The mind-reading Hydraian grinned. “Noted.”
“I mean it, B. I will fucking rip you apart.”
That only made Balthazar’s smile grow. “Sounds like a promise I would enjoy.”
Jayson growled. “Balthazar.”
“I’ll be all right,” the mind reader promised. “Leela’s been playing hide-and-seek with trackers for millennia. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
She ignored him in favor of Vera. “I need you to remove this rune. Now.”
“I’ll barely have enough time to make this plan work, Lee,” she replied, a note of exhaustion in her tone. “The warriors have regeneration powers and the trackers have healing runes to expedite their recoveries. Not even a beheading will keep them down for long. So the rest will have to wait.”
Sethios straightened, his gaze finding the memory-manipulating Seraphim. “And what is it, exactly, that you’re planning to do?”
Chapter8
Leela
Vera explainedthe high-level plan to Sethios—alter this evening’s events in the minds of the Seraphim pursuing them and give them a new target.
Leela and Balthazar.
Only, they would think the manufactured trace belonged to Lizzie and Jayson. Because that was what the memory would tell them.
They would also still remember Caro and be able to track her, but a rune paired with a barrier ward would fix that problem. Which meant they could mist in Caro’s general direction, but the rune would make it difficult to pinpoint her exact location within a certain-mile radius and the ward would keep them from setting foot on the island.
Assuming everything was set up before Patreel and Arvane realized they’d been tricked.
Leela and Balthazar just needed to mist around the globe long enough to keep the Seraphim occupied while the others built up the security around Hydria.
Caro, Gabe, and Vera were in charge of revitalizing the wards. They would teach Sethios and Stas as well and would hopefully have plenty of time to create enough defensive markings to keep the Seraphim out.
It was a temporary plan, but a worthwhile one to pursue.
Even over the phone, Luc’s stance had been clear: “Splitting up weakens all of us. We need to provide a fortified front, and the only place to do that is in Hydria.”
Balthazar had immediately agreed, as had Jayson. “We’ve been anticipating an invasion since 1747,” the latter had said.
“By Ichorians,” Issac had pointed out. “Not Seraphim.”
“Yes. Which is where the wards come in,” Luc had replied. “We just need some time to ‘bolster’ them, as Skye recommended earlier.”
Which had led to the diversion discussion and Leela volunteering to play the role of themousein this renewed game of cat and mouse.
She’d spent millennia avoiding tracker Seraphim.
Why not benefit from all that experience now? Vera wasn’t giving the Seraphim a vial of Leela’s blood—that would make hiding nearly impossible.
Instead, she’d suggested they leave behind a few specks of blood on a cloth. It would be something that the trackers could use to initiate a chase, but not enough for them to establish a firm connection. They required at least a swallow of another’s essence to fully track them.
Thus, Leela would only leave behind a few meager drops—enough to tease without engaging in the full seduction.
However, she hadn’t anticipated that Balthazar would insist on accompanying her.
He’d claimed it would provide a more believable distraction because he could pretend to be Jayson. Vera had agreed that it would work better because Leela had the bond to the child that the Seraphim might be able to scent in her blood, and Balthazar would have the essence of an abomination.
Together, they would make for intriguing prey.
