“Yeah. More good, the other five are gonna keep on my brother, but they also think they may be able to locate Lucien’s father using Lucien’s blood, seein’ as they’re connected, father and son. They said it’s a long shot, it might work better with more witches, but since their coven was almost wiped out a few days ago, they’re not thinkin’ it’s a good bet they can recruit more and time is something we don’t have. But they’re gonna give it a shot with what they got.”

I felt my eyes get big. “That would be great!”

He grinned. “Yeah.” Then his grin died.

“What?” I asked.

“The good part of the rest I’ve gotta tell you is, we know it’s happening. The bad part is, it’s happening.”

My body got tight again, but I didn’t repeat my what.

“That hanger who came to see Lucien?” he started, and I nodded. “He was recruited by The True. He stayed with them while they were doin’ what they were doin’ with hangers. And when it was safe, he hauled ass to find Lucien to tell him what that is.”

“What is it?” I whispered.

“Buildin’ an army. Training. For battle to help with this Noble War, whenever that’s gonna start, and for other duties.”

“Like what other duties?”

“Like guarding the camps where they’re gonna intern humans.”

I felt bile glide up my throat.

“Uh…what?” I breathed, my voice sounding strangled.

“They got lots of plans,” Abel went on. “Obviously, they gotta leave some humans to do their thing. Need food to keep humans alive so they’ll need farmers, shit like that. And they’ll be able to take what they want when they want. The delectable morsels”—he said the last two words like they tasted funny—“that’s what they call them, they’re gonna breed and they want them available to feed. So they’re gonna build camps, corral those kinds of humans into them, and see to that shit. But there will be more.”

“This keeps getting worse and worse,” I muttered.

“Yep,” he agreed.

I let that go because I had to.

“How did this hanger know where to find Lucien?” I asked.

“Apparently, Lucien had showed him kindness. The guy hung around at places Lucien would go, did Lucien favors. Lucien didn’t accept these favors for free, gave the guy money which kept him clothed, fed. Lucien guesses that somehow, that built a bond. That’s a guess, though. He doesn’t exactly know how and he’s not exactly comfortable that the guy did know.”

“At least he did us a favor,” I said. “Kindness always pays off.”

“Yeah.”

“What now with that?” I asked.