidden within an even larger human settlement. We need to be more careful than, say, Magic’s Bend in America because our shield spell is different than theirs. That city is located far from human settlements and can be more lenient with the rules.”
“I think I might like it better there.”
“Plenty of people do.”
I’d been joking, mostly. I couldn’t imagine any place better than Guild City. But we were standing over a corpse that reeked of fish, and maybe Magic’s Bend had fewer of those.
I turned to the body and inspected it. The guy’s dark magic was so pungent and obvious that I felt a little bit less bad about his death. He didn’t necessarily look like a jerk, but I had a feeling that if he’d been alive and I’d been able to look into his eyes, I wouldn’t have liked what I saw there.
Shaking slightly, not certain I wanted to see what he would reveal to me, I pressed my fingertips to his cold arm.
The world detonated around me, a vision blasting into my head.
Black Church exploding in a fireball of blue magic. The streets around it going up in flames of green and orange. Shouts and screams, magic flying through the air. The gates collapsing, and London—human London—looking in on Guild City and seeing all our secrets.
I gasped, stumbling backward.
The Devil broke my fall. His hands were gentle on my arms as he steadied me. “What is it? Are you all right?”
I tried to catch my breath, the vision still flickering in my mind. “Guild City is under attack. It’s going to blow up.”
5
The Devil
“Blow up?” I asked. “As in, the city will explode?”
Carrow’s face had turned entirely white, and it appeared to cost her an effort to nod. “I saw it.”
“When?”
“I’m—I’m not sure.?
? She looked at the body, apprehension in her gaze. “I’m going to try to look again.”
She raised a hand toward the corpse, trembling slightly.
Something tugged in me at the sight. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want her to do anything she was uncomfortable with.
Bloody hell, I hadn’t felt anything like that in forever. Not ever.
I barely resisted rubbing my chest, as if I could drive the feeling out.
It didn’t matter, anyway. If Guild City was going to blow up, we needed to know when.
She touched the body and jerked, then closed her eyes. “Three days’ time.”
“Only three days.” Was the date significant? “Who is he?” I had an idea of who he worked for, but not who he was specifically.
“No idea. I can’t get any more information.”