When I came to, I was seated on a bench. I looked around me, and down. My hands were manacled together. Silver cuffs connected together with heavily runed and spelled chains. Chains that lead down to a hook on the floor. My legs were bound too. I looked up. Maddie was across from me, and she was in a similar situation. To my right and left there were Chessmen. Giant mechanical creations seven feet tall and wide. Built with Ley access, and the latest magitek based weaponry, they were essentially walking autonomous tanks. Maddie had a hunter guarding her. I couldn’t tell if the Hunter was male or female. They were dressed in bulky battle armor that had those gauntlets Jimmy had grafted into his nervous system. There was probably a neuro uplink in the helmet that controlled the chessmen.

I looked up. Maddie was across from me, and she was in a similar situation. To my right and left there were Chessmen. Giant mechanical creations seven feet tall and wide. Built with Ley access, and the latest magitek based weaponry, they were essentially walking autonomous tanks. Maddie had a hunter guarding her. I couldn’t tell if the Hunter was male or female. They were dressed in bulky battle armor that had those gauntlets Jimmy had grafted into his nervous system. There was probably a neuro uplink in the helmet that controlled the chessmen.

I reached for my magic and found fumes. Maybe enough to break my chains. The battle in Undercity had drained me almost dry and I needed to tap a ley line to recharge.

I cast out my senses in search of the hum of energy that signified a ley. There was nothing. That meant I was either airborne or on the water. The nearest Hunter processing center would be in Boston. That meant I’d be headed there. Probably in an Ether powered hovercraft. I cast my senses around me. I had to be careful. If the pilot or our “honor guard” caught me sniffing around I’d be knocked out again. I found what I was looking for. The Ether core to the hovercraft. Except it was located inside the engine of the ship. If I could gain physical contact with it I’d be able to drain some of the energy into me. That wasn’t an option. If I could just touch solid ground for one moment I could tap a ley and escape.

“Where are we headed?” I asked,

“Boston. Then for you, Nocturne. For her, probably her parent’s closest safehouse,” the Hunter replied.

My blood chilled. I would not go there. I had spent five years in Nocturne before being killed by whatever horror Caine unleashed upon it. It was a prison in a dimension of total darkness. You were in a cell with only meals and rounds marking the time.

Have you ever been in the dark with nothing but your thoughts and time? Not the dark of night with starlight on your face, but honest pitch black darkness? Hours felt like days, and the less said about years the better.

No, I would not go back to that pit. I’d end it all if I had to. I refused. Damn magic, damn this endless loop. Damn these useless sheep. Let them hide in the halls as magic died. I would not go back to Nocturne and await death.

We reached the destination, and then we were touching down, and then the ramp in front of us was slowly descending. A squad of Hunters greeted us. Instead of them being armed with Wands they had sleek silver rifles I knew could shoot various types of ammunition depending on the block currently inserted into the clip. They were dressed in full black body armor, including helmets and facial shielding. Probably runed and warded. These were the Hunter equivalent of SWAT.

It was raining in sheets, and that quickly made the ramp slick. The hunter’s motioned for us to get up and walk. Maddie went first with her escort and I was unchained. I was flanked by the two chessmen. I waited until I was near the bottom of the ramp and then I fell. My hand brushed against the ground and instantly magic flowed into my core, filling me with power. One of the chessmen hauled me roughly to me feet and we were led inside and to the holding cells. I was pushed inside. The door slammed behind me and I felt a static sheet of magic cover the bars as the wards went live.

These wards were powered by the ether spire that connected this building to the ley lines. It would be useless fighting against them. I needed time to find a way out. I should have teleported away instantly.

That was when Samuel Black, chief director of the New England Hunter branch, the man who had interrogated me just this afternoon afterr saving Maddie’s life entered the holding area.

“Oh thank Maeve, Samuel, I need you to let me out,”

“Mister Owens, as a friend of your family and the Hunter in charge of your case, I am here to inform you about the charges that have been brought against you,” He said

“What charges?” I asked.

“You have been charged with the murder of the Central Park Alpha. You have been tried in Absentia,” Lucian was a powerful member of their community. He had practically united New England’s packs under his leadership. If that’s what I was being charged with, I was shocked kill squads hadn’t started in on me.

“Samuel, I’ve a question, before I’m processed and sent away, have I been appointed a barrister?”

“No,”

“Then I’m invoking that right. I am appointing you my defender. Standard payments. I’m invoking the right of counsel, now,”

“You do realize I’ll lose my job if I accept?”

