Page 39 of Illusory

But she was right. We needed a win. Some kind of gain to keep the morale up.

“Can you go to Temple today?” I asked her, feeling a plan take root in my mind.

“I can probably swing by before lunch.” Her eyes thinned with suspicion. “Why?”

“I need you to get me every Reaper codex you can get your hands on.”

“To do what with?” she asked as Gabriel and Jaqueline both met my eyes with the same question on their faces.

“What do you think?” I asked rhetorically. “I need to learn how to port, like yesterday.” If we had any hope of gaining the upper hand, we needed the Sang Noir. Something was telling me that ancient, Angel-encoded book was going to spill all the secrets we so desperately sought. The truth about my bloodline. My abilities. The Horseman. Maybe even about the Order.

“Oh, and what?” Tessa huffed. “You’re just going to teach yourself how to port?”

I shrugged, not seeing another good option on the table. “Pretty much.”

Jaqueline made a strange scoff-like noise at the back of her throat. “Jemma, I think you might be underestimatingthe complexity of attempting something like this,” she said, her gaze careening from me to Tessa and then back again. “Diving into an unknown ability without an experienced tutor is dangerous.”

“Well, take a good look around, Jackie,” I said, widening my arms like I was sailing on the helm of the Titanic. “Do you see any experienced tutors around here? Because I don’t.”

“There’s a perfectly good one sitting in the basement right now,” pointed out Tessa as I balled my hands into fists to keep from lunging at her.

How many times was I going to need to say this? “Trace. Is. Not. An. Option,” I grounded out, throwing daggers at her by way of my eyes.

“Well, he might be if you bothered asking him.”

“Seeing as I can’t get within five feet of him without him going ballistic, I’d say he already answered that question,” I shot back, trying to keep my voice from cracking with emotion. The more I thought about the sad state of affairs between Trace and I, the weaker I felt, and I really didn’t want to feel weak right now. “All we have isme, Tessa, so you better start getting comfortable with it. Now, are you going to get me the codices or not?”

“Not.”

I gaped at her. That was not the answer I was expecting.

Tessa rolled her eyes. “How exactly do you think I’m going to be able to walk out of Temple with a bunch of Reaper manuals in my handsand nottip off the entire Council?”

My mouth opened and then quickly shut as I considered thattinydetail. “Okay, fine,” I said, giving her that one. I clearly hadn’t thought the plan all the way through. “Then there has to be another way.”

“I’m all ears,” said Tessa and then crossed her arms, waiting for me to validate my claim.

Apparently, I was on my own in this. I racked my brain, mulling it around in my head as each of them quickly got bored and went back to whatever they were doing before, like the plan was already as good as dead in the water.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, fam.

Ignoring them, I chewed on my nails as I tried to work out a way around our latest obstacle.

“What about Trace’s house?” I asked suddenly, bouncing a glance around the table. “He has a home library, right? They must have a treasure trove of Reaper books there.” Especially if Trace’s dad had been anything like my uncle Karl had been when it came to preserving all the pretties.

Tessa considered it. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” she said as I forced myself to ignore the shock in her tone. “I’ll pass by this afternoon and see what I can find.”

“Perfect.” I clapped my hands together and then sank back against my chair, feeling mighty satisfied with myself.

We finally had a plan in place, and it felt great. I mean, it may not have been the best plan, or even a great plan, and it certainly wasn’t a fool-proof one either. But hey, at least we hadsomething.

13. ONE GOOD SPARK DESERVES ANOTHER

As promised, Tessa returned later that day with a generous stack of Reaper codices, courtesy of the Macarthur family library, and for once, they appeared to be written in plain English which meant they wouldn’t require an entire translation team just to read the opening paragraph. All I needed was a little bit of time and a whole lot of determination and I’d be porting in and out of Temple in no time.

At least that was what I kept telling myself.

The last thing I wanted to do was board Tessa’s negativity train. If I had any chance of making it out of this in one piece, I needed to stay positive. Well, that, and to continue working my butt off. I, of all people, knew I wasn’t going to win any wars with just my good attitude. I neededall the thingsto back it up. I had to be faster and stronger and in better control of my magic and my abilities. And most importantly, I needed to play smarter than them—to hold my cards so close to my heart that they’d never see me coming.

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