“We can negotiate,” I said.

“She says you need to think about the long term. You might not like her, but you want her in power.”

“I somehow doubt that,” I said.

“The Crowleys can’t and won’t accept peace. The guns were theirs. She only wants to be left alone with her congregation,” the man said. “They are attacking Advance Guard right this moment. If you stop her and you don’t stop them or wipe us out completely, they will gather up the remaining Fallen and go to war.”

“The hallucinations stop now, and they stay stopped,” I said. “We’ll take Valefor to a hospital.”

“She says he’s your leverage then. To keep the hallucinations gone.”

“Yeah,” I said. I glanced at Gilpatrick, and he nodded once.

“She says she expected to see Rain here.”

“Let’s stay focused on one topic at a time,” I said. “You want Valefor to get help.”

“Same topic, she says. We were talking about leverage.”

Erin stepped out of the woods. She moved slowly, and she stopped, standing just behind and to the right of the man with the beard. Her expression was drawn. She met my eyes, and I saw the recognition.

I saw her look at Ashley.

“Give us Rain, and we’ll give you her,” the man said. “Tell Rain, and he’ll agree to it.”

The trading of hostages, less valuable for the more valuable, maybe.

Rain had powers, so he counted as valuable, and he was immune to her powers, so he was a threat. Hopefully he was a threat who was operating in the background now.

Yeah, I wasn’t about to tell Rain.

The man continued, passing on Mama’s words, “Prancer’s group is done. They’re a non-threat now. They’ll leave with their tails between their legs if we let them, and we’re not ready to let them. Agree to leave us be, and we’ll call back the Crowleys.”

“And you keep your ‘congregation’,” I said.

“Even if you killed the leaders of each family, the congregation would remain,” the bearded man said. There was a feral look in his eyes. “We’re here to stay, unless you’re willing to kill us to the last man, woman, and child. Learn to deal with us. Negotiate. Do you want peace, or do you hate us so much you’d prefer a mindless war?”

“It’s not my place to make deals of that scale,” I said. “I’d have to pass it up to the people at the top.”