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“I don’t think Abel will,” said Cain. “He knows I’m an obstinate bastard. But Adam? He’s used to blind obedience and believes we should all fear him and view him as an authority, considering he’s one of our jailors. He probably has it in his head that we’ll back down and cooperate.”
“He always was a fool that way,” said Seth.
Azazel grunted. “Ain’t that the truth.”
“A warded tow box? Really?” Sitting lotus-style in the middle of Cain’s bed, Wynter pulled a face, insulted that the Aeons and keepers thought such a thing would be enough to hold her. “They seriously are super arrogant when it comes to their attitude toward mortals.” In this case, it was going to be their downfall. Or, more precisely, the downfall of Aeon. “What do you think will happen next?”
Leaning against one of the bedposts, Cain replied, “Abel will be furious and want to vent via a conduit, but I think Adam will hold him back and insist on giving us no reaction.”
“He won’t want to give you the satisfaction of a response, or want you to realize just how successful you were at pissing them off,” she guessed.
Cain tilted his head slightly in agreement. “I don’t believe I’ll see the conduit again until our thirty days are up and Abel wants his answer of whether or not the other Ancients and I plan to cooperate. Adam will have it in his head that we’ll surrender at the last moment. It won’t even occur to him that we’ll hold out.”
Taking into account all Cain had told her about Adam, she’d have to agree with that.
Cain scraped his teeth over his lower lip. “Maxim told me about the conversation you had with him outside the tavern earlier. Thank you for remaining out of the sight of the keepers.”
“I won’t lie, it was hard to do it when I knew that Saul might take advantage of your being so distracted. But I knew that my being at your side would have made you more distracted. I can be reasonable at times, you know.” He totally didn’t need to be made aware that she’d had an ulterior motive in this case. A motive it was time to address. “Speaking of Saul, my coven and I were thinking . . .”
“Thinking? I’m already worried.”
She shot him a reprimanding look, her lips twitching. “Dick.”
He only smiled, the shit.
She went on, “We’ve tried scrying for him again but to no avail. Your search parties tried tracking him but to no avail. I tried killing him in my dream to place him in a real-life coma but just as successfully failed. Like it or not, he’s doing an excellent job at evading us.”
His smile dimming, Cain pushed away from the bedpost. “If he couldn’t use the wind to relocate himself wherever and whenever he pleased, he’d have been caught by now.”
“Agreed. We have to face that we may not capture him at all unless we try something new.” She cupped her knees with her palms and subtly took in a preparatory breath. “I say . . . we set a trap.”
“He’ll recognize a trap a mile off.”
“Not if we’re smart about it and we use real juicy bait that he’d be all but unable to resist.”
Cain’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What sort of bait?”
She twisted her mouth. “Well . . .”
“No,” he clipped, clearly sensing where she was going with this.
The single word was a door slamming shut. Yeah, she kind of saw that coming. But she wasn’t about to be deterred. This was too important.
So, resolute on calmly stating her case, Wynter continued, “Normally, he’d find it suspicious if he spotted me strolling around up on the surface. But not tomorrow evening. The summer-end market will take place. The plaza will be packed with people. If you put several guards on me, it won’t look so much like I’m being used as bait.”
“No,” Cain repeated more forcefully.
Acting as if he hadn’t spoken, she went on, “Even if he believed it was a trap, he wouldn’t be able to resist making a move. He’d probably even like the thought of pitting himself against your people to prove they couldn’t protect me from him.”
His jaw hard, Cain slashed a hand through the air. “I said no, Wynter.”
She felt her lips flatten. “I didn’t say no when Maxim asked me not to rush to your side earlier. The absolute last thing I wanted was to hang back while you spoke with the keepers. I was worried that Saul might take advantage and strike at you right then. But I acknowledged that Maxim was right in the stuff he said. I put aside my feelings and did what was smart.”
“Because you felt it was smart, or because you intended to use it while you made this very argument?”
Gah. “Don’t interrupt, it’s rude.” She got to her knees. “Look, you might not like it, but what I’m proposing right now is our best move. If you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.” She waited, unsurprised when he looked away with a sigh. “Saul’s a worthy adversary—there’s no doubt about it. But he has a major weakness. He’s impulsive. I truly believe he’ll strike—”
“And then what?” Cain bit out.
