They made a few laps around the corridors, Sera sensing, Tony seeing. She didn’t feel anything but the usual stench of pretentious supernatural magic.

Tony’s phone rang during their seventh lap. He listened to a panicked-sounding voice on the other end, then said, “We’ll be right there.” He hung up and started running.

“What is it, Tony?” Sera asked him, falling into step beside him.

“It’s the team watching Jonathan Middleton. They’re under attack.”

His phone rang again. Without slowing, he answered. Shouts and blasting magic screamed out of the speaker.

“Meredith?” he asked.

When he got no answer, he put the phone away. “Mace Bender is being attacked.”

“Both Council member targets are being attacked? At the same time?” Sera asked.

“Yes.”

“So Lara and Ares were both right.”

“Or they are both playing us,” Dal said.

“This doesn’t feel right,” Tony agreed, dialing. “Callum, what the hell is going on?”

“The security feeds have all gone dead,” Callum reported.

“Do you know where Jonathan Middleton and Mace Bender are?” Tony asked.

“I saw Middleton was in the red room. Bender was in the green room. Then the feeds died.”

“Ok. I need you to get down here. Meet me in the green room.” Tony hung up. “You go check on Middleton in the red room,” he told Sera and Dal.

“What about the meeting chamber?” she asked.

“The chamber is secure. The guards have barricaded it. No one will get in or out.”

Sera nodded, then she and Dal ran to the red room. They burst through the open doorway, looking all around for Alden’s minions. There were none. Middleton, a mage with shoulder-length dark hair wet with sweat, was surrounded by dead agents at his feet. He looked up at them, manic magic sizzling in his eyes. Sera nodded at Dal.

As they slowly circled around Middleton, Sera felt something strange, a weird magic. It wasn’t in this room, but it was close by. And powerful. Really powerful. Too powerful to mask. As the metallic tang burned her tongue, she recognized that magic. It belonged to Finn.

“It’s Finn,” Sera told Dal. “He’s in the meeting chamber.”

“The meeting chamber is secure. You heard Tony.”

“Yes, I heard him, but he’s wrong. Finn is in there. We have to get to him. We have to stop him from doing whatever Alden has sent him to do here.”

She sifted through all the magic in the building, focusing on Finn. He was in the meeting chamber all right, directly in the middle of all those Council members. And he’d brought friends. They’d teleported in, she realized. This whole thing was a setup.

She looked at Middleton. “This guy has already been turned,” she told Dal. “And this is a distraction. Finn is in the meeting hall. We have to get there.”

Sera tried to knock Middleton away, but he surged forward, tackling her onto a shining glyph that had just appeared on the ground. Magic swirled all around them as the red room bled away, replaced by darkness. She kicked Middleton off of her, rushing to her feet.

She was too late. She was inside a dark room lit only by a few candles. Alden stood opposite her, a slight smirk on his lips.

“Welcome, Sera,” he said. “I’ve been expecting you.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Fireside Chat with the Grim Reaper

MIDDLETON BOWED TO Alden, then disappeared into the shadows, the clicks of his dress shoes growing more distant until they were gone. Sera was alone with Alden, the Grim Reaper, the craziest mage who had ever lived.

“Where have you brought me?” she demanded.

A gust of wind blew open the thick curtains, revealing a window to the outside. A flash of white light spilled through the glass panel. Sera saw mountains and snow. Where was she? There shouldn’t be snow this time of year.

“Palmer Glacier,” Alden told her.

“Northern Oregon?”

He nodded.

He’d transported her over six hundred miles. She hadn’t even known that was possible. She was still wondering if this was all just some trick, if he was just inside of her head again.

“I assure you that this is very real, Sera.”

“Stay out of my head,” she growled.

“I was not in your head. I don’t need to be. Your face is very expressive.” He indicated the snowy landscape outside. “You are here in body and mind. This is not an illusion.”

She tried to get her head around that. If he had the power to transport her this far, what else could he do? And how could they ever hope to defeat him?

“And all that back in Munich when you took us? Was it real?”

“It was real too, in a sense. But not like this. It was a microcosm built from illusion and truth.”

“Why do mad villains always speak in riddles?”

He laughed softly. “I suppose they believe it makes them sound mysteriously important. But I’m not a villain, Sera. And I’m not your enemy. We are just two people discussing a common goal.”

Yeah, right. And I’m the tooth fairy, Amara commented.

“What goal is that?” Sera asked Alden.

“The fate of the world, of course.” He smiled pleasantly. “Something in which we are both heavily invested.”

“What do you care about the world?”

“Everything.” He pointed at a fluffy sofa beside the fireplace. “Sit with me.”