“Whatever you’re being paid by the Council, I’ll hire you as a Consultant with double your pay,” my family could afford it.

“While tempting, I’ll pass,” Hmm. That meant I was in so much trouble and the evidence was so stacked against me that it was an open and shut case or he was leaving me for the wolves.

“Could you at least tell me what evidence they have against me?”

“Traces of your DNA and your auric signature were found at the crime scene. We managed to backtrace your aura from the alley I spoke to you at yesterday and followed it to Lucian’s penthouse on 5th Avenue,”

“I was with the dwarves for most of yesterday,”

“Not according to their video and magic logs,”

Those backstabbing assholes. They’d burn. I was thoroughly fed up with this whole situation.

“When am I going to be transferred?”

“They Lycans demanded your delivery. An emissary will be here tomorrow to collect you,”

That meant I’d be taken into the woods, and set loose while half a dozen of their leaders transformed and hunted me down. That would be an easy fight. A conjured circle of silver caltrops made invisibleand I’d just have to wait until they converged on me and then they’d die. That also meant all I had to do was cool my heels and wait. I could do that. It would put me behind, but I could go puppy hunting, pick up Connor and then return to grab Maddie. I needed to make a stop in D.C anyway. The Archive held something I needed.

“Maddie was innocent in all this, I’ll swear and agree to whatever you want me to, but she returns home,”

“Our forensic ­­techs agree with you on that,”

So that meant whoever was trying to frame me only wanted me. That meant Fate or the Dwarves. But this wasn’t either of their styles. The Dwarves would just wreck my financials and send a squad to off me. I’d already seen Fate’s idea of “dealing” with me.

“I’ve got one question for you Mage Owens,”

So, while he was eating breakfast with us after a overnight visit with my mother, my first name would suffice. Here it was all professional.­­­

“What?” ­­­

“Who’s the Elementrian you have working with you? We have reports that a geokinetic was in play at Undercity, and New Hope has no idea who it could be,” By that he meant the Cortez School for the Gifted, a training academy cum embassy that was one of many Elementrians holdings here on Earth. So an Elementrian had gone off the deep end. As if I didn’t have anything else to worry about. As long as it wasn’t an Aether I’d be fine.

“Hell if I know. Maybe one of their black book operators went rogue. Maybe they were busy tracking down one of their precious artifacts. God knows they have enough trouble keeping a grip on them,”

“I’m sure it won’t matter, much. It’s not as though anyone can reach you here,” Well, these people haven’t watched a horror movie, ever. Have they?”

That was when Murphy decided to show up in full gods-damned force.

Klaxons started blaring and Samuel whirled around. He gestured in the air and magitek holo display came to life. It showed a map of Boston and the greater area outlying area. Nova Scotia had a red line on the eastern coast.

Then a Hunter ran into the room.

“Sir, the Fomor have attacked Nova Scotia. They’ve made landfall fifteen minutes ago.,” Well, I can add that to things that haven’t fucking happened before. But then again I’ve never been stuck in Boston before either. I knew that the Fomor had started carving their own little empire out of our coastal cities in the end. This was jumping the gun.

Samuel looked at me, narrowed his eyes as if I was sicing the Innsmouth rejects on the Canadians, and then looked back at the Hunter.

“Mobilize everyone. Keep half of them here in case the Fomor try for Boston. Set up O-Net and CMASS alerts for all Civilians to report to the shelters. Send word to New York, Salem, Augusta, and Providence that their assistance is needed, and then engage city wide wards. Finally deploy half of all our assets with all haste. Inform Natalie that she’ll be leading the assault. I have to stay here to guard the VIP,” He said, with a very pointed glare in my direction. The Natalie he was referring to was probably Natalie York, a member of one of the Seven High Houses. She had saved Boston once. The things that woman could do with fire spells downright scared me.

“Tell her to use everything at her disposal. Call in any favors she can. We cannot afford another Panama,” he said this part with a sense of urgency I had only seen once or twice before.

Panama, the first action in our prolonged war against the Fomor. They had slaughtered the city of Pedasi and then they used some sort of bio-magitek fuckery to use the corpses as walking cannon fodder for their next engagement. it spread simply by touching the bodies that it had infected. It had spread like wildfire. We had already lost everything from there to Santiago before we knew something was wrong. It had started to infect Costa Rica and Columbia before we managed to contain by erecting massive wards, walls and Elementrian forcefields to stem the tide. It was the first offensive action by the Fomor but it would not be the last. Our biomancers and scientists were still trying to figure out how to cure it.

