Page 88 of Another Damned Storm
“That’s unexpected,” I said, just loud enough for Hook to hear me over the drone of voices echoing off the warehouse walls.
After what Lily said the day before, and Hook’s rundown of his conversation with my brother, I fully expected Matt to hold this meeting on his own. Watching him set his grudges and misgivings aside reminded me of just how much he’d grown in my absence.
With Lily’s help, of course.
Hook bent, bringing his lips to my ear. “Perhaps we should remain in the back until we’re needed.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” The ideal way for this to go down was for the two of them to convince his people to work together without our influence. “Let’s just hope they listen.”
Half an hour later, they seemed to come to a consensus. The purists weren’t happy about working with the people from Salus, but for as loud as they were, they made up a small fraction of the group. The rest were more than willing to team up with magical and non-magical people alike if it meant they might be able to reclaim their city and their lives.
“When will we launch an attack?” someone called from the middle of the group.
Matt and Lily shared a look, but it was Matt who answered. “We’ll need to watch the skies and the park. Thrain conjures the storms to help the demon bring others through the veil, but we have no way of predicting when the next storm will occur.”
“So, we’re just supposed to wait?” a different voice asked.
Lily raised her hand to quiet the grumbles that swelled. “Yes, there will be waiting involved, but these storms have been hitting us every day. Trust me, we won’t be waiting long.”
Once they had the majority on board, they hashed out a plan that involved temporarily transferring some of Lily’s people to Rutledge with Matt and assigning some of his people to Salus with Lily. Their secret weapon, however, would be the contingent they planned to have destroy the two churches where Thrain’s followers gathered to worship him.
“Let me be clear,” Matt said, pausing to make sure the crowd around him fell silent. “The goal is to destroy Thrain’s houses of worshipwithoutinjuring the people themselves. These people were your neighbors once. Your friends. Maybe even your family. We don’t want to hurt them, but we only stand a chance of winning this fight if they turn their backs on him.”
I wasn’t sure I agreed with destroying the churches because it seemed like it could have the opposite effect. Instead of losing their faith in Thrain, it might galvanize their belief and make him even stronger. But I kept quiet. This was not the time to offer a dissenting opinion.
After the meeting broke up, we caught up with Matt and Lily in his room.
“That went better than expected,” I said, offering them a cautious smile.
They might have put on a good show in front of everyone,but there was still a world of tension hanging between those two.
Matt shrugged. “We’ll see how it goes.”
“What about the people who voted against an alliance?” I asked.
He cast a wary look at Lily. “For now, they will be given other duties to keep them busy.”
“Are you sure about destroying the churches?”
Neither was quick to respond.
“I only ask because it seems like a good way to create rabid followers.” It wasn’t that I meant to be judgmental of their plan, but maybe there was a better way.
Hook took a sip of the beer Matt handed him. “If his followers are true believers, torching their houses of worship won’t matter. They don’t need a roof over their heads to gather. But if they are simply neophytes seeking out protection because they are afraid… it could work.”
“Any idea how many true believers there are in the bunch?” I asked.
Matt sucked air through his teeth and shook his head. “No. If we had more time, I would have someone from my team infiltrate their congregation, but Lily was right, the storms are hitting us every day now.”
They planned to coordinate the attack using a combination of radios and magic. With one witch working from Salus and another working from Rutledge, they could enchant a series of handsets and magically scramble a frequency to prevent anyone from intercepting the transmission.
“You two worked all this out this morning?” I asked, once again feeling like I’d missed an awful lot.
“Last night and this morning,” Lily said. “Matt came out to Salus after Atlas dropped me off yesterday.”
Color me impressed. “Is there more to the plan? Contingencies?”
They walked us through everything. A heavily armed first wave would charge into the park at the first sign of a storm to confront Lapalme’s demons before they had a chance to make it to the fence. A second contingent would hold defensive positions around the perimeter of the park to stop any fleeing demons from getting out into the city. That group could also move into the park if it looked like the first group needed help.
