Page 100 of Illusory

Unable to coax myself any further into the room yet, I leaned my shoulder against the doorway and tried to gather my bearings. I could already tell they were worried about me by the way they were watching me—studying my body for any signs of injury, examining my tense stance, my downturned mouth, and the way my eyes had puffed up from crying too much. Their sharp, calculating gazes took in everything before I’d even said a word.

“I’m sorry I took off the way I did,” I announced, my words coming out surprisingly steady despite the whirlwind of emotions I was feeling on the inside. “I didn’t mean to make you all worry, I just needed to…” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought. “I’m fine, though. Everything’s fine,” I said, finishing strong with a boldfaced lie.

Dominic made a scoffing sound, though I wasn’t sure which part of my speech he was offended by. I’d already noted that his face had completely healed since I’d been gone. So had Trace’s wounds. At least there wouldn’t be any permanent scars from the damage I had caused. Well, not any visible ones, anyway.

I breathed a sigh of relief at that.

“Where have you been?” asked Gabriel, ignoring his brother since he hadn’t bothered to add any words to his outburst.

“I went for a drive,” I answered, briefly glancing atDominic as he slowly paced the corner of the room like he was holding back a maelstrom of things he wanted to say to me. Feeling that familiar twinge in my chest, I redirected my focus on Gabriel instead. “At first anyway. Then I went to Old Soloman’s Bridge and met up with Morgan.”

“You met up with Morgan? What for?” asked Trace, as though he couldn’t fathom a single reason why me and Morgan would ever need to be in the same universe, let alone at the same place.

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you all about,” I said, my gaze purposely not lingering on either one of them for too long. It was easier when I didn’t face them head on. “Apparently, she hit some kind of snag with her visions…in that…she isn’t having them anymore. Like at all,” I added pointedly.

“She lost her visions?” verified Trace, his piercing blue eyes mining mine. “How is that possible?”

I pushed off the wall and braved my way into the living room, being led by the promise of a drink. Frankly, I was going to need all the liquid courage and body armor I could get my hands on if I was going to be able to stand being around them for any extended periods of time.

“She thinks it’s some kind of blocking spell, but we’re still not sure exactly how they even did it,” I explained as I poured myself a double shot of the darkest liquor on the cart, trying not to look over at Dominic even though I could feel his eyes practically burning holes into my flesh.

“You think the Roderick sisters are behind this,” surmised Gabriel and then quickly went on, his worried gaze bouncing around the room. “Where are we with their location? Has Caleb made any progress refining the locator spell?”

“Beats me,” I answered with a shrug since I hadn’t really heard much from Caleb after he’d done the spell for us. Ifigured he was already busy enough with school, hockey, and all the other things he was helping us with. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I wasn’t talking about the Roderick sisters.” I brought the glass up to my lips and then poured the entire contents down in one pass, hissing as the Whiskey seared its signature mark all the way down to my stomach.

“Then who are you referring to?” Gabriel exchanged a confused glance with Trace.

“The Order,” supplied Dominic, drawing my attention back to him.

I paused for a beat, feeling that same unwanted flutter in my chest, and then poured myself another shot.

“That is who you’re referring to, isn’t it,angel?”

My back straightened as the flutter ratcheted into a biting ache. I really needed himnotto call me that right now.

Avoiding his gaze, I nodded and then tossed the second shot down, wincing as the alcohol made its way down to the same hollow pit as the last one had before turning to face the room again.

“How do you know it was The Order if she didn’t have a vision of it?” asked Trace, his otherworldly eyes taking me apart in slow, measured strides.

“We don’t need a vision to figure this out,” I said, dragging my clammy palms up and down my hips absentmindedly. “Think about it. Why would the Roderick sisters waste their time and energy blocking Morgan’s visions? We haven’t made a single move against them, nor are we planning anything, either. At this point, we’re not even…an actual, uh…threat. To them,” I finished unevenly, noticing that Trace and Dominic’s attention had zeroed in on my curves and not at all on the words that were coming out of my mouth.

My hands stilled despite the urge to…keep moving them.

Idefinitelyneeded another drink.

Shaking off the strange impulse, I turned back for the cart. “Besides, how would they be able to pull off something like that without having access to her blood?” I asked as I generously filled up another glass for myself. “They didn’t just stop her from seeingthem. They blockedallher visions entirely. Do you really think they have the kind of unrestricted power needed to pull off something like that?” I asked and then turned around to face them again, my fingers clutching my glass like a lifeline. “Because I don’t.”

Gabriel grimaced as he watched me chug my drink like the seasoned pro I was, barely wincing that time around. Already I was feeling better. Warmer. Less dead inside.

“But I’ll give you one guess who does have it,” I said, setting the glass down and folding my arms across my chest.

“I think it’s safe to assume they’re not waiting for that call anymore,” said Gabriel, his face already wracked with a hundred different scenarios of how this whole thing could go very badly for us. “They’re planning something—something they don’t want us to see coming.”

“Exactly.” I nodded, remaining fully composed despite it feeling like someone was dragging a shard of ice down my back. Hearing him confirm my suspicions out loud only made it feel that much realer. Somethingbigwas coming, and every part of my existence knew it was going to be bad. Because, when the hell was it not?

“So, what the fuck are we still doing here?” snapped Trace, his dimples pressing in as he worked his jaw muscle. “Why are we just sitting around waiting for them to hit?”

“What would you have us do instead?” asked Dominic, his lips curling at the corners like they were running their own agenda. “Assemble our band of misfits and swarm Temple on a lead balloon?”

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