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“Listen to Talia, Pet,” Asher murmured and took hold of my face between both of his hands.

“And don’t bring attention to yourself,” Jax added from his spot in the passenger seat. I turned to Ren.

“Any words of wisdom?”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

I pursed my lips. Very fair, very valid.

Ren tapped his fingertips on his thigh. He shoved open the door and held it for me. I scooted out of the car; the romper shorts rode up my legs. Once I was out of the car, I tugged them down. Ren caught my arm and pulled me to his chest. I landed against him with a huff.

All he did was squeeze me tight and press a kiss to my forehead.

I pulled away and nodded at the unspoken warning in his eyes. I hurried to the other car as quickly as possible, making sure to keep my head down. Copper strands of the wig fell against my cheek. I slipped into the backseat of the sports car. A luxurious looking one that I was pretty sure I’d seen in the Crimson’s garage.

LED lights framed the inside along the edges of it.

“It’s nice right?” Baron sighed, revving the engine. “Can you convince Asher to give it to me?”

“It’s Asher’s? They didn’t lose their cars?”

“Pft, that was the first thing they ordered the humans to retrieve from the place Imogen burned. We managed to saveabout half of them.” Baron smoothly pulled out of the parking spot and revved onto the highway.

“Are we close?”

“Yes, we should be there in a few minutes,” Baron answered.

“I should have kept my mouth shut.” Talia sighed from the passenger side. “Asher still hasn’t even looked at me.” Oh, she was talking about her spilling the beans about the trial.

“Well, too late,” Baron said. I couldn’t agree more. “But we do have a few things to go over.” She met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Stick to Talia’s side. She will get you out of there, if things go wrong.”

“Wrong?”

They only exchanged a look. The car bumped over a little speedbump, and she revved in front of a hotel. Since it was nighttime, there were lights set up at the base of the huge structure. The red beams cast light across the bottom of the hotel, making the roses surrounding the base of the place seem luminescent. Baron pulled around the front of the entrance where there were people rolling luggage—three-thousand-dollar luggage. Oh, this was for the rich of the rich.

I studied the too-pale bell boy. Baron rolled on past him. He smiled at someone, and I clocked the sharp tip of his incisors.

And vampires. The only two groups that would be able to afford it.

Baron rolled through a lifted gate, with a sign across it, stating that trespassers would face consequences. She revved along the side of the building until it spit her out in the back into a parking lot packed with vehicles.

“A big turn out,” Baron muttered.

“How can there not be. You know how many want to see Crimson Coven go down?” Talia scoffed. “Cat, no matter what you see or hear, do not engage. You are an observer.”

I nodded. That had been driven into me, repeatedly, by the guys.

“They’re giving it all up.” She shook her head and turned back around. “It’ll be anarchy, if this goes upside down. All for a human.” She yanked her hands through her hair. “Or well, a vampire now.”

“Don’t lessen what she means to them, Talia,” Baron said. “If it’s as our Sires wish, it is as we will do.”

“I just didn’t expect war.”

“That will only happen, if the trial doesn’t go our way.” Baron flipped her hair. “And it will.”

They went silent. War? At a hotel?

“Why here?”