Hi,

I've been getting many comments about the two men in Anna's life - you all know who I'm talking about. So, I'm gonna come right out and ask: team Alexander or team Andy? And why? I'm curious!! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 23

I might have been able to turn things in my favor if I went to the Circle right after I escaped Medici. If I had handed over the objects I got instantly and without an ounce of distrust. Not so now.

"It's too late for making deals with Brown," I said softly.

"No, it's not," Andy said, folding his arms in front of him.

I saw it in the stance, heard it in his voice. He was going to do it his way no matter what I said. And it might hurt him in more than one way if he did.

I couldn't let that happen, even if I didn't have the guts to be straightforward with him. I pushed myself up from the bed and got on my feet. It didn't feel like they were about to collapse. Bully for me.

"Thank you for, for helping me. Really, I mean it, but I think it's better if I go now."

"And do what?"

I turned. Where were my shoes?

"I'll tell you, once I figure it out," I said, absently.

He grabbed my arm and spun me around.

"Dammit, this is not a game, Anna!" There was an urgency in his voice that alarmed me.

"I know that, better than anyone else. Andy, in the eyes of the Circle I'm a criminal. I can't go to Brown."

"You can. If you can prove that you're innocent."

There's nothing to prove. Anyone that uses dark magic is guilty in the eyes of the Circle.

I opened my mouth, closed it. Dammit.

"Prove it? How?"

The words were out before I could stop myself. I knew better.

I should know better.

"If you bring in the Raven, personally, and testify against him, the Circle will have no other choice but to absolve you of all charges," Andy said.

If only it were that easy. Andy didn't know I already used dark magic. Another fact I didn't mention. What would he do if he knew?

Tell him. You must tell him.

And become the villain in this piece of show? Lose another friend on the way to hell?

"I'm going to help you," he said.

Don't. I closed my eyes. Tell him. Go ahead, tell him that it's too late.

"How?" I said.

There it was. That small part of myself that hoped against hope. That still thought I could come out unscathed, shake off the black speck of dirt my soul was soiled with.

"Give me a few days. I have my resources," he said. A slow, tentative smile crossed his lips, softening his features.

For a small fleeting moment I wished there was a way to come clean with the Circle, wished that I didn't have to go back and hide. I was not only hiding from the people that were trying to kill me, and I knew it.

"Anna." He sighed. "I don't know how much you know, but there have been attacks of the Inri Brotherhood. Seemingly random. I think they're not. And I think you're the only one who's got the ghost of a chance to find out why and where the Raven might attack next."

"Attacks?" I blinked at him. "Where? When?"

"Two attacks in the past five days."

"Casualties?"

"Three witches, twenty-one humans."

I closed my eyes. The vision of smoke and unmoving bodies swam up like a nightmare rising in mist.

My fault.

"There's more," Andy said "It looks like they abducted a witch."

I stilled grabbed his arm. "Who? Andy, who is it?"

He shook his head. "No one you knew. Her name is Katie Trench, joined the Force two years ago. No ransom. Not so far."

I sat back down on the bed. I knew without asking, knew it beyond a doubt. The Inri Brotherhood needed someone to cast elemental spells, use the elemental magic they no longer could wield. She was taking my place.

This was my fault. If I was stronger, I might have stopped them earlier. More people died, and another innocent witch was suffering the consequences of my escape.

"I'll tell you what I can." I licked my lips. "The Raven's planning something, an attack of a sort and it's supposed to happen in less than two weeks. Any idea what it might be? Did the Circle hear anything?"

"Nothing."

First the rogues retrieved null bombs in a run-down warehouse. Null bombs that Travis Holmes had hidden for the Inri Brotherhood with a spell using elementary magic. While the Circle probably knew Medici did something there, they probably didn't know that particular detail.

"Did you get anything out of Holmes?" I said.

Toad and traitor that he was, if anyone could tell us anything about Medici's plans it was Travis Holmes, the witch that betrayed the Circle for Medici.

Andy shook his head. "Still denies everything."

Dammit.

What had Medici been doing all this time? The answer should have been easy. Preparing for war. Arming himself left and right with magical fire arms that could blast half of New York into oblivion.

I stilled. What if Medici wasn't done? What if he was still looking for artifacts the Inri Brotherhood yet had to retrieve? And how many exactly did they have?

"Andy, can you show me where they attacked?"

He took out his cellphone and opened a map of New York. "The action pattern was always the same. They came in, attacked, and vanished. I just can't see what exactly Medici wants to achieve with these attacks. It doesn't look like Decapitation, or Countervalue. The first attack happened in Brooklyn. Here," he said, pointing at the spot on the map. "They came in at the northern gate to the zone, raised hell and portalled out before the Force got close enough to catch them. Then there was one in the financial district. Here. That was the second one, but they didn't do much harm there. The Force was there faster than at the first one."

