Page 14 of Illusory

“It’s one measly night, Tess. It won’t change anything for us.Please.”

She blew out a breath of frustration and then relaxed her shoulders. “Fine. But if you don’t get it done first thing tomorrow morning,Iwill. And believe me, he’s not going to like my approach if I have to be the one to do it.”

“I mean, with all that charm you have shooting out of your ass, I’m sure he’s going to hop right on board,” I mumbled sarcastically and then rolled my eyes at her.

“You better hope he does, Jem. Because weneedthat damn book.” The feral desperation in her eyes sobered me as quickly as flicking off a light switch. She was scared…for me. “I’ve gone through so many texts and journals over the past few weeks that I don’t even know which side is up anymore. And none of them—not a single one—had anything about the Horsemen,” she said grimly and then shook her head like we had already lost the battle. “The Sang Noir is our last chance. It’s ouronlychance.”

“I know,” I said as I rubbed the chill from my arms. I knew as much as she did that we were running out of optionsandtime, but we still needed to keep our heads on straight. We couldn’t go into this with a defeatist attitude, or we’d never stand a chance against any one of our enemies. “We’ll get it, Tessa.I’llget it,” I amended, hating the way her eyes sang with worry and hopelessness. I wasn’t used to seeing my sisterfrazzled like this, and frankly, I really didn’t care for it.

“And what if we don’t?” she asked in a hushed whisper, as though worried that someone might overhear her concern and figure out her weakness. That they’d somehow see through the thin façade she wore and hit her where it hurt the most.Me.

“Then we’ll get rid of them the old-fashioned way. By kicking their antique asses into their next life,” I said and then fixed a sweet-as-pie smile on my face.

She couldn’t help but smile at that. “You and which army?”

I shrugged it off like it was nothing. “I’ll build one if I have to.”

“That easy, huh?”

“Probably not, but I’m going to keep living in my fantasy world until I have no other choice.”

“You would,” she shot back, and we both broke out into laughter at that.

I mean, she wasn’t wrong, and at least she wasn’t teetering around the deep end anymore. Mission accomplished.

When our laughter trickled off, I picked up her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, my expression turning more serious then. “We can do this, Tess. I know we can. We just need to stick together and fightsmarterthan them. If anyone can do it, it’sus. We’re fucking Blackburns for crying out loud.”

A spark of fire ignited in her eyes at my words, prompting her to release the breath she’d been holding. “You really think we can do this—take down the Horsemen? The Council?”

“We still have the upper hand. They have no idea what cards we’re holding. They don’t know what we’re planning to do or which side we’re even playing for. They’re completely in the dark which puts us in the prime position to pick them off one by one,” I said, reminding her of our earlier discussion.“We may not be strong enough to face off against them all together right now, but if we weaken them—if we cut out their legs from under them and chip away at their defenses, we can strike when they’re most vulnerable. They’ll never see us coming. And we can dothatwith or without the Sang Noir.”

“I like the way you think. This might just be crazy enough to work,” she mused, her eyes darkening with schemes aplenty before she fixed me with a poignant look. “When the hell did you get all grown up anyway?”

“Right?” It felt good to have a plan and some confidence to back it up for once. I may not have had any idea what to do about Trace and Dominic or where I stood with either of them, but at least I could focus on making my enemiesburnfor what they’d done to our family.

“But we’re still getting that book,” she added pointedly.

“Hell yeah we are,” I agreed, mostly because William and the rest of the Council were the very last people on earth I wanted to be in possession of a book as powerful as The Sang Noir. And then I frowned as reality knocked against my head once again. “Well, providing I can actually get into Temple undetected.”

That was a tall order for anyone, let alone for someone as inconsistent with their magical abilities as I was.

“Oh, you will,” she said without a flicker of doubt in her words, like it was already in the bag. “I’m starting to think you’re in an even better position to do this than Trace would’ve been.”

That seemed like a bit of a stretch. “And how you do figure that?”

“For one, the Council has no reason to even suspect you since they have no idea about this ability. You’ve never been tagged the way other Reapers have so you’re not going to trip off any of their wards.”

My mind spooled back to that conversation I had with Trace last year about how the Council controlled his time-traveling ability. Not only did they monitor his movements on the Timeline, but they’d also used threats of Bounding him to keep him in line. He’d needed the help of Nikki’s magic back then just to be able to take me to the past to visit my father without tipping the entire Order off.

“Maybe we’ll even get lucky and find something about the Son of Perdition in there too,” continued Tessa, bringing me back to the present conversation. “I don’t see how we’re going to be able to get within a mile of Nikki’s house with all the demons converging over there. We’re going to need another way in.”

My stomach abruptly soured at the subject.

“I’m thinking we could try porting there too, but I doubt that would work with the little devil-baby-incubator on the inside,” she went on, plotting to herself out loud. “I’m sure she’s put up some iron-clad magical barrier, if not several. We might have to do that the old-fashioned way too,” she said and then tweaked her eyebrows mischievously like she was hoping for it.

“Right.” I couldn’t seem to summon the same level of excitement that she had aboutthatparticular situation. Every time I thought about it, my mind arrived at the same, nagging question. “And then what?” I asked, unable to shake off the awful, skin-crawling feeling that had broken out across my body.

Her forehead furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

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