“Sounds simple when you put it like that,” Ben said, offering another weak smile. It dawned on me that despite his light clothing, he was sweating, brow glistening, and pit stains darkening his ivory tunic.
At least I wasn’t the only one scared shitless.
“The other team hastwojobs,” Lee went on, tracing his finger across the map in another direction. “In order to make sure the monsters can be killed, team two needs to get into the securityoffice to disable the failsafe lockdown and toggle the lights in the loading bay. That’s how we’re going to get the upper hand against those armed fuckers guarding the trucks.”
Cliff, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, gave a humorless chuckle. “Let me guess, weapons checked at the door?”
“Obviously,” Delilah purred.
Cliff’s smile became a cutting thing as he leaned forward in his seat to pull the map closer to him. “This oughta be fun.”
“You understand why we have to be creative on this one,” Lee said. “Which, luckily for you, is one of mymanyspecialties. The light will disorient the armed team down there when they switch to night vision, then blind them temporarily when the lights go back on. We plan for it to go dark for a full two minutes. Plenty of time.”
Jon scoffed, a cold laugh as if to disagree with that assessment. He leaned closer too, his shadow darkening near me. He traced over multiple points highlighted in red pen—places that could set off the security measures.
“What happens if the failsafe gets triggered?” Jon asked.
“All doors in the entire hotel will seal, and averyconspicuous alarm will go off,” Delilah said. “Effectively, we’ll be caged in here with a sea of literal and figurative monsters.”
I was unable to hide my grimace at the thought, dizzied by the sight of the numerous security triggers that could go off. That couldn’t happen.
“You okay?” Cliff asked, and I realized he was studying me.
I managed a wry smile. “To be fair, it can’t benearlyas terrifying as being cornered in a siren-infested swamp by every hunter in the southeast.”
Something flickered over Cliff’s face—fear, regret—but he eventually mirrored my knowing smirk. “I almost missed your annoying optimism,” he chided.
“Someone’sgot to have it.” Running through the plan in my head, I realized something was missing. I turned back to Lee. “You said the second team has two jobs. What’s the other one?”
His beat of silence made my nerves stand on end.
“Eros needs to die.” Lee looked from me to the hunters. “There’s no telling when he’ll be within reach again. The goal is to take care of him, then go to the security room. Whoever goes has to be prepared to take out anyone who interferes as well.”
“Knew you had some bloodlust buried in there somewhere,” Cliff muttered.
Lee’s smile returned. “I won’t be assassinating anyone. Much as I’d love to see Eros’ face for the first timeandwatch the light leave his eyes, I can’t go near him. If he sees me, we’re all dead.”
“Why’s that?” Jon asked warily.
Sighing, Lee shared a look with Ben, who nodded reluctantly.
“One of Eros’ lieutenants hired me for a job a couple of years ago, and it led me to Benny.”
“You worked for this fucker?” Cliff spat.
“Think of it more like a freelance gig several rungs down the ladder. I wasn’t exactly clued in on the fact that creatures of myth were real. But my track record spoke for itself. I’m amazing at what I do.” The arrogant drawl didn’t match the haunted look seated at the back of his gaze. “Like Delilah said before, one of Eros’ biggest buyers is some kind of scientist in the R&D sector. I never got his name. One of his researchers made off with valuable tech that turned out to be the fae-blocking cuffs, and I was hired to steal them back.”
I frowned at him. “You got them, but you didn’t hand them over to Eros?”
Lee shook his head. “I would have, but they also expected me to stealanothervery valuable asset.” His eyes cut toward Ben, who was utterly stiff now on his shoulder. “See, this rogue researcher went on with a partner to make Archer Tech—acompany that skyrocketed through the fucking roof practically overnight. That’s because theyacquiredBen through one of these black markets and used the cuffs to make themselves immune to his magic. They forced him to use his glamour for their own gain.”
“Archer Tech.” Jon stiffened in horror. “I remember hearing about them. Those guys are dead. Murder-suicide,allegedly. That was you?”
Lee raised his hands, immune to the looks of accusation Jon and Cliff threw at him. “Hey, those guys weren’t innocent by any means. The world’s better off without them, trust me. Bottom line is that Eros still has it out for me for making off with the cuffsandBenny.”
My stomach churned at the revelation. No wonder Ben was so keen on breaking other fairies free from this place. Although I could see that Jon and Cliff were still grappling with the news that Lee had assassinated ordinary humans and covered up their deaths, I couldn’t feel sorry for those men in the slightest.
“So, you’re going to the loading bay,” I forced out, nodding at Lee. Jon and Cliff undoubtedly needed to be separated for this to work—one to be the protector of each team. I wondered where that would leave me. “How are the rest of us splitting up?”
