Chapter 36 Maeve
MAEVE
I knew something was up as soon as I stepped off the stairs into the living room.
Ray rushed toward me like the youngest sibling eager to tattle, and the Butchers were huddled around the new coffee table like a bunch of generals in the middle of a war.
A thick current of excited tension hung in the air.
“What?” I asked, setting down my bag. “What’s happening?”
“Todd’s been added to the Apex debate roster,” Remy said.
I froze. “Are you kidding me?”
He shook his head. “Got the notification an hour ago.”
I wasn’t surprised Remy knew first. I’d wanted to sign up for the conference under another name to get the notifications, but even the lowest-tier package was over a thousand dollars. Remy had done it instead, which meant he was the recipient of all the notifications coming in from the conference.
I moved to sit on the sofa, but Bram pulled me onto his lap.
“I don’t believe it.” I stroked Ray’s silky head as he sat next to Bram and me. “It worked.”
Poe nodded. “We’ve been saying the same thing.”
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we go to the conference, look for a chance to take him out,” Poe said.
They explained their thinking: lots of people, no way to know how the ideal moment might play out, knives not guns.
“We’ll try to get close,” Bram said. “Close enough to make him bleed.”
I could see it: a crowd of people, chaos and noise, everyone shouting for Ethan Todd’s attention, wanting selfies, autographs.
And then, a few quiet jabs, a low murmur as Todd realized what had happened, confusion as we exited the convention hall before anyone really knew what was happening.
“Getting close is risky,” I said. “The crowd will make it harder to get out fast.”
“Guns are riskier, for us and for the crowd,” Remy said. “It’ll take a minute for his security to realize he’s been hurt. There’ll be a scramble to sort it all out, to take care of Todd.”
“We’ll be gone by then,” Poe said.
I chewed my thumbnail as a knot of fear formed in my stomach.
“Is this still what you want?” Poe asked. “Because it’s okay to change your mind.”
I wasn’t surprised Poe knew what I was thinking. He had an almost psychic ability to tap my emotions before I even knew what he was thinking.
“I’m… I’m scared,” I admitted.
“What are you scared of?” Bram asked.
“I’m scared of losing you.” It was a relief to say it.
A relief for them to know it.
“Ethan won’t have a weapon. There’s nothing he can do to us.”
“What if you get caught?” There was more than one way to lose them.
“We won’t,” Remy said. “We’ll move fast.”
“What about the cameras?” I asked.
We lived in a surveillance state. Everybody did, all around the world.
“We might get lucky and end up in a place that doesn’t have cameras,” Poe said. “But even if there are cameras, it’s going to be hard to make out who did what in that kind of crowd.”
“It’s risky,” Maeve said.
“It was always going to be risky,” Poe said. “And it’s okay to change your mind.”
I wasn’t afraid to change my mind. In a lot of ways it would make prefect sense. I was in a different place than I’d been a few months ago when I’d joined the first Hunt. I still missed June, was still angry that she’d been taken from us, but I was moving closer to acceptance.
And there were good things in my life, things worth protecting.
My conversation with Olivia had made it clear that my anger at Ethan Todd, my determination to make him pay, had come at a price: I’d distanced myself from my family, had left them to grieve alone.
I'd lost myself for a while too. I’d wasted time at Lushberry, folding shirts and hanging dresses when I really wanted to be in the kitchen making mille-feuille with crème anglaise.
And I had the three men who were sitting around me. I didn’t know what the future looked like for us, if there could even be one that made sense, but I knew I wanted to find out.
I knew I didn’t want to see them hurt or in jail because of me.
But yeah, this was still what I wanted: Ethan Todd buried deep underground where he couldn’t poison anyone else’s mind, where he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
And this time it didn’t come from a place of pain or even rage. It came from a place of quiet, calm certainty that the world would be a better place without Ethan Todd.
“What do you say, little bird?” Poe asked. “It’s your call.”
I took a deep breath. “I still want him dead. But only if you’re really up for it.” Our power dynamic had been all over the place since the first Hunt, but now we were partners — equals — in every sense of the word. “I don’t want to pressure you into something you think is a bad idea.”
“Fuck that,” Bram said. “I wasn’t going to say anything in case you’d changed your mind, but he’s been a dead man walking since the moment he took you.”
“A hundred percent,” Remy said.
“So we’re going to the city?” I held my breath, wondering if they would expect me to stay in Blackwell Falls.
Bram’s arms tightened around me. “We’re going to the city.”