There was that word again—the Tribunal. What did it mean? “No one returns from Tartarus.”
“That is where you are wrong, little sister. Not only will I come back, but I’ll be stronger. On top of that, you’ll have to explain to my brother why you sent me there in the first place.”
Bran. If only Gavyn wasn’t his brother. I let him go. He landed on the floor like a cat, adjusted his blazer, and brushed off his shoulder. Another smug grin touched his lips.
“What is this new power you have?” he asked, staring at my hand.
I willed the writings from my hands. They disappeared along with the glow. I took a step away from Gavyn. “I think you should leave now.”
“Okay, if you insist on knowing the truth,” he said flippantly. “I got your phone number through your human medium and sent you some text messages.”
My mind raced as I tried to recall what was in the messages from Kylie.
Are you with Bran? The first one had said. Kylie often checked if I was alone before asking me over to her place. I’d responded with a “no”. I hadn’t read the next two messages because of the meeting.
Get over here now, I need your help… The last text had sounded so much like Kylie, I hadn’t bothered to finish reading it. It never crossed my mind to wonder why she hadn’t used abbreviated texts like she usually did.
“Why couldn’t you be clearer? I thought they came from Kylie, and she thought her brother sent them.” I was yelling by the time I finished.
“Clearer? What part of ‘get over here now, I need your help stopping Bran’ wasn’t clear,” he snapped, losing his cool too. “Or ‘Bran needs you’?”
Guilt washed over me. I shouldn’t have ignored the rest of the message, or the previous ones. “What happened?”
“Oh, now you want to know?”
“Just. Tell. Me.”
He made a face. “He pissed off a few club owners while searching for me, got into a few fights. I couldn’t help him because I was in the middle of an important meeting, so I contacted you. By the time I finished, which was a few minutes ago, I learned he wanted to meet me, which as it happens works perfectly with my plans. I want to see him too.” His expression grew serious. “In fact, I have a proposal for the two of you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Really?”
“Listen first before you blow me off. Join me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You and Bran should leave the Guardians and join me.”
He had lost it if he thought we could ever do something so stupid. “Why would we do that?”
“It is the only way to stop the Tribe.”
Maybe he wasn’t crazy. “What do you mean?”
“All this mess would have been avoided if Bran had done the right thing and accepted his responsibilities as the leader of the Hermonites.” His voice dropped. “The truth is out, Lilith. The Tribunal knows how he ‘won’ the battle on Jarvis Island.”
The hollow feeling I hated settled in my stomach. A little over four month ago, Valafar had staged a fight-till-death combat on Jarvis Island and told the demonic world the winner would become their leader. At the same time, he had manipulated us, dangling the list of the humans who’d sold their souls to Bran until Bran signed a contract and joined the combat to win it back. I did not remember the details of that night, but Bran had filled me in. I had had no choice but to help him win. My participation, a secret among the Cardinals, had been known by only three demons—Valafar, who was dead, my sister and Gavyn. Even though Gavyn hadn’t been able to attend the event, Bran had told him afterward.
“How could you use what Bran told you in confidence against us?”
“I didn’t.” A weird expression crossed his face. “I mean, I did it to help you. Besides, that was just the first evidence we presented to the Tribunal. There’s more. You and your grandfather brainwashed Bran and made him switch—”
“Bran chose us,” I snapped. “I’m getting tired of your people saying we influenced his decision.”
“That’s your opinion. The fact remains that the switch is a first in the history of the Nephilim. The Tribunal wasn’t sure how to deal with that, until we told them about the Specials. Those children will cause an imbalance of power in the Guardians’ favor. And last, you decided to help soulless degenerates from the human cesspool. There are rules, Lilith. When humans sell their souls, they belong to us. You are not supposed to give their souls back.”
I couldn’t come up with an argument against the things he’d said. We were guilty. No wonder the Goddess wanted us to find the Summoners to avoid annihilation.
“Who summoned the Tribe? The Order? Can we meet with it?”
“Those feeble-minded members of the Order cannot agree on anything, let alone a historic moment as the summoning.” He smiled smugly. “I formed a new council and summoned the Tribunal. Then the Tribunal sent its army to fix things.”
I swallowed, refusing to panic. “Fix how?”
“Hunt you guys down and make Bran take his rightful place with us. If he can’t, then you must take his place. You both won, so technically you should be co-rulers. The Specials must be returned to us. However, if you and Bran join me now, the Guardians can keep them. Oh, and no more helping humans. We’ve recovered our losses over the last two weeks and even acquired new ones, so we are even. The bottom line is if we get you and Bran, we can ask the Tribunal to rescind its orders and send the Tribe home.”
He was nuts. There was no way I’d ever willingly join the dark side. On the other hand, if Bran were in danger… Unfortunately, he would do the same to protect me. There had to be a way to stop the Tribe. But what if Gavyn was lying to manipulate me?
“When do you want an answer? I mean, can we sit down and discuss the details with your council?”
Gavyn chuckled. “Nice try. You can meet the council after you agree to join us.”
“Where? Mount Hermon?”
“The assistant manager who gave you that name is in Tartarus. Don’t worry about the details. I’ll finalize them with Bran.”
“With both of us,” I corrected him. “Did your council kidnap Jethro?”
He cocked an eyebrow, the gesture so like Bran’s it annoyed me to see it on his face. “You ask way too many questions, Lil.”
“Did you?”
“We didn’t kidnap anyone. They volunteered. You have your army of Guardians willing to die for the cause, and now we have ours.” He smirked as though he knew his words would shut me up. “One little personal piece of advice, Lilith. That new ability you have can be very tempting to a power-hungry demon, so be careful who you show off to, especially when you meet my council.”
I stared after him, surprised. He’d just warned me. Now why would he do that? He opened the door and disappeared out of view. I thought I heard him say something to the others, but I was busy replaying the conversation I just had. It was crazy, yet everything made sense, especially the way the Tribe only came after us, never the senior Cardinals.
I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding, my gaze meeting with Esras’. Behind him stood Solaris, Lunaris, and Lucien. They slowly entered the room.
“You heard?” I asked them.
“Everything,” Esras said. The other three nodded.
“Are you going to consider their offer?” Solaris asked. “Take one for the Guardians?”
I shot her an annoyed look. “Of course not. You can’t believe anything Gavyn says. He’s mean and manipulative.”
“What if he was speaking the truth?”
“Not now, Solaris,” Esras warned.
“Why not? The CT ordered the portal closed and hundreds of SGs are being asked to put their lives in danger for something her team did. What if she and Llyr can stop this nightmare?” She faced me and raised her brow.