Cyra stepped forward immediately, pushing between me and the person next to me, a chubby man in a light gray suit, sticking her butt into his hologram as she reached for the wine. “I got it.”

“Meet the phoenix, everyone,” Elliot said. “Cyra.”

Cyra straightened up, her nose in my glass, inhaling deeply. She swirled it, nodded, and held up her finger for the service person pouring Austin’s glass. “I’ll have one of these too, please.”

“Yes, of course,” Elliot said. “I would never pass up an opportunity to serve a legendary creature such as yourself. After we discuss business, we’ll happily make room for another animal at the table. Or do you count as something different? I can never tell how this stuff goes.”

Cyra shrugged as she tasted, lowering the glass slowly. “Hmm, that is very good.” She set it down in front of me. “Wait a moment. If I don’t die, you may drink.”

“I would never destroy such a great power as yours, Miss Ironheart. You have no need to worry,” Elliot said.

Noah snorted.

“Did you have a comment, Noah?” Elliot asked, hands still steepled.

“Forgive me. I thought you were telling a joke. Since…” Noah gestured at me.

“No, Noah, please. Enlighten us. I’m sure Miss Ironheart would dearly like to hear your thoughts on her…setup.”

Noah frowned and looked at the other hologram mages down the table, each of them smirking, snickering, or, in the case of the man who’d been reading the paper in the lobby earlier in the day, blankly staring. Noah shook his head. “Isn’t it obvious? When she’s not being a Jane, she’s one of them stinky gargoyles, and she has filthy animals around all the time. She doesn’t even have the power to cast a soul shadow. She’s a hot piece of ass, but—”

Rage blistered through the link, and it wasn’t mine this time. Every muscle on Austin’s large frame went taut. His jaw clenched. He slowly clasped his hands in his lap, his stare of death beating a promise into Noah’s head.

The situation would have been very precarious for Noah if he’d been present in the flesh. And he knew it. His mouth clicked shut and his eyes widened, just like Burke’s had.

Actually, just like Burke’s were doing again. Still leaning back in his chair, he lost what little color he’d had left.

I sipped my wine, basking in the glow of Austin’s rage, something within me purring at the feel of it.

“Yes, they are something, aren’t they, these shifters?” Elliot said.

The appetizers were brought in, and the server put one plate each in front of Austin and me.

“Here we have, mini cornbread crab cakes with a lemon-caper sauce,” she said softly.

“Thank you,” I said, setting down my glass. Cyra drifted up, on Austin’s side this time, sticking her butt in the fairly weak hologram of a man who looked old enough to be Father Time’s brother.

“Now. The subject that has been on everyone’s mind and all over social media for the past month…” Elliot pulled his hands away and leaned back, being served wherever he was. The others did the same. Once settled, he picked up utensils that didn’t show in his hologram and cut into something off screen. “Why are you here?” He smiled and popped a bit of nothing into his mouth, like a mime. The others followed suit, and suddenly I was mighty uncomfortable. Mimes had never been my favorite, although I guessed it wasn’t as big of a deal, since these guys could still talk.

Cyra finished her bite of Austin’s crab cake and tried one of mine. “Hmm.” She nodded as she chewed. “Very good. I have the best job there is.”

“Okay, but…” I picked up my fork and knife. “The wine I get, but if they poisoned the crab cakes, they could’ve poisoned only one of them, hoping it wasn’t the one you actually tried. You’d only have a one in five shot of tasting the poisoned one.”

Across the table, Burke stopped chewing mid-bite, his poison person having already been sent back to the wall behind him.

“Well spotted, Jessie—” Elliot’s voice hitched, as though he’d caught himself making a mistake. He cleared his throat into his fist. “I assume it is okay if I call you Jessie? We’re friends now, aren’t we?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Usually the first course is soup, since a person on poison duty would catch that, even with a slow-release poison. But individual morsels are more likely to make it through. Rest assured, I do not poison people that I mean to kill. It is much too simple and, quite frankly, boring. I prefer to play with my food, so to speak.”

Movement slowed and all eyes drifted to Elliot.

He wiped his mouth with an invisible napkin. “So, back to it. Why are you here? You must be incredibly curious. It’s simple: I mean to return to the magical world, and when I do, it will be with an ally. My intention is to pit myself against Momar and reclaim my title as the most powerful mage in the world.”

