“Yeah, of course.”
Orion and Reid can likely smell the lie, but thankfully they don’t call me on it.
“I didn’t sleep well. I’m kind of bagged.”
Orion, Asher, and Wylder, each give me a sympathetic smile. I shift my gaze and swallow, my throat growing thick. “So, about the demon marks. What are the next steps? We need a plan.”
“We need to figure out how to break them without you getting sucked into Tharuzel’s consciousness,” Orion says.
Yeah, I vote for that.
“Do we need to know everyone who has them?” Izzy asks. “For us to free them, we’d have to know who’s in trouble, right?”
"Could we do that by tracking the source signature in some way?” Orion asks, looking at Wylder. “That would be easier than canvassing the county door to door.”
Asher straightens in his chair. “Let’s brainstorm how that would look. Because us tromping out there with clipboards, pretending to be county surveyors seems like a gross waste of time and energy.”
Agreed.And I’m too damned tired for that.
Besides, it would take too long. Tharuzel is close to breaking through Sebastian’s wards. We need to cut off his energy influx as quickly as possible.
Izzy, Mica, and Clara are brainstorming how to isolate demon-marked citizens, their ideas bouncing off one another.
“What does access to resources mean?” Reid asks.
“And do we have to report back to the Order?” Orion wonders.
Everyone talks at once. Voices overlap, ideas bouncing off each other too fast to track. My chest tightens.
I hold up a hand, but nobody notices.
Clara leans forward. "What if we created some kind of protective circle? Like a quarantine zone for?—"
"That won't work with mobile targets," Mica interrupts. "People move around. Unless you want to lock them up somewhere?—"
"We can't imprison civilians," Izzy protests.
"I wasn’t suggesting we imprison them. I was talking about containing them."
"Same thing."
"Actually, it's really not?—"
"Guys." My voice comes out weaker than intended.
Reid shifts on the sofa arm, nearly toppling Orion. "What about tracking spells? If shifters can follow scent trails, witches should be able to follow magical signatures, right? Could that extend to demon magic?"
Orion shrugs. "Maybe… depending on the witch and their affinities. Not all magic works the same way."
"Then we need multiple approaches?—"
"Which costs time we don't have?—"
"Guys!"
The room falls silent. Seven pairs of eyes lock onto me. The hair on the nape of my neck tingles, and I reach back to scratch it. “This isn't productive—it’s chaos."
"So, what's the plan?" Mica's tone holds no challenge, just a genuine request to be set on a path.
