Chapter 6
Sylvia
The view of the greenery through the balcony doors brought comfort instead of unsettling me.
The impossible sight meant the gemstone was still here, still within reach.
It was a small comfort in the midst of such unsettling revelations about what would be happening under this roof in a matter of hours.
Snow fell like a hazy mist in the distance, but there was not a scrap of white powder on these happy, verdant branches.
It was fully morning now, but my appetite evaded me.
Despite everything I had been through since leaving my village, I couldn’t shake the voice in the back of my head that told me I had no right to be here amidst this dizzying plot of magic and monsters.
Who was I to step into the role of some fairy savior?
I was just a nobody from Elysia, outcast by my own people.
But even the most humble of fae had a role to play, didn’t they? I wasn’t done writing my own destiny.
By the end of this, we would have Tammy safe and a gemstone in hand. Assuming we survived, of course. So far, we’d been pretty lucky in that regard.
“How did you manage to get a floor plan of the hotel?” Jon’s voice carried across the room.
He stood at the dining room table, flanked by Delilah and Lee.
Delilah had opted for comfort today with an unassuming, cropped black tee and bootcut jeans.
She looked so normal that it was hard to remember the power dormant under those manicured fingertips.
Maybe that was the intention. In contrast, Lee still wore a crisp button-up shirt and slacks as though not looking expensive for even a day might literally kill him.
Frustratingly, he looked phenomenal in whatever he wore.
“It wasn’t me,” Delilah said, lifting her eyebrows at Lee.
I flew over to join them, wishing I could have brought my spare clothes from the car. Luckily, our earlier brawl had left my outfit largely unscathed, other than a few tears from Ben’s earth magic. The long sleeves and high collar of my winter blouse kept the worst of the nippy hotel air at bay.
Spread out over the table was a large map, blue ink outlining a labyrinth of interlocking rooms.
“It was easy,” Lee said, his hands braced on the edges of the map to hold it flat.
“Almost too easy, honestly. Nabbing things is hardly a challenge anymore thanks to our signature two-punch approach. The clerk at the architecture firm practically shoved it into my hands thanks to a little persuasion from Benny.”
Perched on Lee’s shoulder, Ben gave a stilted chuckle in response, his eyes sliding to me nervously. I couldn’t disguise my grimace at the implication of glamour, but I supposed there was some comfort in the fact that he didn’t look nearly as proud of it as Lee did.
The master bedroom door clicked open. Delilah hummed with intrigue as Cliff entered.
“I’ll admit, you clean up well,” she said, throwing a glance at Jon, too. “Our previous muscle wasn’t packaged half as nicely. You’ll fit right in with this crowd.”
Cliff tossed his jacket onto the white sofa, pushing fingers back through his short hair with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, try not to cream yourself.”
He took a seat at the table, frowning at the blueprint.
“Commit this to memory,” Lee said. “The only way inside is through the event itself, where security is spread out, and the crowd offers cover.” He tapped the ballroom on the map.
“It should come as no surprise that the place is armed to the teeth and all the main rooms are warded against witch and warlock magic.”
“What about fairy magic?” Jon asked.
“Warding entire rooms against fairy magic is next to impossible without heaps of iron, so we’re in the clear,” Delilah said.
My relief wavered when I remembered how my ice attack at Lee had fizzled out of existence before it could even touch him. “What if Eros’ security has those magic-blocking cuffs, like the one you had in the storage room?”
Lee’s easy smile stiffened. “That’s not possible, seeing as I have the only one in existence.”
“How can you be sure?” I insisted.
“Because I know for a fact there used to be two. One was destroyed, and I have the other,” Lee said.
“Tech that creates an invisible iron field around your body isn’t made overnight.
If it had been duplicated, we would have heard whispers of it by now.
Normally, I wouldn’t risk wearing something so sought-after, but I had a feeling I’d need to be prepared for some less-than-warm reactions from captive fairies. ”
Lee shot me a wry smile, as if to say case in point. My lips thinned, thinking of how my spell had been effective dissipated when it neared him in the storage room.
I shared a terse look with Jon and Cliff as Lee moved on. He pointed out two of the major hallways branching from opposite sides of the vast ballroom.
“Our plan hinges on two teams executing simultaneously,” he said. “The first team’s goal is to infiltrate the shipping dock where the main trucks with inventory are being dispatched.”
