“And now they’re the de facto power faction in the Bay.” I clenched my fists at my sides, my hands shaking with rage. It was a major effort not to totally wolf out. Not to track Talia back to Council HQ and take out the whole traitorous lot of them.
How could they sanction this? How could they sit back and let the supernatural community tear itself apart? By the time anyone inside the Bay realized what was happening, it would be too late.
Talia, Darkwinter, the hunters… I didn’t know who’d be left in power when the dust finally settled, only that it wouldn’t be the people. The citizens who’d lived and worked and played and built our homes there for decades.
Human and supernatural alike, most of the Bay’s residents probably had no idea the city had been occupied. Jael said there’d been no physical attack, no bombs, no guns, nothing to actually fight.
No, that wasn’t Darkwinter’s style. Their real attack would simply unfold without a sound, slowly and subtly as a weed. Inch by inch, hour by hour, the residents of my city would be gently—pleasantly, even—coerced into relinquishing the very last of their freedoms.
Later, when they finally snapped out of the haze and realized how miserable and desperate their lives had become, they’d get angry. The supernaturals among them would take their anger to the Council, demanding answers.
And in response, the Council would give them exactly what they needed to turn the embers of that anger into a raging inferno: a common enemy.
Our community would destroy itself from the inside out, just as Elena and I had predicted.
“Is thereanyoneon the Council who’s still an ally?” Elena asked.
“I don’t know,” Jael said. “But for the moment, I don’t believe any of them can be trusted.”
“Jesús, María, y José.This is insane.” I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The Council was our governing body. Ignoring a few supernatural skirmishes was one thing. A rogue Council member like Talia making a power grab—that made sense, too. Happened in the human government all the time.
But sanctioning an act of war against supernaturals?
I reached for my phone, instinctively ready to call Ronan and Darius. To rally the troops. But then I remembered they were fighting another battle in the Shadowrealm, trying to find a way home for Gray.
My heart twisted to think of her again. To think of all of them out there, lost, trapped, injured, or worse… Hell. Were we ever gonna catch a break?
“How do you even know all of this?” I finally asked Jael. I needed to stay on point. Worrying about things over which I had no control wouldn’t help Gray and the guys any more than it would help the Bay. “You’re not part of the Council, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” He held my gaze for a long time, taking his measure of me, then looked to Elena, assessing her as well. I got the feeling he was trying to decide how much he could trust us—if at all.
I couldn’t blame him. I was doing the same to him.
“You said yourself you don’t want an all-out war,” I said. “That your one of the few remaining fae who feel that way.”
“I am.”
“If that’s true, we’re on the same side, Jael.”
“All of us,” Elena said firmly, coming to stand at my side. Her shoulder pressed against my arm, the contact so solid and reassuring I had to blink back tears. It’d been a long time since we’d presented a united front. It almost felt like we were a pack again.
She seemed to pick up on my feelings, and surprised me again by sliding her hand into mine and giving me a reassuring squeeze. I squeezed her right back.
The crises facing our communities had converged here, and maybe that was the only thing holding us together. Maybe when this was all said and done, my sister and I would go our separate ways again.
But right now, we had each other’s backs. And from the grave look in Jael’s eyes, it was clear we’d need all the strength and solidarity we could muster.
“Okay. It sounds like we’ve got a lot more ground to cover tonight,” Elena said, motioning for Jael to hand over his cape. She hung it carefully in the hall closet, then shooed us into the dining room. “I’ll put on fresh coffee and fix us something to eat. I don’t know about you guys, but I can strategize much better on a full stomach.”
As Jael and I settled into our chairs, I heard the unmistakable knock of the chef’s knife against the cutting board in the kitchen, followed by thetick-tick-tickof the oven preheating. Despite everything, I smiled. Elena was so much like Mamá. Birthday, funeral, holiday, unexpected company, hostile fae invasion—there was no occasion that couldn’t be marked with food, and no food worth preparing unless it was an outright feast.
“I hope you’re hungry,” I warned Jael. Then, getting right back to business, “What else can you tell me about the situation in the Bay?”
Seven
Gray
The air rushed out of my lungs at Liam’s dire words, but I forced myself to remain calm. “Tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll work it out.”
