Kelly Meade - Black Rook

“Thank you,” Brynn said, then pressed her forehead to the window glass.

Rook ached to do something to remove the invisible weights holding her down, to soothe the pain etched around her eyes. He wanted to fight the monsters in her head that kept hurting her and to make everything all right again. And he couldn’t do anything except drive a damned car. Even after they arrived and walked from the car to the house, she kept her distance. Whatever information was inside of her head had created a bubble that did not allow anyone to get close, and it made Rook more nervous than ever.

The usual suspects were in the library when he and Brynn arrived. The two leather smoking chairs were empty. Rook shut the door, and they sat down. He angled himself toward Brynn, nearly jumping out of his skin to know what she hadn’t told them for the last two hours.

“I take it your trip yielded some answers,” Father said gently, probably trying to kick-start the conversation.

“Many more than I expected, yes,” Brynn replied. She described following Archimedes from Chestnut Hill to the market, then observing his interaction with Fiona. That small part of her narrative cemented Rook’s own suspicions about the Magi’s involvement with the hostiles—only she wasn’t finished strafing the landscape with information grenades.

“Chelsea Butler was definitely the biological mother of Fiona, Victoria, and the other two sisters. Both my father and Fiona verified that, although there’s a discrepancy in exactly how she found her way into the Magus’s hands.”

“What do you mean?” Father asked.

“My father claims she was taken from Stonehill, which is what you’ve always suspected. Fiona claims that she was sold to the Magi by her own husband, and that the money is in trust to Shay.”

A round of furious exclamations went up, including one from Rook. No loup garou in his right mind would sell a White Wolf to anyone, much less to a Magus. Yes, Whites were occasionally sent to live in other runs, but no money was ever exchanged. The idea was ludicrous.

“That’s simple enough to verify,” Father said. “Did she mention the name of the trustee?”

“No, but Fiona says she has the proof.”

“And I won’t believe it without seeing that proof,” Mitch Geary said. “No Alpha would do such a thing, not to his mate and certainly not to a White Wolf.”

“Is Chelsea Butler still alive?” Knight asked.

Brynn shook her head. “She died when the triplets were born, about seventeen years ago. Carrying them killed her.”

“So besides Shay, Fiona and the triplets are Chelsea’s only other surviving biological offspring?” Father asked.

“No, there’s one other.” Brynn’s face went stark white, and Rook’s stomach plummeted even before she finished her answer. “Me. Fiona is the twin sister I was told died just after our birth.”

The shocked silence in the library was a living thing, filling in all the gaps of air and choking Rook on its fumes. He couldn’t think beyond two words that echoed around in his brain, making no real sense: me, sister, me, sister, mesister, mesistermesistermesister . . .

A harsh sob ripped from Brynn’s throat. “I didn’t know, I swear. I swear to you all, I didn’t know.”

Rook believed her, he just didn’t know how to say it.

Father found the words. “I believe you. Your entire life has changed in only a few days. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now.”

Brynn wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. “My father hates the loup garou. He’s said so before, but today he drove that point home. He thinks you—we—are animals that need to be thinned out in order to be controlled. The hybrids were intended to be their method of shrinking the loup population.”

“By slaughtering us one town at a time?” Geary asked.

“No. The intention of Stonehill was to kill only a few, but to make it look as though Potomac committed the crime. They wanted to turn the runs against each other and start an internal war.”

“To keep their hands clean.” Geary snorted in disgust. “Typical.”

“The Congress did it once before.”

Rook sank deeper into his chair as she told them how the Congress manipulated the loup garou into destroying the vampires. Tempers in the room piqued. Knight looked like he was going to explode.

“So the Magi have lost control of their experiments,” Father said.

“Yes,” Brynn said. “Fiona is convinced that we, as hybrids with no human blood, are far superior to the other races. She’s also convinced that the next generation will be even more powerful. She won’t stop coming after Knight.”

Father growled. “She’ll have a hell of a fight waiting for her.”

“She did make an offer.”

“I won’t bargain with her.”

“I’d like to hear it,” Knight said. He leaned forward, shoulders hunched, elbows on his knees. He was pale, his eyes lined with dark circles, but he seemed determined. “What’s her offer?”

Brynn pulled a cell phone out of her shorts pocket. She tapped a few buttons, then put the phone down on the coffee table. Rook moved forward at the same time as the others, and they huddled around the recording.

Fiona’s face smirked at them from the small screen of the phone. A blast of background noise made his ears ache until he adjusted to it. “I know I don’t need to introduce myself to you again, Knight,” Fiona said, “so I’ll just say hey, handsome. I miss you.”

She made obnoxious kissy noises at the camera, and Knight shuddered.

“You know why I want you, and you know what I’m capable of. I’m sure you don’t want to see your precious town reduced to a pile of dead bodies, or your brothers chained up as my personal pets, so here is my offer. You give yourself to me without a fight, and I’ll spare your town. Neither I, nor my sisters, will attack your family or friends ever as long as you cooperate. Brynn has my permission to share this recording with them after you’re in my custody, so that they don’t try to find you or steal you back.

“If you agree to my terms, she knows when and where we’re to meet. Tell anyone else before that time, and she also knows the consequences. You can save six hundred and fifty lives tonight, Knight. Or you can all sleep with one eye open from now on, always wondering who will be picked off next. Your choice.” She smirked. “Daddy.”

The recording stopped.

“God DAMN it!” Knight snarled. He pushed back from the coffee table and stormed to the other side of the library. His rage filled the room, washing over all of them in the worst possible way. Rook battled to keep a lid on his own temper as Knight’s empathy struck at him from all directions, sharp needles stabbing at his control.

“This is bullshit.” Bishop radiated danger. “Fiona has to know we won’t accept her deal. She’s more insane than I—”

“It wasn’t Fiona’s idea,” Brynn said.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees. Rook stared at her, cold all over, horrified by the answer he knew he was about to get. “Whose idea was it?” he asked.

“She’s a fanatic, Rook. She absolutely believes in what she’s doing. She will kill every person in this town, and in any town he flees to in order to get Knight. It’s horrible and it’s wrong, but that’s what will happen.” Her voice broke. “I couldn’t stand the idea of her—of you—so many lives have already been lost. The exchange was my idea.”

A chill wormed down his spine to settle in his guts where it simmered with anger. For the first time since they met, Rook didn’t recognize her. Even when she had accidentally poisoned him he hadn’t felt so completely betrayed. Played for a fool. Had she really gone off to bargain with his brother’s life?