Solatium (Emanations, an urban fantasy series Book 2) by Becca Mills

assumed. My eyes stung again. I’d been nothing but grief to the isolated stratum on the other side.
    I tried to push the thought out of my mind. I’d just have to hope the tree-octopuses were strong enough to protect themselves. They’d been able to stave off my fire. That was a good sign.
    Yellin shifted the bag from one hand to the other and cleared his throat.
    “Very well,” he said grandly. “All is ready.”
    What the hell?
    I looked around. Surely he couldn’t be going with only twelve people. When Yellin said he’d assemble a “force,” I’d imagined a hundred people, or something. Twelve was not enough. And where were Okeke and Wiri? Surely the Seconds would all help with something this important.
    I straightened up and headed down the stairs. I’d been going back and forth all morning about the wisdom of challenging Yellin. But this situation wasn’t workable. No way were they going without me. I had a ton of capacity. They needed the oomph.
    “She’s coming,” Williams said, jerking his head in my direction. “And some from the Schooner.”
    I froze as every person below looked up at me with expressions ranging from confusion to surprise to horror.
    After a moment of shocked silence, Yellin launched into a screechy diatribe.
    Andy’s mouth opened and then shut. I saw Gwen had a death grip on his arm.
    “She’s a trainee,” Theo said angrily, his deep voice carrying over Yellin’s. “It’s too dangerous.”
    Williams stared at him.
    For a few seconds, the two men engaged in the silent communication of genuinely dangerous people — assessing the tactical situation and one another’s abilities and concluding, in this case, that a fight was pointless because the outcome was obvious.
    Theo looked away.
    No surprise there. Williams was many times stronger than Theo or Andy. Probably many times stronger than Theo and Andy.
    Then Williams turned his attention to Yellin.
    This wasn’t the silent communication of genuinely dangerous people. It was the wolf saying to the rabbit, I’ve just eaten, but annoy me enough …
    Yellin folded like tissue into quivering silence.
    Williams looked up at me. “Move it, Ryder.”
    Well I’ll be damned , I thought. Bastard stole my plan.
    My general attitude was that anything Williams did was, by definition, bad. The guy was all the world’s lions and tigers and bears wrapped up with a bow. But this time it had worked in my favor. After all, he was a thousand times scarier than I was. I couldn’t have shut Yellin down with a glance.
    I joined them.
    Kara gave me a big grin.
    At least someone was happy I was there.

    I climbed into the back seat of one of the estate cars. Kara joined me. Zion got in with Gwen up front.
    Once the doors were closed, Zion said, “There’s a first time for everything, eh?”
    “No shit,” said Kara, apparently forgetting she and Zion were on the outs. “Mr. Yellin was afraid of him. Un-fucking-believable.”
    Neither Gwen nor I said anything.
    Kara and Zion shared a suspicious look.
    “What do you two know about this?” Kara said.
    “Nothing,” Gwen said, pulling out of the garage. “That took me by surprise.”
    Kara turned to me. “Not you, though, eh?”
    I squirmed. Lying wasn’t my strong suit. “I didn’t know Williams was going to do that. But I did want to come along. That’s why I was up there watching.”
    “Yeah, but —”
    “What did he mean about picking people up at a schooner?”
    “The Blue Schooner,” Gwen said, helping me reorient the conversation. “It’s a motel in Jersey. It’s where other powers’ Nolanders stay when they visit New York.”
    “Other powers’ Nolanders? I didn’t think they could come here.”
    “Sure they can. Lord Cordus just wants to know who’s here and why. That said, we get more visitors from some powers than others. When there are tensions, visits generally stop.”
    I knew what that meant: no visitors from Limu’s territory, just now.
    “So, Nolanders