“Hello, gentlemen,” Cormack intoned as he took his spot in the center of our group. “I expected to find you here, Adam, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with you, Renley.”
Renley’s grin was wide. “See, I told you.” He puffed out his chin and preened at Grimaldi. “I knew he didn’t suspect me.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Cormack countered, his gaze dark. “I certainly didn’t trust you. I had hope that you were who I thought you were, but there was always doubt.”
Renley’s smile faded. “Is that so?”
“Why do you think I never invited you into my inner circle?”
“I believe I was a member of your inner circle. You called me to clean up constant messes at your house. Your supposedly dead wife wreaked havoc for a year and you always leaned on me to help you deal with it.”
“No, I called in teams to clean up bodies because I didn’t want to deal with it myself,” Cormack countered. “I certainly didn’t tell you what was going on. I mean, what do you think happened there?”
Renley hesitated. “I ... well ... she left and then came back.”
“Yeah, not quite.” Cormack risked a glance at Braden and then returned to the business at hand. “That’s not important now. What’s important is what you have going on here.”
“And what do you think that is?” Grimaldi queried. “What is it you think we’re doing?”
Cormack didn’t immediately answer, which allowed Zoe to take the reins. I internally cringed when she cleared her throat and raised her hand.
“Yes, young lady,” Grimaldi prodded on a smirk. “Although I don’t believe I know who you are. Cormack has told a few fibs where you’re concerned and tracking down your true identity has been difficult.”
“I’m guessing that’s because you’ve been looking in the wrong place,” Zoe countered. “Since everything is about to come out in the open anyway, my name is Zoe Lake.”
“Lake-Winters,” Aric corrected under his breath.
“Zoe Lake?” Grimaldi cocked his head. “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”
Renley let loose a hissing noise and took a full step back, his eyes narrowing as he regarded Zoe with renewed respect.
“I think Renley knows who she is,” Cormack said on a smile.
“Mage,” Renley growled. “She’s a mage.”
I cocked my head, confused. For some reason, Renley seemed to be kowtowing to Grimaldi and I couldn’t figure out why. Something felt very wrong with the situation.
“Hey, I still haven’t gotten to tell you what I think you’re doing,” Zoe complained.
Grimaldi let loose an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. If you want to continue with this farce, that’s entirely up to you. What is it you think we’re doing?”
“Trying to live forever,” Zoe replied, not missing a beat.
“And what makes you think that?”
“Because that’s what all you idiots want. To live forever, or gain ultimate power so you can live forever. The end result is always the same. It’s the biggest cowards in the world, those who fear death, who do things like this. You both look like cowards to me.”
She was baiting them. I realized that at the exact instant Grimaldi waved his hand to engage the men behind them. Zoe was expecting it, and she threw up a magical shield. When the men tried to barrel through it, they were hit with a wall of energy that caused them to go rigid as a bolt of terrible power zipped through them.
Their eyes went wide and they fell by the wayside like planks of lumber.
Fury washed over Grimaldi’s features and I could feel the anger radiating off him. He hadn’t expected his first assault to result in triumph, but he had expected at least a ripple of fear from our group. Instead, he got an education on what not to do when trying to fight a mage.
“What the ... ?” Renley narrowed his eyes as he regarded the fallen reapers, but it was curiosity lighting his features more than fear. “Are they dead?”
“Yup.” Zoe was blasé. “Who wants to be next?”
Grimaldi raised his fist. “You can’t just kill people.”
Cormack let loose a hollow laugh. “That’s rich coming from you.”
“I’m not trying to kill anyone,” Grimaldi shot back. “I’m trying to save people. There’s a new world order happening, and I’m in charge. I don’t want to consider you an enemy, Cormack, but I will if you continue to push me.”
“Is that supposed to frighten me?” Cormack’s earlier disappointment gave way to fury. “If you think I’m going to join with whatever it is you’ve got going here, then you’re sadly mistaken.”
“I knew you wouldn’t act in your family’s best interests,” Grimaldi groused. “You’re too proud to ever admit you’re wrong.”
“Is that what’s going on here? Am I wrong and you’re somehow right?”
“That’s exactly what’s going on here. This plan has been in place for a century. A century!” His eyes flashed with fierce determination. “This was always meant to happen. Just because you didn’t realize it, weren’t a part of it, that doesn’t mean we’re wrong.”
Something occurred to me. “Emmet and Mary were part of the first wave, right?”
Grimaldi shook his head. “They were part of the second wave. They joined when you were a small child, Cormack. My parents were part of the plan, too. Unlike your parents, I was raised knowing what was to come. Your parents insisted that you be kept in the dark — something about you being a headstrong pain in the ass.”
“I was a stubborn kid,” Cormack agreed.
“They wanted to wait until you were an adult, until you had something to lose,” Grimaldi continued. “They were going to tell you the score when Lily died — or we thought she died, I’m still confused what happened there — but you shut them out. More than that, you kicked them out of your life.
“We told them it was likely grief fueling you and to approach again in a few months, but they wanted to wash their hands of you. After that, we watched you for signs you would come around
