He leaned down right in front of me, so close I was tempted to headbutt him but wasn’t willing to be knocked unconscious again until I knew Oakley was away and safe. “Even better that she’s got such a unique ability.”
Fuck.
He knows.
“Let her go!” I seethed, mind sprinting to all the worst-case scenarios of how far they’d go to see her gifts in action. Because while the supernatural world might believe we were serving some noble cause, they’d never been down in The Casket where the blood and muck and dark secrets flowed.
But I had. And I’d vowed I’d never come down here again.
I guess in a way I got my wish. I wasn’t here as a predator anymore—now I was the prey. And I could have lived with that. But as I watched Oakley stiffen, attention shifted toward the door that’d no doubt opened to her cell, I refused to let them prey on her.
“Now, now. We need to know what’s hiding away in the Wellses’ mental vaults,” Aleander continued, calm like we’ve been trained to be. He had a hollow sort of tone, like he didn’t have any skin in the game. But I knew better. He wouldn’t have brought us here otherwise. “And if you’re not willing to use your ability, Ms. Brooks can borrow it for a bit and help us out.”
Can borrow it for a bit?
Rage pooled in my ribs, and I unleashed the next words in a fiery growl. “If headquarters finds out about this—”
He chuckled. A sound that was all too wrong for him. “Oh, aren’t you cute. I wouldn’t be wasting my time if there weren't more important people wanting this intel.”
“Who put you up to this?”
“Let’s just say the Archons may believe they run the show, but they’ll be begging for a piece of power soon enough.” He smiled with a smugness that I wanted to claw off his face with my bare hands.
Maybe I would later if I got the chance.
He sighed. “I’ll give you an hour to mull it over. Then I’ll need to know who will be up for getting what I need done.”
“And what if we refuse?”
“As of right now, no one knows about Ms. Brooks’sspecialtalentsother than Festus and me.” He pulled out his phone and swiped through it. “But one message to my contact and I’m sure they’d love to get their hands on her. Push those limits to see what she’s capable of with that power-stealing snatch of hers.” He shook his head with atsk. “You think I justhappenedupon you all those years ago to recruit you?”
I could have sworn my heart stopped beating, recalling when I’d first met Aleander at the shelter. It was after I’d run away from home at sixteen. After I realized some cycles couldn’t be broken from within. Sometimes the only option was escape—forging your own path.
“You were so eager to find a way to be of use,” he said, shaking his head. “Just think of all the uses we’d have forher.”
“Go to Hell, Aleander.”
“Oh, I’m planning on it.” He smiled so wide it looked awkward against his jaw. “I hear the lust demons there can fuck for days.”
Striding toward the door, he pressed another invisible button.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
The door slid open, and Aleander stepped through, glancing over his shoulder. “Talk to you and your little power thief soon, Agent Holt.”
The glass-encased spectacle at 5 Blessed Crescent had its guests murmuring.What had been an illusion versus reality? They didn’t seem to care too much, returning to their revelry.
Meanwhile, Archon Atlas Thorne stomped across the pristine floors, slamming the door to his office behind him. The heat coming off him was enough to flip on the fan from his home system as he sat there stewing.
Pulling out the box from his pocket, he flicked it open, staring at the small gemstone ring inside, brows drawn together like a pair of angry curtains.
Should I have stopped her from leaving?
No. That definitely wouldn’t have improved the situation.
Oakley Brooks hadn’t seemed to appreciate the baby gate maneuver. Though in the end, hadn’t the Archon gotten what he wanted? The towels currently mopping up the table and wiping away the handprints smearing the glass would make one think so.
But witches were confusing.
