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Chapter Thirty

Murphy ca about ten seconds after I did "Thomas answered his phone, said he was on the way He sounded kind of out of it, though I called both rooht to the hotel&039;s voiceher cell phone away as she approached me

"Does it do that by itself?"

"No You have to call the desk and ask for it"

"Daht of that already Drive"

Murphy blinked at me, but turned to the Beetle at once "Why?"

"I&039; to try to reach Elaine er seat and jerked open the door "Get us there as fast as you can"

"Magic on the road? Won&039;t that kill the car?"

"This car? Probably not," I said "I hope not" I threw my staff in the backseat

"Ow!" shrieked a voice

Murphy&039;s gun ca rod, its tip gloith a scarlet incandescence

"Don&039;t shoot, don&039;t shoot!" squeaked the voice, considerably , and then Molly appeared in ainst her chest, her eyes wide, her face very pale

"Molly!" I shouted "Da?"

"I cah to track down your car, wasn&039;t I?"

"I told you to stay home!"

"Because of the stupid bracelet?" she deave anybody a bracelet that - "

I whirled in pure frustration and snarled, "Fuego!"

My raw anxiety and rage lashed fro scarlet fire It blasted into aand well, it would be bragging to say that it vaporized the trash can Even I would have trouble with that It did, however, slag the thing into a shower of th furrow in the concrete of the sidewalk behind it Chunks of heated concrete and globs ofseveral thick panes of glass, pocking stone walls, and leaving several wooden planters on fire The concussion rattled every ithin a hundred yards, and shattered the casing of the nearest streetlight, so that it cast out fractured illumination Half a dozen car alarms went off

I turned back to Molly and found her staring atfires and crippled streetlight, fell across her My voice carowl "I Alove off ers spread It didn&039;t look as horrific as it used to, but it was plenty ugly enough to irl "This isn&039;t a goddamn movie, Molly Screw up here and you don&039;t vanish and leave an eet frozen in carbonite And you should damned well know that by now"

She looked shocked I&039;ll curse froe in blasphemy - at least, not around Michael or his family I don&039;t think God is terribly threatened by h to Michael to respect his wishes regarding that particular shade of profanity Mostly

Hell, the whole practice of invective was developed to add extra e of words alone just wasn&039;t enough And I was feeling plenty e, I cupped er, and a sudden sphere of light and heat blosso - about the diaht as a tiny sun

"Harry," Murphy said Her voice was a little shaky "We don&039;t have time for this"

"You think you&039;re ready?" I told Molly "Show me"

I blew on the sphere and it wafted out of lided smoothly into the open door of the Beetle and toward Molly&039;s face

"Wh-what?" she said

"Stop it," I said, my voice cold "If you can"

She sed and raised a hand I saw her try to control her breathing and focus her will, her lips blurring over the steps I&039;d taught her

The sphere drifted closer

"Better hurry," I added I did nothing to hide the anger or the taint of derision in my voice

Beads of sweat broke out on her skin The sphere slowed, but it had not stopped

"It&039;s about twelve hundred degrees," I added "It&039;ll lass It doesn&039;t do much for skin, either"

Molly lifted her left hand and stam to nothing uys don&039;t give you this ive the kid credit, she didn&039;t let herself scream - and pressed herself as far as she could from the fire She threw up an arm to shield her eyes

For a second, I felt a mad impulse to let the fire continue for just a secondteaches like a burned hand, whispered a darker part of ers, willed the ending of the spell, and the sphere vanished

Murphy, standing across the car, just stared atin frightened little jerks She sat there shivering and staring Her tongue piercing rattled against her teeth

I looked at both of the te Molly in the eyes

"We play for keeps, kid," I said quietly "I&039;ve told you before: Magic isn&039;t a solution to every proble"

Molly&039;s eyes, frightened and angry, filled with tears She turned her head away fro She tried not to ood poker face when a snarling madman nearly burns it off There wasn&039;t any tiave the kid a few seconds of space while I tried to let my head cool off

The door to Marcone&039;s building opened Hendricks came out

Marcone followed hilanced at me Marcone shook his head, took a cell phone from his suit pocket, and went back inside, while Hendricks kept me pinned doith his beady-eyed scowl

What I&039;d seen soulgazing Helen Beckitt was still glaringly fresh in my mind - just as it alould be Marcone had looked a lot younger when he wore his hair longer, less neat, and dressed er before he&039;d seen Helen&039;s daughter die

The thought went utterly against the pressure of the rage inside rabbed hold of myself while I had the chance I took a deep breath I wouldn&039;t do anyone any good if I charged in full of outrage and absent of brains I took another deep breath and turned to find Murphy on the move

She walked around the car and faced me squarely

"All done?" Murphy asked me, her voice pitched low "You want to s? You could terrorize a troop of Cub Scouts as an encore"

"And after that, I could tell you all about how to do your job, et killed because we&039;re standing here instead of "

She narrowed her eyes Neither one of us aze orstandoff, but it was plenty hard

"Not now," she said "But later We&039;ll talk This isn&039;t finished"

I nodded "Later"

We got in the Beetle and Murphy started it up and got o?"

I calculated distances in my head The communion spell with Elaine had been created to reach over a couple of yards at the most It had e than that I could extend the range, I thought, to most of aavewhile Murphy drove I could talk while that happened It would, in fact, help me keep my mind off my fear for Elaine Ah, reason, banisher of fear - or at least provider of a place to stick my head in the sand

"Go ahead," I told her I paid no attention to Molly, giving the kid tiether She didn&039;t like anyone to see her when she was upset

"Why do you think your ex is in danger?" Murphy asked "Shouldn&039;t this Skavis just run off if it knows you&039;re onto it?"

"If it was operating alone, sure," I said "That would be the s a fight of it"

"So what? It has help?"

