“You, too,” I told her. “Selene will be along shortly with Remy.”
A sparkle flickered in Irkalla’s eyes. “Excellent, I haven’t seen Remy in months.”
The pair had become close friends in the last three years, something I never would have even considered if I hadn’t seen it myself. Remy’s natural ability to piss off anyone no matter how much more powerful they were than him was something Irkalla greatly admired.
“How are you doing, Nate?” Olivia asked as we walked over to the only remaining seated person at the long conference table, Fiona Daly.
“I’m good. Arthur came to see me earlier.”
The room immediately fell silent.
“Why?” Fiona asked.
Fiona was a conjurer and was able to create illusions. It was a powerful ability, and she used it to great effect as an agent for the SOA. I’d known her for a few centuries and found her to be an excellent agent. She could be counted upon when the shit hit the proverbial fan, which happened a lot when dealing with Avalon. She was married to Alan Daly, who was . . . not . . . an SOA agent. For most of his life, Alan wasn’t someone you could say was law-abiding. But since marrying Fiona, he’d become a changed man, and his lack of presence in the meeting was an odd one.
I explained about Arthur’s visit and his request, as well as the information about Lucie Moser.
“This is news to me,” Fiona replied. “Why would Lucie move jobs? She loves her job.”
“News to me, too,” Olivia said, making me feel nervous for the first time. It was rare that Olivia was unaware of something as momentous as the head of the SOA stepping down.
“Well, I’m just relaying information,” I said, feeling their stares.
“What about Galahad?” Nabu asked. “You’ve shown no interest in working for Avalon and have in fact taken several steps over the years to stop people in Avalon from doing their jobs.”
I shrugged. It was pretty much the only thing I could think of to do.
“Maybe that’s why Arthur asked him?” Irkalla said. “Nate is friends with both Galahad and Arthur, yet he has no allegiance to Avalon or Shadow Falls. Do you think Galahad is involved with what’s happening here?”
“No,” I said instantly.
“I can’t see it,” Diana said. “It’s Galahad. He’s not the despot-murdering-innocent-people kind of person.”
No one else had anything to say for several seconds.
“Do you want to wait for the rest of us to arrive?” Tommy asked.
“No, we need to get on with this,” Fiona said, and I saw the irritation in her manner for the first time. She was usually excellent at keeping her emotions in check—it came with the territory when you worked for the SOA—but her control was slipping. I got the feeling she was dealing with something that I’d soon find out about, so I didn’t bother to ask her what was going on.
“Anyone else coming can catch up,” Fiona continued. “I had Tommy call everyone here for a reason.”
“You did?” I asked. “So, I was the last to know?”
Tommy nodded. “We didn’t want to include you until we knew what was happening.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
“So, does everyone else here already know what Fiona is about to say?” I asked, wanting to figure out exactly where I stood in terms of knowledge compared to the others.
“Selene and Remy wouldn’t know,” Olivia said. “Neither does Zamek, Nabu, or Irkalla. Only Tommy, Diana, and myself know what’s happening.”
“Can I start?” Fiona asked, her voice quaking slightly and a little anger leaking out, as if she were trying her best not to just explode and release whatever was bothering her.
“Sorry,” I said, hoping to defuse some of that barely contained anger.
“Two weeks ago Elaine Garlot and a dozen of her bodyguards vanished. One of them was my husband, Alan.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Nate,” Tommy said softly. “Seriously, wait.”
I opened my mouth to argue but immediately closed it. Despite my need to know what was happening right goddamned now, I had to swallow my outburst and wait for the information I knew was coming. I motioned for Fiona to continue.
“A week ago we sent a small group to try and find her. This group was made up of six people who were not officially tied to Avalon. None of them worked for Avalon or lived in Camelot. None of them were on any official list of employees. They went missing three days after looking into Elaine’s disappearance. We don’t know where they are, or what’s happened to them. Manannán mac Lir was a part of the team.”
“Mac,” I whispered. “Does Mordred know?” Mordred and Mac had been close before Mordred’s brain had been destroyed by a century of torture by Baldr and his allies. Since Mordred had become one of the good guys again, he’d reached out to find Mac, but I wasn’t sure how that meeting had gone.
“He’s aware of them both, yes,” Olivia said. “He’s gone straight to Scotland. She has a home there. Hopefully we can find some information about where she might have been taken from.”
“Why were Mordred and Elaine meeting in New York?” I asked.
“It’s something to do with the prophecy that Mordred will kill you,” Nabu said.
“Damn it,” I snapped. “I told him not to keep worrying about that.”
“Which makes him worry more,” Irkalla said. “You know he can’t abide the idea that he has to kill you.”
“I know, I just don’t want him living his life constantly trying to avoid me.” I turned to Olivia. “Why did you keep this from me? Elaine’s disappearance, I mean, not the Mordred thing.”
“Because of your reaction,” Olivia said. “Tommy had no choice but to follow me on this.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I told her.
“Good, because we made the right call,” Tommy said. “How much do you want to run off right now and find Elaine?”
“A lot.”
“And that’s why we didn’t tell you. I’m sorry, Nate, but you would have cut your way through everyone in your path to find Elaine. If she’s in danger, your brand of punch and destroy might get her hurt.”
I nodded. It was one of the harder things I’d had to agree with in recent years. Irkalla, who sat beside me, placed her hand on mine, squeezing slightly.
“You are not always one to think with cold logic,” she said. “It is both a great asset and terrible curse.”
I nodded again. “Okay, so why tell me now?”
Fiona took a drink of water from the bottle in front of her before answering. “Because someone tried to kill Mordred in New York this morning, and it’s no coincidence that Elaine vanished not long before she was meant to meet him. If she’s been taken, and they found out about the meeting, they must really want Mordred dead. We think whoever this My Liege is, that they’re just about to start their endgame. Removing Elaine and Mordred must have been a part of it.”