I looked at Leon. “And you?”

“I’m tired of sitting around the house. I’ll come for protection.”

He’d only had to sit around the house for a day.

I sipped my tea. “I understand all that, but why are you all in blue?”

The three of them looked at each other.

“Did you plan this? Am I supposed to coordinate?”

Arabella opened her mouth.

My phone rang. I glanced at it. Linus. I held up my hand and put the phone to my ear.

“I’m borrowing your Italian,” Linus said. “You will have to do without.”

What did he mean, borrowing? “For how long?”

“Until we’re finished.”

He wouldn’t tell me. Whatever it was had to be dangerous, because Linus Duncan didn’t require backup. He was the backup, the strike team, and the field artillery, all by himself. Anxiety pinched me. My pulse sped up. Linus must’ve calculated the odds and decided he needed Alessandro. I wanted them both to come out of this alive.

“Do you need my help?”

“No.”

Argh. “I need to talk to you about the Pit.”

“It will have to wait. Carry on.”

He hung up. I resisted the urge to slam the phone down on the counter. It was a very strong urge and I had to resist very hard.

I looked up at the three in blue at the table. I had to give Cornelius his moment with Tatyana. Arabella couldn’t transform in city limits without causing panic and massive problems for us as a House. If the telekinetic made an appearance, having Leon could mean a difference between life and death.

“Will you please come with me?” I asked.

The Pierce Building sat on two beautifully landscaped acres off Wilcrest Drive, just north of Westheimer Road. Unlike most Houses, pyrokinetic mages were barred from owning commercial real estate inside the Sam Houston Tollway Loop, because they tended to start fires. Even outside the Loop, the municipal regulations dictated a certain distance between their buildings and others, which is why the Pierce Building rose in the middle of a park all by its lonesome.

Built in the 1980s, the six-story structure resembled dominoes placed on their sides and leaned against each other, so each rectangle protruded a little farther from the one before it. Built of sunset-red granite with black patches and veins, it looked at the world with rows of floor-to-ceiling black windows. The whole thing looked foreboding, like some dark fortress.

“You’ve reached your destination, the Bastion of Evil,” Arabella announced when we got out of the car.

“We shall assume our vigil,” Leon said and headed to the nearest bench.

We all agreed that marching the four of us into Tatyana’s office would be overkill. It would signal that we were afraid of her. Cornelius and I would be enough.

“Have fun.” Arabella sat next to Leon and pulled out her phone.

“How long before I should rescue you?” Leon asked.

Cornelius held the door open, and Bunny jumped out of the car. The Doberman Pinscher sniffed the air, poised, his frame corded with muscle under a black-and-tan pelt. His ears twitched.

“I don’t believe we’ll need rescuing,” Cornelius said with a soft smile. “If we don’t come out in half an hour, wait some more.”

Cornelius and I started up the curving sidewalk to the building. Cornelius walked briskly. Bunny must’ve picked up on the tension he was emitting, because the Doberman glued himself to the animal mage’s side.

“We are here for information,” I murmured.

“I haven’t forgotten. Don’t worry. As much as I despise House Pierce, I won’t abandon my professional obligations.”

I had sent him a detailed email last night, outlining the situation with Cheryl. The mission for today was to find out if anyone helped her.

“I spoke with my sister,” Cornelius said. “She went to school with Tatyana. Peter, Tatyana’s older brother, was a late bloomer. The full extent of his magic didn’t become apparent until he turned eleven. Up to that point Tatyana, as the oldest Prime, was groomed to be the head of the family. According to Diana, Tatyana told her that the day she found out that Peter manifested as Prime was the happiest day of her life. I personally didn’t interact with her that much.”

Interesting. “Everyone I’ve spoken to said she has a temper.”

“Perhaps that will be useful.”

It certainly would be. “I bet you a dollar there will be flames at some point.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Cornelius said.

We went through the glass doors and submitted to a security check. The tall Hispanic guard looked at Bunny but made no move to approach.

“Is this a service animal, sir?”

“Yes.”

