For a second, I was so furious I couldn’t breathe. “There you go. We couldn’t ask for more proof than that. What else would she have been doing popping into town?”
“Checking up on us?” Gabriel suggested, but he didn’t sound all that convinced. “It looks bad. But we knew they might try something. Now we need to figure out what we can do for Jin—and how to make sure nothing like this happens to anyone else.”
“Other than the art, nothing in the building was irreplaceable,” Jin said. “I had back-ups on the cloud of all my important info. I even have pictures of the art I lost.”
Not that a photograph was quite the same as having the original paintings and sculptures. I looped my arm around his and leaned my head against his shoulder.
“That doesn’t make it okay. They swore that oath. We haven’t doneanythingto them, and they’re still trying to hurt us any way possible. They—”
My throat closed up with a magical pressure. Someone who wasn’t meant to hear the terms of that oath must be nearby. I gritted my teeth and strained to say the words anyway, but my vocal chords wouldn’t budge. The oath bound me too tightly.
Footsteps whispered outside the room. Lesley poked her head in. “Is everything all right?” she asked, her eyes widening when she took in our assembled group and our dark expressions.
My stomach twisted tighter. What about her and Imogen? The Frankfords hadn’t sworn to leave them alone at all. If they were willing to go this far without even being provoked, where would they stop?
Witches had been killed to cover up their conspiracy. Even witches who’d once been a part of it, like my stepmother.
“We’re figuring that out,” I said, trying to keep my voice relaxed enough not to worry her more. “No matter what happens, we should at least be safe in here.” Between my morning routine of magicking and Jin’s new decorations around the house, I didn’t think any witch could threaten us without us having plenty of warning to fight back before they did any real damage.
But that didn’t protect anything or anyone we cared about outside these walls. I couldn’t expect them or us to live inside the estate for the rest of our lives. What about the staff? Were the Frankfords going to target those totally unknowing unsparked people too?
Lesley was still wavering in the doorway. I went over to her, showing as much calm as I could manage even though my emotions were running wild. “Stay in or close to the manor for now, and you’ll be fine. If you want to go somewhere else, just let me know, and I’ll work out the safest way to do that. All right?”
She gave me a nervous smile. “If it’s like that out there, I’m happy staying in here, Rose. Thank you.”
She ducked her head and turned back to the hall. I waited until I’d heard the steps stop creaking on her way upstairs, and then I whirled to face the guys. My earlier anger rushed up through the calm front I’d been holding in place.
“It isn’t enough,” I said.
“What, Rose?” Seth said, reaching to rub my shoulder.
“What we’ve been doing. Even the new plans we’ve been making. It isn’t enough to just expose them. If we wait until we can do that properly, who knows what they’ll do, how many innocent people they’ll hurt, in the meantime.”
Gabriel had gone still. “Where are you going with this, Sprout?”
The use of his childhood nickname for me cooled my temper for a second—but only for a second. Had they tried to burn down my home here first? Allourhistory could have gone up in flames so easily if I hadn’t been prepared for them to launch some sort of attack. I’d known I couldn’t trust them. The demons in the cave had been monsters, sure, but the real monsters were the people who’d summoned them, who’d used them, who’d trapped other witches into being a part of those schemes.
“They’re going to play dirty?” I said. “We can too. We have to fight back, any way we can. Let them see their homes burning to the ground. Destroy the entrance to that damn cave so they can’t even get to the portal.Stopthem, as quickly as we can. Make them regret ever stooping this low.”
Damon cracked his knuckles. “We can, right? We never promised not to tear them up like that.”
“Rose.” Gabriel grabbed my hand. “We’ll make them regret it. But we don’t have to stoop to their level. You’re better than that.”
I squeezed his fingers and let them go. “That’s what they’re counting on. No. They have to see there’ll be consequences if they come after us. I won’t find a way around the oath like they did. I’ll hit them where they never even expected it.”
His expression was so fraught I had to add, “I’m not going tokillanyone. I can…”
The idea sparked in my head as I looked at that picture of the damp charred ruins of Jin’s gallery. I spun around and hurried for the stairs. The guys trailed after me, Kyler closing his laptop with a snap and bringing it with him.
I strode into my father’s former office and pawed through the books on the shelves. He had one section where he kept documents and books that were from his various colleagues’ external endeavors. I knew he’d shown me it when he’d first gotten it— There.
I grabbed the booklet and slapped it down on the desk. A brochure for an upscale clothing boutique in downtown Portland.
Damon looked at it and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I’m not sure dress shopping is going to make much of an impact on these bastards.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s Helen Frankford’s shop. The business she runs. She’s spent years building it up, cultivating the richest clientele in Portland. Unsparked dollars count to them even if unsparked people don’t. And based on what we’ve seen in their files, I’d guess she cozies up to anyone who seems to have the sort of business or political influence they need at any given time.”
“What are you going to do with that?” Kyler asked.