No one moved. Wolf gently pried his wine glass from his hand and slid his arm around his shoulders.
“What?” Ashmedai rasped, looking from face to face.
“He’s having a vision,” Nicolas said. “I’ve never seen a prophet have a vision before.”
“They used to knock him on his ass,” Wolf said softly. “Literally. His legs gave out once and he smashed his head against the wall. The guild tells them they have to fast to receive their visions. It’s bullshit. He eats six times a day now. Can’t remember the last time I heard his stomach growl. And they’re easier. It’s like his body is settled, so the visions aren’t as hard on him.”
Ira blinked, inhaling deeply as he refocused on the room around him. He leaned automatically into Wolf’s side, and a line appeared between his brows. His eyes scanned the room before settling on Luke.
“Worrisome look you have there,” Malachi said warily. “What’d you see?”
Nicolas opened his mouth to say they weren’t supposed to ask that, but then he remembered this wasn’t the guild. These guys didn’t operate the same way. Maybe Ira shared all of his visions with them. Maybe there were no secrets in this group.
One corner of Ira’s mouth quirked. “You’re the one who opens the door and frees them.”
Luke leaned forward. “The kids?”
“Yeah. That’s all I saw. The door swung open, and there you were. And they launched themselves at you.”
“They were okay?” Alex asked.
“Yeah.” And then the frown returned. “But it was also loud. There was… screaming.” He looked from person to person. “I couldn’t tell who it was. I don’t know if it was one of us or one of them.”
An unsettling chill went down Nicolas’s spine.
“But they’re going to be okay,” Luke breathed, sagging back against Malachi. “They’re going to be okay.”
Ira smiled again. “Yeah. We’re going to find them.”
“Thank God for that,” Nathan said, squeezing Storm’s hand.
Talon clapped his hands, standing from his place beside Alex. “That reminds me. Jules, do you have a piece of paper and a pen?”
“Sure, yeah.” Julian fetched both from the drawer of an accent table against the wall and handed them over.
Talon placed them on the coffee table. “I want all of you, starting with you,” he pointed at Nicolas, “to write the names and numbers of everyone you remember from the guild. For some of you like Alex who have been out longer, you may not have much to contribute. That’s fine. Nic will have the most, because he still has his guild phone, which is why I want him to start. If any of you remember anyone else, old friends or colleagues or captains, add them.”
“Why?” Nicolas asked curiously.
“Because after we have Angie and Zach back, I’m sending a message to everyone I can reach behind that wall. Not just to the leaders, who would suppress the news to avoid inciting a panic. Panic is exactly what I want to incite. I’m going to tell them that we’re coming for them. I’m going to tell them what he’s done, kidnapping children and using them against us. I’m going to give them all a chance to do the right thing and walk away from the guild. They can join us or leave entirely, I don’t care. But anyone who stands with Sloan will receive no mercy.”
Nicolas nodded slowly. He had to believe there were others in the guild like him who didn’t like what was happening but didn’t know how to get off the runaway train.If given a chance to run and the promise of mercy and allies if they did, surely some of them would choose peace over war.
He knelt beside the coffee table and turned the notebook toward himself. Laying his phone beside it, he went through his contacts one by one. Commander Sloan, Doctor Maxwell, Cyrus, Aidan, everyone who was left from his current and old squads, teachers, Father Conroy. His hand was cramping by the time he reached the bottom of the list. It wasn’t everyone in the guild, not by a long shot, but gossip spread like wildfire there. He had no doubt many of these people would receive a text from a demon and forward it to everyone they knew so they could discuss it in scandalized, hushed tones.Did you see the text from that demon? What do you think?
The others added a few more names between them. Nathan added the most, as a former captain who had several numbers memorized in case of emergency. Ira also added a couple of prophets’ names he hadn’t forgotten, his supervisor, and Diviner Rousseau, the head of the prophets’ division.
This was it, Nicolas thought, watching them kneel down and write, one by one. This was the beginning of the war. The war machine would power on the moment the Alvarez kids were out of the line of fire, and with Ira’s confirmation that theywouldfind them, the gears were already starting to turn.
“What…” He stopped, not sure what he wanted to say or how, but everyone turned to him expectantly. Searching for the right words, he ventured, “What happens… if we win?”
“If?” Talon repeated coolly.
“I don’t want to jinx anything by making assumptions this early in the game,” Nicolas replied. “I just mean… what happens to the guild itself once Sloan and his people are gone? HQ? That library filled with information? All the holy weapons? What do we do with it all? Abandon it?” It didn’t seem right, somehow, to leave it all to rot. Paladins were buried there. His mom and dad. Countless men and women who died for the cause in one way or another, people who believed they were doing the right thing. And maybe at one time, they were. Sloan hadn’t always been around to poison the well.
They all looked around at each other until Nathan hesitantly said, “We could… repurpose it? I agree, I don’t think we should tear it all down and forget it existed. We know now that the paladins’ information wasn’t always accurate. They were wrong about the black-eyed halflings, for example.” He gestured to Talon, who inclined his head. “So, we could tear down the wall. Change things. Make it something that’s a part of the world instead of shielded and separate from it.”
“And the church?” Isaac asked carefully, his face unreadable. He perched on the armrest of the sofa farthest from Nathan.
