“I don’t care what happens to the boys, but we need the woman alive. She’s our best shot at getting intel on those medical treatments and what the connection is to West’s birth.”
“Shall I gift wrap her for you, or just chain her up naked in the basement?”
“I’ll leave the presentation to you.” I take off my glasses and rub my eyes, a wave of exhaustion rolling over me despite the fact that I’ve only been up for a couple of hours. “Jude? How is West?”
“As lovely as always. Why?”
“I mean… How is she handling all of this? I know you guys are… close.”
“She’s strong, Rook. Blows me away with it, tell you the truth. I know the four of us have beenthroughit, but…” Jude lets out a heavy sigh. “She’s been on her own her entire life. Us? We’ve got each other, for better or worse. But this girl… no one haseverhad her back. Not her parents, not her teachers, not her so-called fiancé. When I think about how scared she must’ve been… Human girl, twelve fucking years old…” A shudder ripples through him, head to toe. When he meets my eyes again, his own are glassy with unshed tears. “There’s something else. Auggie… He’s still getting those bad vibes.”
He tells me about what happened last night—what Auggie said about kissing her and his thoughts about the fae entity.
“Have you told her?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “She was asleep when we talked about it. Auggie thinks we should wait until we know for sure what we’re dealing with.”
“I see his point, but we promised her no secrets, remember?” I finally take a sip of the kombucha, then say, “I can bring it up to her later if you’re okay with that. We’ve got a date with the Codex—perfect segue to talking about freaky fae phenomena.”
He paces the room, considering, then finally nods. “Yeah, all right. Auggie and I need to focus on these mages, anyway.”
“Agreed.”
“Besides,” he says, “Westlyn trusts you. Says you’re—and I quote—basically the sweetest guyever.”
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. Likely a pretty good blush, too.
Jude rolls his eyes. “And onthatvomit-inducing note, I’m off. Thanks again for the lowdown on our boys.”
“You making your move tonight?”
“Nah, Augs and I still need time to strategize. Plus, it’d be better to roll out when Draegan’s not home, especially if we’ve got any chance of borrowing his Escalade unnoticed.”
“Good point. But I wouldn’t keep the plans secret from him entirely. You know how he gets.”
“Auggie’s already telling him about theoverallplan. Just not that minor, insignificant bit about the Escalade.”
“Good. Timing?”
“We’ll shoot for tomorrow night. Right now, I need to find our girl. Tell her where we’re at with all this.”
“You sure that’s prudent?”
“Not at all. But like you said… No secrets, right?” He tries for a flippant grin, but it quickly pulls into a frown, his eyes turning serious. Giving my wing an affectionate squeeze, he says softly, “We’re all in this together, Rook. And from here on out, ‘all of us’ includes Westlyn Avery.”
I nod my agreement and wish him luck, but not because I’m worried about how West will handle the news.
I wish him luck because for the first time in our impossibly long, impossibly tangled immortal lives together, I’m pretty sure Jude Hendrix—the violent, crazy, fiercely loyal gargoyle who carves up the bones of his enemies and gets off on the scent of freshly spilled blood—is falling in love.
Chapter Nine
JUDE
“No peeking, darling. We don’t want to ruin the surprise, do we?”
“I’m so not peeking!” Westlyn laughs, anxiously strumming her fingers on the breakfast table, her eyes half-squinted, the little cheater.
Silently, I sit on the bench beside her, then lean in close and whisper, “I should make you wait another hour just to punish you for your underhanded tactics.”
