Gravel skittering beneath her shoes, Ashe slid to a stop and then ducked behind a rusting dumpster. Bracing herself on the grimy metal, she tossed a quick glance to the blessedly empty rooftops, and then waited a heartbeat more before leaning around the garbage bin.

Three Taliesin wizards pounded up to the alley.

She jerked back. Voices shouted from across the street, revealing the presence of the wizards’ allies, though their words were unclear. Heart pounding, she looked past the other dumpsters to the far end of the alley and then shifted her feet, getting ready to make a run for it.

More wizards rushed by. With a gasp, she retreated farther into the shadows.

She closed her eyes, clutching her gun despite how useless it’d probably be. The wizards were everywhere. On the street corners, on the rooftops. Every wizard who’d survived the apartment building and countless more besides.

And each one of them Taliesin.

Twenty minutes ago, they’d spotted her as she paused at a bus stop to get directions from the sun-bleached map on the wall. A shout had rung out, she’d looked up, and suddenly half a dozen Taliesin were chasing her.

They hadn’t been interested in questions. She’d barely made it out of the bus stop before a blast of magic sent her flying and the tiny depot vanished in a shower of glass and metal shards. Scrambling to her feet, she’d taken off running and hadn’t stopped since.

The wizards left the alley entrance behind, and as their footsteps faded, she let out the breath she’d been holding. Shifting her grip on the gun, she straightened slowly, checking in both directions before rising from the garbage bin’s cover completely. With a final glance to the roof, she pushed away from the dumpster and headed toward the alley’s far end.

Taxis and buses swept by on the busy street. People pushed past one another as they juggled coffee cups, cell phones and briefcases in their hands. In the distance, sirens still howled, attending to the bus stop explosion that she could only hope had been devoid of casualties.

The crowd parted as she walked, shifting to one side of her or the other with little notice of what they were doing. Scanning the road, she hurried toward the intersection. Clarkston Street had to be nearby. Back at the bus stop, she’d been only a few blocks away.

But she’d gotten turned around since then, and none of the street signs looked familiar.

Anxiety started to build despite her efforts to stay calm, and she ran a hand through her hair as she stared at the crowds. She needed to find Cornelius. To do as Carter asked. And to hide until the Taliesin wizards went away.

If they went away.

An apprehensive noise escaped her, though no one paid it any mind. Checking the rooftops again, she bit her lip, and then dropped the magic around her.

The crowd buffeted her, the jarring interspersed with rare apologies. With a gasp, she dodged a bicyclist weaving through the throng, and then grabbed the arm of the first person she saw.

“Where can I find Clarkston Street?” she yelled over the honking of a car horn.

Tugging out of her grip, the old woman gaped at her and then scurried away. Ashe swallowed hard and then reached out, calling the question again.

“Clarkston?” a man answered distractedly, barely glancing at her past the cell phone pressed to his ear. “Maybe five blocks that way.”

“Thanks.”

He’d already forgotten her. Magic rising again, she took off through the crowd. Cars slowed as she raced across the street and horns blared from the vehicles behind. On their leashes, a pack of dogs in the care of a professional walker suddenly went berserk, causing minor chaos for several yards around.

Her eyes widened at the sight and then magic was rushing at her. Throwing herself to the concrete, she covered her head with her arms as the window of the pet shop next to her shattered. Gasping, she scrambled for her feet while people screamed and every animal in the store went mad.

Two Taliesin stepped from a storefront door ahead. Two more raced at her from behind.

She turned back to the main room, the hours of pent-up emotion rushing to fill the space adrenaline left behind. Cornelius wasn’t here. From the look of it, he hadn’t been for years.

Her brow twitched down spasmodically as she fought the tears that wanted to rise. She’d tried. She’d tried to do as Carter asked.

The last thing he ever asked.

Anguish rose, pressing hard against the carefully crafted barriers she’d built in the short time since Carter died. Tears burned and she cursed herself furiously, trying to stem the flow of grief with anger where everything else was failing. She wasn’t a child and she wouldn’t cry like one. So the wizards weren’t here. They had to be somewhere. She’d find them.

She’d still do as Carter asked.

