“Hundreds?” Pritkin was still on his feet. “We have one demigod, in case you haven’t noticed! The fey also have one, if your information is accurate. Perhaps my math is faulty, but is that not two? Against hundreds?”
“Oh, we have at least one more than that,” Adra murmured. “If the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?” I asked.
“Those that speak of Lady Nimue, of the fey. They say she also had a goddess for a mother.” He had been tracing something on his desk blotter with a finger, but at that he looked up at me.
I looked back.
And, suddenly, everything made a lot more sense.
“I need to talk to Pritkin,” I whispered, but Adra shook his head.
“I have need of him.”
“For what?”
The eyebrow quirked again. “What do you think? It could be mere coincidence that two of our ancient enemies return on the same day. And if they were both like the creature you released from that book, I would tend to think so. But this Kulullû disturbs me—”
“Why? Because he decided to attack the consul’s?” I said, wanting another answer, any other answer! We’d barely overcome one of those things; what the hell were we supposed to do against hundreds? “Maybe . . . maybe he had a grudge like the first one. Maybe he just got loose—”
“Maybe. And maybe not. We must find out.” He looked at Pritkin. “If you will accompany me?”
And Pritkin nodded.
I stared at him, an even more horrible feeling coming over me. “What—this has nothing—you’re not going anywhere!”
“It makes sense, Cassie,” Pritkin said, because apparently, he was insane.
“How does this make sense? How does any of this—”
“We must investigate. If there is even a chance that our enemies are attempting the same thing that the gods once did, and looking for extra troops among the demons—”
I stared from him to Adra, who was sitting there with that same little non-expression on his fake face. “Then take someone else!”
“Jonas won’t believe someone else.” That was Pritkin. He pulled me off a little way, like Mircea had in his office, and why people kept doing that, I didn’t know. I didn’t need privacy! I was perfectly happy to say everything to Adra’s face!
“Cassie,” he said softly. “Try to understand. The Circle was not pleased about the bargain the demon council struck with the senate. They fear that a demon/vampire force may give the vampires an advantage over them after the war is over. In fact, they are not pleased about working with the demons at all—”
“Strange bedfellows,” Adra repeated, not even trying to pretend he couldn’t hear.
Pritkin shot him a purely evil glance. “—and would never trust their word on something like this.”
“Then he can take another war mage, someone Jonas will believe—”
“Such as?”
“Such as anyone! Anyone else!”
“Anyone else would be virtually defenseless here. My magic works in the hells; theirs does not. Remember Caleb?”
And for a second there, I did. I’d brought Caleb with me to rescue Pritkin from his father’s court, and it had worked—barely. Because as formidable of a mage as Caleb was, his magic had run out quickly in the hells, where his body could process no more. And even what he had brought with him had been muted, inefficient.
And I didn’t care!
I threw out an arm at Adra. “He just tried to kill you—he did kill you!”
“And he gave you the counterspell, or I wouldn’t be here now—”