Distorted Affliction

Chapter Twenty Eight

When I made it back to the motel room, I was surprised that the others had beaten me there. Vanessa was perched on the edge of her bed, chewing on her knuckle while Sin paced the length of the room in quick strides. Demidicus was sitting at the table, his chin resting on his intertwined fingers as he leaned his elbows against the wood. Every set of eyes looked up at me as I slid in the door, and I glanced at the floor, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

"I guess I fucked that up pretty good," I muttered, leaning my back against the door as the weight of everything came crashing down on top of me. How was I going to stop Lazarus now? What was I going to do to keep Silas out of the council's hands?

"August," Sin said, his voice low as he looked at me. His pacing had stopped, his eyes watching me with an emotion in them that I couldn't pinpoint. "They agreed to do it."

Everything seemed to stop as I processed his words. The look on Kettelie's face when I left played in the back of my mind, the shock and anger. I was certain they didn't get spoken to in that manner often, and it was obvious that she had felt disrespected on some level by my accusations.

"I don't understand," I breathed, meeting their eyes one at a time.

"After you left," Vanessa spoke up. "Nadege and Sophia talked to Kettelie about the realistic risks that Lazarus poses to them. They conceded that it was too big of a risk to take, that you were right about Lazarus needing to be taken out as a threat."

"I think Kettelie respected your honesty," Demidicus added. "Which, absolutely hot, by the way. It's not often that she gets spoken to like that, but I know her. Being called a coward really played with her pride. She might have only agreed just to prove you wrong, but that's better than nothing."

I was willing to take what I could get, regardless of how they came by the decision. I hadn't expected our conversation to go so south, since we were offering them the ability to tap into old magic. The kind of magic that came from bringing the dead back to life. Above all, I had assumed that was right up their alley, the exact kind of magic they would want to harness.

I didn't really believe that Kettelie had been so disinterested because she really felt that Lazarus wasn't a threat to her. It seemed more about pride, and that had been something I didn't lie about. The curiosity burned inside of me to pin both Sin and Demidicus down and question them on the meaning of her words, but there were more pressing matters. Still, the idea that the two of them had been with one of my ancestors, had each held a personal relationship with someone else in my family at the same time, made me feel...unexplainable. I wasn't disgusted, but it definitely left me feeling like fate was playing games with me, like history might repeat itself, and I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that. Was this just a thing for them, to make them feel as if they were reliving their glory days?

Pushing the thoughts out of my head, I explained the situation with the council and Ophelia to the crew before me. All brows were furrowed, and silence fell. I knew that every one of us felt helpless in that situation, even Demidicus who had no obligation to be worried about Silas in that manner. His brother was a different matter, but the Council of Rowan Tree? That was out of his jurisdiction, yet it was obvious that he was concerned.

"Then we need to move on to the next phase of the plan," Sin said, rubbing a hand down his face. "We can answer to the council as soon as we have Lazarus to offer them in return. First, though, we need to agree on a place we can lure him. Demidicus, how close do you think we can be to New Orleans without your brother assuming our plan?"

While it was true that he might not be able to guess our intent exactly, Lazarus still knew about the Priestesses in Louisiana. If he thought for even a moment we were teaming up with them, he would be too skeptical to come. If he thought we were hiding out in the backwoods of Mississippi, though, he might believe he had the upper hand and bring less of his Mouri. That meant we would have a better chance of taking him down, though that would certainly involve a little further planning on our end. Plus, wherever we went, we had to run it past Kettelie and the other Priestesses, since our plan hinged on her direct contact with me while I was syphoning from Lazarus.