Page 102 of Obsidian and Frost

He stepped up to me. “Outside of a being possessing Immortal blood, you are the only being, with your advanced necromantic abilities, who can breachInhibitorcuffs.” He went on, “I can’t go in with an army. Not without drawing attention, very likely of the Guardian Movement itself. An act of vigilantism involving sixty vampires will lead to severe charges levied upon myself and those I’ve employed to assist with obtaining all of this intel.”

“With me, you don’t need an army to see to this.”

“Precisely. You are able to incapacitate without significant bloodshed, liberate the hostages from theInhibitorcuffs, and also apply a scent mask so involvement isn’t discovered when I send an anonymous tip to the Guardian Movement to arrest them all once you have them debilitated.”

“You’ll lead the hostages away to your checkpoint wherein several of your vampire contacts will performObliviscaon them, a minor memory wipe to remove my involvement?”

“As promised, yes. Although, it is highly doubtful they would turn in their savior. But I also agree that we cannot rely on that hope. I’ve provided a cover for you tonight, so if the Guardian Movement comes knocking purely because you’re somebody who’s become synonymous with significant acts of vigilantism, you will have an alibi.”

“I’ll take care of the mind-wipes with the targets. I can do it in conjunction with the takedown.” I arched an eyebrow. “What’s my alibi?”

“One of your projects with Arcanum Order is to determine how to protect beings of this realm from the mind-violatingmagic of the Dark Fae Realm. In order to do that, you need to determine how to unravel the foundational aspect of those spells. You met with me tonight because I’ve obtained information from a defector inside their realm that can assist with that goal.”

Of course he knew about Arcanum Order. The fact he even knew what we were researching—well, one of the many things that we were—didn’t surprise me either. He was most definitely a font of information. Likely, unmatched.

Perhaps except for thisRemnant.But I had a strategy on how to deal with that ghost.

With a flick of his fingers, Charlie produced a scroll.

I snatched it out of the air as he levitated it toward me.

Sure enough, as I opened it, I saw a few key details that could assist with our Dark Fae magic research.

“Very impressive.”

He lifted a shoulder. “It’s what I do.”

It certainly was.

I shifted my weight and folded my arms across my chest. “These hostages… forty-six?”

“Correct. Not many magic-wielders can teleport that many people in one sweep. Another reason why I’ve come to you, specifically.”

Normally, Icouldabsolutely pull that off.

But with this sickness, things didn’t always reflect what I was truly capable of—or had been capable of.

To do what was needed there and teleport that many supernatural beings to his checkpoint, I’d have to actually create a portal to accomplish it. Especially if my magic glitched mid-cast—I could lose accuracy and they might end up somewhere entirely different, or there could be issues with them materializing on the other end at all. But with a portal, once it was open, the gateway was set. So long as I kept it open, they’dreach the destination I’d programmed into the portal at the moment of its creation—no matter what happened to me.

“All right. Let’s move out,” I told him.

“Do you need to take another look at the building plans, the locations of the hostages and the targets?”

“No. I’ve got it locked in.”

As I went to grab my coat, he grasped my shoulder. “No killing. A little spilling of blood is acceptable, but not actual death. The fallout will be far too severe.”

“While I understand what you—”

“We must be careful that we do not become those we fight, Sylas.”

Fuck.“Fine. No killing. They’ll survive to hurt another day.”

“So long as you take thosemagical snapshotsof their activities when you first arrive, we’ll have the proof we need to end their reign of terror without the need to take things the fatal route. They will be dealt with by the Guardian Movement. Arrested, charged, imprisoned.”

Sure, we’d go with that sufficing as justice for what those motherfuckers had done.

It was the way it needed to be right now, unfortunately. As much as it filled me with utter distaste.