The CHAIRMAN: That won’t be necessary. For the record, please state your history and current role with the organization known as the Porters.

Mr. VAINIO: I’ve been a member of the Porters—intermittently—for about seven years, working to protect the world from magical threats. I’ve been a cataloguer, field agent, and researcher. Ten months back, I helped to found the New Millennium project in Nevada, where I currently work as Director of Research and Development.

The CHAIRMAN: Ten months. That would be shortly after you announced the existence of magic to the world.

Mr. VAINIO: Correct.

The CHAIRMAN: You constructed New Millennium in the United States. You yourself are an American citizen, born and raised in Michigan. Are you loyal to this country, Isaac?

Mr. VAINIO: How do you mean?

The CHAIRMAN: There are hundreds of you libriomancers scattered throughout the world, and thousands of other creatures. Vampires and merfolk and werewolves and bigfoots and Heaven knows what else. What assurances does this committee have that you won’t turn against the United States of America? How do we prevent people like you from selling your abilities to the highest bidder?

Mr. VAINIO: Maybe you could start by not treating us all like potential criminals and terrorists.

Chapter 1

“You didn’t think this would be easy, did you?”

“I knew there’d be conflict. Fear. And yah, violence too.”

“You’re mincing words. The world is headed for war.”

“Humanity has been at war for more than ninety percent of recorded history.”

“Not like this. What you’ve seen over this past year is only the beginning. The warm-up act, if you will.”

“Says you. Not even magic can see the future.”

“Not magic. Experience. I watched humanity for centuries. They fear you. Humanity works to control what it fears, and to destroy what it can’t control.”

“You’re a pessimist. Also an asshole.”

“Neither of those facts changes the truth. Your actions helped bring the world to this precipice.”

“And yours didn’t?”

“They did, but let’s be pragmatic, shall we? Of the two of us, only one is in a position to affect current events.”

“One of the advantages of not being dead, eh?”

YOU’D THINK MY TIME in the field fighting everything from possessed libriomancers to magically animated metal monstrosities to a thousand-year-old dead necromancer would have prepared me for an afternoon testifying before a pack of Washington politicians, but by the time I emerged, I longed for the simplicity of a rabid were-jaguar whose motivation was straightforward, foamy-jawed murder.

I ignored the reporters waiting in the hallway and made my way toward a wooden bench where Lena Greenwood sat whispering with Nicola Pallas and Nidhi Shah.

“Well?” asked Nicola.