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“Could someone in this damned society just do what I say?”

“No,” Nikolett and Colum said at the same time.

Colum’s expression went grim when he heard Nikolett’s voice, and then painfully blank when, a second later, she was visible over Eric’s shoulder.

“Eric—”

“Triskelion,” he repeated.“And once we get there…” Eric looked up, watching Nikolett make her way out of the room on her crutches.“We’re going to figure out who the fuck the Spaniard is and what he wants.”

ChapterTwenty-One

Franco: I’d be a really good supervillain.

Colum: Obviously.

Annie tried not to be impressed by the castle.Colum told her that technically it was a fortified manor house, but it looked and felt like a castle.

They’d arrived at Triskelion on the Isle of Man several hours ago.Colum started to give them a complete tour, but several of the guards gently stopped him, pointing out she wasn’t a member and therefore needed to stay on the first floor until the fleet admiral said otherwise.

The reminder that she wasn’t a member hurt, but that fact wasn’t the biggest hurdle.

Eric had said no to dissolving Colum’s marriage.

Based on everything Colum had said about his relationship with the fleet admiral, Annie figured Eric would happily agree to an annulment.She’d been sure the biggest issue would be her being a Trinity Masters’ member, followed by the timing—it would be many years before Xavier would become admiral.

She wished she’d been at that Trinity Council meeting so she could have heard the exact stipulations and plan, but based on what Colum had told her, he’d been hoping they could delay starting work on the Trinity Archive until Xavier became admiral and the three of them could get married.

She’d also been a little worried about Xavier.It was clear he didn’t want to be admiral.

And then once he was admiral, she assumed he had to live in France, while Colum had to stay in Dublin, so where would they live?Could they live together, or would they have to maintain two separate households and only be together half the time?

She hadn’t let herself think through all those problems and details because she’d been sure Eric would agree to the annulment, and it would just be a matter of finessing everything else, including getting her own Grand Master to agree to the marriage.

But Eric said no.Colum was, and would remain, married.

The thought made her sick.

Xavier, in true form, had been pacing, prowling the floor since their arrival, his expression fluctuating between fury and despair over Eric’s refusal.

Colum had gone painfully quiet and was currently sitting and reading a book, though he’d yet to turn a single page the entire time they’d been here.

Annie, however, was burning with a cold fury she was trying hard to hide from her men.

“We run,” Xavier said suddenly.“We leave.”

“And go where?”Annie asked, because she’d considered and dismissed this possibility too.

“America.”

“I doubt the Trinity Masters would hide us,” she said.

“They won’t,” Colum said without looking up.“If they did, it would destroy the fragile peace between the societies.”

“South America, then.Asia.We leave together.We run.”Xavier pointed toward the door.

“We’d be fugitives,” Annie said.“And they’d hunt us.Both the Trinity Masters and the Masters’ Admiralty.”

“Fuck,” Xavier snarled.