The hunter nodded once and left. Samuel left for a few minutes. When he came back, he was dressed in black body armor, the same type the dwarves used. He also had a sleek silver rifle that had a visible blue power/ammo gauge. An Elementrian piece. It seemed as though their weapons dominated our markets more and more over traditional spellwrought gear.

“You know, if I was the Hunter in command I’d have all available people come help me. Including the junior Warder and the Battle Mage in training that you have detained. I’d even offer them clemency if they were so kind to agree,” I said with a smile.

“Nice try Mister Owens,” He said, and turned his chair around. He conjured another holodisplay and begin browsing security feeds and the Hunter Command News Feed.

That was when the power flickered. It went out for a brief second and then the backup generator kicked in. I knew that was powered off of the building’s Ether core. The same Ether core that also powered the wards. Samuel waved an Ansuz rune in the air and blue sparks flew out of his wand. That was a vision rune. If had been successful the rune’s outline would have glowed. But something was negating it. So Fomorian mages could already be tearing down the wards or Fate could be interceding so my Brother could attack. The Dwarves wouldn’t try anything. The Lycan’s wouldn’t bother.

I would not die in a spell lined cell like some common criminal. It was time to make my escape.

I drew a circle in the air and drew a binding rune in the center and then I drew an Isa, a rune that could mean many things. In this case it meant cold, and ice, and snow. Snow, bright and sharp like a Yule’s Morn. Dark and brittle like an endless Alaskan night when there was a knock on your door when nobody had any business to be out. I brought those feelings to the forefront of my mind and muttered the Runes under my breath.

“Maeve, Queen to Be, Queen to Come, Lady of Cold. My Marker has come due. I seek the service of your Vassal, Jack Frost,” A cold chill of fear snaked its way down my spine and I knew I had earned her attention,

“Free Madeline DuBois from where she is contained and all my possessions.l without drawing attention to himself. Meet me in Preston Park in Brighton, four hours from when I leave this place. All will be answered then. Do not harm or tamper with Madeline DuBois or any of my possessions in any way shape or form, or allow anything like that to come to pass. Alert me when this has been done,” I murmured under my breath. I thought I saw a shadow flicker in the corner of my eye, but it was probably dust. Probably. The shiver I felt might have been the air conditioning.

“What were you muttering about, Owens?” Samuel said.

“Just talking over homework with myself, I’ve got nothing else to do,” I said with a smile. He gave me a dirty look.

I heard a muffled boom outside and I felt the ambient magic of the building’s wards roar to life like a lion on the hunt, ready to kill.

“Stay here,” He said, unlocked the safety of his weapon and left the room. I heard another boom, and the magic from the wards flared again, this time it was more subdued. Something with some serious power was outside.

Godsdammit, I needed more time. I splayed my hand against the spelled bars, and my aura flared, and I poured pure power out. I felt the magic in the bars coil back and my own magic attacked me. I bit back the scream of agony I felt. I had to get out of here. If I could just escape these bars. I called up power and spoke a string of spells.

“Wyrda Dispardurous, Arcanum Oblesco, Incantore Dormio,” My magic shot out of my palm. Hazel light flared and met with the silver of pure magical energy. It dissipated like a match in a wind storm. Fuck. I had another trick up my sleeve. Magic was powerful, but there are some forces out there that pervert it, that twist it in two. If I did this, and it did not work I would be drained of strength, and I would just be a sitting target for whatever was- another muffled boom and the magic of the wards broke. I felt something dark, and I drew a rune in the air, a circle with two curving lines inside it, and another razer straight line joining them. Then I called forth what little power I had remaining inside me and threw it out into the world with a shout,

“Magia Anarchos!” The chaos rune flared into hazel and eldritch green life. The spells on the bars glowed with pure silver energy, and drew energy from the minor ley line flowing underneath the police station. My magic glowed and dissipated and the backlash slammed me into the wall. I spit out blood and growled.

Bullshit. Such bullshit.

That was when a Hunter ran into the room. His hand glowed blue and spears of lightning and fire materialized and flew out of his hand. Something behind him screamed in pain.

Then he waved his hand again and the door slammed shut, ice shot out of his palm, and covered the door and spread-outward five feet.

“There, that should buy us some-time,” He murmured and turned to me.

“Jeremiah Owens, I presume?”

“Yes, and you are?”

“Lieutenant Blake Andrews, ETDI,” I hadn’t heard of that agency before, Belatedly I realized I hadn’t felt magic when he had performed his light show.

