Page 45 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

“Xavier, want to give us a rundown on what happened today?” Maddox asked. Sea-blue scales glittered above his dark brown eyebrows. He sat next to his partner, Caleb, who had a hand on Maddox’s forearm. They were a cute couple. I started to wonder how these dragon boys were so lucky at finding their perfect match when I couldn’t even get someone to take my virginity.

Xavier started from the beginning. Cassius and I didn’t have to add much, his version of events being spot-on. When he finished, the table had grown completely silent.

“Fuck,” Robbysaid.

“Yeah, exactly,” I replied. There were some chuckles that rose from the table.

“So they’re after you?” Claire asked. She looked out the window with a pensive look. “Interesting…”

“We all thought they were after me. I thought the attack on the White House was because of me, but it’s been Xavier this entire time.”

Dawn cocked her head as she looked at her girlfriend. “What is it, hon?”

“It’s well… odd timing. There was another reason why I wanted us to get together today. Not just because of the attack, but because I found something out. There’d been rumors floating in my whisper networks. Rumors about the Chaos King.”

“What is it?” Damien asked, leaning forward on the table. He twisted a silver ring around his finger.

Her eyes went to Maddox and Caleb. “It’s not great, I’ll tell you that. Apparently, those Moriarty paintings you both destroyed… they weren’t a map to Niazatos’ prison. They were an actual lock. Well, a portal to the actual lock. When the paintings were destroyed, a magical shock wave erupted and broke the lock behind it, along with the amphitheater you two were in.”

Jaws dropped all around the table. It grew as silent as a graveyard. Caleb blinked a few times as if there were dust in his eyes. “Seriously?” he asked.

“Seriously.”

Robby had a hand over half his face as he asked, “How do you know?”

“One of my close friends went to the site of the prison herself to check. She found the lock shattered.”

“Your friend… knows where he’s kept? And she was brave enough to go?” Warrick asked, sounding shocked.

“Not exactly. She astral projected. It took her a lot of energy and skill. She almost died in the process. And she’s still not entirely sure of the physical location of the prison. But it was successful, and she came back with the knowledge that, yes, one of the locks had been shattered.”

“Shit,” Maddox grumbled, head falling into his hands. “I knew a huge earthquake underwater wasn’t a good sign.”

“You most certainly did not,” Caleb said. He dropped his head into his hands with a sigh.

“Fuck,” Xavier said.

This was a worst-case kind of scenario.

“How many locks are left?” Cassius asked.

“Three,” Claire answered. “And with one gone, those other three are weakened.”

“Fuuuuuck,” Xavier said. He ran a hand through his curls. The gold scales around his wrist shone under the light of the chandelier hanging above us. “So now, on top of having to worry about a group of sadistic assholes wanting to go back in time and stop Niazatos from ever getting jailed, we also have to worry about the present-day Niazatos breaking free.”

“Not great,” Dawn said. She rolled her neck, stared up at the ceiling. My anxiety started to rise up again. My blood pressure spiked. I could hear the pulsing in my ears. How could this be happening? And how had I landed in the center of it? This was supposed to be a fun summer full of California sun andgrad school shenanigans, not death and destruction and the promise of a world-ending evil being unleashed.

“Okay, let’s focus on one thing at a time,” Damien said. He appeared to be the most levelheaded of the brothers. Not that Xavier was a loose cannon, but I could tell that the siblings all turned to Damien for some guidance. He had that air to him, like someone who constantly had his shit together even when the sky was falling all around him. “How can we stop this Time Turner group from using the starlight dagger? You said they had a laboratory? That has to be where they’re holding the dagger.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know where that laboratory is,” Xavier said. “And the one person who may have been able to tell us is dead.”

“But we did get a name,” I said. “The Carpenter’s real name is Simon.” I turned to Cass as I said it. He winced. Barely noticeable, but I didn’t miss it. I knew my best friend. And I knew he had recognized that name from the moment it was said. I could choose to let it slide, not put him on the spot, but if he knew something that could help us, then he had to say it.

Why wouldn’t he?

“Who is he, Cass?”

Everyone’s focus in the room shifted. All eyes went to Cassius.

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