Page 167 of Wicked Bonds

“Patreel?” Stas’s father guessed.

“Or they’ve always known,” her mother said, flinching as the Seraphim began on the second line of defense. “We need to go to the ground.”

What’s happening, love?Issac asked.

Stas updated him on their descent, landing beside him as she finished.

Luc stood among them, his gaze on the sky. Alik was beside him with a horde of Hydraians around them, most of them Guardians, some of them stronger immortals with defensive abilities.

“Adriel is the key,” Luc announced without preamble. “We need him to understand reformation and what we know. He’s the leader; therefore, his confusion will trickle into the others.”

“Leek wouldn’t let me finish,” her mother said, referring to the dark-haired warrior who’d kept interrupting her.

“Does he know the truth?” Luc asked.

“It’s impossible to say, but he easily convinced Adriel that we’re trying to stall,” she replied. “It’s a practical strategy, so I can see why he jumped to that conclusion.”

“Or it was a clever ruse to keep you from telling Adriel the truth,” Stas’s father murmured, his focus on the sky. “We need a new strategy.”

“Our strategy is convincing Adriel of the truth,” Luc reiterated.

“How do you propose we do that?” Issac’s tone held a note of seriousness to it, not ridicule, his curiosity genuine. His mind echoed the sentiment, agreeing with Luc’s idea but wanting to know how to achieve it.

“We need Osiris,” Luc said, silencing everyone. “Without Vera’s memory manipulation talent and Stark’s ability to potentially appeal to Adriel’s paternal instincts—if he even has any at all—we’re out of options. Osiris is the only one who can convince him of the truth.”

“There has to be a better way,” her father immediately argued. “Besides, it’s not like we can just call up my father. He’s spent a lifetime appearing on his own terms, not on anyone else’s.”

“Mateo can call him,” Luc pointed out.

“Do it,” Issac interjected before Stas’s father could speak.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” her father demanded, obviously not on board with the idea. Stas wasn’t sure she agreed with it either.

Her mother reached for him as he attempted to step into Issac’s space. “Sethios—”

“I may not like the plan, or the fact that we’re about to rely on the very person we’ve been trying to hide our ties from for hundreds of years, but we need his expertise,” Issac said, meeting her father’s lethal glare with an icy look of his own. “He isn’t going to want to lose his Hydraian assets to a handful of Seraphim in the sky. He’ll help us.”

“At what cost?” her father asked. “An agreement from Stas to work with him?”

“If that’s what it’ll take to keep everyone safe, I’ll pay that price,” Stas inserted before Issac could speak for her. Not that he would, but he knew her mind and her determination. He would know her intention before she even voiced it, and the look he gave her proved it.

“We don’t have time to keep debating this,” she continued. “Luc, try Osiris. Until then, we need a secondary plan on how to convince Adriel of the truth.” Because she agreed that was their best plan. If they could convince him of his history, he might falter enough to cause the other Seraphim to pause with him.

Of course, Patreel had faltered.

And now he was nowhere to be seen after clearly having lured Vera and Stark into a trap.

Unless he’d been somehow persuaded to do it.

Osiris’s familial line could compel because of the control over resurrection and life, but was there another bloodline that could do the same?

A question she’d have to voiceafterthey dealt with the chaos in the sky.

“Blake,” her mother said suddenly.

“What?” several of them voiced at once, including Stas.

“Yes,” Luc replied with a nod. “His present condition may be enough to pique their curiosity.”