The Elder looks up from her tea. She clears her throat. “You said one of the Hunters was worried the others would notice they were gone. I assume it wasn’t a sanctioned mission.”
Oh. Right.
“So, why did this boy break protocol?” she asks again.
I look to Morgan. Her freckled cheeks flush pink. “We used to date. I didn’t know he was a Hunter until he tried to hurt me. And now he—” Tears fill her eyes, and she looks to me.
“He said he wants to win her back. After he’s given her the cure.”
Archer’s phone shakes violently on the counter, and we all jump. Well, all of us except Elder Keating. I don’t think anything could startle her. “That’s Sarah,” Archer says, checking the message. “She needs our help with the trunks.”
Morgan and Alice set their half-finished cups of tea on the counter and follow him to the door. I try to go after them, but Keating asks me to stay.
“Is everything all right? Did things go okay with the water protection?”
Elder Keating nods. “Things here are fine. There’s no need to worry.” She rests a hand on my shoulder. “I am so proud of you, Hannah. This mission was so much more complicated than I anticipated, and yet you still managed to recruit Alice like I asked. I hope you can take solace in a job well done.”
She smiles and slips past me into the hall, but her approval leaves me unsettled. Ididn’trecruit Alice. She hasn’t agreed to help us beyond getting the Hunters here. Not yet, anyway, but I don’t want to admit I failed. I don’t want Elder Keating to be disappointed in me.
When I make it to the hall, Alice and Morgan are dragging the trunks stuffed with screaming Hunters into the house. Even with their enhanced strength, I can see their struggle as Archer and Sarah help maneuver the luggage down the stairs into the basement.
I take a steadying breath and follow.
The basement has a basic cement floor, but otherwise it looks clean and bright. About a third of the large, open space is blocked off by metal bars that run floor to ceiling. There’s a small room tucked in the corner of the cell and three mattresses strewn across the floor. The rest of the basement, the part outside the cell, is filled with shelves of potions and raw ingredients. A long table sits at the center of the room with what looks like a chemistry lab on top.
“Why do you have a cell in your basement?” Alice asks, speaking for the first time since she learned she was about to meet a Council Elder.
Archer pulls a key from a ring on the far wall. “I had it installed when we knew there were Hunters in Salem. I figured it was only a matter of time before we caught one.” He unlocks the door and swings it open.
Morgan and Alice drag the trunks inside and unlock them, hurrying out with dizzying speed so Archer can secure the door before the Hunters pull themselves free of their boxes.
The girl makes it to her feet first. She kicks Riley’s trunk as he’s trying to pull himself out, and I notice all three managed to slip out of their rope bindings during the drive. Which is slightly terrifying. “I told you not to waste time tormenting the blood- sucker. You should have shot her first.”
Beside me, Morgan goes rigid.
“Well, maybe if you were a better shot, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Riley snaps back, and the exchange is sonormal, so much like how Veronica and her brother, Gabe, fight, that it makes my skin crawl.
“Stop arguing,” the shorter guy says. “I already have a migraine.”
“Shut up, Wes,” Riley and the girl say in unison.
The short guy, Wes, sighs. “Please tell me there’s a bathroom in this stupid thing?” He looks through the bars, his gaze bouncing between the three adults like he’s trying to decide who’s actually in charge.
Archer points to the door in the corner of the cell, and Wes slips out of his trunk and disappears.
“This is all your fault,” the girl says, shoving Riley. He trips and falls back into the trunk. “We’re going to be in so much trouble when the Order realizes we’re missing.”
“Knock it off, Paige.”
“Don’t use my name in front of them.” She flops onto one of the beds. “Idiots. The both of you.”
“Hey,” Wes says, emerging from the bathroom. “Don’tblame me for this. And you usedmyname, so don’t get precious about yours.”
Beside me, Elder Keating groans. “May the Mother Goddess give me strength,” she mutters and pulls a vial from an inside jacket pocket. She tosses it into the cell, and blue mist rises from the concrete floor. The Hunters cover their mouths, but it’s too late. In a matter of moments, they all collapse into unconsciousness.
Sarah shakes her head. “I can’t believe teenagers did this to me. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so fucking awful.” She approaches the cell and kneels beside the door, glancing over her shoulder at Archer and Keating. “How do you expect to get anything useful out of them?”
“Not without some magical help.” Archer opens the door and drags Riley out of the cell, tossing Sarah the keys so she can relock the others inside. He props Riley up in a chair and binds him there with a length of rope. After the teenage Hunter is secure, the detective scans his shelves, selecting a gray potion and pulling the stopper out of the thin bottle.
