“You’re right, of course. If Withers is powering up his magic skills with the souls of children—not just Ansel, but others—then he’s going to be an even bigger problem than Carnell and his delusions.”
There’s commotion at the door to the hall, which must lead outside. Luca is dragging Jay into the room by his wrist. He points at Gideon and gives Jay a little push. Leo comes in behind him, arms crossed, already prepared for an argument—or to physically restrain Gideon from chasing Carnell and Withers down.
“Sugar is looking for trouble, and Finn needs a plan,” Luca says, throwing Gideon under the bus before he starts up a clatter in the kitchen, running water into the glass carafe of a coffee maker that looks like it might be from the 1970s.
“I’m fine, but we do need a plan.” He tries to sound super sincere, even pasting his bestI have everything under controlsmile on his face.
Finally, Jay nods.
“Yeah, okay. We definitely do. Now that we know Carnell is deadly serious, I won’t underestimate him again. But Withers…we are a little out of our depth, magic-wise.”
“I think I have an idea,” Leo says before sitting down beside Grayson on the loveseat. “I think we need to divide and conquer.”
There’s dead silence in the room because—say what? Hadn’t Leo been harping about how, when united, they are stronger than when they split up?
Jay must be on the same wavelength because he says what everyone is thinking. “I beg your pardon?”
“Look, splitting up before we knew what the other side was up to was a bad idea. Now, I think we don’t have any choice.” Leo rests his elbows on his knees. “Carnell wants Gideon, and Gideon wants face-time, right?”
“Face time, murder time; potato, potahto.” Gideon smiles his own very fake—but also very scary—smile.
Luca hands Finn a cup of coffee. It’s not iced, but it’s better than nothing, and Finn whispers his thanks before the beta settles on his lap with his own steaming cup. “So what, Gideon just knocks on the door and says, ‘hey, dude, I’m here to kill you?!’”
Leo crosses the room, grabbing an ancient-looking chess set off the sideboard, dumping the pieces on the couch beside him before placing the board on the coffee table in front of him. Taking the white king, white queen, white rook, and white bishop, he places them on the board. On the opposite side of the board, he slides the black king in front of the white king so they’re squaring off in the center.
“Okay, this is Gideon.” He holds up the white king.
Finn watches as Gideon rolls his eyes.
“Fuck you, Gid. This is my plan, and I say we need a battle board. Suck it up.”
He holds up the queen: “Nix.”
Followed by the Bishop: “Luca.”
Finally, the Rook: “Me. You said Carnell didn’t want any alphas in Gideon’s organization, so it makes sense we take point with Carnell.”
“So you go in and what…? Like Luc says, you knock on the door and rip his heart out?” Finn asks.
“Well, ideally, yes.” Leo flicks the black King over onto its side.
“What about Withers?” Nix asks from the doorway, carried on the back of a very naked Rowan.
Where Jay, Gideon, Leo, and Nix have all found something to wear from the hodgepodge of items in the baskets Ignatius had left, the rest of them are still free-balling. Finn reaches over and pulls a blue T-shirt out of the closest basket and pulls it over his head. He chooses a pair of sweatpants for the moment he can free his lap from his delicious mate.
Leo shrugs. “Well, Nix, you said he was very interested in seeing if Grayson wanted to join his cause?”
Slipping down from Rowan’s back, he growls out, “We saw his cause last night. Stealing children’s souls for a power upgrade. Gray would never do that.”
“But what if he thought I might be interested? If Jay and the rest of the alphas made him an offer he couldn’t refuse—like a soul or two—we could separate him from Carnell. We’d have the element of surprise, given that Jay is very much alive. That would undermine his confidence in Carnell’s ability to get the job done.”
Grayson sits closer to the board, taking the black Queen and placing her on the other side of the board. He adds the two white Knights, the other white Rook, and the white Bishop, placing them in a half-circle around her.
Rowan growls and gives the chessboard the evil eye, as if it’s been imbued with Withers’s life force.
“How are we going to take him out? Carnell can die bloody, but we don’t even know half of what Withers can do. Why is he even riding that oily bastard’s coattails, anyway?”
“Maybe we can figure out what he did to lose his license? That’s got to be a clue of sorts, right?” Luca asks before playing musical laps and moving to Gideon’s so he can share his coffee, now that it’s lukewarm (and gross).
