Chapter 26
“That isn’t even almost a plan,” pointed out Tessa, her voice cutting through the tension that had thickened in the room. “How exactly are you going to make them stop, Jemma? Threats only work if you can back them up.”
“I can back it up.”
“How? With what?” She leaned forward, her dark eyes fixing on me with the kind of focus that meant she wasn’t going to let me wriggle out of this one.
“You’re talking about taking on an organization that’s been hunting supernatural threats for longer than our entire bloodline, and your entire strategy is what?
Running off half-cocked to kill the Senior Magister? ”
“And the other Council members too,” I reminded her sweetly.
“Oh, good. So, a full-on suicide mission then?”
“Better than sitting around waiting for them to kill us first.” My nails dug into my palms, the bite of crescent-shaped pain grounding me in something other than the panic threatening to crawl up my throat. “Either way, I’m not coming out of this equation very alive, am I?”
“Alright, I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” said Gabriel, his voice carrying that careful, measured tone he used whenever he was trying to talk me down from a ledge.
Always the voice of reason. Always the one trying to keep me from drowning in the depths of my own recklessness.
“We have to be smart about this, Jemma. Even if you could pull this off, the Order isn’t just William and the other Council members.
It’s centuries of infrastructure. Connections that run deeper than you can imagine.
Resources you can’t begin to fathom. Going after them isn’t a fight you want to pick.
Not now. Not when you’re still learning what you’re capable of. ”
He was probably right. He usually was. Gabriel was nothing if not level-headed.
But I’d meant what I said.
I was done running. Done letting the Order dictate the terms of my life. I just had to figure out how I was going to stop them. For good.
“I don’t care what they have,” I answered evenly. “I won’t live like this anymore. Always looking over my shoulder. Always waiting for the next attempt on my life. Always wondering when they’ll come for Ares or someone else I love. They have to be stopped, Gabriel.”
“Stopped, yes,” he agreed carefully. “But there’s a difference between defense and self-destruction. You’re talking about declaring war on an enemy that’s already ten steps ahead of you.”
“Then I’ll catch up.”
His moss-green eyes held mine, and I could see the worry etched into every line of his face. “This isn’t a game you can win by sheer force of will, Jemma. You need strategy. Planning. Resources you don’t currently have.”
“Then I’ll get them,” I said, refusing to back down.
“And how exactly do you propose to do that?” he asked, his tone still controlled even as the cracks in his usual composure began to show.
The question landed harder than it should have.
I met his moss-green eyes and felt the press of expectation coming down on my shoulders.
He wasn’t challenging me. He was doing what he always did…
forcing me to think it through, to map out the steps between intention and action, to prove I wasn’t just running on emotion and fury.
The only problem was, I didn’t exactly have a detailed roadmap yet.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure of that yet,” I admitted, the words coming out calmer than I felt inside.
“But I know we can’t keep running and we definitely can’t keep waiting for them to make the next move while we scramble to survive it.
” I dragged my hands through my hair, pushing the tangled strands away from my face as fragments of old conversations surfaced in my mind.
Things I’d thought about before but never acted on.
Plans I’d shelved because survival took precedence over everything else.
But maybe that was the problem.
Maybe I’d spent so long just trying to stay alive that I’d forgotten there was supposed to be an endgame beyond that. That surviving wasn’t the same as living.
My thoughts drifted back to the conversation I’d had with Tessa a couple of weeks ago. We’d been sitting in this same kitchen with Gabriel, running through scenarios and trying to figure out how to outmaneuver an enemy that constantly held all the cards.
I’d told Tessa then that I wanted to make the Order pay for what they’d done.
That, more than anything, this was about avenging our father and that it was a hill I would happily die on.
And it still was. Only now it was about Ares too.
It was about my family, and it was about me.
It was about every person they’d manipulated, every life they’d destroyed in the name of balance and order.
Every piece of normalcy or security they’d stolen from me.
They didn’t get to decide who lived and who died anymore.
They didn’t get to write the rules and break them whenever it suited their agenda. Not if I had anything to say about it.
