* * *
The address Magnus gave in his note was a derelict warehouse on the far edge of town. Thierry eyed it skeptically.
“This is where he wants to talk?” His fingers tightened onthe wooden stake in his hand. “Well, it’s not exactly a luxury mansion in the French countryside, is it?”
“Magnus has occasionally taken up residence in modest places over the years,” Godric replied, looking up from the wickedly sharp silver axe he had just been studying, though his tone sounded doubtful as well. “Though he would not have given you the address for his true home—not until he was convinced you were truly his ally. And perhaps not even then. This is merely the stage he wished to set for tonight’s events.”
“Can you see the outcome?” Thierry asked him. He cast a nervous look at Jeremy before meeting Godric’s dark eyes. “Can you see if we’re going to win?”
Godric hesitated, then shook his head, looking troubled. “Whatever cloaking magic he’s using, it is potent enough that I cannot see past it.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Jeremy muttered. He shifted his hands into claws, his eyes flashing gold. “But I don’t need any psychic powers to know how this ends. We’re going to kill this sick fuck before he can hurt anyone else. We’re ending him tonight.”
I agreed completely. Magnus had made a terrible mistake when he threatened Eli’s life. I couldn’t allow him to live. None of us could. “Remember the plan. Wait exactly three minutes, then follow.”
I turned to go, but Thierry grabbed my shoulder, stopping me. Surprise flooded through me, and I met his eyes—identical to mine in every way. They were filled with a mix of conviction and fear.
“Be safe, brother,” Thierry said harshly, his gaze shinier than it ought to have been. “I’m warning you now, if anything happens to you, I’m going to be livid.”
I grinned at him. “When aren’t you angry with me?”
“No heroics,” he said firmly. “Stick to the plan and only the plan. Promise me.”
“I promise. I will be fine, brother. It is Magnus who should be afraid. Of us.”
Though I sounded far more confident than I felt. I wouldn’t have traded the way I felt about Eli for anything—nor would I have traded the fact that Thierry was my brother again, and that I had the capacity to feel how much that mattered. We all had a real future now, once Magnus was eliminated. It was a good one—one that I could scarcely allow myself to believe in. And feeling the enormity of that—of the fact that Thierry and I might finally set right all that was broken between us—was a gift.
But I also wouldn’t have minded the total lack of fear I used to have. Now, because I cared about far too much, unease stalked my every step.
Thierry nodded sharply at me.
Then, without another word, I walked up to the front door and steeled myself.
Still, the plan was simple and would be highly effective. We had already coordinated: I would go in first to pretend as though I was willing to entertain Magnus’s offer and get him talking. In exactly three minutes, Godric would enter through the rear door of the warehouse. At the same moment, Jeremy and Thierry would follow in my footsteps through the main door. Once everyone was in place, we would all strike as one. We would go for the kill immediately. The time for talking to Magnus was long past.
He needed to die.
I took a deep breath and then pushed open the door.
The warehouse was covered in dust. Moonlight shone through the huge windows along one wall of the cavernous, empty space. Here and there on the floor, a few wooden workbenches had long since decayed into uselessness, slumped to the ground like fallen soldiers. A rusted metal catwalk ran the perimeter of the room. There was graffiti, trash, and emptybottles everywhere. A dirty mattress in one corner suggested that the space had been used by one or more unhoused individuals seeking shelter.
I stepped farther into the room, my unease ratcheting up. This was… wrong.
For one thing, the Magnus from my memories wouldn’t have wanted to meet in this desperate place. He would have wanted luxury and refinement—especially if he was seeking an alliance with me. For another, the space was far too quiet.
No one else was here.
Still, I moved farther in, half refusing to believe it. Then my gaze landed on a cream-colored envelope resting on one of the fallen workbenches. It was exactly like the one that had been resting on the bodies earlier that day.
With trembling hands, I picked it up and opened it.
In Magnus’s spiky handwriting, the note was brutal in its simplicity—just one line that gripped my heart, crushing all my hopes and dreams.
You have disappointed me, Nicolas. Now I’m afraid Eli must die.
CHAPTER THIRTY || ELI
“Idon’t understand what’s happening,” Sam said quietly, sitting down across from me on a couch with fabric that felt like an expensive cashmere sweater. The hotel was beyond fancy and outrageously expensive. The whole room reeked of money. She let out a long, shaky breath. “None of this makes any sense.”
