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Ky nodded. Seth’s arm tightened around me. “Where does that leave us, then?” he asked.
I paused. “Maybe we’ve been trying too hard to find a loophole, a way to workaroundthe conditions of the oath. It’s gotten us thinking the wrong ways. If we focus on what we can talk about, what we can tell people, completely openly, then the oath doesn’t even matter.”
“What have we got that it doesn’t cover?” Seth said.
Ky piped up. “Anything we knew from before we saw those records. All the things that Rose’s dad was doing around her consorting. The fact that Frankford helped him with that scheme. The way they arrested us and then pursued us across the country.”
“That part won’t get us anywhere,” I said. “They arrested us because of the illegal magic I used on my father, and they can say they were trying to apprehend us after we escaped. But there’s also the Cliff and the demon and the little bit my father explained about that. The problem is just how we convince anyone we’re not crazy, that those things actually happened. I’d have trouble believing it if I hadn’t been there!”
“Yeah,” Seth said. “I didn’t see it, and even though I trust you completely, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of demons.”
Something in his words set off a spark of an idea in my mind. I gripped his arm where it was wrapped around my waist. “Say that again.”
He frowned. “I just mean the whole story sounds crazy unless you’ve seen it with your own eyes.”
A smile started to curl my lips. “That’s it. We don’t need to get out to the Cliff to gather proof, or even to try to destroy it. We need touseit as the proof. If we can call the right people in the Assembly for a ‘meeting’ with the Frankfords there…”
“Thenthey’llsee what they’ve been up to with their own eyes,” Ky filled in. “But we still need enough access to be able to clone his business phone and the right code word.”
“If he’s even still using the same code,” Seth said. “Gabriel knew we’d found that out.”
And he might pass that information on to the Frankfords. They might change their tactics. I bit my lip.
“Let’s not worry about that yet,” Ky said quickly. “We need to know how Frankford is setting up meetings with them. We’ll need a way to contact them as him either way. We start from there and figure out the rest once we have that information.”
Seth nodded. His phone pinged with an alert. He fished it out and glanced at the screen, and his jaw set. He shoved it back in his pocket without answering the text.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Nothing important,” he said. “Ordinary life stuff. I can deal with it later.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hey,” he said, pulling me to him again and kissing my temple. “Everything’s fine. I just want to focus on you right now.”
Ky clapped his hands and hopped off the counter. “I’ll get back to work on hacking my way to that phone number.”
Seth looked abruptly uncertain. There wasn’t a whole lot I’d thought of that either of us could do to help that effort. He dropped his arm to take my hand in his. “Do you want to do some more of that form practice?” he asked. “Strengthen our connection even more?”
He didn’t say it, but I had a feeling we were all thinking it—I might need those solid bonds even more now that one of them was gone. Now that the whole balance of our group had been thrown off again. But I balked.
“It’s getting late. If you’re getting tired…”
When we’d been on the road before, he’d worn himself out trying to keep my spark brightly lit. The intimacy between us had become painful for him. The thought of him pushing himself too hard again brought a lump into my throat.
He shook his head. “I’m good. You don’t have to worry about that, Rose. I promised you I’d tell you if I ever felt overwhelmed again, and I meant that.”
The honesty in his voice reassured me. “All right,” I said. “Maybe I’ll come up with another plan, a better one, with that to clear my head.”
“Rose,” Ky said, cocking his head as he looked at us. “Do you remember a little while back I asked you about the deeper consorting? The permanent one, that allows the strongest bond?”
My heart hiccupped. “Yes,” I said cautiously. “And I said I didn’t think it was a good idea. Not when you’re all so new to the witching world.” The lifebond consorting was rarely performed these days. A normal consort bond could be severed after a few years on the wishes of either party. But a lifebond… It really was permanent. It only ended if one of the consorts died—and when they died, their partner died too.
“We know more now,” Ky said. “If it would give you more power to fight the Frankfords and their faction—”
“No,” I said firmly before he could go on. My chest had constricted. “Not right now. Not with so much uncertain.”
I was not tying any of the guys to me permanently when I’d already driven one to separate from me. I couldn’t do that to them, couldn’t let them take that risk.
