“It means I can’t get the answer for you. The baby has a father, one father, but I won’t be able to break through the magic keeping that information hidden.”
“So, what I’m hearing is you took my blood for nothing. Great. Just great.” With an exaggerated huff, Lucifer snapped his fingers, sending any and all objects with remnants of blood up in flames. Merri jumped back with a startled cry, prompting my brothers and I to glare at Lucifer.
“What?” he asked, feigning innocence. “She’s fine, and now all of us are protected from potential malfeasance. You’re welcome.”
“What do we do now?” Merri asked, wringing her hands together.
Chaos stepped forward and pulled her into the circle of his arms. “The plan hasn’t changed.”
“Plan? What plan? I’m pretty sure we ended our last meeting with no plan,” Moira said, gaze darting around as if she could suss out the answer.
“Ourplan,” I said. “Perhaps it’s time to reconvene with the others so we can fill them in.”
Chapter
Seventeen
GAVIN
We were lucky Lilith’s magic allowed her to make changes to this space whenever she wished, or we’d be in serious trouble. Our cozy meeting space was now easily the size of a small community center. All we needed was some crepe paper and balloons, and we could be hosting a party rather than drafting war plans. I’d much prefer the former.
This evening we weren’t gathered as the Hades Society. Instead, our group was just over thirty strong. Each of the horsewomen’s progeny and their mates were present because there was no way any of them would be left out. Well, there were supposed to be—the four horsemen, Lucifer, and Meredith were still MIA.
I let out an annoyed huff. They were the ones who called this meeting; it was incredibly rude of them to make us wait. Especially when I’d been occupied deciphering Lilith’s book rather than doing what I’d prefer—seeing to my wife’sneeds. I patted my coat pocket for the third time in as many minutes, ensuring the stack of decoded pages was still where I’d left it. I’dmade what I believed to be a significant discovery this morning, and was eager to share what I’d learned.
“Easy, husband,” Roslyn purred, placing her tiny hand in mine and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “They’ll be here soon.”
“They’d better. There is precious little time to spare for any of us.”
“I know.”
The pirate member of Dahlia’s group had the absolute gall to throw an arm across my shoulders and lean close. “All right, vampire, you called us all in here. What kind of shenanigans are in store? I was about to harvest some pixie dust for later when your summons interrupted me.”
“Caspian Hook, you leave those poor pixies alone. They’ve barely recovered from their run-in with Grim,” Dahlia chided.
“Oh, come now, Wendy-bird, don’t pretend you don’t enjoy the results.”
“It was one time,” she said, ducking her head to hide her blush.
“Aye, one very enjoyable time.”
The rest of her mates laughed, the dragon and the Viking quietly high-fiving behind her.
“The pirate has a point,” Remington interjected. “Why are we all here? You guys usually do your super-secret society stuff without us. Something about me beingtoo distracting.”
I glanced around to see if the missing group had miraculously joined us—they hadn’t—before answering, “There’ve been developments.”
“Oooh,developments. Hear that, Benny-boo?” Remington made dramatic finger quotes. “Developments.”
“I h-heard him. W-we all d-did.” Bentley sighed as he took his seat.
“Technically, I didn’t call this meeting?—”
“Yeah, you fucking did. I was mid-wank when you banged on my door. Jake is displeased.”
Sunday let out a snort before turning beet red. “You’re always mid-wank, Kingston. You’d think your hormones were out of control, not mine.”
“Sunshine, have you seen you? You’re so fucking hot. And the world might be ending, you can’t blame me for making the most of the time we have.”
