“Tell me they’re not buying this crap,” Addie said, but for now, it seemed they were doing just that. Talia and Fenlos had settled back in their chairs, and if any of the others thought to challenge Trinity, none of them said it out loud.
I could barely believe my eyes and ears. Could our birthmother really be that delusional? Clearly, she’d been drinking her own Kool-Aid for far too long.
The question was… How the fuck had she convinced the others sitting around this table to drink from the same damn jug?
Commotion at the front door snagged my attention, and all three of us turned to see someone enter the house in a frenzied rush, her dark brown hair windblown across pink cheeks, glasses askew on her face.
Georgie.
My eyes misted. In that moment, I didn’t care whose side she was on. I loved her instantly, and I suspected Haley and Addie felt the exact same way.
“We have to help her,” I said.
“There’s nothing we can do here,” Haley said. “Let’s just see what we can find out, then we’ll go back home and make a plan.”
“But she’s—”
“Gray.” Haley nodded at the table. “Shh. Just listen.”
“Sorry," Georgie panted, rushing into the dining room, tracking snow through the house. “I was in Rockport trying to figure things out with the witches. I tried to get home faster, but this weather is insane.”
Trinity arched an eyebrow, spearing our sister with her patented frosty glare. “Tell me you've made progress on that front, or you may turn around, march right back out the way you came, and try again.”
Georgie removed her snow-crusted winter coat and draped it over one of the empty chairs, then flopped into the seat, her shoulders slumping. In a small, watery voice, she said, “It's not that easy, Mom. They don't trust me.”
“And who's fault is that, Georgina?” Trinity asked.
Desperation crept into Georgie’s eyes. “I tried to tell you before, but—”
“Enough!” Trinity silenced her with a raised hand, making her flinch.
The unknown fae started rambling on about maps and coordinates and supplies, but I barely heard him. I was so focused on Georgie, so shocked that she was here, right in front of us, alive and whole and beautiful and just… real.
And now, I knew without a doubt she wasnothere by choice. I could sense it in her reactions, in her movements around Trinity. And there, beneath the fear and desperation, a flicker of the fighting spirit I sensed in all of my sisters. In myself.
However Trinity had found her, whatever she had done or said to convince her to follow her, Georgie was a prisoner now. Again, I felt the anger rise inside me, the rage so close to the edge I could taste it.
Rage at my mother, who’d tried to murder us. Rage at Deirdre, who’d signed away my soul and separated me from my sisters. Somehow, she’d believed that if we were never reunited, the prophecy could never come to fruition. That the four of swords could never rise and fulfill our true destiny. That breaking up our family—our sisterhood—would somehow keep us safe.
I thought of all the witches back at the lodge, and all the witches here in Blackmoon Bay, and all the witches across the entire world who’d been forced to endure the same tortures, and I knew that we wouldneverbe safe. Not until every witch was free to live the life she chose, without the constant threat of hunters, dark fae, and power-hungry monsters like the woman sitting at the head of this table, desperate to claim what was never hers.
“Gray," Haley whispered, her hand on my lower back. “You need to calm down and pay attention. We need this intel.”
I nodded, shaking out of the funk and re-focusing on the conversation. Haley was right. Already we’d learned more in fifteen minutes of spying than we’d managed to piece together over the last few weeks with the guys.
“What of the Grinaldi vampire?” The Darkwinter Knight asked.
“He’s talking about Fiona,” I said to Haley and Addie. She turned out to be a surprising ally, and was presently recovering back at the lodge with the others we’d rescued from the crypt.
Phillip waved away the question. “Useless to us now. As I suspected, her loyalty to Jonathan was thin at best. Sources tell us she’s now firmly entrenched with the enemy.”
“We can’t just forget about her,” Orendiel said. “She knows too much about Jonathan’s plans—ourplans.”
“I will personally deal with her if and when it becomes necessary,” Phillip said. “Our immediate concern is launching the operation here in the Bay, then relocating our core team to the permanent base in Seattle.”
“And what of the units in Europe and Asia?” Trinity asked.
“Once the United States is converted and fully within our control,” Phillip said, “it will only be a matter of time before the other countries fall.”
