"I will." Jonny drew a breath. "And I appreciate your warning. Now get the fuck out of here."

Darian winked and Traveled immediately.

Jonny remained for a moment, considering what he'd learned about the talisman. Its integration with the software Stu designed and Brandon's locational probability algorithm was working well - with a potentially lethal side effect. Rather than feel relieved to understand an unknown threat, Jonny was more interested as to why Valon hadn't yet exploited his location.

He Traveled to the command center and motioned to Tasha.

"Evac this location and the others immediately," he ordered. "I'll email a list of backup locations. Assign everyone to one randomly."

"Yes, ikir," she said and hurried away.

"Stu," he said sharply enough for the hacker to jump in his seat. "I need the laptop where the talisman is stored."

Stu bent over and lifted one of the four laptops sitting at his feet. Without a real command center, he was forced to swap them in and out on the table before him as needed. He handed it to Jonny.

The faint tingle of magic reached him, and Jonny Traveled without telling anyone why. Rather than go to one of the new locations, he went to a place Valon knew well: the large wooden mansion in the middle of the forest where he had first gone as the Black God.

The place had been torched, and the house perched on the ledge of a canyon in the Rocky Mountains was nothing more than cinders. It was cool this high up in the mountains, and the trees swayed gently in a quiet breeze.

Jonny stood alone in the stillness, the laptop clutched under one arm. He had spent almost three years in this place, sometimes hiding, sometimes struggling, sometimes learning lessons that left him weeping and resentful of his lot in life.

It felt strange to return and remember those first horrific months when he'd learned both to lead and to kill. This place was a reminder of who he had been, one that affected him more than he wanted it to.

It was symbolic of his past life and how he'd burned down everything - even the house - when he reached the point of no return and emerged from the transformation into the man he was today.

His former headquarters was the perfect place for a confrontation with Valon. Out with the old guard and old ways for good, and in with everything Jonny represented.

Jonny crossed to where the porch of the old house used to stand and knelt, lifting a piece of its charred remains. He had tried to crush his heart the way he had his past without luck. Unlike the former headquarters, his heart still burned with embers of humanity.




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