I wasn’t sure I believed her, but Roth inclined his head and said, “Witches don’t trust Wardens. The whole indiscriminately killing anything with demonic blood thing. But, I got to say, I’m going to be super offended if you really thought it was better to risk angering me over Aym or Bael.”

Faye inhaled, and several seconds passed. “We spoke only with the senator at first. That isn’t a lie.”

“But?” Roth goaded.

Her shoulders tensed. “But it wasn’t the senator who came after you all arrived. It was Bael. And you’re right. We wouldn’t risk offending you over him.”

“But?” Roth said one more time.

She reached for a glass of water but stopped and placed her hand on the table. “I told you that the coven is leaving this city—Hell, we’re leaving the entire coast. For the last couple of months, our Crone has sensed something growing. Something we want no part in. I told you that already.” She toyed with the edge of a napkin. “We thought we had time. We were wrong, though. It’s already here. The Harbinger.”

15

The Harbinger.

Faye had confirmed what I’d suspected. The coven knew about the Harbinger and had possibly knowingly aided the creature, whether directly or indirectly.

“Have you met it? Seen it?” I asked, because if she could give me any description, it would help.

Faye shook her head. “No. We don’t even know what it is, but when Bael arrived after you left, I knew someone had been watching us. They knew you’d been here.”

Roth shrugged. “But they didn’t know what you told us. You told them, and you could’ve lied. This is starting to bore me, Faye.”

“Bael knew we were planning to leave. He...knew we had sensed this—this great unrest. An unbalance that none of us have seen before.” She lowered her gaze as her fingers stilled on the napkin. “When Bael came, he told us that we hadn’t made a deal with only the senator, but with it, this thing he called the Harbinger. We didn’t know until then that the Harbinger was what we’d been sensing.”

“You betrayed us because he told you the name of something you knew nothing about?” Roth coughed out a dry laugh. “Bad choice there, witch.”

“We knew enough.” Leaning forward, she kept her voice low. “He showed us what the Harbinger is capable of. One of our coven members who’d been at home had been killed. Bael had pictures.” Her skin puckered around her lips, blanching white. “Paul. Paul was murdered.”

I had no idea who Paul was.

Apparently Roth did and didn’t care. “So?”