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I wondered how much longer she was going to be able to control the hot head, but she didn’t appear worried.“That is why they were having such a public execution,” she added.“To lure other Corpsmen there, in an attempt to wipe them out or decrease their numbers enough to render them toothless moving forward.”

“But we crashed the party instead,” Alphonse added.“And gave them a little more than they’d bargained for.”

“What kind of power was worth that much risk?”I asked angrily.If we hadn’t stumbled in there almost by accident, the Corps’ entire leadership might have been wiped out!

“It was the Silver Circle’s power originally,” Bodil said.“Secreted away in recesses the Dark did not know about, and which remained from early in the war.”

“They were trying to develop God-killing weapons and had stockpiled energy for the tests,” Pritkin explained.

I nodded, remembering hearing something about that.

“Did they work?”I asked because it looked like we had a lot of gods to kill.

“The initial tests were promising, but the devices took too much power.They were good for a few blasts, but after that…”

He trailed off, and I winced.I think I knew what happened after that.“So the energy was left over when HQ fell?”

“Apparently.”He looked back at Bodil because he wasn’t taking the fall for whatever was coming.

“So what does the Circle want with it now?”I asked, looking between the two of them.And somehow doubting it was for better wards.

Bodil, in turn, looked at Alphonse, who scowled, and I started getting worried.

“What is it?”I asked, staring at the round-robin involving three of the most forceful personalities I knew.

“The weapons were based on life magic, the same kind the gods use, and that us vamps need to sustain ourselves,” Alphonse finally said.“The other stuff doesn’t really impact ‘em so much; it’s like they shrug it off.”

“They manipulate the physical world,” Pritkin reminded me.“Zeus with his thunderbolts, Poseidon with the sea.Our magic appears to be much the same, just another aspect of the world that they can manipulate.”

“So it doesn’t affect them?”I said.

“It does, but not as much as life magic.That is what they live on, what they use for fuel, what makes up their very bodies.They seem vulnerable to it.”

“So, the Circle was storing up life magic.”

He nodded but didn’t elaborate.

“They wish to change the past as we are trying to do,” Enid said, looking impatiently at the rest of them.“They meant to use the energy to fuel the spells that dark mages have employed for centuries to slip back through time.”

“What?”I said blankly.

“Well, it’s better than trying to fight our way into a fortress guarded by half the damned gods on Earth!”Æsubrand exploded.

He’d been all but vibrating in his corner, propped up on a chair between the bed and the wall, and scowling.He hadn’t said much, likely thinking I wouldn’t appreciate his perspective, but it seemed he’d had enough.And now he was leaning forward with those pewter eyes almost glowing with intensity.

“We’ll never get to your heir.I talked to five war mages, and they all say the same.Las Vegas is impossible!It is populated by the creatures we barely escaped from back in Stratford, hundreds of them—”

“Wait.Slow down,” I said.

He didn’t slow down.

“—which makes perfect sense!Marsden always believed you would return; he was waiting for it, pinning all his hopes on it.Do you think the gods—the ones with enough mind left to reason—are any different?They put your heir in the middle of that city asbait, knowing you would go to her if you ever came back.And here you are, ready to fall straight into their trap, just like Mage Caleb!But the Silver Circle learned from their mistake, and they have a better idea—”

“If it involves those damned spells, it isn’t a better idea!”I snapped.“Those things are deadly—”

“There!You see?”Æsubrand pointed at me while looking around at the others.“I told you she is reckless—”

“I’mreckless?Those spells blow people up!”