You’re back.”
She stopped talking, and the silence following her words seemed foreign and almost unbearable.
It was weird, the effect she had.
“I was just saying, actually,” Austin started slowly, “that we made the pickup and the weapons seem to be in working order. We can get you all training with them tomorrow.”
“Oh!” Patty clapped. “Fantastic! That is just great. All the gals will be ecstatic to get to work. The knives are fun, but we’d love to try on a little power, if you know what I mean. Now, the other thing I was going to ask about—”
The front door opened again and heavy treads came swiftly toward the kitchen. Nessa appeared a moment later, her eyes tight and her body movements screaming stress. Sebastian emerged behind her in the same state, with Tristan following, his eyes gleaming and his mannerisms solemn.
This meant bad news.
“Hey,” Nessa said, going right for the fridge. “What do we want, dinner or sweets? I’m thinking sweets and a lot of wine. Anyone else?”
“What happened?” Jess asked, grabbing a bottle of wine for her.
“We didn’t get much,” Sebastian said, plopping down onto the cushions. “Momar has developed some kind of magic to make the mages self-destruct if they’re caught. We questioned the lesser mages first, and any magic used on them in an interviewing capacity shorted out their brains. They slumped over, dead. No warning. No lead-up. Just done. Tristan handled the higher-level mage, but even that didn’t last long.”
“Their boss kills his people if they get captured?” Mac asked, aghast.
“It’s probably nicer than the alternative,” Nessa said, pulling out the chocolate torte Austin had made last night. “I’m eating this.”
“What’s the alternative?” Aurora asked.
Nessa laughed sardonically. “If we sent them back, he’d torture them to find out exactly what secrets they spilled and then kill them for having spilled them. Unless they’re valuable magically, and then I’m honestly not sure. He wouldn’t want to waste talent.”
“He doesn’t jeopardize big talent,” Sebastian said, leaning back heavily. “He wouldn’t put them in a situation where they might get captured.”
“This is true,” Nessa replied, getting a plate.
“So?” Jess pushed.
“Tell ’em,” Nessa murmured.
“The head mage confirmed that Momar’s team went dark about a week ago.”
“What does that mean?” Kingsley asked.
“It means,” Nessa said, pulling out a fork, “that they are mobilizing. Everyone has spies, and any spies who are on the team won’t have the ability to relay information.”
“Your team is on the inside?” Austin asked.
“That’s just it,” Nessa replied. “They aren’t. I contacted one with encryption on the way back here. His contacts thought they were in Momar’s inner circle, but they’re still responding to him. He must have tightened up his organization.”
“Then what was with that mage and his crew messing around with our weapons order?” Jess asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Sebastian said. “He didn’t get that far before Momar’s spell short-circuited his brain. But he’s a field guy. An information acquisition guy, apparently.”
“That’s what it sounded like he said, anyway,” Nessa said, her first slice of torte gone. She reached for the wine. “Stop looking at me like that, Tristan. I stress-eat. Mind your business.”
“She’s just a little blindsided, that’s all,” Sebastian said. “She’ll bounce back. Anyway, he specializes in information gathering, so it would make sense that he wouldn’t be included in the battle. Momar can’t drop all his operations for this battle.”
“And you can trust the mage’s assessment that they went dark?” Austin asked.
“Yes,” Tristan replied, leaning on the wall. “It’s the truth as he knows it.”
“It’s just nuts that he would know that and not our people,” Nessa murmured, stopping to stare out the windows. “Unless they got to our guy.”
“I don’t think our guy would play turncoat on us. He wouldn’t be that stupid,” Sebastian said darkly.
“Doesn’t matter,” Nessa said, then turned toward Austin. “We need to get everything nailed down, alphas. Everyone needs to know their positions and places like second nature. The attack could come any time, day or night, but it’ll likely be very early in the morning. They’re coming.”