The apartment belonged to Makiko, but she didn’t live here. It was one of half a dozen secret properties her family owned in Vancouver—places to retreat during emergencies. This one was located in Coal Harbour, high in a tower with a view of the inlet, the dark water tinged with yellow as the morning sun peeked above the horizon.

Aaron knotted off the stitches and selected a jar of white cream from the large first aid kit. He liberally dabbed the ointment over the bloody line in Kai’s arm.

“Here it is,” Makiko murmured.

Ezra raised his head, and I lowered my ice pack as she pointed a remote at the wall-mounted TV. The screen came on. A few clicks on her laptop, and the MPD’s white website filled the television so we could all see it.

The webpage layout was familiar—a bounty posting—but large red text at the top declared, “LEVEL 2 CLASSIFIED.”

I skimmed the text, the chill in my blood deepening with each line. Ezra’s personal details were clearly laid out, from his age to his guild to his home address. The dates for the MPD investigation—February 13-14—were followed by a description of the “Emergency Judiciary Council Hearing under Code 12-03-006,” with their ruling of the death sentence.

“‘Investigation results,’” I read aloud. “‘A witness from the Keys of Solomon guild reported on February 12 at 18:08 that mythic Ezra Rowe assaulted and wounded a combat team in the Capilano View Cemetery. The witness further alleged that the suspect demonstrated magic consistent with illegal demon magery. Witness testimony has corroborated submitted evidence.’”

As I finished reading, Makiko guided her cursor to a file attached to the case, labeled “C19-1382-Evidence-01”, and double-clicked it. A window popped open and a video filled it. The shaky phone camera blurred in and out of focus as it was pointed through winter-bare shrubs at a patch of green grass.

Three men circled a fourth, who had a weird red smear obscuring his outstretched arm. It sort of looked like a glitch in the recording or a light reflection.

Scarlet flashed, and the screen went completely red, then white. A female voice gasped.

“Demon magic!” she exclaimed in a horrified whisper. “He’s using—oh my god!”

The video cleared, revealing craters in the ground and dirt sifting down to earth. In the bottom corner, a woman with wild red hair—me—tackled a guy in the legs while a pale streak flickered nearby. Hoshi, I was guessing.

“He’s going to kill them!” the camerawoman gasped. “Oh god, he—no!”

The screen went crimson again, and explosive noise screeched across the speakers.

Makiko paused the video, and silence fell over the room. The frame frozen on the screen showed a weird streaky smear of white and red. Magic didn’t photograph—or record—well, but the camera had picked up enough.

Aaron rubbed a hand over his face and into his hair. “You were set up.”

“By a Keys of Solomon member?” I ground out. “Why is a Keys member even here? Were those other cultists affiliated with the Keys too?”

Ezra’s jaw was clenched. “I don’t know about them, but the woman recording the video—I’d know her voice anywhere.”

Our heads swiveled toward him as he stared at the screen, crimson flaring in his left eye.

“Xanthe. She set me up, recorded the video, and reported me to the MPD.”

The “Magna Ducissa” of the Court of the Red Queen, Xanthe was a mentalist with the power to control anyone in her line of sight and force them to commit any act she desired.

“Xanthe is a Keys of Solomon member?” I rasped, fighting the emotions clogging my chest. “She was—the whole time we were—they—”

I stammered into silence as the urge to scream ballooned in my chest, compressing my lungs. I wanted to rage and shriek and cry at the unfairness, at the hopelessness. We’d tried to identify cult moles in the Keys guild. We’d wondered who was left. We’d puzzled over how the Court could’ve infiltrated such a powerful, anti-demon guild.

And all along, one of the cult’s dangerous leaders was inside the guild, using her terrifying psychic ability to sway its members.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Aaron muttered. “This doesn’t mean she’s actually a member of—wait. Shit. How did I not realize it?”

“Realize what?” I demanded.

“Remember the video footage Blake showed us of the cultist who hanged himself in the Keys’ lockup cell eight years ago? A dark-haired woman visited him before he committed suicide.”

My limbs went cold. Xanthe again. It had to be her. She must’ve used her power to make that man kill himself—which meant she’d infiltrated the Keys eight or more years ago.

“Why?” I burst out. “Why set us up? Why reveal Ezra to the MPD? Wouldn’t it be safer for the cult to just kill us all?”

