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I moved my hand toward Gabriel, and Helen Frankford raised hers to stop me. “We’ll discuss it,” she said. “We can’t swear to a binding we don’t all agree on.”
“Be quick,” I said. “Five minutes. Then the files go out.”
“I’m ready,” Gabriel said quietly.
The Frankfords gathered with the other families to consult. I waited, my body still braced to call forth more magic if I needed it, my heart thumping behind my ribs. My mind raced through the possibilities, trying to figure out if I’d left open any loopholes. Even one word out of place in the final oath, and they could still find a way to hurt us.
Of course, the same was true for us hurting them.
I caught Gabriel’s eye and glanced from the laptop to the tablet he’d left propped between the seats. “We want to be ready for any possibility,” I said.
A glint that looked like understanding lit in his eyes. He shifted his hand just slightly, opening up a new window on the computer.
The families had finished their discussion. Charles Frankford motioned to the minivan. “You will guarantee that neither you nor anyone else who’s aware of those files will make any mention of them or pass even a piece of them on to anyone else?” he said.
I nodded. “I’ll swear to that.”
“I take it the files were transferred onto that computer you have there. We also want them wiped from its hard drive.”
Exactly as I’d suspected they’d ask. “All right,” I said.
“And you’ll make no accusations against our families, including your father. You won’t speak of what you’ve learned here at all.”
I hesitated.
“Rose,” Damon protested. “You can’t let them get away with all this shit.”
My stomach twisted. I glanced at Gabriel, and he gave me a slight tip of his head. Not that the measure I hoped he’d taken would make a lot of difference once we’d sworn the oath. But it was something.
If I agreed to the Frankfords’ terms, all those other witches who’d been trapped in the portal families’ schemes, or who might be trapped later—I was abandoning them. But I couldn’t protect them and my consorts at the same time. My first loyalty had to be to the five men I loved and had sworn not to harm.
“I’ll accept those terms,” I said. “As long as you also swear that you’ll do everything in your power to ensure no further criminal charges are brought against us.”
The Frankfords exchanged a glance with the other families. Helen pursed her lips.
“All right,” she said. “There’s also the matter of your unusual consorting. You’ll make no mention of that to anyone in witching society. And your consorts must make no mention of magic to any unsparked party.”
“We wouldn’t anyway,” Gabriel said.
I’d bristled. “I won’t go shouting about my consorting,” I said. The Spark only knew what most of the more liberal witches would think of it, even. “But if I’m asked, I’ve got to be able to say something. People will be even more suspicious if I can’t say anything, and I’m not going to agree to telling a total falsehood.”
She studied Gabriel and the laptop he was holding for a moment.
“Time’s almost up,” I said, hoping I sounded less terrified than I felt. “I can give him the word right now.”
Charles Frankford grimaced at his wife. “Fine,” he said to me. “Then you won’t volunteer the information. Do we have a deal?”
I exhaled some of the tension I’d been holding in. “We do. Shall we construct the binding oath together, then?” My gaze slid back to Helen Frankford.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said briskly. At a flick of her fingers, the enforcers holding Ky and Damon dragged the guys over. I waved the other three out of the minivan. Gabriel, Seth, and Jin stood around me as the portal families clustered together across from us. Gabriel still clutched the laptop.
I weaved my hands through the air as Helen Frankford did, summoning all the power of my spark into the spell. It had to be solid and unwavering to bind them securely. Since we were creating it together, we’d both be building it strong, to prevent the other side from slipping loose.
The strands of magic hummed through the air, around me and my consorts, around the Frankfords and their associates. I spoke up first.
“If Charles and Helen Frankford and the families that stand with them swear that they will do and order no harm—to our lives, our freedom, or our happiness—to me, Rose Hallowell, any man bound to me as consort, and any member of my family, Hallowell or Levesque; that all criminal charges against us will be dropped and they will do everything in their power to prevent further ones being made; and that the inheritance of the Hallowell estate will now pass to me, then I too swear that my consorts, my family, and I will not spread the files we discovered or word of them, and will remove them from this computer; we will not speak of the criminal activities of the Frankfords, Maxim Hallowell, or their associates that we have learned about in the past month; and I will not volunteer information about my consorting, nor will my consorts speak to other unsparked parties about magic.”
Helen Rockford raised her voice in return. “As Rose Hallowell swears that she, her consorts, and her family will wipe the files they stole from the computer they loaded them onto and make no mention or transfer of them to any other party; that they will not speak of the crimes they’ve learned in relation to my family and my associates; and that she and her consorts will be circumspect about the nature of their consorting, so I, Helen Rockford, and the families that stand with me swear that we will do and order no harm to the lives, freedom or happiness of Rose Hallowell, any man bound to her as consort, or her family; that we will see them absolved of any current criminal charges and do our best to prevent any future ones; and that the Hallowell estate will now pass to her.”
