I flinched and the bones collapsed, hitting the ground with a dry rattle. I looked up to see the mage staring at me, a look of horror on his face as it aged decades in a few short seconds. I gasped, realization slamming into me even before a clear, almost transparent substance peeled away from him. It reformed itself into a bubble that floated off a few feet before popping out of existence. What was left of his body collapsed like a deflated balloon.

I stared at him, remembering the dead mages in the fight with Mircea two weeks ago. I thought they’d been hit by friendly fire, by a spell gone awry. Looked like it hadn’t been so friendly after all.

“I see you have had lessons from someone.” Apollo was seething. “The traitor Agnes must have had more time with you than I thought. No matter—you cannot defeat them all.” And the entire line of mages surged toward me.

I watched them come out of blurry, exhausted eyes. What had that been, anyway, some way of speeding up time within a small area? I didn’t know, but one thing was sure: I couldn’t do it again. If I hadn’t been holding on to Jesse, I’d have been on the floor already.

But the mages didn’t reach me this time. The ones on the front row, six in all, were met by a stinging desert storm that blew up out of nowhere and concentrated only on their bodies. They were shrouded in whirling, dancing sand for maybe twenty seconds, and when it dissipated, the only things left to fall to the floor were bones and metal weapons. The rest of the mages were met by angry vampires, half of them Senate members, and the fight was on.

I clutched Jesse and stared at the Consul. “You took your time!”

“If we are to be allies, I had to be certain that you are strong enough to be an asset,” she replied serenely. “I assume you have the spell to break the geis memorized?”

“I know who does,” I replied.

“And that would be?”

“The mage Pritkin. I…told it to him.”

She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t call me on the obvious lie. “You had best hurry, then. He was battling another mage in the lobby earlier. I do not think he was winning.”

I started for the stairs but was called back by Jesse’s cry. “What about Mom?”

I looked at the Consul. “If we’re to be allies, I’d think you could trust me.”

She looked at me for a long minute, then released her hold on Tami. “Do not disappoint me, Pythia.”

The tone was menacing, but it was the first time she’d ever used my title. On balance, I decided it was a positive step. I picked up my skirts and ran.

Chapter 28

I woke up in an unfamiliar bed in a posh room painted a soft, muted blue. The curtains were tightly drawn, so I assumed it was daylight outside because a vampire sat beside my bed. “You ran into the wall,” Sal said, looking up from buffing her nails. “It was real embarrassing.”

I sat up and immediately regretted it. Everything hurt. “I did not.”

“Yeah, you really did. Bam! Out like a light. Not that you weren’t pretty close already.”

I felt my head and, sure enough, there was a big, fat bruise. “I feel like shit.”

“You look worse. On the plus side, we won the battle. And what you did with those two mages was pretty cool.”

“So, you’re saying what? I’m breaking even?”

“Just about.” She laid something hard and cold on my chest. “A little girl dropped this off for you. Said to tell you that your necklace is haunted.”

I wrapped my fist around the familiar weight and felt the brief energy sizzle that told me Billy was in residence, soaking up energy. “I know,” I said tearfully. “The kids are all right, then?”

“I guess.” She grimaced. “There seem to be a lot of them around.”

“And Françoise and Radella and—”

“What do I look like? The six o’clock news? Ask the mage if you want to know.”

“Pritkin! How is—”

“He’s fine. After you took a nosedive, the Consul sent Marlowe after him. Turns out, he didn’t need the help. He’d already killed the guy.”

I swallowed and lay back. Nick. She meant Nick. And Pritkin had had to kill him because I’d been stupid enough to hand Nick the answer to all his dreams. Or at least, he’d probably thought so. I remembered his face when he’d told me that the Codex was the key to ultimate power. Too bad he hadn’t understood—the power didn’t go to us.

“I need to see him,” I told Sal.

“Good.” She got up and stretched, and her cat suit told me that I was a pain in the ass in big purple letters. “Because he’s really starting to get on my nerves.”

“He’s here?”

Sal rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. And I don’t know how you put up with him.”

“He kinda grows on you.”

