Page 41 of The Queen’s Shadow

“Then, I will take Meredith and Conrad across The Veil. Once they leave for Italy, I will return and we can depart for The Court of Greed immediately.”

“I’m coming with you,” Jeremy said. Rycon scoffed.

“We’ve been over this, Pops, you’re too much of a liability. This isn’t going to be a cute family holiday. It’s going to get violent as fuck.”

Jeremy scowled at him. “It’s not your decision to make.” He snapped. My father turned to me, eyes pleading. “Let me help you.” He said, and something in his voice made me pause. He needed this. I wasn’t the only one who had suffered great loss at the hands of Ash Nevra. He needed to take action as much as I did.

“Rycon is right, Dad. You can’t come if you’re not armed. The daemons we will be coming up against are extremely powerful. If you want to come you will need weapons, and I don’t think knives are enough. You’re human. You need something long-range.”

He pursed his lips, I could see the conflict in his eyes. I held his gaze stubbornly. I wanted him to feel needed, and to feel like he was a part of the team, but not enough to completely throw caution to the wind and put him in the middle of a war zone without any way to protect himself.

“Fine.” He said.

“Fine what?” I asked, unsure what he was agreeing too.

“I will visit the precinct and… borrow some firearms.”

I gaped, and Rycon immediately perked up.

“Holy shit, Pops,” He grinned, clapping him jovially on the shoulder. “Didn’t think you had it in you. Hey, do you think you could snag me an AR-15 while you’re in there?”

Jeremy made a face and stepped away from Rycon.

“I’m not stealing an AR-15 from the Toronto Precinct armory,” He snapped. Rycon shrugged, still grinning.

“C’mon, just one M4 Carbine? Oooh, you got any MP5’s? Been a long time since I cut someone in half with a machine gun.” He was rubbing his hands together with absolute glee. Jeremy looked thoroughly disturbed.

“Wait, how are you getting to Italy from The Abbey house?” I asked, disengaging from Rycon and Jeremy’s unnerving exchange. Dossidian couldn’t shadow walk and even a flight would likely push them pretty close to the forty-eight hour deadline Sofia had given them. Conrad winced.

“Wi gon try an’ get a flight. Mr. Abbey said he would look into it before we left to tell yuh di news.”

“Are you going to have time for that?” I asked dubiously and Conrad shrugged.

“Mi noh sure, wi gon try.”

“Okay, new plan.” I said. “Dossidian, after you have arranged the shadowstone harvest team, you take Conrad and Mer across The Veil so they can prepare their case with Mr. Abbey as planned.

“I need to check on my blades with Sabel and Kael and see if they have made any progress. I want to take them with me to The Court of Greed when we’re ready to go.

“After I have my blades, the rest of us will meet you in Toronto. I’ll shadow walk Meredith and Conrad to Italy, and we can stop at the precinct to…um, borrow some firearms for Jeremy.” I said, using the same word Jeremy had used to describe our impending grand theft armory.

“Then, once we’re all armed and ready, we will go to The Court of Greed to find Kasha… everyone on board?” I asked, and everyone nodded. Dossidian’s eyes shone with pride.

“Aye. Sounds like a good plan to me.”

The adrenaline from finding Bond Breaker and releasing Cerenah had finally worn off, and I felt dead on my feet.

“Great, it’s settled. Now, if you all don’t mind, I haven’t slept in almost two days. You guys okay if I rest for a bit?” I asked and was met with a series of vigorous nods.

“Awesome.” I turned to Rycon, Jeremy and Cerenah, “I’ll meet you guys back here in a couple of hours.” I said, before heading off to my room, for what was, in my opinion, a well deserved nap.

Raven

My eyes flew open, and I barely had time to register that it seemed to now be evening, judging by the quality of light in the room. Before going to bed, I had showered, and tried again to break through the unforgiving walls of the triquetra that blocked me from accessing the trace I had placed on Amon. I wanted so badly to tell him about Cerenah, and how I had freed her.

Though I was glad we both had a trace on one another, I cursed the fact that they seemed to only work as a form of one way communication. Amon hadn’t been kidding, when he had said it was easier to break out of a triquetra, than into one.

After several minutes of throwing my metaphysical self against the adamantium wall of magick that guarded his consciousness from me, I decided I would just have to wait until he was able to visit me again through the hole he had managed to carve out on his end.