“Boon,” I said, using his first name despite my better judgment – I knew Lakin had feelings for me, so I usually did my best to keep him at arm’s length. At this second, though, I was too happy to hear his voice to care about that. “How are things?”
“Crazy,” he said, sounding distracted. I heard some rustling in the background, like he was looking for something. “There are mages here, both from the Enforcers Guild and the Mages Guild, stalking the streets of Shiftertown with warrants and looking for any excuse to snatch our people off the streets and throw them in jail. My deputies and I have mostly been trying to protect the residents and get people to safety before they are taken.”
“By Magorah,” I muttered, gripping the receiver tightly. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not really,” Lakin said dryly. “They’re looking for you too, and between your bad rep and the bounty on your head, you’d be caught the second you set foot here.”
I gritted my teeth again. Ever since my heritage as a half-mage had become public knowledge, the Shiftertown community regarded me with scorn and hatred. This largely had to do with the fact that most shifters disliked mages in general, so they viewed my half-mage status with a combination of disgust and jealousy, imagining that I enjoyed all kinds of unfair privileges as the Chief Mage’s apprentice.
“Well I’m going to bring the Chief Mage home,” I said after a moment. “So that should help with your situation.”
“All by yourself?” Lakin demanded. “I can’t imagine you’re going with the official search party, since they’ve got a warrant for your arrest.”
“Fenris is coming with me, and maybe Annia if I can convince her. But I’m going either way.”
“How are you even going to find him? You don’t have the kind of resources the Mages Guild does. You might be better off –”
“If you say ‘keeping your head down’ I’m going to reach into the phone and rip your throat out,” I growled.
There was a moment of silence. “You can’t actually do that, can you?” Lakin finally asked in a pained voice.
“I think we’d both rather not find out.” I let out a small sigh. Of course I couldn’t do that – I didn’t even know if such a thing was possible. But for all that Lakin liked me, he was afraid of my magic, and in instances like this it showed. “My talents would be of better use doing something like, say, rescuing the Chief Mage.”
“I would come with you, but Shiftertown is my first priority.”
“I know, and I’m not expecting you to.” Somebody needed to make sure the shifters stayed safe, and there was no one more qualified than Lakin for the job. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.” Lakin paused. “You’ll let me know when you leave? And when you come back?”
“No guarantees,” I warned. “But I’ll try to keep you updated.”
“Good enough.” There was a weary sigh on the other end of the line. “Stay safe, okay, Sunaya?”
“You too.”
I hung up the phone, and then the doorbell rang again.
“This time it has to be Annia,” Comenius said as he hurried to answer the door.
A moment later, he walked back in with Annia, whose expression was downright thunderous. She had my travel pack slung over her leather-clad shoulder, and she tossed it to me underhand as she kicked the door closed behind her.
“This is officially the worst day ever,” she growled.
“For reasons other than the obvious?” I asked cautiously as I caught the pack. Damn, but it was heavy – she must have stuffed it to the gills. Annia might look slender and willowy, but she kept in good shape and was amazingly strong.
“Yes.” Annia snatched up a cookie and glared at it. “Somebody fucking snuck into the holding cells under the Enforcer Headquarters and slit Danrian’s throat.”
“What!” I jumped to my feet, and my pack slid to the ground with a loud thump. “You’ve got to be kidding. Danrian’s dead?” Warin Danrian was the local manager of Sandin National Bank. He’d been running an illegal fighting ring called the Shifter Royale in which he forced shifters who were indebted to Sandin to fight in the ring. He’d also nearly killed me by injecting a fatal dose of silver-laced drugs into my bloodstream.
“As a doornail.” Annia bit into the cookie with a vicious intensity, her dark eyes burning. “It happened while I was at the Palace with you.”
“Fuck.” I shoved my hands into my curly hair, fingernails scraping against my scalp. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t let him get the better of me –”