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My body tensed. "And it's addressed to me as the Beacon of St. Louis. A title I've only held for a few hours. I doubt Kayleigh somehow got her hands on this letter before her own assassination and threw it in this box just in case."
The three of them grew even more tense. Finn spit out a few expletives and Connor looked like he wanted to burn the envelope before I could even open it. Shea gritted his teeth. "Meaning he somehow gained access to this supposedly secure safety deposit box and left it for you personally."
Finn yanked the envelope up and examined it more closely, before meeting my gaze with concern shining in his eyes. "You're our magical expert. Could Alexander have booby-trapped this somehow?"
I summoned Radiant energy and delved the envelope for any signs of magical tampering, but came up empty. "It seems completely mundane. Should be safe to open."
"Should be," he growled and shook his head. "Color me unwilling to risk your life testing that theory." He stood and backed away a few steps, but didn't step outside the confines of my Radiant Seal. As if some part of his canine senses somehow knew were the edge of my barrier spell lay. Which, now that we were bonded, may have been the case. "Be ready for anything."
I maintained my grip on magic and nodded. "Go ahead."
He impatiently ripped into the envelope and withdrew a single sheet of vellum, much the same as those my sister had written her Radiant Orders upon. Finn unfolded the parchment and began reading aloud, "Dearest niece: I must say that your sister gathered quite the interesting collection of reading materials regarding my rather inauspicious life. Or I should more accurately say the life that was forced upon me because your grandmother couldn't stand the thought of my father openly acknowledging me as his son because he'd dared gotten another woman pregnant before he had even met her. To say she didn't take it kindly when she discovered he had secretly started a relationship with me when I reached adulthood would be a gross understatement.
"Even that I could have forgiven, but not the absolute disregard she held for my father's life when it came time to choose between that and claiming ultimate power for herself. She could have saved him with her Shadowed Radiance. Instead, she harnessed him for her dark spell with no consideration for how that would affect him. How it would kill him. She had the power to restore his life, much like the Moon Mother, but she allowed human superstition to sway her. And so she used necromancy to manipulate him like a puppet rather than resurrecting him as she should have.
"This is how she views all of her supposed love ones. As puppets who can further her political aims or gain her even more power. This is how she viewed poor Kayleigh. This is how she views you. This is how she views your nieces.
"One by one I am going to take away every person and things she cherishes. Until she's left alone and broken. Only then will I send her beyond the veil to answer for her sins to both my father and the Moon Mother.
"This will happen. I recommend you take your two darling nieces and my three nephews who I do regard rather fondly on a nice vacation for the next month or two. Otherwise you may meet the same fate as your sister. Don't sacrifice anything else for the sake of a woman who would sacrificeyouin a heartbeat."
I scowled at Finn as he finish reading and held up his hands defensively. "Don't shoot the messenger. "
Connor smirked. "Lucky for the messenger, Ava's not packing heat. At least not the type that requires bullets to fire."
Shea shook his head. "Only you can find something to joke about no matter how dire the situation."
Given my own propensity for unleashing my sarcasm to get me through even dark moments, I felt unqualified to chime in against Connor. "I'm not going to shoot anyone with bullets or magic except for Alexander Kincaid Donnelly. Or whatever his name is. Imagine the audacity of murdering my sister and then suggesting that I go on a fucking vacation rather than bringing her murderers to justice. Even if staying to protect St. Louis wasn't the right thing to do, I'd make his ass pay for cutting Kayleigh down like she was merely some pawn in his sadistic revenge plot against my grandmother."
Finn's lips suddenly twitched, causing me to arch a brow. He shook his head and said, "He just reminded me of Alexander commenting that one thing we three brothers never lacked was overconfidence."
I rolled my eyes. "Like recognizes like, I suppose."
Connor made a melodramatic sound. "Ouch, Blondie. Aren't you the one who hates being compared to your grandmother?"
"Touché, Connor. I'll try to keep the direct comparisons to your uncle to a bare minimum."
He shook his head and made a shooing gesture. "No no, your blood tie takes precedence over relation by marriage. He is now youruncle. Not ours."
I gave an even bigger eye roll. "Gee, how generous of you. But no matter whose uncle he is, we're going to bring his ass down."
Shea squeezed my shoulders. "Of course we are. Which means we need to work out three things before we step outside this room."
Connor tilted his head. "Which two things?"
"Number One: Kayleigh was kind enough to provide the motivation for Alexander's actions. But she recognized this wouldn't be enough to prove his involvement. So we need to figure out how to obtain that proof. Number Two: How did he slip that letter into this box? Which relates to Number Three: Did we actually walk directly into the trap Finn said Alexander set, all while thinking we were so fucking clever to circumvent it?"
Connor let out a whistle, and I gulped. "You think we could be walking into an ambush when we leave this room?"
Shea's mouth set in a grim line. "I think we'd be fools not to consider the possibility. And seeing as how none of us are fools, we'd better come up with a plan to deal with that."
My lips slowly curved upward. "Your uncle--" I sent a sardonic expression Connor's way, "Excuse me,ouruncle, only knows I'm the Sheridan family black sheep. I've made it very public that I do not agree with my grandmother on most matters. That's why he extended that potential olive branch to us." I pointed to the parchment still clutched in Finn's hands. "So let's use that fact to bluff our way out of this building, figure out where we find the proof we need, and set our own trap."
Connor whistled again. "The simple, straightforward approach. I like it."
Shea nodded thoughtfully. "It could work. Alexander knows how seriously we take our roles as protectors. He knows that we view the girls as our own nieces." His piercing emerald eyes locked upon my eyes. "And he also knows that the three of us have spent the past several months hoping we could get a second chance with you. Now that we have that chance? He'd be more likely to believe we might take you and the girls somewhere safe far away from here. Even if we might ultimately choose to come back to St. Louis and fight him ourselves."
"So you think the ruse might work?"