“You’ve been gone a long time,” the man next to Austin said. “Some might say you are out of the loop.”

“All would say that, I think,” Elliot responded.

“Which means you’ll have to build yourself back up. You’ll be vulnerable to attack in that time. I’ve seen your staff. You’re a little light on mages. There’s even a rumor going around that your head mage left.”

“Heard that, did you?” Elliot’s eyes flicked to me and then away. “He left for greener pastures, yes. I had to track him down and kill him for his disobedience. Quite the shame. Luckily, I am more than capable of taking over my lab.”

These mages clearly didn’t know I was the greener pastures. I wondered how they’d heard the rumor so stripped of detail.

“Maybe,” the man pushed, “but the fact remains that you will be vulnerable. Momar is more ruthless than you ever were. He’s not as cautious—”

“It was never caution, Rufus. It was strategy. In order to achieve a complete victory, one must crush the opposition in its entirety. Pull out the root. That takes time and planning. Otherwise your enemies will come back to haunt you. Isn’t that right, Chambers?”

The man with the bow tie’s eyebrows lowered, and I suddenly wondered which one of these guys had been responsible for ruining Broken Sue’s life. Could that be what Elliot meant?

“Momar doesn’t seem to have any trouble with his swifter approach,” Noah said with a full mouth.

“He has left severed roots all over the world,” Elliot replied. “They are under the ground, slowly growing toward the surface. They merely need to be tended before they will sprout once more.”

“Yes, well…” Rubber Band Face shook his head. “Momar took down the power players. He might have left some of the crumbs, sure, but no matter how much you tend those, they’ll never grow into…flowers or trees or whatever it is you’re talking about. They’re useless.”

Elliot grinned slyly. “That’s the difference between you and me. Between me and Momar. Big-picture thinking. Trees and flowers and ferns and critters—they have more power than you would think when you group them together and give them purpose.”

Chambers leaned his elbows on the table. “Is that the power you are hoping to amass? The failed leftovers of Momar’s battles?”

“That is the power I will collect, yes. That I will prime and prepare for use. But I won’t tell you how. Only my ally will be privy to my plans. Otherwise I will gather a network and a staff, like I have in the past. I doubt the world has changed that much.”

“It’s changed more than you think,” the paper reader said.

My empty plate was cleared away and a steaming plate was set down in its place, no time to rest between courses. Cyra stepped forward immediately, and Rufus paused, probably wondering if he was about to get a butt in his hologram again.

“Roast beef tenderloin with red wine sauce,” the server murmured softly. “Haricot verts and a buttery garlic mashed potato.”

I nodded as Cyra barged in and took more than the couple of needed bites. “This is good,” she said around her food. “Hire these cooks instead of Mr. Tom.”

Rufus waited until she was done. “Even if you are correct, Elliot…” He cleared his throat. Gesturing to Paper Reader, he said, “And I’ll mention that Maverick is—”

“Maverick?” I blurted out with a laugh.

Everyone paused and looked at me.

I covered my mouth with my napkin. “Sorry. I didn’t know his name. Just…surprised me, is all. Does he have an assistant named Goose?”

Elliot laughed heartily. Maverick’s eyebrows settled low.

“As I was saying,” Rufus continued, “I would agree that the world has certainly changed more than one might think. You won’t be able to hide away in your mountain and expect to be left alone while you plot.”

“Yes,” Maverick said, undaunted by my reaction to his Top Gun name. “When you rose the first time, you were unknown. You claimed your mantle almost out of the blue. You are watched now. The Mages’ Guild has their eye on you. Momar is aware of this meeting and eager to know what comes of it. You won’t get a chance for a mistake, and you might not even get a chance to emerge as you plan.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Elliot said, wiping his mouth. “And I’d be quite the simpleton if I hadn’t thought of all of that. Coming up out of the blue the first time wasn’t a stroke of luck, however. It wasn’t a surprise to me like it was for others. You’d best remember that.”

“Do you expect your ally to cover your back while you make your…return?” Noah asked.

Elliot pushed an invisible plate away and went back to resting his elbows on the table. He squinted at Noah. “Cover my back? No. Keep my whereabouts secret? Possibly.”

Burke huffed. “How would that even be possible?”