Do you need me there?

Stay where you are. All of you. I wanted to at least present the image of taking care of Veyron alone.

“Clarion, I would appreciate it if you released my powers now,” I announced patiently.

The warlock arched one eyebrow at me and straightened where he stood. “And why would I do that?”

“Because I can more effectively torture Veyron that way.”

“What’s to stop you from trying to use your powers on me?”

I dropped my sticky hands to my sides and narrowed my gaze on him. “My business is not with you, is it? You’ve just been maneuvering everything so this city would be cleaned out of all the rabble.”

Clarion gave a slight shrug of one shoulder and I smiled. Lifting my right hand, I snapped my fingers and a small teardrop of fire appeared. I suppressed a sigh of relief. I was not accustomed to not having this gift at my fingertips. While Clarion’s magic had not gotten rid of my ability to manipulate fire, he had successfully suppressed the creation of fire within the house or around it. But now I had it back.

“Clarion! We had a deal!” Veyron screeched. The nightwalker turned to lunge at the warlock, but with a wave of my hand a wall of fire formed a semicircle around him, keeping him pinned against the wall. Veyron pressed his back against the wall while standing on the tips of his toes in an effort to get as far as possible from the flames. “Mira!”

You can come down now. Just follow my lead. I’m still digging for some information, I directed the others. Their footsteps pounded down the stairs. I didn’t look over my shoulder, but I could feel Danaus in the lead, his powers rushing ahead of him and down into the dark basement. With a thought, a ball of fire appeared near the foot of the stairs, offering up a globe of light against the pitch-blackness that had barely been penetrated by the dim pair of bare lightbulbs that hung overhead.

“Now that the gang’s all here, let’s have a little chat, Veyron,” I said, making sure that Clarion understood I wasn’t including him in this nasty business. I had other, better, plans for him. “I want to know why Macaire came to you.”

“Wh-Why would Macaire come to me? He doesn’t have any business here,” the nightwalker stammered.

“Please, Veyron, I’m trying to make this easy for you. Don’t make me make you scream.”

“Just kill him, Mira,” Stefan grumbled. “I’m ready to quit this place.”

“Soon. We will leave soon,” I promised. I raised my left hand in a slow arc, and as a result fire jumped from the wall surrounding Veyron to his right arm. The nightwalker screamed and crushed his right arm against the wall, trying to put out the fire. I counted to seven and then extinguished the flames on him. “I can do this all night, and then get up the next evening and start it all over again. I can burn you until there is nothing left but a quivering mass of raw tissue and pain. Tell me why Macaire came to you.”

“He wanted us to kill you and that thing,” he shouted, pointing at Danaus with his left hand. “He knew our numbers were strong here. Sofia told him about Clarion and was confident that we could use him. Macaire also thought Sofia could break you both, so he told us to separate and kill you.”

I turned my gaze to Clarion and smiled. “The Ancient put his money on Sofia to break us,” I mused, and the warlock smiled smugly at me in return. He had been keeping to the shadows, biding his time.

“It was an interesting bet,” he admitted.

Looking back at Veyron, I caused the fire to move several inches closer to him, shrinking the semicircle. “Have you communicated with Macaire recently?”

“No!”

“When did you last speak with the Elder?” Valerio inquired.

“The night of the ball.”

“Did he give you any instructions regarding anyone else who might accompany me?” I asked.

“Kill them. Kill anyone who was loyal to you,” Veyron said.

I smiled. Macaire had sealed his own fate by alienating both Valerio and Stefan. The Elder could have contacted Veyron again after they announced they would be accompanying me. He could have changed the orders so they would be spared, but he hadn’t. Macaire wanted anyone associated with me dead.

“P-P-Please, Mira!” Veyron begged. “I’ll do anything you say. Whatever you want! Please, I was only following orders. Macaire would have destroyed us all if we had not agreed to his demands.” Clarion sent him a look of disgust as he returned to leaning against the wall while shoving his hands deep in the pockets of his trousers.

“Enough.” I sighed. With a thought, the flames closed in around him, completely engulfing him. Veyron pushed off the wall and came running blindly in my direction, his high-pitched screams bouncing off the walls of the small room. I pulled my short sword from over my shoulder and stabbed it directly into his chest, spearing his heart and stopping him in his tracks. He thrashed about for nearly a minute before finally going completely still. Death had finally claimed him. I felt the cold touch of his soul as it flew past me in the wintry embrace of night.

Extinguishing the flames, I lowered Veyron’s crusty black body to the floor. With my foot braced against his chest, I withdrew my sword and placed it back into the sheath on my back. One down and one tricky one to go.

When I looked up, Clarion was regarding me with a calculating stare, which I met with a slight bow of my head. We had to come to an understanding if anyone was going to leave this basement alive.

“So, where does this little escapade leave us?” he inquired.

“On shaky footing, I would say,” I ventured. “Do you think it is possible for us to find a reasonable agreement this evening that would make everyone happy?”

Clarion frowned for the first time and every muscle in my body seemed to tense in anticipation of his attack. “I find that hard to believe.”

“I could just kill you now and have it all done,” I threatened.

“You know you can’t use fire against me.”

“I have other tricks.” Narrowing my eyes in concentration, I reached out and grabbed hold of Danaus’s powers. With a slight tug, I directed them at Clarion. In the back of my mind I heard Danaus growling at me, but he didn’t fight me, which was reassuring. The warlock’s face crumpled as he raised both of his hands to see the skin undulating.

“Mira!” he snapped, and I released Danaus’s powers. I could try to kill Clarion this way, but doubted I would survive the spell he’d sling at me just before his death. I wasn’t willing to risk it when I still had a use for him. For now, I just wanted him to fear me.

“I’m not limited to fire.”

“I see,” Clarion replied in a low voice. “What is it that you would like to discuss?”

“Budapest and her future.”

He rubbed his hands together, seeming to try to massage away the unexpected heat that rested just below this skin. “Interesting topic.”

“Macaire didn’t approach you. He approached and ordered the nightwalkers to hunt me and my people down,” I pronounced, leaving a wide opening for him to easily excuse himself from the madness. “If anything, you saw my arrival as an opportunity. You never wanted all these nightwalkers or lycanthropes within your city. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hated sharing the city with Sofia.”

“Interesting thoughts. Why would you say such a thing?” he asked, scratching his chin.

“I’ve known more than my share of warlocks and witches in my day. Sure, you might have your little covens where you cast spells together, but the really powerful ones don’t play well with others. You don’t like sharing a territory with other powerful spellcasters. Hell, you don’t like sharing your territory with other creatures at all if you can help it.”

“Astute.”

“Lessons learned the hard way,” I admitted with a shake of my head.

“So I took advantage of the situation,” Clarion said. “I made sure that you had an easy target in the lycanthropes and nightwalkers.”