Page 184 of Rise of the Queen

“Purple,” I said, kissing her cheek.

“Oh. Well, then. Italy is once again in my future, apparently,” she said. She looked back at the rest of the guys, asking, “Okay, so that takes care of them. Now, what about Martin?”

“I admittedly don’t have as much information on Martin as I do on Ricardo and Sal. What about Trino? Does he still have people who are loyal to him down there?” Battista asked.

“He does. He’s been keeping an eye on him since he’s been here. He said Martin has cut ties with the Mexican cartels, as well as Sal and Ricardo. Because he never got Giana as paymentfor whatever was supposed to happen when he came for her, he’s cut them off,” I said.

“How much does Trino know about what else is going on with all of this?” Battista asked.

“Everything,” we all said at once. Battista was surprised by our answer.

“How did he take that?” he asked.

“Quite well, actually. He’d already seen a few things. He’d seen my eyes go black; he knew I was able to somehow see things I shouldn’t be able to see. He just didn’t know it wasn’t just me until he got out of Colombia,” Sephie said.

“We’d decided already that one stipulation for his new security team was that they were going to have to be okay with everything weird that is happening, since his last security team had a very big problem with Sephie,” I said.

“We took two of Armando’s guys, the ones who helped us find Sephie and Ivan when they were taken, and gave them to Trino. They know everything now too,” Stephen said.

“How did they take it?” Battista asked.

“They’re mostly okay with it. I think more shocked than anything,” I said. I glanced at Andrei, Misha, and Stephen, before looking back at Battista. “It doesn’t hurt that we all control our demons now,” I said. I knew right away that my eyes had switched to black, without needing to see anyone else. I could feel it switch now. I could feel Sephie’s switch now. I knew if ours did, theirs would too.

Battista looked around the room, somewhat shocked to see so many pairs of black eyes staring back at him. He completely missed that Viktor’s eyes were still normal, which saved us from having that conversation with him. “When did this happen?” Battista asked.

“Recently. It didn’t happen all at once. They’ve all figured it out in their own time,” Sephie said.

“I was impressed when I first saw it on you, Sephie. I never would’ve thought I would see it on so many others. You know this is virtually unheard of, right?” he said.

She nodded her head. “You were right in that it’s a warning to other demons, but what you don’t know is that our demons are helping us. We’re basically using their powers for good now.”

Battista looked at her for a few moments. “You’re actually using your demon’s powers?”

She nodded once more. “Each of our demons complement us. Mine is very similar to me, for example. It’s like an added boost for our gifts, basically.”

“Completely unheard of,” he said.

“That’s because you’re looking at things in only black and white. Good and evil aren’t black and white. There’s a very large grey area that is more accurate,” Sephie said. “It’s hard to imagine that a demon would want to help, but you have to remember they haven’t always been demons. They were souls like us at one time. They just made bad choices and paid more attention to the evil than good. You can’t have one over the other all the time. Even only focusing on the good will get you in trouble. You can’t ignore that evil exists and expect it not to affect you or those around you,” Sephie said.

Battista was quiet for a few moments. He finally looked at her and said, “Light cannot exist without darkness, nor can darkness exist without light. The existence of one implies the existence of the other. This is something that people have known for centuries, but it has been altered and perverted by different religions to the point that people don’t understand the synergistic relationship between the two any longer.”

Chapter Fifty-Six

Sephie

We talked with Battista fora few more hours, but we still struggled to come up with a plan for Martin. We didn’t have quite as many details on him and the Mexican cartels were a definite wild card in everything. We were going to need more information on them as well before coming up with a plan on how to handle that situation.

Once Battista left, the mood in the room was noticeably lighter. Everyone seemed relieved to finally have some kind of plan. It had felt like we were stumbling around in the dark for weeks now, trying to decide what to do. At least now we had a sense of direction; a place to start.

On the elevator to the penthouse, I asked, “How likely do you think it will be that Martin will get word of what’s happening in the city and will run or try something else?”

“Is he smart enough to run though?” Ivan asked.

I laughed. “I think that’s fair, but I’m also not totally sure what you mean. For once.”

Ivan waited until we were all inside the penthouse, in the kitchen, to explain further. “I have a feeling that Martin thinks he’s won already. With Trino gone and everyone basicallyworking with him because they likely don’t have any other choice, he’s probably thinking he’s untouchable already.”

Stephen added, “That could work to our advantage. If we keep Trino here and stay completely away from Colombia until after Ricardo and Sal are taken care of, he’s very likely to get comfortable and think he’s safe down there. That’s good for us.”

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