“You hacked into something. You hacked Bran, didn’t you?”
“How else was I supposed to find anything out? You weren’t talking, except for that meshuga about a heart attack. I knew you were lying to me, even if that is what the coroner’s report said, too.”
“You hacked the Cook County medical examiner?”
“Only a little.”
“You know it doesn’t help anyone if you go to jail, right?”
Kylie snorted. “Don’t be insulting. You think I’m some kind of amateur?”
“Right. Sorry. For a second I forgot I was talking to Geekzilla.”
“I prefer SuperGeek, thank you very much. I’ve got a thing for capes, and no desire to destroy Tokyo.”
Beside her, Dag growled low in his throat and leaned toward the monitor. “This chatter is meaningless. We must focus on the task at hand. Brother, you must tell me why two of us have awakened at once. A grave threat indeed must stand before us.”
“Graver than you think,” Knox agreed, peering into the camera on his end. “And it is not just you and I who no longer slumber. Two others have stirred as well.”
Dag said something brief and guttural in a language Kylie didn’t recognize. She didn’t need to in order to catch the gist. He wasn’t saying how do you do. “Where have you gathered? I will join you at once.”
“It’s not that simple, big guy,” Wynn broke in, laying a hand on Knox’s arm as she spoke. “We aren’t all in one place. Knox and I are here in Chicago, but Fil (that’s Felicity) and Spar are in Montreal, and Ella and Kees have stayed in Vancouver. Mostly. For the moment, until we get a better handle on what’s coming next, we’ve decided to monitor the situation in each of the cities where we’ve had incidents.”
“Incidents?”
The witch nodded. “Kees woke first, in Vancouver. He and Ella had to face off against the first wave of nocturnis. From what we’ve been able to gather, they’ve organized themselves to go looking for the Guardians, hoping to destroy you while you’re sleeping. In Knox’s case, they succeeded. He was summoned to replace one of you the Order managed to blow up. But in between Kees and Knox, we got the really disturbing news. A sect in Montreal turned out to be sacrificing humans to feed to Uhlthor. We think it has already been freed and is gathering strength while the nocturnis work on releasing the rest of the Seven.”
More of that unfamiliar language poured from Dag, and Kylie found herself wincing even though she still didn’t understand a word of it.
“That’s what really happened to Bran, Ky.” Wynn’s expression softened and creased with grief. “He … he was possessed, by the Demon. It took his soul. I had to—” She paused and drew a shuddering breath. “I had to release him.”
They watched while Knox wrapped his arms around the witch, cuddling her against his chest as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Shh, little witch,” he crooned. “You gave your brother peace. It was the greatest gift you could offer.”
Kylie felt her own heart squeeze, but she knew pieces of the story were still missing. “But why would a demon go after Bran in the first place?”
Wynn lifted a hand to wipe her cheek, but she didn’t pull away from her fiancé’s embrace. And Kylie would certainly be revisiting the idea of her friend’s engagement to a member of another species at a later date.
“Bran was a Warden,” Wynn said. “We’ve had Wardens in our family for generations, but Bran figured out something odd was going on in the Guild and with the Order. He got too close, and the nocturnis got ahold of him. They used him to feed Uhlthor’s power.”
“A Warden? You mean the magic guys from the story? Those are seriously still around?”
“You’re looking at one.”
“One of the few who remain,” Knox added. “We have discovered that the Order has instituted a new strategy in this latest phase of the war. We know now that in addition to striving to free the Seven, they have been working for some time—perhaps even for several years—to weaken the Guild, thus minimizing the resistance they will face when they are ready to launch their primary attack. Hundreds of Wardens have been killed or simply disappeared. Some may have gone underground, but even we are having trouble locating them and making contact. Their headquarters in Paris has been destroyed. From what we can tell, none of the inner Council has survived.”