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Arman cackles. "Don't be insane. There are four witches, andhundredsof vampires. Those women don't stand a chance. I don't care how many tricks they can pull out of their sleeves. Magical powers or not, they can't beat the sheer number of us."
I grimace at this, because he's right.
"That's all I came to tell you," he says, before I can think of what to do or say next. "Just be ready."
I have no idea when or what I'm supposed to be ready for, but I'm just happy that he's finally leaving. I give him a nod and then close the door behind him. I can't believe he didn't hang around to see what I doing in this room by myself. But he didn't, so Blair is safe.
Blair looks horrified and in shock as I pull the curtain aside.
"Are you okay?" I ask. It's a stupid question. Of course she isn't okay. She's been suffocating behind a velvet curtain, listening to vampires talk about killing off her coven.
"I don't believe it," she says with a blank stare. All the sparkling stardust has left her eyes; they're now empty and forlorn. "I thought this new clan leader of yours was different. I thought he wanted peace. But it seems like all vampires are the same."
She glances up at me quickly with a guilty expression, like she wishes she could retract her comment. But she isn't wrong. None of the recent clan leaders have been honorable or trustworthy. None of them have stuck to their word. I want to tell her that I am not like the others, that I'm not a ruthless, self-serving, bloodsucker like every other vampire she has met thus far. But I need to get her out of here before Arman or one of the other vampires returns.
"Come on," I say as I pull her gently by the arm. "We need to leave,now."
I check the hallway to make sure the coast is clear. Then, we slip quickly and quietly down the hallway and out the back staircase of the building. I hold my breath until we get down to street level. For a moment, Blair hesitates.
"You didn't give him the chart," she says.
"What?" It takes me a moment to realize what she's talking about.
The birth chart. It hardly matters now.
"Never mind," Blair says, shaking her head. "Do you really think that he's going to do it?"
"Attack the coven and try to kill the four of you?" I ask. "Yes."
Blair's mouth forms a pout. She looks like she needs s hug. Which, I realize, is ridiculous. We're from separate factions. We aren't even supposed tobefriends. And yet somehow, all I can think about in the moment is making her feel safe. Now, and later, when my clan leader launches an insane assassination attempt on her coven.
I open my mouth to say something, although I'm not entirely sure what it will be yet, but before I can utter a single word, Blair spins around on her heels and walks in the direction of the coven building. I almost run after her, but then I realize she is probably going tell the other witches what Arman is planning to do. And they won't want me there when they find out.
At least she is out of the vampire den. She's safe with her coven, for now.
But I can't go back to the den and listen to my leader's ramblings, especially because once he makes his announcement, a feeding frenzy will erupt. It always happened whenever our last leader, Mickael, planned a fight.
So, I walk back to my bedroom instead. I need to think of how to stop Arman from making a terrible mistake that will not only endanger Blair and her sisterhood but will also upend the stability of the city's supernatural population.
3
BLAIR
As soon as I get back to my apartment, I lock myself in and try to calm down. My head is swimming in thoughts—drowning, more like. I can't believe what I just heard. The new clan leader everyone thought was a peacemaker is going to try and destroy my coven.
And on top of that, Treyton nearly kissed me, or at least itfeltlike he was about to.
What am I going to do?
I pace around my apartment like a caged animal, carving a path into the wooden floorboards with my feet. The coven is powerful, but there are still only four of us. Arman has an entire horde of vampires. Even with powerful magic, they'll overpower us. There's no way for us to fend off a hundred vampires at once. No spell will immobilize the entire vampire clan instantly, because we don't have that kind of magical power.
And what power we do have, we use for good. We keep the peace. It's our duty, done selflessly. It'snota power grab.
The vampires will kill us. Unless we come up with a plan. But if I notify the other witches, Sybil will tell her Fae lover, who will tell the Fae Queen, who practically considers Sybil part of the Fae now. Elspeth will tell her werewolf alpha mate, who fought the vampires only months ago.
I don't even know how the other leaders will react. Some of the other factions are far less predictable than the Fae or the werewolves. The Jinn and the elves, for example, take whichever side will personally benefit them most. Their allegiances shift depending on how it suits them, which means that they can't be trusted. The angels can be counted on to come to our aid, but even with their help, there will be casualties.
And the war could reveal our secrets to the humans. There are too many people in the city, too many eyes watching; there is no way to hide a large-scale battle. The war between the werewolves and vampires nearly caused irreversible damage to our cover; we can't risk that happening again.