“You’re Elementrian. You’re also an Aether. Get away,” I said.

He frowned,

“You mages are so superstitious sometimes I swear. I’m just trying to help you out.”

“Why are you here?”

“Because your case file has important written all over it, and there are creatures from the black lagoon and a god’s hit squad on your ass and in this building,” He waved his hand over the door, then flicked his hand in the air in a series of gestures. He was probably consulting one a corneal AR display. Another piece of bullshit Elementrian tech that they were so fond of. Then he drew a rune in the air, and the lock glowed. My door opened.

“Sorry, had to consult control,” He said. I tapped a ley and felt power pour into me, I let it rush into me until I felt full, almost uncomfortably so.

With a gesture of my hand, a muttered spell, and a measure of power I threw him into the wall and held him there.

“Now. Why you are here?” Aether or not, I had him pinned. It would take power to break my hold, and the resulting fight would likely level half the city.

“You are a VIP. Or you will be. The file for this time frame is sketchy. The fact the temporal stent is still in effect doesn’t help matters. Anyhow. I was sent here by command to ensure you and Miss Dubois make it through the next few days. I’ve been cleared for Thule. Now I’ll give you a choice. I can escort you out of this killzone and leave. Or I can escort you through Thule, and help you end this menace before he irrevocably fucks the timeline up. There are only some many times we can reset the timeline, and that isat it’s end,”

“That’s a fuckin lie. Fate is protecting the timeline. I made a deal.”

“That would be the outside influence we’re detecting. It would explain a few things.” He muttered, then gestured in the air again. An Inhuman scream filled the air and that broke it him out of his reverie.

“We need to go,” He said. He waved his hand and the ice turned to water and then presumably air. Stupid effortless transmutation.

I couldn’t waste time on shields this time. I muttered spells, and summoned shields around me like a barrier, layers of light appeared over me like plate mail. It was tied to my aura, and tied to a permanent pull of ley energy. Supporting this for a long time would overload my lymph system and probably kill me, or burn me out literally. I couldn’t afford to not have this protection at the moment. Heat and kinetic impacts would hopefully drain into the system and enforce it. Hopefully. I was making these spells up on the fly.

Absently wishing for a nice GAU-13 or Perhaps a legion of chessman, I nodded to my Elementrian savior and we walked out the door. The first thing that greeted me was the corpse of whatever Blake had killed. It looked almost canid, but the scaly skin and serpentine tailed made it seem reptilian. I had odd coral like growths on it, and was a pale silverfish color. It’s blood was blue and there was a smoking hole in the center of it’s chest. I’m guessing that was where Blake had killed it. I looked around. There was a red 1 on a sign on the hallway. Holding Room 1. I knew where I was in the building, relatively.

So Fomor then. Great.

“I’m guessing your fi- friend has already left?”

“I’m hoping,”

“Good, this will make things easier,”

He manifested an arrow that glowed pale blue.

“This will show us the way out,” he said. I scoffed and started down the hallway. My past lives gave me a fairly complete map of this place. A few last stands had happened here, and I had faced the Fomor here more than once. I walked down the hallway until I saw a flight of stairs. We went down those and walked into a war zone. Hunters were fighting Fomor, and dying. Spellfire flew through the air like a kaleidoscope of death. I smelled ozone and shit and all thee smells I had come to associate with a magical battle. There were barricades set up that hummed with magical power. Magitek Pulse guns had dropped out of the ceiling and were firing on the Fomor who had set up portable barriers of their own. I threw out my magic, it wasn’t even a crafted spell so much as it was an intent to kill backed by ley fueled power. It slammed into another one of those dog things, this one was roughly the size of Shetland. The creature turned to ash mid leap. That drew the attention of the Hunters. They were a smart bunch and didn’t start firing on me. A Fomor spell glanced off the auric helmet I had created and it dazed me.

Blake flicked his wrist and a ball flew into air and formed a turret which landed. It must have been programed to fire on non-human like signatures because it did not target the mages.

He then threw out his hand and a shimmering bolt of air hit a Fomor and combusted.

I fired off another spell and it impacted with a Fomor barrier. Cerulean green met hazel and cerulean held. I absently wished for a wand. I could fine tune my spells, find what ward matrix they were using and destroy it as opposed to throwing out power and hoping it struck. A spell struck my shoulder and was stopped by the wards.

“Blake, I need a wand!” I yelled. A bolt of something that felt cold like ice whirled toward me.

