Her lips twist into a scolding frown. “Apologies, I thought yourmissing motherwas a higher priority, Lady Lock.”
Guilt swims through me. I wince and stammer. “Of c-course she is. But what do you mean—”
“Ididtell you, didn’t I? I said heflew in. . .”
“. . . ‘Like a great and powerful wind,’” I recite. When I let out a heavy sigh, my whole body seems to deflate. This doesnotbode well. “Well. Shit. Maybe my mates don’t need to know this, because it’ll only exacer—”
“Too late,” says Skar behind me.
“—fuck!” I finish with a jolt. All four of them are crowded in the doorway behind me. “You sneaky bastards!”
I turn back to Keffa, pleading with my eyes for something hopeful and inspiring.
“I need my rest, child,” she sighs, closing her eyes. “Don’t disappoint your mother, please.”
With another huge sigh, I nod and stand. I can’t exactly deny her sleep after she took a sword in the tits for me.
Racking my brain, I make my way back to the conference room with my mates. I’m talking to myself and trying to workthings out, saying, “Well, okay, so he haswings.So what? We don’t know what it means or how it relates to—”
“Sephania.” Skar’s voice stops me cold. I hear the fatherly tone there, making me feel like I did something wrong. “I don’t think you’re taking this seriously enough. You’re . . . giddy with nerves.”
“It’s all I can do to keep from going hysterical, you dumb noble ass!”
He puts his hands on his hips. “Then let’s plan an escape route for your mother like last time, rather than charging headlong into sure suicide on Aramastun’s home turf.”
At least he’s halfway there on the plan. It’s no longer “we can’t do this.” Now it’s “let’s sneak her out, rather than kill everyone.” I can work with that.
I try to push against his vanity and pride. Putting my hands on my hips to match his stance, I say, “What are you so scared of, Skar? Hmm? It’s so unlike you to shrivel up at the sign of conflict. You’re usually first to pump your chest out and challenge someone to a duel.” My eyes flicker to Lukain, who shies away from my provocation. He wants nothing to do with our argument, and Iknowit was Lukain who challenged Skar, not the other way around, but it was Skar’s fault for lying to him in the first place!
“Oh, I don’t know,” Skar drawls. “The fact it’s almost guaranteed to be a trap? A trick? An ambush? The fact you’re almost guaranteed to offer yourself in exchange for your mother, in some showing of self-sacrifice? The fact the fangy bastardhas wings?”
My face scrunches with a grimace. “Okay. Okay, point well made.”
Vallan says, “Your little friend Imis was right the entire time. We should have listened to her more closely.”
Garro says, “Did you forget she was stolen from us, big brute, and almost sacrificed to our unholy gods in the name of the Sister of the Damned, Valenthia Yurlyth?”
Vallan scowls, turning his gigantic body to tower over Garroway. “No. I didn’t forget, cub.”
Everyone is on pins and needles. The tension is high, I can’t deny that, and I haven’t done a good job of settling everyone. If it were up to me and things weren’t so dire and we had time on our side, I’dlovenothing more than to fuck the senses out of these four men together and relieve all our stress and frustrations.
But Jinneth can’t wait for that. Also, it wouldn’t feel right—it would feel like a farewell, as if we’re doing something in our final moments together, knowing we’re going to die the next day.
I can’t send that energy out. I won’t do it.
“Look,” I say, spreading my arms wide to gather everyone’s attention back at the map. “Imis doesn’t know much more about Aramastun’s demon heritage than we do. We’ve fought demons before, boys. They all fall if you cut their wings.” I recoil at their confused faces. “Theirproverbialwings. This one is no different. He’s just older—”
“And stronger,” Skar interjects.
“And faster,” Lukain adds.
“And meaner,” Garroway quips.
“And more desperate,” Vallan finishes.
Rirth, standing in the corner of the room and watching this debacle of a meeting, clacks his canes on the ground. “He’s also given you clues in his message. Which means he’s arrogant like Skartovius.”
“And too proud like you,” I say, strangely coming to Skar’s defense.