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turning to face him. James grunted a similar sentiment. I looked up at the space where the portal had stood moments before. “Is it closed? Can he come back through?”

“It’s sealed tight,” Connell assured me.

A horrible thought hit me. “By coming back here, did I let him through?”

“Any passage creates a temporary soft spot in the membrane between our worlds, but that’s not your fault, Everson. Lich’s power is growing such that he’ll soon be able to come and go at will.”

Well, that part is definitely my fault, I thought sickly, remembering the triumph I’d felt when I destroyed what I’d thought was Lich’s book. Connell gripped my shoulder and lowered his gaze to mine. A layer of perspiration made the faint scars stand out from his face.

“We’re at war, Everson. The most important one we’ll ever wage. We can’t agonize over every battle. That may sound heartless, but it’s the reality. What matters is that you know the truth and that you’re here.” He clapped my shoulders firmly. “And you’ve brought reinforcements.”

I nodded, still not convinced I hadn’t screwed everything up. “This is James Wesson,” I said. “James, Connell.”

As they shook hands, Connell said, “We followed you some years ago.”

James gave him a suspicious look while my own brow creased in question. Then I remembered the Front’s ability to tap into the demonic realm. Like with Tabitha, they must have had a line to the demon who had taken possession of James when he was a teenager.

“And you already know this one,” I said, cocking my head toward Tabitha, who had just descended from a tree. She stalked toward us, a “what the fuck have you gotten me into?” look souring her face.

“Tabitha,” he said, “I’m Connell. Welcome.”

She muttered something about not having eaten a decent meal in days.

“Come,” Connell said, already striding from the clearing. “Let’s return to the palace. There’s much to do and not much time.”

I started to sheath my sword before remembering my staff had disappeared into the portal with Lich. Damn. I slid the blade through my belt instead and hurried to catch up to Connell and the others.

While James was taken to a dining room for a late dinner, Connell escorted me back to the infirmary. “You’re tainted with Whisperer magic,” he explained. “Not to the extent as before, but it’s in you.”

“Probably during my exchange with Chicory—I mean, Lich,” I said, remembering how, among other things, he’d made me see my flight itinerary as a packing list.

Connell nodded. “There’s no shame. It’s powerful magic.”

“How about James?” I asked.

“He’s fine, but your cat was infected. Her cleaning will be quick.”

Lich must have retrieved Tabitha from my apartment on his way back to the safe house and used magic to convince her she’d never left, that she’d tended to me in my catatonic state. I removed my shirt and lay in my former bed. Arianna entered with a steaming basin of healing water.

“Welcome back,” she said with the warmth of a mother. I noticed a thin tension around her eyes, though. Connell wore the same tension, but it was in the lines of his jaw.

“The situation with Lich,” I said. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“It’s urgent,” Connell said. “Once Arianna finishes, we’re going to hold council to discuss the situation. In the meantime, I’d like to hear what happened out there, from your departure to your return.”

I started telling them. When I got to my trip in Romania, I described the condition in which I’d found Lazlo’s body. I told them what Lazlo had said, including his request that I take his hair.

“That may help us find Lich’s glass pendant,” Connell said, then frowned. “Lazlo fought in the war against the Inquisition, but he wasn’t a member of the Front. Your grandfather was very careful about who he selected. There were undoubtedly many good and powerful magic-users who never knew the true nature of the Order until it was too late. Your grandfather felt awful about that, but he feared that the larger the resistance, the greater the chance someone would undermine it from within. With so much at stake, he kept the resistance small.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“What happened then?” Arianna asked.

I described the attack by the shadow creatures as well as by Olga’s father later that night, drawing comparisons to the attacks James told me had happened near Elsie’s former home.

“You’re right,” she said as she set damp towels over my injuries, the towels’ warm, healing water drawing the Whisperer magic from my system. “The shadow creatures use the portals between the fallen magic-users and the domain of Dhuul to spread fear and madness. The effects are local, but that will change when the portal to Dhuul is complete.”

“It’s already changing,” I said, telling them about the situation in the city.

“Then he may be closer to completing the portal than we feared,” Connell said.

As Arianna incanted softly over me, I finished my account with the confrontation with Chicory at the safe house and why I’d become convinced he was Lich. The room wavered over their nodding heads. My eyelids grew heavy. As Connell’s and Arianna’s forms began to blur, I saw something I had received subtle hints of but never put together.

I’ll be damned, I thought blearily.

Following our confrontation with Lich, I had watched the other men of the Front, especially the older ones. I had sized them up, studied their eyes, the angles of their faces, all the time ignoring the man beside me. Now, I could see it clearly in his fading stance, so similar to my own.

Connell is Marlow, I thought as I drifted off.

Connell is my father.

22

I was awakened by an automaton removing the towels from my body. The room was dark save for the two moons glowing through an open window. I sat up on the edge of the bed and inhaled through my nose. I had been cleansed, the Whisperer magic purged from my system.

The male automaton handed me my shirt.

“Thanks,” I said before I