Page 73 of Ignited

Turned out that DB, the sneaky little fucker, had spent part of the last two weeks figuring out where the energy thread from Karisma’s toybox led to. It turned out his worldwalking powers—the ones that allowed him to travel through those sparkly doorways—also allowed him to follow energy trails through the spirit world, which seemed to parallel the real world in ways Boomer didn’t understand and didn’t want to.

Good news, he’d found Maximilian’s lair. Bad news, it was warded up so tight even DB couldn’t worldwalk into it.

“I mean, I could,” he said. “But it seems he’s using his parts of the Orb to augment his power in some way. Which means if I break his wards, the backlash could come back on Karisma. It might even kill her.”

“So we’re not going to do that,” Boomer said, glaring at Thanatos.

The hood turned to him. “We must gain entry to his lair in some way,” Thanatos said. “Obviously.”

“Isn’t that what our strike teams are for?”

“Strike teams can get us partway in,” DB conceded. “From the reconnaissance I could do, I found out he’s holed up at an estate in a remote part of the Canadian Rockies. A house that’s built straight into a cliff.”

“But the whole thing isn’t warded like you were talking about,” Gunn said. “It can’t be, right? He’s got guards, and those guys who were posing as FBI. And other workers, too, probably. I doubt he’s doing his own cooking and vacuuming. They all have to be able to come and go.”

“Exactly,” DB said. “A strike team could get us into the house, neutralize the guards and the workers. But his sorcerer’s lair is buried deep in the mountain, and even if we fight our way to it, we still run into the problem of getting through the wards, and we lose the element of surprise we’d get from worldwalking in.”

“But couldn’t I get through the wards?” Karisma said. “I’ve always been able to do it before, with other sorcerers. And my jewel—” she touched her throat—“keeps me from being detected.”

Thanatos said, “From what I understand, the ability to elude magical wards came from the magic infused inside you. It may no longer work reliably.”

Karisma’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t think of that.”

Boomer hadn’t either. Damn.

“I did,” DB said. “And I believe there is a way you can help us get through the wards, through your connection to Maximilian and the Orb. The problem is, you would have to be inside them to do it.”

Everyone went quiet. Thanatos was drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. Finally he said, “You are all overlooking the obvious. Maximilian wants the pieces of the Orb Ms. Karisma has in her position—and even more, he wants her. The more so, now that she is so deeply connected to the pack. My original plan is the best. We will allow her to be captured, and when she is, she can assist the dragon in opening a gate for us.”

That was where the yelling part started. Mostly from Boomer.

“Are you crazy? You want to send her—without the power she used to have—into the hands of the person who kept her captive, tortured her, stole half her soul and now wants the other half? No.”

Mikey said, “At least let DB tell us how this will work.”

“Thank you,” DB said. “I can do a temporary spell on her that will create an energy node that will modulate with—” Everyone started rolling their eyes, the way they did when Boomer was trying to explain percussive forces and overpressures. DB sighed. “Fine. I can make her the anchor for a gateway. But we still have to get her into Maximilian’s presence in a plausible way.” He looked over at Boomer. “Without raising Maximilian’s suspicions, and preferably with backup. Anyone got any bright ideas?”

Boomer’s brother spoke up from the corner. “I do. I’ll take her in.”

Everyone turned to look at him, most of them probably having forgotten he was there at all. Gunn narrowed his eyes. “Why you?”

Bro said, “I have a history with the commander of his team—the one who led the raid on the club. We go way back.”

“But he hates you,” Karisma said. “Right? I mean, you said you tried to kill him.”

“And didn’t succeed?” Mikey murmured. “That must really have annoyed you.”

Bro ignored that. “With a little searching, I should be able to get in touch with him on the Dark Web. I’ll tell him I was there at the club, and I have the tiger he was looking for. Then I’ll offer to sell her to his boss, along with the magic items she had when I found her.”

Boomer said, “You two are enemies. Do you think he’ll buy the fact that you’d do something like that?”

Bro shrugged. “People like Riker don’t understand that other people aren’t just like them—self-serving and rotten to the core. And he’ll know how bad Maximilian wants Karisma and the rest of the Orb. He won’t be able to resist having her delivered right to him.”

Gunn was frowning. “But what if he wants to meet you somewhere else and make the exchange there?”

Bro said, “He knows I don’t trust him. I’ll insist on delivering the goods to his boss myself, or the deal is off. Maximilian will probably want to do it in his secure lair, behind the wards, where he can check that the magic items are legit. And if he doesn’t, then you all can just gate in to wherever he does meet with us, and we can worry about how to get his sections of the Orb after we’ve got him. But I doubt that will be the case.”

Thanatos said, “I concur. I believe this is a viable plan. It’s settled, then.”