“Uh-huh.” She didn’t look convinced. “Oh, and one other thing.” She tapped a black box beside the bed with a long fingernail. “The Consul left this for you. And she’s getting snippy.”

I almost asked what it was, before I remembered: Mircea. Sal was right. I wasn’t done yet. We might have won the battle, but my personal war remained to be fought.

I nodded and Sal left, or tried to. She’d barely opened the door when Pritkin barged past her. He didn’t look like he’d bathed or changed, but his hair was once again an independent entity. “They said you destroyed it!”

“I’m fine,” I said, checking under the covers to see that I actually had clothes on. I did, although it was a T-shirt and sweatpants, not the ruined evening dress. I sat up again. “Thanks for asking.”

Pritkin waved it away. “I spoke with the doctor who attended you earlier. I knew you were well. Did you destroy it?”

“Yes.”

“All of it?”

I sighed. “No, I left out the important bits. Yes, all of it! There wasn’t so much as a cinder left after Jesse torched it. Relax. It’s over.”

“It will never be over. Another Pythia could go back, find it again—”

I burst out laughing, but quit because it hurt. “Yeah, because it was so damn easy.”

“It could happen,” he said stubbornly.

“And all I can say is, good luck to her. She’ll need it.” I looked at him more seriously. “I’d like to ask a question—and get an honest answer. For a change.”

“You want to know why I kept you in the dark.”

“That would be the one. Why not just tell me what was going on?”

He looked at me in disbelief. “What reason did I have to assume that you would choose the Circle’s side over Apollo’s? He could give you everything: security, the knowledge you need about your power, wealth…whereas the Circle—”

“Has been trying its best to kill me.” I took a moment to absorb that. I didn’t like to admit it, but I kind of saw his point. With so much at stake, even if he’d wanted to tell me, he couldn’t have risked it. I wasn’t sure I’d have risked it.

“They were afraid of what an untrained Pythia might do,” he continued, “given what Myra already had done. She was brought up knowing how dangerous that creature was, being warned against him, yet she still fell in line with his plans. As many others have done.”

“It does explain a lot,” I agreed. “I’ve been wondering why Tony, who pretty much defines ‘paranoid,’ would join a risky rebellion. But I guess he didn’t think it would be much of a risk with a god on his side.”

“Which was what the Circle assumed you would think. And once their attempts to remove you failed, they were even more certain that you would side against them as soon as you realized that you had such an ally.” He looked at me curiously. “In truth, I am not entirely sure why you did not.”

I shot him a look. “I’ve read the old legends, part of them anyway. Enough to guess what things would be like with his group here again.”

“Is that all?” Pritkin looked skeptical. “Because you would have been his favorite, a pampered pet, a—”

“Slave,” I finished flatly. “I would have been his slave.” I’d already had one master, and that had been more than enough. “I said that no one would ever control me again like Tony did. I meant it.”

Pritkin’s jaw tightened. “That kind of power would be very attractive to many. Regardless of the price they had to pay for it.”

“I’m sorry about Nick,” I said, knowing what he had to be thinking.

He didn’t flinch, but his eyes were shadowed. “It was necessary,” he said tersely. “He’d seen the spell; he could have told others.”

“He would have told others. He spent half an hour telling me all about what’s wrong with the Circle, how it’s a big bureaucratic mess that just needs a firm hand to straighten out. His hand, I assume.”

“He was feeling you out, trying to discover if you would support his position.”

“Yeah. He didn’t seem too happy when I laughed at him.”

Pritkin regarded me for a long moment. “You are an unusual person…Lady Cassandra.”

I blinked, sure for a moment that I’d heard wrong. “What did you call me?”

“You have chosen a new reign title, I believe.”

“Yeah. But since when do you use it?”

“Since you’ve earned it.”

“Along with a lot of enemies.” My list of problems now included a pissed-off demon lord, the Dark Fey king—who was still waiting impatiently for the Codex—and an angry god. To keep the last of those from turning mankind back into his playthings, I had to protect the Silver Circle from annihilation, even though they were facing a war with his allies and still wanted me dead themselves. And, oh, yeah, I was in the last place I’d wanted to be, allied with the Senate in the thick of the fight.