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THIRTY-THREE
Mary was petite,Cormac’s description of her as a green-haired pixie spot on, but as she stood at the head of the cellar table, her presence loomed larger than anyone else’s in the room. A power, a threat, a responsibility most of them were still trying to wrap their heads around. The only people in the room who seemed relatively comfortable in her presence were Icarus, which was a given, and Abigail, which was a surprise. They were strangers who gravitated around each other like old friends. Even more curious, Jenn hadn’t raised her hackles about it, unlike her cousin, who was still seething from being deprived his taste of warlock. Robin stood against the opposite wall beside Cormac, who predictably kicked off the interrogation. “Explain what you meant outside.”
“Icarus told you I’m part of a hacker collective?” When everyone around the table nodded, she continued. “A job came over the wire. Someone wanted a hack on the Redwood Coven’s location.”
Robin growled and Cormac stiffened, neither of them dealing with the news a second time better than they had the first.
“It’s consistent,” Adam said, as alarmed as the others but striving to hold it together, Icarus’s hand on his thigh under the table helping him do so. “Steal all the power he can.”
“I knew it was Vincent,” Mary said. “I wasn’t going to let anyone else put themselves in the middle of this shitstorm.”
Cormac pushed off the wall. “So you put yourself in his path.” He rested his forearms on the top of the chair next to Adam’s. “The biggest battery Vincent could ever want.”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Does Atlas?”
“Atlas doesn’t work for Vincent.”
“He works for you?”
“Not exactly.”
Robin growled again. “You didn’t answer his question.”
She flicked her hazel gaze to where Robin remained by the wall. “Atlas isn’t your concern.”
He didn’t stay there long, charging the table. “The fuck he’s not!” He would have shouted in her face if not for Icarus and Abigail standing from their chairs to form a wall in front of her that Robin couldn’t breach. “He killed my sister,” he snarled over their shoulders.
Adam’s chest clenched at the mention of Deb and at his friend’s naked frustration, his grief boiling over. He hadn’t been there that day, not that it would have mattered, and now someone else was keeping him from the retribution he so desperately needed to move on, to maybe forgive himself.
Mary seemed to sense Robin’s turmoil, pushing through Icarus and Abigail to stand in front of Robin and clasp one of his balled-up fists. “Everything isn’t what it seems, coyote.”
“Fucking riddles.” He rolled his eyes and tried to snatch his hand away.
Mary held on tight. “You’ll get your revenge, I promise, but it’s not your turn yet.” She held Robin’s gaze for several long seconds until Robin deflated and stepped back, slumping into the chair Cormac spun out for him.
Cormac, however, remained standing. “The coven.”
“I don’t have their location yet. But I do have evidence for you.” She tapped at her phone, and the one in Mac’s pocket pinged. “Phone records from the collective, along with an audio recording of today’s meet. Everything Icarus’s cop client needs to hand over to the DA. To get Vincent where you need him.”
“Why wait?” Adam said, swinging toward Robin’s position. “We can hit him when he goes after the coven.”
“That’s your choice, but it’s a risky play on multiple levels.” Her knowing gaze cut to Cormac, and Adam’s stomach churned when his former partner sank into a chair and propped his elbows on the table, hands covering his face.
Adam clasped one of Cormac’s wrists and pulled it far enough away to see the color leach from his friend’s face. “Why are you so concerned about the coven?”
“Because I hid Paris with them.”
“Fuck.” Icarus spoke for the first time, succinct and what they were all thinking. “Is that why Vincent wants their location?”
Mary shook her head. “No, Vincent is just a human who wants to be a giant in the coming war. Adam’s right. He wants the coven for their power, which is rising as we approach Samhain.”
Adam leaned forward. “Then we should keep him away from sources of power, including you.”
She pinned him with a stern look. “And you.”
She wasn’t wrong. Him, her, and a coven of powerful magicians, all in one location, was too much juice to ever let Vincent near. He spun toward Icarus. “Call Nate. Tell him we have more evidence. That it’s time to move.”
