“Jesus,” Ethan muttered, low and sorrowful.

There was pounding on the stairs, and Luc raced into the front room, magic flurrying around him. He stopped when he reached us, and his expression was as cheerless as Catcher’s.

“The raid?” Luc asked.

Catcher nodded.

“We just heard on the scanner,” Luc said. “They’d kept the radios off during the op.”

“They wanted to keep it quiet in case Reed had informants inside the CPD,” Catcher said. “It didn’t seem to matter much.”

“This was probably a one-off,” Mallory said. “Kyle Farr, but with trolls. We’d know if he’d started the big magic. But he won’t wait much longer.”

“Did Paige catch you? Talk to you about the net?”

“The net?” Luc asked.

“We think the QE is a boundary for the magic,” Ethan said. “Or, if you prefer, a trap for everyone within it.”

Luc’s eyes widened. Understandably.

“We can’t let this happen,” I said. “We can’t let him take us all over.” I could feel the rising panic, and I ignored it, wouldn’t let it rise again. I wouldn’t let his glamour happen again.

“We won’t,” Mallory said, and pulled a plastic bag of what looked like braided friendship bracelets out of the messenger bag she’d canted over one shoulder.

“We haven’t had time to finish the countermagic. We’re working on it—and there are supplies in the car. We can finish it on-site. But I was able to make a few of these. They’re shielded,” she said, handing one to Catcher, to Ethan, then looked at me. “Wear your apotrope. It should keep them out of your head. It’s probably a better shield than these”—she lifted up her right wrist to show the bracelet she wore—“but they’re all I had time to prepare.”

The apotrope was a bracelet with a raven-engraved charm Mallory had bought in what she called Chicago’s “Scandinavian District,” magicked for good luck. I’d used it to keep Faux Balthasar out of my head. Made sense it would work here, too. I’d have to remember to grab it.

“We thank you for the effort,” Ethan said, sliding on a neon pink and green bracelet. He held it up against his immaculate white button-down. “How does it look?”

“Oh so fashionable,” Catcher said, sliding on a navy and red one.

Mallory offered the bag of bracelets to Luc. “I don’t have enough for everyone in the House,” she said. “But at least everybody on the ops team can have one.”

“Appreciated,” Luc said with a nod. “When we figure out what we can do, we’ll hand them out.”

“Paige can ward the rest of the House,” Mallory said. “Although that means she’ll have to stay here.”

“Might be best to limit the number of supernaturals running around out there,” Ethan said. “Does it matter how many supernaturals are here?”

She shook her head. “No. The ward will be on the physical structure. You could fill it to the rafters with vampires, and the ward won’t become any less effective.”

“Then we’ll load it up,” Ethan said, and looked at Luc. “Call Morgan, Scott. Explain, and tell them they can send their vampires here or out of the net.” He looked at Mallory. “Will that be enough? If they’re outside the symbol’s boundaries?”

“Give me a buffer,” she said. “A few hundred yards outside the symbol should do it.”

Ethan nodded. “We’ll call it a mile to be safe.” He looked back at Luc. “Call Gabriel, too, and update him. Same offer for the Pack.”

Luc scowled. “There are already shifters on the door and the gate. The House won’t be happy about more coming here.”

“It’s unlikely Gabriel will accept the offer,” Ethan said. “But we make the offer because it’s the right thing to do. It’s easy to be an asshole.” He smiled, but there wasn’t much happiness in it. “And harder to do the right thing. We do it anyway.”

“Aye, aye, boss. We’ll get some bracelets to the men on the gate.”

Ethan looked at Catcher. “The nymphs? The fairies?”

The city’s mercenary fairies weren’t exactly our allies anymore. All the more reason to ensure that they weren’t suited up as soldiers for Reed.

“We’ve gotten the word out. Told the Order, too. And Annabelle.”

“Good,” Ethan said. “There will be some we can’t reach. But the fewer supernaturals we give him to work with, the better off we’ll be.” He looked at Mallory. “How will he work this?”

Mallory squeezed her eyes closed, kneaded her forehead with her fingertips. “This is a big operation that’s going to need a lot of power. We’re talking about, what, a few thousand supernaturals within the net? The magic has to be powerful enough to affect them all, or it’s not much good. A sorcerer carries power innately. But this is exponentially larger than one person.”

“So, how will he do it?” Ethan asked.

“If it was me,” Mallory said, opening her eyes again, “I’d either have a generator, or I’d tie right into the grid, maybe with a transformer that turns electrical power into magical power. And I’d put it as close to the middle of the QE as I could. That makes the spreading of the magic more efficient.”

“So downtown,” Catcher said.

Mallory nodded. “If it was me. And he’d want high ground, too. Taller than Cadogan House.”

Ethan looked at me. “Any sense of where he’d go? A building that he’d want to use for this?”

There was, of course, one building that he’d wanted most of all—the one he’d wrenched from my father.

I looked at Ethan. “Towerline. We’d thought Reed had wanted it for his portfolio. Maybe that hadn’t been the only reason.”

Ethan looked at Luc. “Assemble everyone. We won’t lose anyone else on my watch. We take Reed down, and we do it tonight.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

IDENTITY

Mallory studied the translated equation, then helped Paige set the wards on the House. When it was protected, or as well as it could be, the city’s supernatural leaders were called, and we prepared for battle.