In the hands of an animal mage, the Doberman wasn’t just a dog. He was a loaded shotgun that would take down his attackers with terrifying speed. I’d seen him take on a dinosaurlike arcane summon that was three times his size. Bunny had jumped six feet in the air and torn the beast’s throat out.

The guard nodded. “I need to take his picture.”

“Of course,” Cornelius said. “Smile, Bunny.”

Bunny bared a forest of teeth.

Three minutes later, armed with new IDs, we took the elevator to Tatyana’s office on the fifth floor.

I had imagined cherrywood and black glass and possibly random flames jetting out of the floor. Instead, I got white marble floors, pale walls, indoor plants, and tons of sunshine streaming through the massive windows.

Tatyana sat behind a beige desk molded from a single block of plastic into a curved ergonomic form. The desk supported a computer, a two-foot-tall glass sculpture shaped like a tongue of flame glowing with red and orange, and a cute kitten made of frosted glass with blue eyes and a swipe of glitter on its ears.

There it was, the difference between Cheryl and Tatyana in a nutshell. Both women were somewhat close in age and income. Both had gone through the same schools. Both ran multimillion-dollar companies and dressed the part. But Cheryl would rather be dead than have a cute glass kitten on her desk. She micromanaged her image. Tatyana didn’t give a damn what other people thought of her, because she had nothing to prove. She was powerful and confident, and if she wanted to have a kitten with glitter on its ears on her desk, she would have one. I pitied anyone who tried to tell her it was unprofessional. That would be a good show to watch.

Tatyana saw us, stood up, and walked around her desk. She wore a seafoam dress with a square neckline. Her makeup was expertly applied, neither too much, nor too little. She’d twisted her hair into a knot and stuck a pencil into it. Her feet were bare, her taupe-colored heels lay abandoned under the desk.

Tatyana crossed her arms over her ample chest, looked at Cornelius, then looked at me. “Good move bringing him.”

“She didn’t bring me. I brought myself,” Cornelius said.

“Of course you did. How is Diana?”

“She’s well.”

Tatyana nodded at the chairs. “Sit.”

I took the chair on the left. Cornelius chose the one on the right. Bunny lay down on the floor by Cornelius and stared at Tatyana like she was a striking cobra. She glanced at the ID clipped to his collar. The corners of her mouth curved, threatening to stretch into a smile. She caught herself and killed it.

“Let’s start with July 15th,” Cornelius said.

Tatyana leaned her butt against her desk. “Is this necessary? Montgomery’s goons already verified my schedule.” She glanced at me. “How does that work, by the way? Are you taking orders from Augustine?”

“That’s not relevant,” Cornelius said.

“On the contrary, that’s very relevant. Morton drove a truck to MII’s headquarters and dumped a load of money on their doorstep. Montgomery sprang into action before ever talking to any of us. Agents everywhere, staff questioned, witnesses contacted. Then twenty-four hours later he drops the case in your lap. You’re what, twelve? Are you sleeping with him? Because really, he’s too old for you.”

Cornelius leaned back. “Does this type of misdirection usually work for you?”

“You would be surprised,” Tatyana told him.

“It will go faster if you disclose whatever it is you want to hide,” Cornelius said. “I’ll ferret it out eventually and it would save us time.”

Tatyana looked at me. “Do you ever speak?”

“Yes,” I told her.

“Hallelujah.”

Cornelius threw one long leg over the other. His expression turned stern. Uh-oh.

“I see that House Pierce hasn’t changed. I used to wonder if Adam was an aberration, but now I see that he was a direct product of his upbringing and environment. Not surprising.”

Tatyana stared at him. Behind her, flames shot out of a hidden fissure and for a moment she was silhouetted against a wall of fire. Wow.

“Choose your words more carefully,” Prime Pierce warned.

Cornelius reached into his pocket, took out his wallet, pulled a dollar out, and handed it to me.

The flames died.

“When I was a child,” Cornelius said, “I took the blame for Adam’s mistakes and I endured his punishments for him. Your family turned me into a whipping boy.”

Tatyana flinched.