Page 11 of Illusory

“Except now they’re going to mean it,” she answered icily. “This won’t be just the Council and our local Temple after you, Jemma. This is going to be the entirety of the Order gunning for you. The best of the best—or worst of the worst—depending on how you want to look at it. And on top of it, you don’t even have the Amulet to protect you anymore. Just when you need it the most.”

Well, she had me on that last one, I thought bitterly as I slumped back into the chair.

“And there’s still the business of the Horsemen on the loose,” reminded Gabriel, because he apparently loved piling on more bad news when the shit was already boomeranging off the fan. “Something tells me they’re going to be doubling down their efforts to coax her into the anointing ritual.”

My skin prickled at his words. “Why? What makes you say that?”

“They’ve been trying and failing to eliminate you since the day they learned of your existence.”

“I’m aware of that. And?” I asked, not seeing the correlation.

“Binding your fate to that of the Horsemen might just be the only thing strong enough to contain you at this particular juncture,” he answered regretfully. “They’ll see it as killing two birds with one stone, and this time, they’ll have the Order’s cavalry backing them.”

Anger roiled under my skin. Those fucktards would totally do something like that. “Well, they’ll have to catch me first because I’d never willingly agree to any of that,” I informed.

“It doesn’t matter. They’ll find a way to force your hand,” said Tessa as she folded down onto the chair beside me and then raked her fingers through her dark hair. “That, or they’ll just drop a bomb on the entire neighborhood and take us all out.”

“Seriously, Tessa? I think that’s pushing it atadfar,” I argued, trying to keep a level head since Tessa obviously wasn’t going to. “I’m glad you’re not overreacting or anything.”

“You don’t know them the way I do, Jemma. You don’t know how far they would go to keep the balance in their favor. Nothing terrifies the Anakim more than a being with more power than them, and scared Anakim are dangerous Anakim. They aren’t going to roll over on this one.”

“Fine. So, they’re going to want me evendeaderthan they wanted me before. Big fucking deal. This doesn’t actually change anything,” I said, meeting each of their gazes. “All I need to do is figure out how to control the wings so that they don’t pop out at the worst possible moment. Like in front of the Senior Magister. As long as I do that, the Order won’t know about any of it untilI’mready for them to know.”

“Until you’re ready for them to know?” Tessa arched her brow at me. “Meaning what?”

“What do you think it means, Tess?” A thick tangle of grief and anger pressed itself down on me as I remembered what Dominic had told me about my father’s murder. That the Order was behind it—that they’d sanctioned it and orchestrated the entire thing. That they’d been steadily destroying my life piece by piece since before I even knew they existed.

“I think it means you’re going to do something stupid or dangerous, or both.”

“You heard what Dominic said. Uncle Karl was behind the attack on dad, and he didn’t do it alone,” I said, not even bothering to deny her accusation. “The Council authorized the whole thing and as far as I’m concerned, their hands are just as bloodied as his were.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not.”

“Consider your source, Jemma.”

“Dominic is a lot of things, but he’s never been a liar,” I answered implicitly.

“Maybe not,” she agreed easily, “but I don’t think his sire shared the same quality.”

I couldn’t really argue that. Pricilla wouldn’t know the moral high ground if it was falling down on her head. But still. Something told me she wasn’t lying about this, and deep down, I suspected Tessa knew it was the truth just as much as I did.

As horrible as it was to fathom, it was the only thing that made sense. Because so long as my father was alive to protect me, the Order would never have gained access to me. He was the only thing standing in their way, and they killed him for it.They killed him to get to me.

“I know they were behind what happened to Dad, Tess. I can feel it. Just like they were behind the attack onme.Theymurdered him right in front of my eyes and then made me sleep under the same roof as the heartless butcher who planned the whole thing. They need to pay for what they did to him. For what they did to all of us. And I’m going to make sure of it.”

“Oh? Planning an all-out war against the entire Council then, are you?” she asked facetiously, as though I were just blowing off steam and ranting.

But I wasn’t.

“You’re damn straight I am.”

Tessa stared back at me, her expression stunned with disbelief as Gabriel ran a palm down the length of his face like he could already see the bloodshed in his mind.

Even though neither of them said anything, I was fairly certain I knew what they thought about my declaration of war, and I was also certain that I didn’t very much care either way.

I had already made up my mind the moment I’d learned the truth about my father’s death. William was on borrowed time and he and his gutless cronies were going to get their comeuppance if it was the last thing I ever did in this lifetime.

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