Page 45 of Horn of Winter

“I’ll send a car to meet and escort you.” He paused and quickly spoke to someone, though the conversation was muffled, suggesting he was holding the phone close to his chest. The seconds seemed to tick by extremely slowly. “I’ll have two cars waiting for you at the Fountains Roundabout. They’ll run lights and sirens front and behind, and get you here faster.”

“Awesome,” Darby said with a wide grin. “Always wanted to truly test the handling and speed of this little beastie.”

“I take comfort in the fact that you have, at least, done an advanced driving course.” His voice was a gravelly mix of amusement and concern. “But please do try not to bend my girl or your good self.”

“Not to mention the mini.” She swung around the first roundabout adeptly at speed then flattened her foot again as we barreled toward Fountains Roundabout. The mini hugged the ground as well as any rat. A speedy red rat.

“How bad is the ice encasement?” I asked Sgott.

“The ground floor exits and windows are iced over, but the rest of the building remains free, though frost is starting to creep slowly up the stonework.”

I frowned. “That’s a different approach to the attack on Kaitlyn’s—and a whole lot faster.”

“Different building could explain it.”

Maybe. I’d imagine any Lùtair building would have been constructed with a means of countering magic, given they were capable of it themselves. But it could also be a matter of this attack happening too close to the other. It was an undisputed fact that all magic had its cost, and I certainly knew from experience that the rule also applied to the use of godly relics. “Are you able to evacuate?”

“Yes, because nearly all the buildings in the business park are two story, and they all have external fire stairs. We’re just moving people up to the first floor and getting them out via the stairs and fire ladders to the windows.”

At least that was something. Up ahead, blue-and-red lights spun brightness through the gloom. “I can see our escort, so we’ll see you soon.”

As we pulled into the roundabout, the first cop car took off. The second fell in behind us, and we were quickly whisked through the various other roundabouts until we reached the A483 and then the business park. The area did actually look like a park rather than the usual concrete and brick expanse of most business hubs, and was filled with lots of green space and a variety of gorgeous trees, both old and new. The cops up front slowed, forcing Darby to do the same, and we all turnedright into a parking area that was filled with cars and emergency services.

A policewoman directed us to a parking spot and, once we’d stopped, Darby and I climbed out and were escorted through the mess of vehicles and into a small, grassed area filled with the vibrant song of youngish oaks. It wasn’t hard to spot the building under attack—it was a black, almost monolithic structure in a sea of red-brick modernism with mirrored windows and a towering front entrance. In the face of all that darkness, the ice stood out starkly. It covered all the ground floor windows and the main entrance area, a thick barrier that gleamed with blue-white intensity in the gloom of the day. Sharp fingers of ice were extending toward the first-floor windows but seemed to be moving very slowly. I would have thought that, given whoever was behind this attack had to be close enough to see both the buildingandthe ongoing evacuation, they’d have sped things up a little. But maybe death wasn’t their intent. Maybe they were simply after destruction.Materialdestruction.

But what in the hell was the connection between Kaitlyn and the Lùtair building?

As Mathi had noted earlier, the Lùtairs didnotneed her help when it came to acquiring black market services. They dominated the damn thing, for fuck’s sake.

Sgott glanced around as we approached. “We’re just evacuating the final few people now. We’ve also done an aerial search of the entire area. We’re not finding anyone even remotely suspicious. No drones, and no person or persons perched high on a rooftop.”

“That makes no sense,” Darby said. “No matter what the kind, witches generally have to see the person or item they’re working on for the spell to work.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Perhaps they scouted the location at an earlier date, or are familiar enough with the area to direct their attack from afar.”

“It’s also possible they’re using one of the many vids available on YouTube that go into great detail discussing this place,” Sgott commented. “They do hold great fascination to both architects and aesthetes.”

I frowned at him. “What the hell is an aesthete?”

“Someone who has an eye for design and appreciates works of art and fine things,” Sgott replied, his gaze meeting mine. “Do you think your knives can counter the ice here without destroying the building?”

“I have no fucking idea at this point, but there is at least one thing in our favor this time—the entire building isn’t as yet encased.”

And while the glittering fingers continued to creep toward the first floor, the building’s roofline remained relatively clear. Which, again, differed from Kaitlyn’s, but until we discovered who was behind these attacks, we really wouldn’t have any true understanding of his or her motives.

“You might want to evacuate the rest of the area though,” I added. “Especially given what happened last time.”

He nodded and began speaking into his phone again. As people began moving away from the building, I scanned the sky, extending my senses enough to feel the caress of untamed wildness within the clouds. The promised evening storms remained a few hours away.... The thought stopped. Just for an instant, I caught a wisp of... something else. Somethingotherthan the distant rumble of thunder and lightning. A presence that spoke of humanity.

It was gone before I could clearly define or even pin it, but it had definitely felt female.

Not Harold Gould then, though it was yet possible he could give us her name given there were supposedly only five ice witches within the UK—unless of course, there’d been an influx of talents in recent years, or she’d been lured in from overseas. I guess it would be one way of avoiding the guilds here tracking your magical markers.

Sgott returned his attention to us. “Okay, the area is clear and all yours.”

“Thanks.” I retrieved my knives then handed the purse to Darby. “You two might want to retreat to the tree line. If the explosion has the same force, that should offer enough distance.”

“If the explosion has the same force,” Sgott said, “that’ll put you right in the eye of danger. This is a far bigger building, remember, and you barely got away in time at Kaitlyn’s.”

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