He didn’t have any particular feelings about it one way or the other. A different man might have felt guilt or disgust knowing he had so much in common with someone like Vanderpoel, but Silas wasn’t the type.
If anything, he was relieved. Once he understood exactly who he was dealing with, it was easy for him to trace a logical path through the ocean of information at his fingertips.
If I wanted to take over a territory, what would I do?
He’d wait for the right opportunity. A moment of profound destabilization in the center of power, perhaps, or when a new leader was at their weakest. Should that chance slip past him, then he’d find a way to make a new one.
If that plan was discovered, he’d take out the threat.
Even before he found the order to dispose of Dooraker’s body in a neatly organized file of communications betweenVanderpoel and several members of his private army, Silas knew exactly what had happened.
Vanderpoel and whoever he worked with saw Delilah Solbourne’s abdication as a chance. Somehow, Dooraker discovered whatever they’d planned — an assassination, most likely — and threatened to bring it to light.
It all made sense. If the Gloriae, or just a few fanatics in their ranks, had it in their heads to rebuild the empire they’d lost, the EVP was the perfect place to start. If violence had followed the abdication, the ruling families would’ve torn the government apart. The citizenry would’ve panicked, afraid of another era of bloodshed like the one brought by Mad Thad. If a powerful, trusted entity stepped in to bring peace, the populace would’ve flocked to them before they risked putting their lives in the hands of the elves again.
But if that window of opportunity closed, if rumors began to swirl about an incredibly powerful new technology, one that could provide limitless energy…
All Vanderpoel had to do was position himself to be in the right place at the right time with the necessary manpower. Marrying Petra, San Francisco’s beloved priestess, would’ve given him credibility with the people. Most likely he would’ve put her center stage and acted as an older, stabilizing partner. Having a child on the way would’ve sealed the deal, giving him an heir and casting him as a family man. Nothing distracted an impressionable public desperate for distraction quite like a baby.
And even if all of that failed, Petra herself was the perfect connection to the Solbournes and the Tower itself. Antonin could’ve easily used her to get direct access to the m-generator first, then used the technology to get everything else he wanted quickly thereafter. Silas had planned to use her for the very same reason.
It was all there, laid out before them in coded messages, invoices, and no-frills commands shared on private encrypted servers.
The order to dispose of Dooraker’s body was there in black and white, alongside an invoice for his cremation and a flowery but vague press release about his tragic heart attack. Following the time stamps, he discovered messages between Vanderpoel and someone labeled simply as Red. A series of messages laid out their plan to replace Dooraker with a more “easily influenced” High Priest. Many more detailed their surprise as Petra was put forward by Theodore Solbourne as his choice to be St. Emaine’s High Priestess.
“Do you know who Red is?” he asked.
Petra, white as a sheet, answered, “No, but that— that note there? That’s all information that would’ve been given to the High Gloriae directly. No one else.” She didn’t seem surprised, but maybe the deluge of information had simply numbed her. “Antonin said he had a friend in United Washington who would get me to agree to bond with him. Do you think…”
“Are there any High Gloriae members there?”
“I don’t know. They’re secretive about their personal lives. All I really know about them is that they meet up every year for Temple business and make decrees on the—” Petra cut herself off abruptly. Slapping a hand on his thigh, she rushed out, “Demon, check the solstice.”
“What?”
“June twentieth.” She pointed a shaking finger at the monitor. “Look for anything mentioning June twentieth.”
“Of this year?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. His fingers flew across the familiar, smooth surface of his desk. It was hard not to look at her, to check that she was holding up okay. Petra needed him to be sharp. Never inhis life could he have imagined a world where having access to so many secrets wouldn’t interest him nearly as much as a woman, but this was his mate, and nothing about her was ordinary. He suspected she’d outshine anyone and everything for the rest of his life.
Silas sat back in his seat, his lips flattening into a hard line as he watched an unsettling number of hits pop up on the screen. Instead of analyzing every document himself, his gaze slid to Petra.
She’d braced her palms on the desk and leaned forward to peer at the screen. The light from the monitor cast her jewel tones into sickly pastels, highlighting the look that grew ever-bleaker in her eyes.
“He said he planned to stick around for several weeks,” she murmured, almost to herself. “He’d be in San Francisco for as long as it took. I thought he meant bonding and knocking me up. I never considered it would be forthis.”
“He definitely meant knocking you up,” Silas bit out. His headache got a little worse every time he imagined Vanderpoel putting his hands on Petra. It becamedistinctlyuncomfortable when he thought of his mate carrying Vanderpoel’s spawn, too.
I wish I could kill him again.
Silas hadn’t even thought of getting Petra pregnant when he made his plans. He’d fully intended to set her aside as soon as Tal had a body and they had access to the m-generator. But he had no plans to take over a territory. If hehad,knocking up Petra would’ve been at the top of his list.
While he still had no interest in taking over a territory, he did discover a previously untapped well of desire to see her tied to him in every possible way. After he handled everything, he decided, they’d discuss moving up the timeline on those two kids.
Forcing himself to focus on something other than breeding his mate, Silas thought,An m-generator-turned-super-weapon. A new witchbond. A small army. A wife beloved by the whole territory and a baby on the way…