"It has rivals," I said

"Yeah Grey Cloak and Madrigal Raith" Murphy shook her head "But what does that mean?"

"Think in terotten its teeth into soers?" Murphy said "They&039;re trying to take the prize from him?"

"Yeah," I said "I think that&039;s what they&039;re doing"

"You mean Elaine?" Murphy said

I shook my head "No, no More abstract The Skavis is ical talent It doesn&039;t have to do that to live - it can eat any huets?" Murphy asked

"Exactly," I said "Why them? This isn&039;t about food, Murph I think the Skavis isa play for power"

"Power?" Molly blurted frolare that quelled her interest She sank back into the seat "Within the White Court," I said "This entire le within the White Court"

Murph was silent for a second, absorbing that "Then then this is a lot bigger than a few killings in a fens"

"If I&039; "Yeah"

"Go on"

"Okay And reo that White Court vae things They use cat&039;s-paws They pull strings Confrontation is for losers"

"Got it"

I nodded "The White King is supporting peace talks between the Council and the Red Courts I think the Skavis is trying to prove a point - that they don&039;t need peace talks That they have us in a choke hold and all they have to do is hang on"

Murphy frowned at ic is inherited Mostly along fah feot it fro back to the road "And they can start what? Thinning the herd, I suppose, fro those that have the potential to produce oes around to half a dozen cities in theit at will," I said "He proves how easy it is He identifies and hunts down the best targets He plants all kinds of distrust for the Council as he does it,the potential prey distrust the only people who could help them"

"But what does he hope to accouy"

"Exactly what he wants them to say," I said "Look what just one va alone Look how easy it was Raith is weak Time to expand the operation nohile the Council is hurt, and screw talking peace with theuard Let House Skavis take leadership"

"And Grey Cloak and Madrigal, seeing that he&039;s onto soood, try to swoop in at the last minute, shoulder the Skavis aside, and take credit for the plan in front of the whole Court," Murphy finished

"Yeah They sing the exact same tune, only they substitute Malvora for Skavis" I shook al hadn&039;t had a personal beef with otten involved I made him look really bad when he tried to auction me on eBay and instead I fed his djinn to the Scarecrow and irl"

"Like a what?" Murphy bridled

"Now is not the tial&039;s wounded pride makes hiures Grey Cloak or our Skavis killer will help him handle me Except that they ran into another problem"

"Thomas," Murphy said, her voice certain

"Thoets out fro them?"

"Same way they are," I said "He&039;s a vampire He knohat resources they have and how they think Sothe finale of the whole progra it "So Madrigal gets a gang of ghouls and tries to take out his own cousin And finds you and Elaine there too"

"Right," I said "He&039;s already being a loser, but it&039;s still a sucker punch, and Madrigal figures, What the hell If he gets aith it, he pulls off the plan and gets his et why Tho," Murphy said "To you, I ured him for that kind of secrecy"

"That&039;s what tipped ," I said "There just aren&039;t s which couldon it to tip me off, in fact"

Murphy shook her head "A phone call would have been easier"

"Not if he&039;s being watched," I said "And not if he&039;s made a promise"

"Watched?" Murphy said "By who?"

"Soe," I said "So the woman he loves, and who has the kind of resources it takes to watch hi"

"Lara Raith," Murphy said

"Big sister is the one behind the peace movement," I said "Everyone thinks it&039;s Papa Raith, but he&039;s just her puppet now Except that there aren&039;t many people who know that"

"If Raith&039;s authority is challenged openly by the Skavis," Murphy said, putting things together, "it exposes the fact that he&039;s utterly powerless Lara would have to fight openly"

"And the White Court vamp who is driven to that has already lost," I said "She can&039;t maintain her control over the Court if she&039;s revealed as the power behind the throne Not only does she not have the raw strength she&039;d need to hold on to it, but the very fact that she was revealed would make her an incompetent manipulator and therefore automatically unsuitable in the eyes of the rest of the White Court"

Murphy chewed on her lip "If Papa Raith falls, Lara falls And if Lara falls"

"Justine goes with her," I said, nodding "She wouldn&039;t be able to protect her for Thomas anymore"

"Then why didn&039;t she just have Thoo to you and ask for help? " Murphy said

"She can&039;t have it get out that she asked for help fro her own supporters, that could be a disaster But res Maybe better than anyone operating right now She wouldn&039;t be upset if I got involved and stoents of Skavis and Malvora"

Murphy snorted "So she forbids Tho to you about it"

"She&039;s too siven orders She gets hi that, she&039;s also done the one thing she knoill make him defiant to the spirit of the promise So he&039;s made a promise and he can&039;t coet ets around it He works sloppy, deliberately He lets hi off with the wo old honking wall o&039; clues in his apart to get curious about why he&039;s been seen withto me He can&039;t talk to ht foot tapping against an iainst a nonexistent clutch

"Stop twitching," Murphy said The Beetle jolted over so side "I&039;m a better driver than you, anyway"

I scowled because it was true

"So right now," Murphy said, "you think Priscilla is shilling for the Skavis agent"

"No She is the Skavis agent"

"I thought you said it was a man," Murphy said

"Strike you funny that Priscilla wears turtlenecks in the middle of a hot summer?"

Murphy let out a word that should not be spoken before s to clip Elaine and all those ets in the way"

"Mouse," Molly said, her voice worried

This time I didn&039;t yell her down I orried about him, too "The Skavis knows that Mouse is special He saw the de hi sooner than he did If the va upon his powers, Mouse would have sensed it and blown his cover So Mouse is definitely going to be near the top of his list"

Murphy nodded "So what&039;s the plan?"

"Get us to the h that I could start trying the spell "I&039; to try to reach Elaine"