I threw out a shield and the bolt sparked away into nothingness.

Blake looked at me and then he flicked his wrist and a wand slid into his hand. He tossed it to me, and I caught it. It was unaligned. No aura, no mage had bonded with it. I cast my senses toward it, and suddenly it was an extension of myself.

I drew an eye in the air, and an Ansuz rune.

“Ansuz, show me all,” It was liking putting on glasses after not wearing them. There was sudden clarity. A see the runes and the way the Fomor had their spells constructed. I saw the patterns of spells that flowed around me, that seemed weak and diminished. No doubt the non-essential security runes and magical miscellanea that were powered down at the moment. I looked at the spell matrices that powered the Fomorian barriers. They were solidly enchanted, and if I hadn’t had a hundred some odd lifetimes to study the arcane I wouldn’t have notice that it was only spell-linked in four separate places. I pushed a tendril of thought and power toward one of those places and then drew a merkstave Thurisaz and another regular one to direct the spell output backwards. The explosive backlash destroyed the Fomorian soldier hiding behind it melted from the discharge. I repeated that maneuver again. The Fomor had noticed and were rapidly retreated down the hallway towards another flight of stairs.

Not to be outdone the Hunters went on the offensive, Spellspells of death and destruction flew and killed the Fomor in their path. When they finished they turned to me.

“You’re that prisoner they brought in,” one said. He was older than my apparent age, probably in his mid twenties.

“Correction, was,” Blake said, I gave him a look.

“Excuse me?”

“Blake Andrews, Hunter NETF. Battle Mage Owens here is a CI,” The Hunter paled. NETF. Nether-Elementrian Task Force. Basically a task force that oversaw Elementrian and Nether travel. Nether was a dimension just outside of ours that the Fae and Daemon and other miscellaneous creatures that went bump in the night occupied. The NETF had Carte Blanche went it came to just about anything.

“Do you want to check my credentials? I’m sure that’s so important right now. It’s not like you’re CO is holding the line against an existential threat or your comms are down. Go ahead, recruit, I’ll wait,” He said that in a bored tone, completely uncaring of any events that might transpire between then and now. It was a tone that told the Hunter that it would be his ass on the line if anything screwed up between his oh-so important call, and the current crisis.

“Maybe we can wait until after this skirmirsh,” The Hunter said. Blake was already headed down stairs. I rushed to follow him.

“What a great idea!” He replied. With a half flick of his wrist the turret he had deployed vanished. I slammed down the feeling that I was rapidly losing control of the situation. We reached the second flight of stairs to find a graveyard. Fomor and Hunter dead where they were fallen. Chessman nothing but scrap. It was odd. Something had torn one of the Fomor hounds to shreds. Literally nothing but a carcass was left. The same something had torn into a couple of the Hunters, their necks were shredded open. The arterial spray on the wall opposite them was like a macabre Pollock painting.

I reinforced my shields. This wasn’t good. Blake and I shared looks, and he pressed a button on his gauntlet. There was brief shimmer in the air and I knew he must have activated some sort of personal energy shield. I wonder what other tricks those two bracelets had. I wondered if I could stun him and take them for myself.

“Don’t even think about it. They’re biolocked to me,” He said. Of course, the whole Aether psionic package.

We went up the final stair well. Soon we reached the VTOL bay.

To no surprise of my own, my erstwhile undead brother was waiting for me. He had four of those half-living hounds.

“Brother!” He said in cheerful tone that belied the malice filled grin that showed on his face.

“Have you come to join me? To repay back the debt you’ve incurred?”

Blake stepped in front of me. Ice blue motes of lights dancing around his hand. I felt a half formed spell gathering power in the air, like the air before a blizzard. Or the static before a lightning strike.

“Back of Draugr. He is protected. Your mistress knows this,” I felt the air start to grow colder and the spell slowly begin to gain more cohesion. I subtly begin carving runes in the air.

“And you Aether, have no need to be here,” My brother said. No treatise binds you to this spot. No promise has your people compelled to help this errant mage. You have no place here,”

“I beg to differ, vassal. Fate has stepped out of line. There are powers here you have no comprehension of at play. No matter you dealing with here. Whatever last minute bargain was wrought. Leave or I swear on my blood I will see you undone.” Blake said this in a quite tone, and still the spell he was calling up gathered. Whatever magic he was conjuring up was nearly complete.

Jeremy paused.

“Fate will displeased with me if her brother’s playthings are broken. So once more I ask. Leave,” He said.

