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“We need to find a way to get close to him without alerting him that it’s an attack,” Cain says, musing. “Could we sneak in?”
“Not likely,” North acknowledges. “Not with all of his guards. And he’s got to have magical wards of some kind. Protections. We’re not even mages, and if we can manage to keep this safe house protected, then Roanac must have some pretty powerful shit.”
Hmm. How could we get close to Roanac without him realizing that it’s an attack? The men continue to discuss sneaking in, but I’ve often gotten into people’s houses by simply, well, waltzing in. If you wear a cleaning crew outfit or a security uniform, or say that you’re there to check on the elevators for maintenance, people will just assume that you’re who you say you are.
But I don’t think that’ll work with Roanac. Nobody comes to his castle without him knowing about it ahead of time. Most people don’t even know it exists. So it would have to be some kind of—
Oh.
“Donovan!” I blurt out.
The men look at me in confusion. “Donovan?” North prompts.
“Look, Donovan sent me to Roanac once. He let us in easily. He didn’t even think to check Donovan for weapons or make sure that Donovan was telling the truth. He’s so confident in his power and in Donovan being scared of him that I don’t think it occurred to him that Donovan or anyone else might betray him. He didn’t think to check Donovan with a truth spell or anything.
“He’s proud. He’s arrogant. And we can use that to our advantage. If we can have Donovan bring us back to Roanac, he’ll let Donovan waltz right in.”
“And we can pretend to be prisoners again,” North muses. “With, what, some kind of easy-to-spring lock mechanism? Illusionary restraints? Then, when we’re in front of Roanac, we can attack him. He’d be surprised.”
“But why would Donovan agree to do that?” Cain points out. “If he really did capture us, yeah, he’ll be happy to crow over his victory and take us in. But he wouldn’t betray Roanac, would he?”
“Everyone’s got a price,” North replies. “Even Donovan. He owed Roanac, that was why he brought us to him. It wasn’t because he believes in Roanac. He’s not going to stick by the guy if we can offer him something better.”
“But it’ll have to be really good,” Cain says. “He’s scared of Roanac. He won’t turn on him without a solid reason.”
“Could we blackmail him?” I ask. “Everyone’s got a secret. Or we could offer him something that’ll help him get more powerful. He’s a vampire, they’re all about power.”
“We could offer to let him snack on us,” Cain grumbles.
“No,” Raven snaps. I jolt in surprise.
“Relax, I’m not serious,” Cain says.
“No,” Raven repeats. “I mean, we’re not going to be captive. Not again.”
“But it could work,” North points out. “I’m not fond of the idea either. But Kiara’s got a point. We can use Donovan to get in there.”
“Then we can do it without being imprisoned. You really want to trust him?” Raven’s snarling, his fangs and claws out, partly transforming.
I’ve never seen Raven like this before. Raven’s quiet, but he’s actually quite sweet. He makes us dinner. He looks out for me. He’s always there making sure I’m taken care of. He puts his wings around me when I’m cold. He’sgentle.
And now he’s raging.
“We’re not going into captivity again,” he snarls. “Not even for a façade. It’s. Not. Happening.”
Raven shoves his chair back and storms away. He seems to realize halfway there that this isn’t their apartment with a bunch of rooms available. It’s just their safe house, not a ton of room here.
Raven growls in frustration and then storms into—my room. Or rather, the panic room that we’re using as my personal, separate room. Or at least we were, until last night when I just slept in the big bed with all three of them.
I have no idea what that room is, to be honest. But it’s an extra room, and I can worry about our relationship and who’s sleeping where and what means what later. Raven slams the door behind him and Cain winces.
Okay. That’s it. I’m going after him.
CHAPTER11
Idon’t want to pry into Raven’s personal history. I get that it can be painful, and I don’t want to force him to open up to anything that he’s not ready to talk about.
At least, I didn’t until now.
