Page 54 of A Fury Of Shadows

Serena and Lou had dispatched the rest of their team to the known hideouts that had already been cleared by the magic community. Vlad, Cortes, and the Nolan cousins had split up and gone with them. As Serena had observed, it made sense to divide the magic users among them in case they encountered a Dark Council witch or sorcerer.

Mae suspected they wouldn’t. She’d already usedNullifyon a few occasions that morning. Bar the cores of the normal magic users in the city, she hadn’t picked up on the magic that would indicate the presence of their enemy.

There were either no Dark Council members in Budapest right now or their cores were being concealed by the Sorcerer King, just like in New York. Except Mae had yet to detect any trace of Nikolai’s Hellfire Magic or theRevealspell she had carved into Oscar’s core. She’d be surprised if Vedran had managed to undo all her conjurations in such a short amount of time. Which only confirmed her first assumption.

“Here she comes,” Lou said twenty minutes later.

Mae straightened in her seat.

Serena crossed the road briskly, her hands tucked in the pockets of her bomber jacket. The black disk that contained her nanorobot combat suit rested against her chest in the guise of a pendant.

No one followed her out the building.

She got into the back of the SUV and handed Lou a piece of paper. “Plug those into the GPS and share them with the others.”

Lou stared at the list of places written down on it. “What are they?”

“The last ten places the Dark Council was spotted.”

Mae wrinkled her nose. “They just gave this to you?”

“Of course not. I bribed them.”

Lou groaned.

Serena’s smartband buzzed. She frowned when she saw the name on the display and answered the call.

“Haruki? What’s wrong?”

“Mommy!” a little boy squealed.

Serena froze. “Kristopher? What are you doing with Uncle Haruki’s phone?”

Lou checked the clock on the dash. “Isn’t it two a.m. in Chicago?”

“Mommy, we miss you!” the little boy chanted.

“Is Kristopher her—?” Mae started.

“Son,” Lou confirmed.

A little girl’s voice came through the speakers. “Mommy, Kris did a big poop today!”

She giggled.

“Did not!” the boy protested.

“Did too!” the girl sang.

“That’s Sienna, his twin,” Lou explained at Mae’s questioning look.

“Mommy, when are you and daddy coming home?” Sienna asked.

“Daddy’s on an important job right now, honey,” Serena replied gently through gritted teeth. “So is mommy.”

“Are you chasing bad people?” Kristopher said innocently.

“Very bad people.” Serena drummed her fingers on the armrest. “Now, how about you go get your Uncle Haruki, sweetheart?”

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