Chapter 7 The Plan
Unknown POV
The room smelled of smoke, burnt herbs, and blood.
Not fresh blood.
Old blood.
The kind that soaked into stone over years and never truly left no matter how many spells were cast over it.
Candles burned across every shelf and surface, their dim light dancing against the black stone walls of my office while shadows twisted and stretched across the floor. The storm outside rattled the tall windows overlooking the forest below, thunder rolling through the mountains hard enough to shake the glass.
Perfect weather for destruction.
The doors suddenly slammed open hard enough to bounce against the walls.
Cinder Wraith came rushing inside, breathing heavily, panic written all over her face. “They escaped.”
I slowly looked up from the papers spread across my desk, confusion immediately pulling at my expression. “What do you mean they escaped?” I asked, raising a brow as I stared at her like she had completely lost her damn mind.
She opened her mouth quickly, words tripping over themselves before she could get them out properly. “The plan. Our plan. We had…”
Before she could finish, the office door opened again. Hex Shade walked in calmly like none of this concerned her in the slightest. She crossed the room without urgency, pulled out one of the chairs across from my desk, and sat down smoothly before crossing one leg over the other. “She’s trying to tell you part of our plan failed,” she said casually.
Too casually. Like we were discussing the damn weather.
I leaned back slowly in my chair, narrowing my eyes at her. “What part failed?” I asked carefully, though irritation already crept into my voice. “Did Clarence get taken”
Hex Shade nodded once. Relief instantly mixed with annoyance.
“Alright,” I muttered. “That part had to happen.”
Honestly, Clarence getting captured was the easiest part of this entire night. The man practically planned over half of it himself before marching straight into enemy territory like a psychopath with a death wish.
“Did they kill him?” I asked, studying her expression closely this time.
That part mattered. More than anybody else in this coven realized.
Again, she shook her head. “At least I don’t think so,” she replied. “He was alive the last time I saw him.”
I exhaled sharply and rubbed my temple. “Then what the hell is the problem?” I snapped, my patience finally disappearing.
This night had already turned into a complete disaster. Half the coven was injured, the palace still stood, Brianna remained alive, and now these idiots were standing in my office talking in circles instead of getting to the damn point.
Cinder Wraith flinched slightly.
Hex Shade didn’t.
“Flamebearer,” she said evenly, “we did capture two of the royals.”
My attention sharpened instantly.
“We had them,” she continued before pausing.
And just like that my mood darkened again. Her hesitation told me everything before she even spoke.
“The Moonshade Coven attacked us during extraction,” she finished. “We lost more of our people. We had to abandon that part of the plan.”
Silence filled the room for exactly three seconds. Then I stood so fast my chair slammed backward into the wall.
“You abandoned them?” I shouted.
The candles around the room flickered violently as magic crackled beneath my skin. “You’re telling me we finally had leverage over the crown, and because another coven attacked you, you just left them there?”
Cinder Wraith stepped back instinctively.
Smart girl.
Hex Shade remained seated.
Still calm. Still annoyingly composed. “Would you rather we lost every remaining member tonight?” she asked flatly.
“Yes,” I snapped instantly. “If it meant bringing them back.”
Her jaw tightened slightly at that.
Good. At least one of them understood how badly they screwed this up.
I started pacing behind the desk, anger rolling through me harder with every passing second. Tonight was supposed to change everything. We were finally close. Close enough to break the kingdom from the inside out.
And instead… We were standing here discussing failure.
Again.
“Let me ask you something, Hex Shade,” I said coldly, stopping long enough to look directly at her. “Did they escape during the attack… or did the Moonshade Coven take them?”
That mattered. A lot. Because there was a difference between losing prisoners and handing them directly into enemy hands.
Hex Shade opened her mouth to answer but another knock interrupted her.
The office door opened immediately afterward as Nightbrand stepped inside.
Unlike the others, she looked calm.
Confident.
The tension in the room shifted instantly.
“Flamebearer,” she said smoothly as she approached the desk. “Everything is active and ready.”
That got my attention. Completely.
I slowly turned toward her. “What do you mean active?”
A grin slowly spread across her face. “He placed everything exactly where it needed to go,” she replied. “Every mark. Every seal. Every piece.”
For the first time all night, I smiled.
A real one. A slow and dangerous smile pulled on my face. “Well, hell,” I murmured before laughter finally escaped me.
The sound echoed through the office while Cinder Wraith visibly relaxed for the first time since entering the room.
“There it is,” Hex Shade muttered dryly. “Thought you might actually kill somebody tonight.”
“Oh, I still might,” I replied without missing a beat.
That earned the faintest smirk from her.
“We lost half the coven during this battle,” I said as I looked back toward Nightbrand, “but maybe tonight wasn’t a complete waste after all.”
“No,” Nightbrand agreed softly. “Not even close.”
I leaned forward against the desk slightly, studying her expression carefully. “How about what’s in him?” I asked, raising a brow. “Did it activate too?”
Nightbrand nodded once. “It’s active.”
The grin on my face widened instantly.
Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Because that changed everything.
Clarence being captured no longer mattered. The royals escaping no longer mattered. Even the Moonshade Coven interfering no longer mattered.
Not now. Not when the true plan was already in motion. “They’ll never see it coming,” Cinder Wraith whispered, finally understanding.
“No,” I agreed quietly.
Outside, thunder cracked loudly enough to shake the windows again while rain hammered against the glass in violent waves.
I walked slowly toward the window overlooking the dark forest below, my reflection staring back at me through the storm. “They think they survived tonight,” I murmured. Another smile pulled at my lips. “They think they won.”
Behind me, the room had gone completely silent.
Good. They should be listening carefully now. Because this was only the beginning.
“Let them celebrate,” I said softly. “Let them believe the kingdom is safe again.”
I turned back toward the coven slowly, magic curling faintly through the air around me. “By the time they realize what Clarence planted around that palace…”
I smiled again. “It’ll already be too late.”