But I couldn’t get ahead of myself. The last thing I wanted to do was spook my family into thinking I’d lost my mind entirely, or worse, drag them into a war that wasn’t theirs to fight. This was my fight, and I intended to fight it alone. But I needed to make sure they would all be safe first.
“We need to start by figuring out a way to get the wards down,” I said, my gaze moving across each of them as my resolve crystallized into something more grounded. “As long as those are up, everyone in Hollow Hills is trapped here. We need to evacuate as many innocent people as possible.”
“Evacuate?” Tessa let out a short laugh that held no humor in it whatsoever. “And what exactly are you planning to do? Blow up the whole town?”
I met her eyes without flinching. “If it comes to that.” At this point, nothing was off the table.
“You can’t be serious,” she snapped, staring at me as though I’d just announced the apocalypse was coming via alien invasion and disco balls.
“All I’m saying is, the fewer innocent bystanders we have caught in the crossfire, the better.” I paused, my gaze dropping pointedly to her stomach. “And that means you too.”
Tessa’s expression hardened on a dime. “Excuse me? I’m a Slayer, not an innocent bystander.”
“A pregnant Slayer,” I corrected, trying to keep my voice gentle even as I braced for the fight I knew was coming.
“So what?” She crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw set in that stubborn line I knew too well. “You think I’m just going to waddle off into the sunset while you stay here and get yourself killed?”
“You’re in no condition to fight,” I said carefully, ignoring the last part of her statement.
“You shouldn’t be anywhere near this town.
And neither should Ares.” I looked down at the bassinet where Ares slept, peaceful and unaware of the war being waged in his name.
“We need a safe house. Somewhere far away from Hollow Hills. Somewhere they would never think to look.”
“I’m going to have to agree with Jemma on this,” said Gabriel, his expression softening as it landed on my sister. “It isn’t safe for you here in your condition.”
“It’s not safe for anyone here!” she shot back, a note of desperation she couldn’t quite hide bleeding into her voice. “If I have to get out of Dodge, then we all go. Together. Let them have this fucking town.”
“We will,” I said quickly, trying to ease the rising panic in her voice before it could get the best of her.
“Eventually. But I need to square things with William first.” My jaw tightened at the memory of the Senior Magister, standing over me in that ritual chamber while I begged him for the mercy he refused to show me.
“He needs to pay for what he did. For what they all did.”
Tessa’s eyes searched mine, and I could practically see her working through it. The realization that this wasn’t just about survival anymore. This was personal.
“So this is about getting even,” she said evenly.
“It’s about making sure they can’t do this to anyone else,” I corrected, though we both knew it was more than that.
It was about my father. About Ares. About every choice they’d stolen from me since the day they orchestrated my return to Hollow Hills.
“William sanctioned Dad’s murder. He forced me into that ritual.
He tried to make me kill an innocent baby, and he’s not going to stop until we’re both dead.
” My voice hardened as the truth of it sank deeper into my bones.
“He doesn’t get to walk away from that. None of them do.
And I won’t live in fear of them. Not anymore. ”
“You can’t honestly expect me to just leave you here to fight them alone. I’ve been protecting you your entire life, Jemma.” Her voice cracked slightly. “I’m not about to stop now just because you’ve decided to go all lone wolf on me.”
“I’m not asking you to stop protecting me,” I said, my chest tightening. “I’m asking you to protect Ares. And your baby.”
She drew back as though I’d struck her.
“You’re the only one I trust to keep him safe.
” My throat thickened, but I quickly swallowed against it before it could give me away.
“If something happens to me, if they manage to take me down, I need to know you and Ares will be safe. And I can’t know where you’re being taken.
Only that it’s far enough away from here that you’re not going to become collateral damage or leverage they can use against me. ”
Gabriel shifted forward slightly in his chair, his expression unreadable as Tessa’s gaze bounced between us.
“You’re actually serious about this.”
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway. “If you’re here, if you’re in danger, I won’t be able to focus on what needs to be done. I’ll be too busy trying to keep you alive.”
Tessa’s fingers curled against the edge of the table, her knuckles going bone white. Her eyes were glassy with tears she had no intention of letting fall. “That’s not fucking fair.”