Chapter 35
Frederica smelled breakfast before she reached the bottom of the stairs. Garlic and olive oil were already sizzling, something with eggs, the particular yeasty deliciousness that meant bread had been in the oven recently.
She found Dario at the stove with his back to her, working two pans at once. Every surface had something on it and was overkill in the best possible way.
Frederica stood there for a moment just staring.
Her mother cooked when she was upset or was trying to work out a problem in her head.
It was always comfort food. Pasta from scratch, biscotti, almond bread, and baklava.
Despina's hands were never still, and the result was always a table full of food and people who had been fed, whether they wanted to be or not.
Dario turned to reach for something and caught her standing in the doorway.
"Someone has to make sure everyone eats," he said by way of explanation. "And I'm genuinely afraid of what Despina will say if she comes home and finds out I had her family under my roof and didn't feed them properly."
"She would hold it against you until the day you died," Frederica said honestly.
"Exactly! So." He gestured around him. "Frittata in five minutes, bread in three, coffee is made, and bacon is already keeping warm."
Frederica crossed the kitchen and kissed him. She couldn't help it. The press of her mouth against his, her hand briefly at his jaw, warm from the stove, was everything she needed.
Someone cleared their throat in the doorway behind her. Frederica quickly stepped back. Athena stood at the kitchen entrance with her coffee cup.
"Starting breakfast early, Freddy?" Athena asked sweetly.
"Mind your business, Edgeworth," Frederica shot back.
Athena rolled her eyes. "I only want to make sure he doesn't burn my bacon. You can fool around after I've eaten."
Dario went back to his pans without missing a beat. "You can set the table if you're so impatient. Plates and cutlery are there." He gestured to the stack on the counter, and Frederica and Athena got to work without complaining.
By the time the food was on the table, most of the house was in the kitchen.
Leo had brought Tore down from the guest room, one careful arm under his, and settled him into the chair beside Frederica with a gentleness that she couldn't help but be thankful for.
She was feeling like an overprotective bear, and if anyone so much as looked at Tore the wrong way, it would end badly for them.
Tore moved with the stiffness that even the good painkillers couldn't fully fix.
He took Frederica's hand under the table and held it.
She let him without looking at him because that was the only way either of them would get through the morning.
He was the affectionate one in the family, and he needed the touch to ground him because he hadn't spent so much time apart from Despina since they had married.
Rodrigo took the head of the table. Giana was beside him, already with her laptop.
Kon and Athena on the other side, Silas at the end with his coffee, and Iz with three windows open on her tablet.
Serapis came last, taking the chair nearest the window, which put him at the edge of the group, a placement that might have been deliberate.
Dario set the food down and sat beside Frederica on her other side. She had Tore on her left and Dario on her right, and it calmed her down enough to eat.
Leo had set up the laptop at the corner of the table, angled so the screen was visible to most of the room. It finally connected, and Altun's face appeared, sharp-eyed and unhurried, her dark hair with its silver streak pulled back, jade eyes moving across the room with her usual scrutiny.
Behind her left shoulder, Julian sat with his arms crossed, looking like a bodyguard in a good suit.
"Tell me where we are at," Altun said. No preamble. She had been briefed the night before and had spent the intervening hours, Frederica assumed, doing whatever it was Altun did in the dark hours with the information she was given.
Rodrigo laid it out, speaking the way he always did in an operational context, straight to the point with the facts in the order they were relevant.
The three-day timeline, Serapis's confirmation of the Praetorium site connected to Agrippa's house through the old catacombs, and Despina's situation as they understood it.
"The relics," Altun said when Rodrigo finished. "The ones gathered from Ephesus and the others. I need to know what you still have with you."
Serapis spoke up and explained that the Tears of the Theotokos were in Venice, as were the other magical objects they had collected over the previous weeks. He had his own collection with him as well.
Altun asked him questions about the condition of the Ephesus reliquary and listened to the answers with her eyes slightly unfocused in the way that meant she was working through something Frederica would never entirely be able to follow.
"They can be used as a shield wall," Altun said finally.
"Not a physical barrier but a good disruption.
Agrippa will be drawing power in that chamber, channeling it through the alignment and the disciples he has prepared.
The relics carry consecrated energy that predates the divisions he's trying to exploit.
If the protective objects are distributed correctly among us before we enter, they will interrupt his ability to direct power at you.
If any of his followers are adept enough at battle magic, it will slow their attacks.
It won't eliminate the threat, only disrupt it.
I'll bring additional protection and make preparations for when I meet you in Cologne. "
"You're coming?" Frederica asked.
"Your mother is one of my friends," Altun said, narrowing her eyes. "Did you think I would stay home?"
"Thank you, auntie. I will fight better knowing you are with us," Frederica said, and something in her chest settled a fraction.
"Agrippa's disciples," Rodrigo said, moving the briefing forward. He looked at Serapis. "Tell me what you know about them."
Serapis set down his coffee. "Agrippa has been gathering people for years.
He chooses them the way he always has. They will be people with latent gifts who don't understand fully what they are.
He makes them feel seen. Special. He tells them they will ascend alongside him, and he teaches them just enough to make them believe his intentions. Worse, they will have faith in him."
"He told them they'd become gods with him before he sucks all the magic and life out of them," Athena commented.
