“For the first time in my life, I didn’t have to perform a ritual or hear the petitioner’s supplication before having a vision. I didn’t have toreachfor power. It came to me—forced itself on me—like it or not.” And shehadn’tliked it. She fervently hoped nothing similar ever happened to her again, in fact. “I remained unconscious for almost an hour. And when I woke up, I recalled what I’d seen. It was…apocalyptic.”
There had been other visions too, teeming at the edges of her beleaguered brain, waiting for her attention. But this prophecy had been the most pressing and important by far, and so it alone had spooled through her mind as she’d twitched and bled.
At the memory of everything she’d witnessed, everything she’d experienced, she faltered, unable to translate the horror into calm, rational words.
“Gwen.” Hugh had leapt to his feet, all the elegant angles of his face stark and jutting by lamplight. “If you require medical attention, tell me. Now.”
It wasn’t a polite request. It was ademand.
“I…” What? Why wasn’t he focused on the issue of actual importance here? “No. I’m fine. Just tired, like I said.”
“But—” he began.
“In my vision, I saw open warfare sparked by the zombie breach. A massive battle fought across our entire continent. An alliance of fae and common humans in uniform using military weaponry to slaughter all other Supernaturals and Enhanced humans. Demons fought on our side, not with the fae.”
Slowly, his mouth closed.
“Even with their help, we’ll lose that battle,” she added, and tried not to think of the burning pyres of bodies. “Badly.”
“Based on your vision, then…” After a minute of thought, he spoke carefully, his face paler than the wall behind him. “You and your compatriots believe there may be a conspiracy between a splinter faction of the fae and at least some members of the common human government, and those conspirators planned and executed the breach with the intention of touching off a wider war.”
“Yes.” Good. His agile mind had jumped to the correct conclusions without her needing to lead him there. “And we don’t know enough to eliminate any human officials from suspicion. If we went to the wrong person for help, the information would go nowhere, and—”
“Your life would be forfeit.” A vein pulsed faintly at his temple. “Allour lives, theoretically.”
She chose to ignore his damning choice of adverb, barreling onward regardless. “We realized that we needed the assistance of a SERC official instead. Someone not beholden to either the fae or the common human government. Someone powerful enoughto take decisive action but discreet enough to avoid alerting the conspirators to our suspicions. Also…”
She didn’t want to say it. The elephant in this luxurious, ridiculous room was trumpeting loudly enough to deafen them both, though, so—
“Also someone who might believe you when you explained your apocalyptic vision,” he said for her. “Which makes your decision to come here tonight…interesting.”
She laid out her reasoning unapologetically. “Because of our personal history, I knew you’d be disinclined to trust my story. Back then, though, you said to let you know if anything changed in regard to my prophetic abilities, and something most certainly has. You might have rejected my plea for a second verification test—”
A faint, fleeting wince creased his features.
“—but you were scrupulously fair in your verdict.” He hadn’t been actively unkind either, in contrast with most of the other panelists. If the rules had allowed him to give her another chance, she honestly believed he’d have done so. “Unlike everyone else I could think of, I figured you might be willing to hear me out. To keep your word to me, if for no other reason.”
Maybe because of those scant minutes they’d spent together before the test too. Even after two decades, a demon with his reputation for faultless honesty and moral rectitude might still harbor guilt over his deception that day. Or if the connection she’d experienced in the waiting room hadn’t been entirely one-sided, she hoped the lingering warmth of that encounter might sway him toward her side, however infinitesimally.
His nostrils flared in a heavy exhalation. “What, specifically, are you asking me to do?”
He hadn’t said whether or not he believed what she’d told him, but she forged ahead regardless, because she had no backup plan. No real hope that didn’t reside in this apartment.
“We’d like you to use your SERC ties and authority to quietly investigate the breach, uncover the identities of the conspirators, and inform SERC and the common human government of your findings. Whichever officials you consider trustworthy and least likely to overreact, make rash decisions, or leak information.”
“Hmmm.” He waited a moment before speaking again. “Why areyouhere, though? Why not send someone with a less…blemished reputation, or at least someone who doesn’t look half dead already? Why aren’t you at home, resting?”
Ouch. “Max is busy nursing Edie, who got terribly injured by a zombie. The others weren’t good options either, for various reasons.”
They’d worried that the common humans’ testimony might not hold much weight with a demon. The half-fae Girl Explorers’ ages and the trolls’ reputation as dunces would count against their own credibility. And while her wife remained so ill, Sabrina refused to leave the Zone.
Before Gwen and the trolls had left Sabby’s house, though, the witch had promised to meet them by Wall One at dawn for their next task: tampering with the breach site. By then, she hopefully would have regained enough of her witchy power for the job. They couldn’t wait any longer than that, because an unknown clock was already ticking down the minutes.
Sooner or later, the conspirators would either alert the authorities about the breach or arrive in the Zone themselves and loudly, falsely proclaim demons to be the guilty species—which meant all planted evidence of demonic guilt had to disappear,stat. Also anyrealevidence of fae perfidy Sabrina might find, since that too could touch off an apocalyptic war with common humans. And New Year’s Day was dawning within an hour, so Sabby, Gwen, and the trolls all needed to head to the breach site soon to start tampering while they still could.
Hugh too, if he chose to believe her and assist their efforts.
Gwen wasn’t especially optimistic about that. “I’m sorry to hurry you, but I really need to know your verdict. Do you believe me?”
