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“Ooo, creepy. Did your little ghost tell you that?” Alok retorts.
“Yes, and Kai is right, all of the main families in the Covenant have a ritual room, typically kept hidden. The library is the best place to start looking,” I reply.
We stay on the first floor, looking into room after room, keeping an eye out for more security, but it appears they’ve all been killed. Ben was here, but clearly something went wrong.
“Over here,” Alok calls, his body phasing through one of the walls as he guides us to the door nearest him.
Even in the dark I can tell that the extravagant library expands up at least a story.
“Start pulling on the books,” I say, as I begin to throw book after book onto the floor.
I move to the next bookshelf and hear subtle whispers. The eerie sounds reminding me of white noise. I try to focus on what direction it’s coming from when my eye meets the corner of the room.
“It’s there”—the familiar ethereal voice of the grimoire rings through my head.
“Did you hear that?” I look over to the old, worn-looking bookshelf at the far end of the room; the whispering begins to get louder the closer I move to it.
“What are you talking about?” Kai says from behind me.
As if a man possessed, I slowly walk toward a single book.
It’s black with filigree on the corners. I lift my hand and the whispering begins to become so loud, I don’t notice Kai begin to speak to me.
“Cade!” He snaps me back to reality by gripping my shoulder, jerking me around.
“What?” I say, looking at him and blinking twice.
“Your fucking phone,” Kai says, pointing down.
My face scrunches as I shake my head and pull my phone out of my pocket. Unknown number: I answer it.
“Did you bring the grimoire?” Rosa’s voice comes through smoothly over the other line.
“Thought you said this wasn’t a setup,” I reply calmly.
“I’ll take that as a yes, such a good boy. Sadly, plans have changed. Benny is no longer going to be your little helper.” She pauses, as if to let me process. I don’t respond. “I’m afraid I’ll have to reconsider our little deal. Such a shame that after all you went through, you’ll still have to watch your little sister die. I hear someone shuffling in the library. Hope you aren’t having trouble finding me.”
“Not at all. I hope you’re ready to reunite with your daughter,” I say, hanging up.
Kai looks over at me with rage in his eyes, and I lift my hand to the black-and-gold book there and pull. The bookshelf shifts, the top shelves sliding up while the rest moves to the sides. Kai moves next to me as we stare down a dark staircase, and Alok immediately starts to descend it.
He pauses, turning to look at us. “The fuck are you two waiting for? It’s time to kill the bad guys.”
I speak into my earpiece. “Jack, can you see them?”
“No, either they have a separate system we don’t have access to, or there are no cameras down there.”
Fuck. Okay.
Rosa has Calli; this is going to be a delicate situation. If she gets desperate enough, she will either kill Calli or try to bargain for her life. Either is plausible, but I’m banking on her having some kind of self-preservation.
I say now to Kai and Alok, “I need both of you to hang back behind me, make her think it’s just me. I’m going to try to talk. When I give you the signal, feel free to do what you do, but leave Rosa for me.”
“Got it, boss,” Alok says, cracking his knuckles. “Time for bitches to die.”
CHAPTER 37 KAI
I start down the stairs behind Cade when he puts his hand up.