In response, Blake unleashed hell.

Flame and Force and Lightning and godsdamned Ice flew towards my brother. The very air ignited around Jeremy and he shrugged it off like it was nothing. The hounds charged.

Blake flicked his wrist and a sub machine gun wireframed into existence. He held that in one hand. His other a ball of power.

One of the hounds came rushing toward me, and grabbed my arm in its teeth. If it weren’t for the shields I had layered over me, It would have crushed my jaws. Instead it simply grabbed hold and would not let go.

“Carnificare Clava!” The spell was known as the bonesaw spell in some circles. It was designed to kill. It could destroy the shell of a chessman with a few hits. The hound shook it off like it was nothing.

I knew we needed to contain this quickly. Half the Hunters and Chessmen in the United North Americas was headed this way. I threw all the power I could into the wand and threw another bonesaw spell out. This cut the hound in two.

I carved a couple of runes in the air and muttered a Thulosion spell, I shot the spell at another of the hounds and it ripped it half, gore showering the area in a cloud of black and red ichor.

The spell should have vaporized it.

Blake had killed one of the hounds with a pistol. Now he had one of the hounds grappled. It was floating in the air. His hand was gripped in a claw and he balled it in a first. The hound collapsed in itself.

We turned on my brother and he smirked. He drew a sword from thin air and charged toward Blake. Blake conjured his own sword, parried the blade and threw a wave of force out that sent my brother spinning backward.

My brother threw out a golden spell that Blake allowed to bounce off his shield. Blake then threw out a spell that felt like cold and grease. My brother blocked it with a localized shield the size of a small dinner plate. The spell shattered afterward but served it’s intended purpose of blocking whatever magical fuckery Blake had unleashed.

Then I opened fire on my brother with a spine shattering spell empowered with a Thurisaz. It hit him and his face crumpled into a pained grimace. I heard bones break, and pop and form back into place and then my brother gave me the crooked grin he flashed through soccer and chess and all those juvenile conflicts siblings shared. The grin that had reassured me the fateful night when our family was destroyed. The grin he had used time and time again. Then he raised his hand. My shields popped like a bubble and pain flowed through me like blood. I fell to my knees and screamed. Oh, how I screamed. I screamed for the pain that was crippling me. For the old me who actually thought he could make a fucking difference. For the lives that monster I was hunting had ended. For the city I wanted to tear from its time locked tomb. For everything that could have been and never would be.

Tears ran freely down my face and I screamed for an indeterminate amount of time.

Suddenly the pain stopped, and Blake was there. His hand was outstretched and his hair was matted in the rain. His chest was heaving, but he looked okay but pent up well of energy I felt for him was nearly gone.

“I managed to do away with that demon for now, but we need to leave,” He said. He gestured at a VTOL crafts. The low whine of engaging engines had filled the air. I realized this wasn’t a Hunter VTOL, but an Elementrian one.

“Get up. I don’t have the strength to carry you. You either move or I’m leaving without you.” Blake said.

“Why should I? We’re fucked no matter what.” I said. None the less I gritted my teeth and climbed to my feet.

We ran to the VTOL. It was designed oddly. There wasn’t a cockpit, and the vehicle was one open floorplan. I sunk to a cot off to the side. A woman was waiting for us. She had long red hair, pale skin, and was in the same black body armor Blake was wearing.

“Tess, we’re ready,” Blake said, and took a seat in the copilots chair.

“The other two?”

“On their way already. He sent for help,” Blake said. He waved his hand in the air and a holographic display came to life. An image of the globe zoomed out and he pinpointed Great Britain.

“Frost is in play then?” She asked. I couldn’t place her accent.

“Yep. We need to get to their rendezvous point as soon as possible,”

“I’m engaging active cloaking. I’ve also already scrubbed us from Hunter Command and Boston Municipal. ETA London, two-hours.” Tess said. I looked out a window, and to my surprise we were already in the air.

“Great, let me know when we’re closer,” Blake said. Then he got up out of his chair and walked to a cabinet. He pushed a button and a panel opened up. He took a capsule out a tray and brought it over to me.

“Take this,” He instructed.

“What is it?”

“It’s a regenerative nanite compound. It will get you back to fighting shape, and undo any nerve damage that you’ve suffered over that last few hours,”

With a wary glare I popped the pill in my mouth. The moment the capsule hit my tongue I felt a cooling sensation. Within minutes the trembling in my limbs stopped.

That didn’t mean I hadn’t forgotten the thoughts that ran through my head moments earlier.