Page 57 of Midnight of Ashes
Càit a bheil a’ bhana-phrionnsa??
The deep tenor rang out in my head, casting a fresh tremor through me and finally giving voice to my fear. “What if it was Dexter who killed my parents? What if he was looking for me?”
Knox’s ministrations stilled, and Cáel gripped me tighter. He let out that rumbling growl in my ear. “Then I’ll end him. And I won’t spare him an ounce of pain when I do.”
29
CILLIAN
I paced the length of my office. It had always felt large and spacious, the massive windows looking out onto the forest making me feel at one with nature. But not tonight. Tonight, it felt as if the walls were closing in.
“Breathe, Cill,” Maddox urged.
I knew my eyes flashed black as I whirled on him. “Breathe?” I growled.
Easton winced. “Bad move, Mad.”
But Maddox stood his ground. “We’re not going to be able to do a damned thing if you’re two seconds away from shifting.”
“Corbett scared her so badly she had a fucking nightmare. She’d been crying.”
Just the thought of the tear tracks on Hayden’s face had me wanting to tear the entire house down. To shift and fly to Corbett territory and take Dexter on right now.
Maddox’s eyes swirled with molten gold. “I know. You think I don’t want to remove his still-beating heart from his body?”
Somehow, Maddox’s anger soothed my own. Just the knowledge that he was as enraged as I was. That he cared.
I let out a long breath and collapsed back into my desk chair, pinching the bridge of my nose. I didn’t want to send my people to war. Especially not when the Corbetts had greater numbers than we did. No matter how things went, lives would be lost.
Maddox and Easton sat in the chairs opposite my desk, eyeing me carefully.
“They aren’t going to let this go,” I said finally.
“No, they aren’t,” Maddox finally agreed.
Easton’s jaw clenched. “It’s time to eliminate them for good. The Corbetts have brought nothing but pain to the supernatural community. Others would join with us.”
He had a point there. I was sure we could find other clans to aid us in battle. But it didn’t change the fact that lives would be lost. “And would you be okay if one of us died in that war?”
This time it was Easton’s eyes that flashed gold. “They won’t get the better of us.”
“But they’ll get the better of someone. A being who is someone’s sister, brother, mother, father, child. A being that is someone’s whole world. We need to know that there is no other option before we go there.” My tone wasn’t harsh, but the words still had Easton ducking his head.
Maddox drummed his fingers along his thigh. “It’s possible that if we eliminated their leadership, things could change.”
I leaned back in my chair. “It’s not a bad idea. We’d need Dexter, Hal, their head enforcer…”
“Sean Corbett is one of the other higher-up enforcers. If we could put him in the position to seize power, things might change. He doesn’t like the way his uncle leads the horde. That’s plain as day,” Maddox suggested.
Easton nodded in agreement. “I know there are others who don’t agree with his leadership. They just don’t hold power.”
God, I hoped I was never like that asshole. That the people in my horde always felt like they had a voice. That they felt like I protected them. And part of that protection meant doing everything I could to avoid war.
“Draw up some plan options,” I told Maddox. “Different ways to execute. We’ll need to take them all at once. If we don’t, we risk retaliation. We can’t have any witnesses.”
Maddox lifted his chin in assent. “I’ll get to work on it first thing tomorrow morning.”
“What about looking into Hayden’s parents’ death?” Easton asked.