With a shuddering breath, she turned to leave.

The closet door behind her swung open. Four wizards rushed into the room, their magic blazing.

They were from Merlin. The thought registered amid her shock. The men and women took positions around her, their expressions changing swiftly from cold threat to veiled startlement and then settling into an inexplicable sort of recognition that set her racing heart pounding all the harder. Turning as she tried to watch them all, she tightened her grip on the gun and let her magic grow stronger. Nearly as one, their eyes narrowed as they felt the energy rise.

From the too-black shadows of the closet, another man emerged. Dark-skinned and tall, with a sable trench coat over his dress shirt and slacks, he stopped at the sight of her, ignoring the closet door as it swung closed behind him. Alarm rippled with lightning speed across his face as his gaze took in the bloodstains covering her clothes, the gash on her forehead, and the gun clutched in her hand. And then the shock vanished completely, as though it had never been.

“Secure the area,” he ordered without looking away from her.

Anxiety fluttered in her as he spoke. Cornelius. She recognized his voice from the apartment. And like his voice, his face was familiar. Her brow twitched down, trying to place the memory dancing at the edge of reach.

Two wizards broke off from guarding her and headed for the far sides of the room. By the front door, one of them pushed away the leaves of the artificial tree and punched a few numbers into a keypad hidden behind the greenery, while the other strode to the window and tweaked back the curtain to check the street. Ignoring them, Cornelius crossed the distance to her, the air stirring as he moved.

Vanilla. Cedar. The scents brought back a rush of memory.

On a park bench down the road from an inferno, he’d held her hand as she cradled her baby sister. He’d waited with them as her father dealt with the aftermath of a freak explosion everyone said had been a gas main.

He’d watched over them the night the wizards’ war began.

Deep inside, the quivering returned and she smashed it down.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his deep voice low as though to keep the others from hearing.

Her brow furrowed, as much from confusion at his concern as lack of any idea what to say.

“I am Cornelius Jones,” he continued. “Third in line of authority on the Merlin Council and Representative of the Southern European Region. I promise we mean you no harm.”

She stared at him, wondering what she was supposed to take from that. Blinking, she struggled to push aside her confusion and just focus. “Carter sent me to talk to you.”

Traces of anger tightened his face at the mention of his cousin’s name.

Coming back from the keypad by the front door, the wizard paused at Cornelius’ side. “Several Taliesin nearby, sir,” the woman told him quietly. Her gaze flicked to Ashe. “They may have been trailing her.”

Cornelius’ eyes narrowed slightly at the panicked look that flitted across Ashe’s face, and then he nodded to the woman. “Find us a safe portal near the northern edge of town. We are returning to the Council immediately.”

The woman bowed her head and then headed toward the closet, clicking on her cell phone as she went. Flipping through a few screens, she paused and then tucked the phone away. Ashe’s brow drew down as the woman reached up and ran her fingers down the doorframe.

Electric blue letters appeared, glowing with light. Coalescing into words and then scattering too quickly to follow, they shimmered over the left side of the doorframe for several moments before fading into nothing. Ignoring the display, the woman pulled open the door.

The air pressure in the room dropped, and Ashe blanched. Darkness waited within the closet, and the impenetrable shadows gave a sense of distance they couldn’t possibly have possessed. Wind stirred in the room, making the leaves of the artificial tree flutter.

With a short gesture, Cornelius ordered the wizards through the doorway. They stepped past the door and vanished into the darkness.

He stepped to one side, nodding to her. “This way.”

Incredulous, Ashe looked between him and the impossible abyss. “You can’t be–” She cut off as a beeping sounded from the alarm behind the fake tree. Cornelius made an irritated noise.

Before she could do more than register the fact he was moving, he reached across the distance between them and pulled her with him through the closet doorway.

Rushing air surrounded her. Blackness was everywhere, but not. Images seemed to blur around her so quickly, they became a streak of darkest gray. Bursts of sound accompanied them, rising and falling with impossible speed.

A city street appeared. A shop bell dinged. A subway train rushed past, vanishing almost instantly. For less time than it took to blink, she could see a playground filled with children.

And then she stumbled through a doorway.