Kai shook his head. “That was probably their plan until Darius started telling everyone there was a demon cult in Vancouver. Killing Ezra can’t undo that, so the Court has given MagiPol and the other guilds a demon mage to hunt instead.”

“And they’ve discredited Darius in the process.” Makiko clicked out of the paused video. “Now everyone will think Darius has no idea what’s going on in his own guild, or that he’s throwing around accusations to hide his own secrets.”

That urge to scream—or cry—was getting stronger and stronger, and I had to gulp several times. “Can’t you do something? A second GM confirming his story about the cult could make a big difference.”

“I have no proof,” she said quietly. “And if I reveal I was traveling with you, it’ll cast more doubt on our stories. Besides …” Her lips thinned. “The family comes first. I can’t jeopardize that.”

Aaron’s hands formed tight fists. “So, Ezra has a death-sentence bounty on his head, and Tori, Kai, and I have been charged with harboring a demon mage, and”—he gestured at the screen with the bounty information—“the Crow and Hammer’s guild license has been suspended pending an investigation. Now what?”

“If I’m not a demon mage,” Ezra said, “then the Keys of Solomon’s evidence is no more than baseless allegations. We can turn the spotlight back on them and the cult.”

“But they have a video of you using demon magic,” I pointed out despairingly.

“They have a video of a woman claiming I’m using demon magic. Magic doesn’t record properly. The video only shows splotches of red light.” He looked between us. “There’s no way to convince MagiPol that I’m not a demon mage unless I’m not a demon mage. It’s the first and most important step to saving you three and the guild from these charges.”

“Then we have to finish the ritual as quickly as possible.” I bit my lip. “We can’t go back to the museum basement.”

“No,” he agreed. “We need a new location. We’ll have to build the circle array again, let it charge, then perform the ritual.”

Aaron paced across the living room. “The array creation could be done in half the time if we can get Robin and Amalia to work on it nonstop instead of only at night, but the charge time won’t change.”

“So a week or a little less,” Ezra concluded. “That’s how long we have to avoid capture.”

“Every combat guild in the city will be hunting you.” Makiko closed her laptop. “The bounty on Ezra is three hundred thousand dollars. That’ll bring in other guilds.”

“And there’s Xanthe to worry about,” I added grimly.

Makiko pursed her lips. “I can think of a few obscure locations where you could hide for a week and prepare the ritual. It’s just a matter of getting you there without drawing any attention.”

“We’ll need Robin and Amalia too,” I said. “We aren’t sorcerers. Even if we knew how to set up the array, it wouldn’t work for us. How will we contact them?”

Ezra, Kai, Aaron, and I had destroyed our phones before arriving at the condo. Technology could be tracked.

Makiko set her laptop aside, walked into the condo’s second bedroom, and returned a moment later with a flip phone. She handed it to me.

I dialed Robin’s number—good thing I had it memorized by now—and listened to it ring. It clicked to voicemail. I ended the call and redialed. It rang over and over, then went to voicemail again.

Flipping the phone shut, I glanced across the guys. “Do you think … did they get away safely?”

“Even carrying two people, Zylas is faster than a human,” Ezra said. “There’s no way they didn’t escape the Odin’s Eye mythics.”

I wrapped both hands around the cell. “I’ll try again in a few minutes.”

Makiko tugged her black sweater straight. “Then I’ll pick a location and begin preparations for smuggling you out of the city, and—”

A phone rang loudly, and I eagerly opened my hands—but the flip phone’s tiny screen was dark.

Makiko pulled a sleek black phone from her pocket and lifted it to her ear. “Yes?”

The tinny sound of another voice leaked from the phone.

“How long ago?” she asked brusquely. “I see … Report back to them that I’ll present myself within the hour.”

She ended the call and tucked her phone in her pocket. Her dark gaze turned to Kai. “I’ve been summoned to the MPD precinct for questioning about the charges against you.”

My fingers dug into the cushions, but I was the only one who seemed shocked. “But what about getting us to a safe location?”

“I’m Kai’s GM. If I don’t present myself, it’ll look suspicious.” She offered a faint smile. “I’ve dealt with the MPD before. I’ll tell them I have no knowledge of a demon mage and promise to deliver Kai into custody as soon as I can locate him. It’ll buy us some time.”