AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Damon hadn’t said anything during the entire exchange. “Have you visited your mom recently?” I asked him. “How’s she doing?”
He shrugged, his gaze flicking away from me for a second. “Pretty much the same. Can’t hurt to make sure her apartment is protected too, though.”
From the tension in his shoulders, I had the feeling there was something more on his mind. But Damon wasn’t always a fan of group sharing. I’d have to nudge him about it the next time we were alone.
“I don’t understand,” Imogen burst out. “Why won’t these people just leave you alone? You’re notdoinganything.”
My mouth slanted at a pained angle as I looked at the younger witch. “They’re worried about what we could do. What we wanted to do. We know things they don’t want anyone outside their circle knowing, and that means we’re a threat as long as we’re around at all.”
She shuddered, her curls rustling. “It seems like there’s nothing you can even do.”
“We can do this,” I said. “Construct as many protections as possible, ward them off in every direction we can. And—”
My phone chimed with an incoming text. I pulled it out, expecting to see a message from Naomi, who was the only person who even had the number for the burner phone I used for my more confidential conversations other than my consorts.
It came up as an unknown number.Is this Rose Hallowell?
Ky leaned over to peer at the screen. “They’ve cloaked their number.”
“Can you get around that, figure out who it is?” I asked.
“Maybe. Depends on what method they’re using.” He grabbed his tablet, which he never let get very far from his side. “The more texts you can get them to send, the better. More activity I can try to trace.”
I nodded. “It could be a witch who needs help. Naomi might have passed the number on.” Even as I said that, though, I didn’t really believe it. Naomi might like to joke around about our situation, but she took it very seriously underneath. She hadn’t compromised the security of this number with anyone before.
It is, I wrote back.Who is this?
We waited in silence for the reply. Jin scooted closer on his chair to watch. A long text popped up on the screen a minute later.
That doesn’t matter. All you need to think about is that it’s more than time for you to back down from this ridiculous fight. You know how outnumbered and outclassed you are. The longer you stretch this out, the worse things will get for you and everyone around you.
My stomach flipped over. Definitely not someone asking for help. “Wonderful,” I said. “Now they’re sending anonymous threats. How did they even—”
Oh. I knew how they’d gotten this number. Gabriel must have told them. The sharp retort I’d been forming faltered.
He really had gone over to them if he was giving them information like this.
Ky tucked his arm around my back with a reassuring squeeze that suggested he’d connected the same dots. “I’ll pick you up another burner they won’t know the number to,” he said.
“Should I answer this? Keep them talking?” I asked.
He nodded. “As long as you can stomach it. Maybe they’ll let something useful slip in the conversation too. Act like you don’t believe them.”
“Yeah,” Damon said with a vicious grin. “Provoke them and see what you get.”
“If you want me to do the talking,” Seth started to offer.
I shook my head even though my throat had clenched. “I can handle this.” I should be able to do at least this much.
We’ve dealt with everything you’ve thrown at us so far, I typed back.Somehow I’m not so worried.
This reply came back faster.And yet your own consorts are no longer so devoted. Even they think you need to be stopped. Look who I have right here with me.
A photo came through in crisp color: Gabriel, sitting to the side of what looked like a dining table. He was looking at something off camera, not toward me, but my heart lurched anyway. I almost dropped the phone.
Ky took it from me, gently extricating it from my tensed fingers. “Do you recognize the place?” he asked, his voice gentle too. “Do you know where he is?”
I forced myself to check the photograph again. The phone was zoomed in enough that there wasn’t much to see around Gabriel except the end of the table and a cabinet with a glazed clay pot and a brass pendulum clock. The wall above the cabinet was painted a plain beige. Nothing about it looked familiar.