“Inventory being monsters,” I muttered.
“You guessed it,” Ben said.
“How many trucks?” Cliff asked, frowning at the length of the shipping dock.
“It’s not entirely clear, but most likely a dozen tactical transports,” Delilah said.
“My contacts tell me these are being sent to large clients. Politicians, the Dons, and the like. From what I understand, these fuckers can withstand a landmine. Not to mention the armed squadron that will be surrounding it. They cannot be permitted to leave the dock.”
Jon folded his arms over his chest. I could see his mind turning the plan over, strategizing.
I allowed myself the briefest reprieve to admire how tight his white tee was over his arms, how the faintest smell of soap clung to his skin.
His eyes flicked to me momentarily, catching my stare.
I flushed, snapping my gaze down intently to the map.
Jon's gaze lingered on me long after I had looked away.
“So, team one has to kill the monsters and stop the dispatch from leaving the building,” I ventured, refocusing.
“Sounds simple when you put it like that,” Ben said, offering another weak smile. It dawned on me that despite his light clothing, he was sweating, brow glistening, and pit stains darkening his ivory tunic.
At least I wasn’t the only one scared shitless.
“The other team has two jobs,” Lee went on, tracing his finger across the map in another direction.
“In order to make sure the monsters can be killed, team two needs to get into the security office to disable the failsafe lockdown and toggle the lights in the loading bay. That’s how we’re going to get the upper hand against those armed fuckers guarding the trucks. ”
Cliff, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, gave a humorless chuckle. “Let me guess, weapons checked at the door?”
“Obviously,” Delilah purred.
Cliff’s smile became a cutting thing as he leaned forward in his seat to pull the map closer to him. “This oughta be fun.”
“You understand why we have to be creative on this one,” Lee said.
“Which, luckily for you, is one of my many specialties. The light will disorient the armed team down there when they switch to night vision, then blind them temporarily when the lights go back on. We plan for it to go dark for a full two minutes. Plenty of time.”
Jon scoffed, a cold laugh as if to disagree with that assessment. He leaned closer too, his shadow darkening near me. He traced over multiple points highlighted in red pen—places that could set off the security measures.
“What happens if the failsafe gets triggered?” Jon asked.
“All doors in the entire hotel will seal, and a very conspicuous alarm will go off,” Delilah said. “Effectively, we’ll be caged in here with a sea of literal and figurative monsters.”
I was unable to hide my grimace at the thought, dizzied by the sight of the numerous security triggers that could go off. That couldn’t happen.
“You okay?” Cliff asked, and I realized he was studying me.
I managed a wry smile. “To be fair, it can’t be nearly as terrifying as being cornered in a siren-infested swamp by every hunter in the southeast.”
Something flickered over Cliff’s face—fear, regret—but he eventually mirrored my knowing smirk. “I almost missed your annoying optimism,” he chided.
“Someone’s got to have it.” Running through the plan in my head, I realized something was missing. I turned back to Lee. “You said the second team has two jobs. What’s the other one?”
His beat of silence made my nerves stand on end.
“Eros needs to die.” Lee looked from me to the hunters. “There’s no telling when he’ll be within reach again. The goal is to take care of him, then go to the security room. Whoever goes has to be prepared to take out anyone who interferes as well.”
“Knew you had some bloodlust buried in there somewhere,” Cliff muttered.
Lee’s smile returned. “I won’t be assassinating anyone. Much as I’d love to see Eros’ face for the first time and watch the light leave his eyes, I can’t go near him. If he sees me, we’re all dead.”
“Why’s that?” Jon asked warily.
Sighing, Lee shared a look with Ben, who nodded reluctantly.
“One of Eros’ lieutenants hired me for a job a couple of years ago, and it led me to Benny.”
“You worked for this fucker?” Cliff spat.
“Think of it more like a freelance gig several rungs down the ladder. I wasn’t exactly clued in on the fact that creatures of myth were real.
But my track record spoke for itself. I’m amazing at what I do.
” The arrogant drawl didn’t match the haunted look seated at the back of his gaze.
“Like Delilah said before, one of Eros’ biggest buyers is some kind of scientist in the R&D sector.
I never got his name. One of his researchers made off with valuable tech that turned out to be the fae-blocking cuffs, and I was hired to steal them back. ”
I frowned at him. “You got them, but you didn’t hand them over to Eros?”