Chapter 118

Grace

I switched over to Fenris' call.

"Have I caught you at a bad time?" Fenris asked, his voice slithered into my ear. His voice was filled with smug confidence. "I must say you have a talent... Or is that your brother's doing? I could imagine him having a silver tongue."

I clenched my jaw as he started to laugh.

It told me everything I needed to know.

He knew who had taken Eason.

He knew the plan against Mooncrest. He might even be in on the plan to use Mooncrest for this ritual if Charles and Seraphina were right.

More than that, he was calling to gloat.

He knows you're going to fold, unlike your father.

I was almost too ashamed to speak, knowing how tempting it had been to just fold, but the thought of this being so much bigger than me, bigger than Eason, bigger than Devin and Mooncrest made me clench my jaw.

"No," I said calmly. "You haven't. What do you want?"

"I'm calling to talk business--"

"I thought I made it clear that I didn't have anything else to say to you."

He laughed again. "You really don't know when to give up... Your father at least had years of experience, a few allies here and there, but you? You think you can afford to refuse?" He lowered his voice. "You really think it will turn out well for you?"

I narrowed my eyes. "If you have my brother, I'm going to enjoy killing you."

He laughed again. "I'm a businessman, Grace! Not a kidnapper. Honestly..."

"No... You're just too scared to be a real terrorist, so you're doing their dirty work."

Fenris went silent for a moment.

"You must think you're in the clear to be talking to me like that... Threatening me when I could be recording this conversation."

"And you must think I give a fuck," I snarled. "You don't scare me, Fenris."

"No, but Blood Moon does, don't they?" He asked, his voice venomous as he spoke. "And death certainly does."

I clenched my fists, my knuckles turning white.

"Don't you think it would be better for everyone if you just agreed to the deal?" He asked lightly. "After all, what is fifty percent of a market share for the lives of your children?"

I jabbed end on the call and shuddered. My heart was racing. I could barely think.

My phone chimed again with an incoming call from Charles.

"Hello?"

"Smart, merging the call."

I blinked. My face heated. "I... hadn't done that on purpose."

He chuckled. "Just as well, you did well."

"Fenris has Eason."

"I don't think so."

I frowned. "But he said..."

"Ethan said he was part of another faction. That makes at least three. How much each of these factions overlap is something we'll have to figure out later. I have a feeling even when this is over, Blood Moon, the WSU, and so on are going to be a problem."

I shook my head. "This is ridiculous. I can't keep track of three factions trying to get rid of me."

"Welcome to the truth of being in power," Charles said. "You're in luck."

"How so?"

"These three are connected. You pull one major pin out, and you'll have them backing off for a good long while."

"And Eason?" I bit my lip. "W-When we find him?"

"I'll ship him off for training."

I let out a shuddering breath. "Is that... the only option?"

"It's the best, so he can defend himself and be aware." He said. "I know this is hard--"

"No," I said. "He told me himself that... that he wouldn't always be here. If it has to happen, I... I think it would be best if it was for his safety."

"You said when," Charles said lightly. "Feeling better?"

I wiped my face. "I... Amira threatened to high tail it out of Mooncrest if I didn't pull my head out of my ass."

He hissed. "Hardball, hm? Eason must have trained her."

"That's what she said." I sat back. "How are things where you are?"

"No casualties. Injuries though, but they're stable and being moved to the hospital." His voice grew muffled for a moment. "I'm going to have to call you back."

"You'll call me... as soon as you hear anything?"

"I will... Richard and Cecil should be arriving soon."

"I love you," I said. "And... I'm sorry."

"I love you, too," he whispered. "And we'll get through this."

I hung up and took a deep breath.

A few moments later, Kelly came in with Cecil and Richard, looking a little shell-shocked.

"Where's Uncle Eason?" Cecil asked as I lifted her into my arms.

I bit my lip. "He'll... He'll be back soon."

I glanced at Kelly, whose eyes widened as she lost a bit of color in her face. Her eyes glossed over.

My phone chimed, and I looked at the calendar notification.

Wolf Moon Festival Coming Up.

It felt almost mocking. It was a time for celebration, and yet, here we were, in the midst of a terrible crisis, our city under threat, and my brother's life hanging in the balance.

The Festival was supposed to be the day of Blood Moon's deadline. I tucked my phone in my pocket and stood.

"Let's get some food and head upstairs for a bit to get you settled."

Nearly three hours later, Cecil and Richard were upstairs with Kelly in the apartments. They'd eaten even as I could barely stomach more coffee. I kept waiting for a call from Charles, but none came. Reports came in about the patrols finding a few stray Blood Moon operatives and sweeping the city, but they still hadn't found whatever other bombs had been brought into the city.

And there wasn't any word about Eason or where the surveillance might have led the Enforcers. The city was tense, with heightened security and checkpoints at every major section of the city. The time for the curfew was coming.

I paced around the office, my thoughts a whirlwind of worry. The evening and night loomed ahead. How many hours had it been since Eason was taken? Was he still alive? Was he being trussed up to some ritual table and tortured?

I could almost see it. I had never seen any type of ritual, but it was like something out of a horror movie. Shadows and candles, strange herbs being burned, blood dripping down from the spikes they'd driven into him. I shuddered and tried to push the image from my mind.

I had to believe that it would be okay, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was being hurt, that we wouldn't find him time, that Blood Moon would get away with all of this.

We need to be able to find him. We needed some sort of advantage, but I had none.

If the surveillance had been completed when it was supposed to be, if I had just stayed and done what needed to be done, none of this would have happened.

I shook my head. That would be nice if it were true, but nothing was that simple. I tried to focus on something else, to figure out if Eason had a drafted speech for the end of the week or something, but I didn't have his password. I tried a few before something caught my attention.

It was a chiming sound. I stopped and scanned the room for its source. The sound led me to a corner of the office where an old, inconspicuous painting hung on the wall.

I moved it aside, revealing a hidden safe behind it. My father had a few safes at the house in his study, but what would be chiming inside this office?

It was a standard keypad. I tried a few codes I thought my father might have used. He used birthdays most of the time. I tried all of the birthdays I knew, but none of them worked. Then, I tried Mooncrest's founding and Wolfe Medical's founding, but that didn't work either. I hummed, wondering if maybe the code would be in the handbook Eason had put together.

Then, I frowned down at the painting. I picked it up and tilted my head. This wasn't something my father would have put in here. The scenery wasn't like any I'd ever seen, and I remembered that my mother had been fond of them.

Maybe the safe was hers, but what code would she have used? It was probably a date, but nothing came to mind.

Except...

There was one thing my mother mentioned once, or maybe it had been on her calendar. I remember that she would leave the house alone and be gone for a full day, year after year. Dad never told us where she went or why, but when she came back, she always seemed happier.

I remembered wondering if she had a secret boyfriend or something, but my parents had always just laughed and told me no.

I frowned at the keypad and typed in the four digits.

The keypad lit up with a green light.

The lock whirred, and the door swung open.