Chapter Thirty
Roman pinched the bridge of his nose and considered having coffee delivered for everyone in the room when he glanced over at the Dragon King.
Calidum, or Korridum, as Lilith had told Roman his name was, was leaning against the room’s tall windows, gazing out at the city below. They were in Tokyo, Japan. It was the closest they’d come to narrowing down Eva’s location. She was somewhere in this country. And the country was a lot larger than most people thought, replete with mountains, beaches, bustling overpopulated cities, and miles and miles of both inhabited and uninhabited space. Roman wasn’t even exactly positive Japan was correct. But one of the seers had experienced a vision of a red dot on a white background. And they’d run with it.
But they’d gotten no further. And it had been hours.
Roman was a king. He was a supernatural king. He was a vampire. And more than that, he was a man. It didn’t take much for him to imagine what Arach could – and would – do with Eva in the course of those hours. And no doubt, that was what Calidum was thinking too. The tension in every flexed muscle in his body was evidence enough of that. But then there was also the radiating aura of held-in-check aggression that surrounded him. It was broadening and growing more dense by the minute.
Already, Calidum was wrapped in the infamous dark armor that was actually his dragon scale. It was amazingly detailed, stunningly beautiful, and he had no doubt it was beyond effective in keeping Calidum safe. However, Roman knew enough about dragons from dealing with Arach for years, to know that when a dragon donned his or her armor, the very next step was a fully formed dragon.
If Calidum really was the Great Gray – and Roman believed he was – then if he transformed here, he would knock every king and queen in the room out the window and destroy the entire eleventh floor of this building in downtown Tokyo, Japan.
So Roman took a deep breath and approached the Dragon King, intending to speak with him in the hopes of offering some sense of patience or calm. If not for the king, then for everyone else in the room.
However, when he reached the Dragon King, Calidum straightened from the window and looked up. He frowned, turning to Roman. “Did you hear that?” he asked.
Roman cocked his head a little and blinked. “Hear what?”
But at that very moment, Adelaide the Nightmare Queen had a vision.
Addie was the newest addition to the queens at the Table. She’d gone through most of her life believing she was psychic, but in reality she was a very powerful seer. And right now, she was having a very powerful vision.
It was fortunate she’d been sitting on the couch rather than standing, because her head flew back to hit the cushions behind her, and her husband, Nicholas Wargrave the Nightmare King, was instantly pulling her into his arms as she sank into the magic her mind wanted her to see.
A few seconds later, her eyes opened blink by blink, and after an initial moment of disorientation, she sat bolt upright, pushing Nick’s arms away. “The theatre!” she cried, standing from the couch, and then instantly swaying as the blood left her head.
Nicholas stood beside her, steadying her. “What theatre?” he asked.
She touched her forehead, obviously trying to recall details from the vision. “A sign outside says Paramount. But it looks like a really old sign. I’m… not even sure if this is a recent vision?” She made a confused face. “Can I even see things from the past?”
Dannai Caige stood up from the table in the center of the room. As a werewolf, Dannai was not a member of the Thirteen Realms, but she was a witch of some renowned strength – and Lalura Chantelle’s adopted daughter. And since they’d brought in everyone they could think of for this task, Danny Caige was more than welcome.
The young werewolf left her chair and approached Adelaide, who met her gaze. “What did you see?” Danny asked. Dannai’s best friend was a werewolf seer, Lilith Kane. Roman wondered whether perhaps she’d seen this kind of thing before.
Addie shook her head and frowned. “It wasn’t good. It was chaos. Just complete and utter chaos. There was fire, there were gun blasts, there was… I don’t know. People were screaming, gods… there were thousands of people. I think I even saw some being trampled.” She shivered violently, either an after effect of the vision or a response to what she’d seen, and Nick pulled her fast into his embrace. This time, she let him hold her.
Nicholas eyed Dannai over Addie’s head. “You seen something like this before?” he asked, probably thinking the same thing Roman was.
Danny shook her head. “No. Not of this magnitude. But… Lily sometimes sees old places that have been restored.”
Now it was Poppy’s turn to speak up. “She’s right. And there is a theater with an old-looking Paramount sign in front of it,” she told them. “It’s the Paramount Theater of Seattle. It’s almost a hundred years old, but restored, and they still pull in a full house nearly every show.” Poppy Scaul was the Winter Queen and she happened to live in Seattle – when she wasn’t in the Palace of the Winter Kingdom with her husband, Kristopher. If anyone would know about the theatre, Roman supposed she would.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Diana Chroi, the Goblin Queen, as she pushed away from the table and stood. As a healer, it wasn’t surprising that she was one of the first to stand. Empathy ran through her veins. Others followed her example, and soon everyone was on their feet.
Evie turned to Roman. “We have to go,” she told him. But in her head, she sent a private thought his way. We have no choice. But this is more than what it seems, isn’t it?
Yes, he returned. He had a very bad feeling. Something was changing in the world. A scale was tipping. There were strange and new forces in the atmosphere. He felt them in his body the way an old man might feel the weather. But you’re right. We have no choice. If the disaster in Seattle was being caused by something supernatural, then it was their duty to stop it. And clean up the mess.
“We’ll split up,” he told the others. As the ringleader, more or less, it was up to Roman to decide who went and who stayed and continued the search for Evangeline. “Healers, warlocks, Akyri, fae, and Kristopher, you’ll come with me. The rest of you, keep looking for the Traitor.” He wanted healers with him for the humans, warlocks and Akyri for their offensive and defensive magic, the fae for their sheer power, and Kristopher for his ability to control the weather to some degree. But it was all he could spare from the search. If the twelfth queen went down… they would all go down. The end of this game saw Thirteen Queens standing together against a powerful checkmate. Without them united, the war would be lost.
The group was splitting up, exchanging last words of advice, and beginning to prepare transport spells, when a sudden sound caught them all once more. It was small, but ominous enough to again gain everyone’s attention. It was the clock on the wall. It had stopped.
And then started up again with a louder than usual tock. Roman looked up at the clock for a moment, swallowed, then scanned the room.
The Time King was missing. The fact that this meant something was a very strong resolution in Roman’s mind, but he didn’t know why. What did it mean? What did the clock mean?
Roman turned to look at Calidum over his shoulder.
But the Dragon King was gone as well.