Kai nodded. “Tony, you’re with Sera. The two of you will patrol the corridors. Keep your eyes—and your magic—peeled for Alden’s crazy flavor of magic. Dal, you go with them.”

“I will heal Sera when she gets herself into trouble. Like always.”

“Maybe I won’t this time,” she told him.

“I find that scenario highly unlikely.”

“I’ve done jobs with you guys without getting injured.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” she said. “Tons of them.”

“Name one.”

Umm… Sera chewed on her lower lip.

The man has a point, commented Amara.

Yeah, I know. I might be crazy, but at least I’m not living in denial about it.

“Alden can mask his magic on his followers now. I won’t be able to sense who they are,” Sera told Kai.

“We’ll make do. Just sense for anything that feels off around the Summit. If either you or Tony senses anything fishy, you’re to call for reinforcements. Don’t engage Alden’s people alone.” He glanced back at Tony, and Sera remembered his plan to use her as bait. Apparently, Kai hadn’t forgotten either.

Tony simply nodded. If there was a protest brewing in him, he didn’t show it.

“Remember how dangerous Alden is,” Kai reminded them as he parked beneath the Summit hall. “Do not take unnecessary risks. Stay together and call for backup if you find him or his people.”

They took the elevator up, and entered the colossal glass building. A glossy checkerboard-pattern floor lay before them, reflecting the bright sunshine that streamed in through the lobby’s windows. A ribbon of red carpet fabric spilled through the main entrance doors. Hundreds of tiny blinking magic fire lights hung in the air on a gently uplifting breeze. It must have taken a crew of wind and fire mages forever to set up that extravagance.

“Wow, that sure is subtle,” Sera commented, looking up at the lights. “There’s a crisis on our hands, and the Council is wasting more time with sparkly decorations than with security.”

“They believe appearances must be upheld,” Tony said.

“This is how things have always been,” Kai told her. “The Council would no sooner open the gates of hell and invite every demon into our world than they would give up their ostentatious ways.”

“Oh, I have no doubt about that.”

“And the security is tight,” Kai added. “Or are the guards standing at every exit and patrolling outside and inside not enough for you?”

Sera looked across the lobby. There were a lot of guards present. She could sense even more of them beyond the immediate vicinity. That made her feel a little better, but she still wondered if it would be enough to stop Alden if—no, when he chose to crash this party. She had a sinking feeling that he would. The Summit was too tempting of a target, and Alden liked to show off his power. Hitting a meeting of the world’s most prominent supernaturals was just the way for him to demonstrate to the world how powerful he truly was.

Sera and the commandos followed Kai as he turned down an enormous corridor decorated with the banners of the four pillars of supernatural society: the mages, the vampires, the fairies, and the Otherworldly. The halls were packed, supernaturals rushing in every direction. They passed mages in designer suits, fairies in vibrantly-colored silk tunics, and vampires in shiny dress shirts. Every so often, a ghost whipped past overhead.

Sera’s group was out of place in their jeans, leather boots, and t-shirts—like a biker club had invaded a black tie gala.

Tables were set up in the winding corridor, an impressive selection of breakfast foods spread out across them. There were muffins, pretzels, croissants, coffee, donuts, and so much more. A man in a red uniform stood behind a huge coffee machine. Beside him, a woman wearing a similar outfit made tea from fresh leaves.

Sera hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, so she grabbed a croissant from one of the baskets. The commandos made their own selections as Kai spoke with a pair of colleagues from the Magic Council. One of them was Ares. The other was an older woman Sera didn’t know.

“The security sure is tight here,” Ares commented.

“They frisked me up,” the older woman complained.

Behind Sera, the commandos were chuckling under their breath. The older lady was completely oblivious to them. She kept her eyes trained on Kai, as though this were all his fault.

“It’s a necessary precaution,” he told her.

The lady’s eyes narrowed. “I take it you were not subject to the same manhandling?”

The security hadn’t frisked any of them up as they’d entered. They’d saluted Kai, though, like he was some kind of famous military commander returning to base.

Ares laughed. “Why, Kai, I do believe Virginia is offering to perform that duty on you herself. Rumor has it she’s a big fan of a particular issue of Mages Illustrated.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

The lady frowned at Ares. “Young man, in my days, one treated one’s elders with respect.”

Ares gave her a charming, boyish smile. “My dear lady, in your days, cars went a maximum speed of ten miles per hour and there was no internet. I think we can all agree that we don’t care to return to those days.”

“Of all the ill-mannered…insolent…contemptuous…” the lady stammered, her nostrils flaring with indignation. “I have never been so insulted in all my life.”