Nineteen
GRAY
“You’re late. Again.” Trinity glared at the doorway as the final attendee scampered in—another fae, dressed the same as the first guy, but with a lot more bling pinned to his shirt. Medals, no doubt, for all the witches he’d killed.
“Orendiel,” Haley said. “The fae fucker in charge here. He and Phillip took over in the cave prisons when Jonathan went AWOL.”
“The same fae fucker who killed Emilio at the warehouse raid.” My fangs protruded, the magic inside me stirring. It was only the warmth of my sisters’ hands that kept me still.
“Apologies, mistress.” Orendiel offered a small bow before taking the chair to Phillip’s left. “I was detained in the warehouse district. There was a small—”
Trinity cut him off with a single raised eyebrow. “Perhaps, Orendiel, you are under the false notion that my time is less valuable than yours.”
“Quite the contrary, mistress.” Orendiel lowered his eyes. “It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t.” Trinity finally tore her glacial gaze away from the fae and looked at Phillip, not thawing a bit. “The report, if you please, Phillip. Despite what you all seem to think, I'm not here this evening for my entertainment.”
Phillip pulled up a file on his laptop, then began. “I’ve received confirmation from our generals in each of our west coast targets that the teams are in position and awaiting the final order.”
“Which cities, specifically?” Trinity asked.
“Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, and San Diego, to start. We’re expecting confirmation from Denver and Santa Fe by the week’s end.”
“Excellent,” Trinity said. “And the east coast?”
“Our teams in Boston, New York, and Miami will begin roll-out as part of phase three,” he continued. “We’ll have more information in the coming weeks, along with reports on cities where we’re still trying to establish a foothold.”
“Do keep me informed,” she said.
“Of course, mistress.”
A chill ran down my spine. So many cities, with many more to come. So many people dead smack in the path of destruction. We’d already known that the shitstorm in Blackmoon Bay was merely a testing ground—that they’d planned to branch out, spreading their poison from sea to shining sea—but we had no idea that they were so organized, or that things had already progressed so far.
“They’ve been working on this a lot longer than we thought,” I said. “Seems like Trinity’s been running the show the whole time, too.”
It jived with the info Asher and Ronan had uncovered in Trinity’s office in the crypt. Trinity—our birthmother—truly was the mastermind behind all of this.
My stomach turned over, and I swallowed bile.
“And what’s with the mistress shit?” Haley asked. “Why would they just allow her to take over the Council like that? This whole thing is giving me the creeps.”
Addie opened her mouth to say something, but the other Darkwinter Knight was pointing something out on his map. From my vantage point, it looked like the area around Luna’s Café.
“Blackmoon Bay is nearly ready to fall,” he said, tapping the map. “Everything will branch out from this point here—ground zero. Once we’ve received confirmation that the operation was successful, we’ll put the external teams on standby for imminent orders in each city.”
“And local law enforcement?” Trinity asked
“We don't anticipate any issues,” Phillip said. “Most of the local units have been fully infiltrated and replaced. The holdouts will be taken care of soon enough.”
I glanced at my sisters. Holdouts? Was he talking about human cops? Shifters like Emilio’s team, who’d remained loyal despite the Darkwinter invasion?
“How soon do you anticipate beginning operations on the east coast?” Trinity asked.
“After the successful completion of our objectives on the west coast, everything will begin to move at a much faster clip,” Phillip said.
“Picture the whole country lined with dominoes, coast to coast,” the other fae said. “Most of the work will take care of itself. It’s merely a matter of knocking down the first one.”
“Blackmoon Bay.” Trinity smiled, her teeth gleaming, the heavy makeup cracking around her eyes. “What have we left to do here, then? As you can imagine, I’m anxious to remove myself from this festering city as soon as possible.”
