Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X #1)(117)
Author: Richelle Mead

Mae nodded. “Wasn’t specific on the means. No mention of a silver dagger.”

A troubling thought occurred to Justin. “Did he threaten you?” Even when he’d first suspected Mae might have a connection, he’d never considered she might be in real danger. After all, she wasn’t like the others. She was unstoppable…right?

“What he said isn’t important,” Mae said.

“It is if your life’s on the line!”

“It’s not. No shadow creature’s coming after me. Worry about these other patricians.”

“And worry about the fact that they’re eliminating their rivals too.” Callista’s face darkened with outrage. “Now do you see that they need to be stopped? For me, for her, for the others! They need to be disbanded and destroyed!”

Justin was growing frustrated, still shaken by the idea of something happening to Mae. “Yes, yes, I know! But we can’t do anything until we find them.”

She fixed him with a cold look. “Then I suggest you start looking. And you…” She turned to Mae. “You start taking this seriously if you don’t want to be next. I told you before. If you want to be free, you need to break them. You could save yourself and the others. I…might be able to help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” said Mae.

“Yeah, you’re doing great on your own,” said Callista dryly. “Fix this. Immediately.” She disconnected.

Mae glared at the screen. “I really don’t like her.”

“Yeah, well, she helped us out with the name. We know a lot about the group now. We know a lot about you, whether you like it or not.” He raked a hand through his hair with a sigh. The Exerzol was crashing down on him. “Everything except where they are. I wish you’d told me about that guy.”

“So you could nobly throw yourself in front of me?” A glint in those eyes told him the ramifications of his earlier refusal weren’t going away any time soon. “It was my business, not yours. And I certainly never could’ve guessed the bigger picture. I thought he was blackmailing me about my niece.” She gave him a brief rundown of her encounters with Emil. It left Justin reeling.

“Well, at least it’s still—” His ego rang again. “Fuck, doesn’t anyone sleep?” It was still synched to the screen, which identified the caller as Leo. At least he had the excuse of an earlier time zone.

Leo appeared when Justin answered, not looking tired in the least. In fact, there was a light in his face that Justin knew well: the light of a breakthrough.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “I know how your video could’ve been faked.”

It was a blow to Justin’s finely tuned theories. He’d grown comfortable with the idea of the shadowy assassin being some supernatural manifestation. If the video was proven to be a fake, then that meant the murderers had resorted to practical means, which still didn’t rule out the Morrigan’s involvement. It just meant they were using smoke and mirrors to scare others.

Still, Justin was anxious enough to find out the results that he changed their travel plans to go straight to Portland from the Nordic grant. He considered bringing Tessa but ended up sending her home on the original flight. She’d already been involved in too much.

When he and Mae stepped into Leo’s house, they found a makeshift movie studio. Cameras and equipment Justin couldn’t identify had been arranged around the living room, and a transparent plastic screen sat near one of the walls. He stared around in amazement.

“What’s all this?”

“Your answer,” said Leo excitedly. His worse half came strolling in, looking as unpleasant as usual.

“Saw a news story about a shooting on the Nordic land grant,” Dominic remarked casually. “They say a prætorian was involved.”

“Must have been a lucky break for them,” Mae replied evenly. “Having one on hand.”

Meanwhile, Leo could barely contain himself. “Let’s do this.” He put on a skintight black suit and hood, similar to what scuba divers wore, except shinier. He flipped on some of the equipment and shifted the clear screen so that it was between him and them. And then, just like that, his form became translucent and smoky and shot across the living room. He took off his head covering and grinned, looking at all of them expectantly.

“It’s not fast enough,” said Mae, speaking at last.

“And there’s no way someone could set all this up without the victim noticing,” added Justin. He didn’t know if he should be relieved or disappointed that they hadn’t proven the fraud. “It’s a good effort, Leo. Really. But I don’t think it’s a match.”

“Good effort?” Leo’s eyes bugged. “Do you know how long it took me to set this up? To get ahold of this kind of light-refraction equipment? I’ve looked at that video’s code a million times! It wasn’t tampered with. Whatever we’re seeing was done on site, and this is a match. If it’s not this, then it really is some kind of mystical apparition!”

Justin and Mae exchanged glances. “That’s becoming more and more of a possibility,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t it.”

Leo still looked a little put out that his brilliance wasn’t being lauded, but he made no more protests. “I can keep trying.”

“I don’t know that it’s needed,” said Justin. “What we really need is to find an unlicensed cult serving a Celtic death goddess.”

“Isn’t that what you do all the time?” asked Dominic, a challenge in his voice.

“A little harder when they’re not licensed,” Justin retorted.

Leo didn’t seem so sure. “Didn’t you used to be tight with some groups in the underground?”

“Very tight,” murmured Mae.

“My best source couldn’t help,” Justin said.

She suddenly frowned. “What about your other one? Geraki?”

“I—no.” The suggestion momentarily stunned Justin, then he shook his head adamantly. “No. Definitely not. He’s not a source. He’s a stalker at best.”

“I don’t like him either, but he’s wired into that stuff, right? And he claims he wants to help you. He even did kind of help you.”

“He’s crazy,” Justin told her. That, and Geraki wasn’t like Callista. Superficially, they shared a lot of the same traits. Both were cunning and charismatic. Both were smart enough to command others without calling attention to it. But there was something about Geraki that made Justin’s skin crawl.