"I bet Liddell tried the same pitch. Told people they were participating in something magically transcendent on an autumn equinox.
" She glanced at Kon. "He really did just copy Agrippa's playbook, didn't he? "
"Down to the rituals and the belief in his own godhood," Kon said with a grunt.
Serapis inclined his head. "What Agrippa doesn't tell them is that they are fuel. That their deaths are the mechanism of his transformation, not a side effect of it. They will die in that chamber to power what he intends to become. The Thriae Bee can strip that lie from their eyes."
Frederica always had issues believing that the smallest magical objects could be the most powerful. It was a part of the world she knew about but didn't pretend to understand.
"The bee still carries the power of true sight," Serapis continued.
"Oracular clarity, or in layman's terms, the ability to see through constructed illusion to the reality beneath.
Agrippa has built an entire belief system around his disciples.
He is their salvation, their god-in-waiting, the one who will take them beyond what they are.
When the bee is activated in that chamber, they will see him as he is. "
"About that," Dario interrupted. "I've handled the bee, and nothing magical happened. How do I get it to work?"
"There's a phrase I will teach you. It might only be good for one blast, so we will need to be careful not to set it off by accident."
"Say we do get the bee to work at the right moment and Agrippa's followers don't care?
" Iz asked from beside Silas. "What if they would rather burn for him?
It's not hard to believe, considering the history of religious nut jobs.
Fanatics still exist. We have all seen them, and I got up close and personal with Gadal and his merry band of witch burners, remember?
I got the scar on my chest to prove it."
"Then I stop them before Agrippa can use them," Frederica replied. "Bullets work on people regardless of what they believe, and they will need more than faith and hope to stop mine."
"Now you are talking my language," Athena said and winked at her.
"Ideally," Rodrigo interupted. "We get the disciples out without killing them. They were deceived, and that matters." He looked at Iz and Frederica. "But if they are fanatics or a threat to getting Despina out, then yes. We deal with it."
"Who carries the bee?" Leo asked.
Dario reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out a fine gold chain. At the end of it, nestled against a Mano Cornuta was a small velvet pouch. Dario opened it and tipped the Thriae Bee into his big hand, its amber wings catching the kitchen light.
Leo and Rodrigo looked at the chain for a long moment. "That's Papa's necklace," his little brother whispered.
"I found it in his desk drawer when I was looking for the bee," Dario explained. "It was wrapped up with a few other things." He turned the bee in his fingers. "It seemed right to put it on something that wouldn't get lost. I didn't want to drop it in a fight."
"He used to wear that every day," Rodrigo said quietly and nodded at Dario. "Keep it on."
Dario tucked the chain back inside his shirt. "I will."
"Getting Dario into position," Altun said from the screen. "That will be the central problem. The chamber will be guarded, and Agrippa will have wards up at the entrances. The bee must be brought close enough to his inner circle for the effect to reach them all."
"Frederica gets him there," Rodrigo replied. It wasn't a question. It was the operational logic of using your best assets in their correct roles. "And it will put them in position to grab Despina and extract her."
Frederica had already known it would happen since the moment Serapis first described the bee's function.
She had been working through the approach in the back of her mind since last night.
Multiple entry points, Cologne's Roman underground, the chaos they would need to create to move Dario through the outer guards and into the chamber while Agrippa was focused on the ritual.
She looked over at Dario. The chain was hidden again under his shirt, but she could see its small shape through the fabric.
"I'll get you there," she promised. "Whatever it takes."
He held her gaze. "I know. We made a good team during the siege, and at least we don't have a pissed-off djinn to deal with."
"I'm coming," Tore declared. He had been quiet through most of the briefing, but his voice was steady.
"Before anyone argues with me, I know the building patterns.
I've moved things in and out of Cologne.
I know which entrances Agrippa's people would consider and which ones they wouldn't. I'm not breaching the chamber.
" He looked at Frederica as she opened her mouth to argue.
"I'll be outside. Surveillance, communication, and exit coordination.
That's my wife in there, and I'll be as close as I can get without being in the way. "
"Baba…"
"Don't start," Tore cut her off. "My mind is made up."
She closed her mouth and gave in to the inevitable. She shot Rodrigo a warning look.
"He stays outside," Rodrigo told her. "He can be with Iz, coordinating extraction." He looked at Tore. "That is non-negotiable."
"Agreed," Tore said finally. "As long as I'm there to see Spina is okay. If she comes out and I'm not, I'll be in trouble forever."
The briefing ran for another hour. Entry points, timing relative to the blood moon's rise, communication protocols, who carried what and where.
Leo had the floor plans from the archaeological surveys and three additional property maps that Iz had pulled from sources Frederica didn't ask about.
Altun confirmed she would be on the ground in Cologne by tomorrow afternoon with the protections she was preparing.
Julian said nothing the entire call but wrote several things down in a small notebook.
When it broke up, people dispersed to pack, check weapons, and make calls. The kitchen began to empty. Frederica stayed at the table. Tore was beside her, not moving much.
"Spina will have them on their toes before we even get there," he said quietly.
"I know."
"She doesn't rattle so easily. Hurting her won't bother her much. Interrogation will just give her a chance to get into their heads. She will calmly wait for her moment to escape. They won't be prepared for what she does when she sees us there and is frightened for us."
"No," Frederica said, and they grinned at each other, violent and identical. "They won't."