"Are you sure that that was all?"

"There were casualties, on both sides. But yeah, basically it was like an uncoordinated, random terrorist attack. To me it looks like they're trying to raise hell and make the city burst at its seams. No matter how."

I stared at the screen. Hard.

Uncoordinated. Random. The Raven was much, but he did nothing without having a clear end-goal or a strategy. Of all criminals he would act according to a pattern. It was just too devious or well-wrought for us to see through.

"You're right. The Raven wants the city to descend into anarchy. But still... I'm not sure these were merely attacks that happened by chance, Andy. I have to go to these places and see for myself."

He looked at me sharply. "Anna, the place might still be crawling with Force members. The Circle is still looking for you."

"I know." I got up from the bed, slipping on my shoes. "If we get caught, you'll tell them you were bringing me in."

* * *

We rounded the building, slinking away into the shadows like thieves in the night – which we were, in a wider sense of the word. We came to a halt behind the complex of toothed buildings in the abandoned street. No sound, no motion. No life. We might have entered a ghost town.

It felt like half of Brooklyn was caught up in a big-scale evacuation. Greater parts of the area around the building were still cordoned off and closed to civilians, yellow crime scene tapes flapping in the wind like dirty laundry. A quick step into second sight confirmed the notion. No people in or around the building. We were alone.

"They came in from here and circled the building," Andy said. "From what we know at this point in time, they attacked without a clear strategy. Just appeared and started throwing bolts. The bomb went off in the abandoned building over there."

A conventional bomb, by the looks of it. The Raven was using human technology. Why? Because I had all the null bombs in the pocket of my jacket? Still. Why target the vacant building if this was a terrorist attack? Maximum damage would have been the major priority. Unless... Was it a deliberate choice to target a vacant building? Did I see this spot somewhere on the Raven's meticulously outlined map of New York?

I scanned the night. The areal setup of the street spun in my mind like a drunken teetotum.

"What else is in the area?"

"Record stores, a few small shops. Apart from that it's pretty much a residential quarter," Andy said.

It didn't make sense. Why these open attacks after the stealthy killings of Alexander's vamps? What was the Raven doing?

I took a good look around, opened myself to the magical planes around us. The tendrils of dark magic wafted all over the place, angled and twisted, strong in some spots, weaker in others.

The dark magic tasted like a drip of seasoned wine on my lips. It called to me with the two-forked tongue of a she-devil in disguise, in a language I had spoken and breathed once before. And I could again, speak in tongues most witches never dared to master. All I had to do was open my mouth, take a glassful. Just one. No more. Just-

"Anna." Andy's whisper thundered in my head. "We can't stay long."

I nodded. The only reason we'd ventured this far, the only reason why I had to be here in person was my ability look beyond second sight. See remains of spells. Read what happened like a supernatural tracker seeing patterns in desert sands.

I shut my eyes, went under and into the multiple layers of second sight, slipped underneath the folds of distorted reality. Gray turned into all facets and colors of the rainbow.

That nailed it.

I was one hundred percent sure Medici didn't use any null bombs here. A null bomb would have left the landscape barren of magical life and color, mayhap have left a glassy vacuum of sorts.

It wasn't the case here. The dark-red color was most potent at the main building, reached up into the night like a smoking crater of sorts. Pillows of light red warred with translucent space in the street below, lingering in nooks and crannies that were not consumed with the mix of darkness and the blood-red traces the rogues left. The trail of dark magic petered out on the edges, like color dissolving in water. Right down the street and then-

I frowned, turned back. There was something, a spark of profound dark magic in the second building to the right, and-

I stilled, stared at the building. Its front was so monotonously gray and small windowed, it looked more like a run-down factory than an apartment complex. There, right up there on the third floor, dark-red tore into the pattern of light red and translucency like a floral power print.

I knew that pattern. At some point somebody opened and closed a portal in the building.

Why?

"Andy, what's in that building over there?"

"I don't know. It looks like an apartment building to me, but it could be more. What did you see?"

I stared at the pattern in the building for another long moment, then turned back to face him. "I think someone used a portal up there, and I have no idea why."

His eyes went to the building. He looked at it with the sobriety of a professional homicide detective. No emotion, no personal stake. Clear-cut, raw concentration on the job.

"Maybe a strategic move. Have someone come in there undetected? Or as an escape route," he said softly. His eyes snapped back to me. The corners of his mouth lifted. "Only one way to find out, come on."

By the time I turned to risk another glance at the apartment on the third floor, he was already brushing past me, headed for the building. There he was. The Andy I knew, walking right into an investigation as if it was a new video game he was eager to try out.

Duty-bound to do the right thing to the point of recklessness. I shook my head and headed after him, smiling to myself. Some things never change.