November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

19. The Truth

The Truth

Thyme

I knew our bubble was about to break when Oak lied to me. It was such an obvious lie too. He’d tensed even before he began to read the messages, telling me they could only be from one person: Basil. His expression grew stormier as he continued to read. His fingers tightened on the phone so hard I feared the device would splinter.

The worst thing was the lie.

No, maybe it was the tears I saw him push away. He wasn’t fine. He wasn’t close to being anything near fine.

After the last few days, I really thought we’d made a breakthrough in our relationship. This felt like the most real thing I’d ever had. I truly thought he might have deep feelings for me. That he might love me like I loved him.

During our little hideaway in my room, I’d been dreaming of a future with Oak by my side. Was everything we shared just smoke and mirrors? Was he using me ?

While Oak slept, I watched him and fretted. I briefly contemplated opening his phone to check his messages. It was possible they were still on there. At one point, I even got out of bed to go get it. Oak had stirred, so I’d scurried off to the bathroom instead.

Guilt ate at me for even thinking about invading his privacy. Then I got defensive at that mental voice because there was so much more at stake here than just hurt feelings.

Eventually, I reasoned myself into settling next to Oak and finally getting a few hours of sleep. When I woke, it was to Oak brushing my red waves from my eyes.

“Are you okay? You were frowning in your sleep.” He caressed the frown lines, smoothing them away with his gentle touch.

“You lied to me last night.” I hadn’t meant to say the words, but they weighed so heavily on me, I just had to get them out.

He let out a gusty sigh. “Yeah. I kept waking up last night thinking about it. I should have told you right then and there what was happening. It’s stupid, I just wanted to have one more night of peace with you.”

“It’s that bad?”

“It’s Basil.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

Oak sat up with another sigh. “I’m going to tell you this now so you aren’t blindsided later when we tell the others.”

Was it ridiculous that I got a flutter in my belly when he said we? Probably. Didn’t care. I sat up too, fully alert.

“Okay… what’s wrong?”

“Let me start off with saying I was never going to go through with it. I was always going to tell you and the others.” The open expression, the honesty in his voice let me know he was sincere.

“You’re worrying me now.”

“You’re right to be worried. Basil… he’s unhinged. He sent me back here—“

“Sent you? But the attack! Your injuries!”

“All to make the coven take me back. To see me as a victim.”

“But you are a victim!“ Goddess, I was furious! “Those injuries weren’t fake! You could have died .“ I could hear my voice getting shrill with my anxiety.

“True. He had to make it authentic.” Oak’s careless shrug hurt me. To think he valued himself so little that he accepted what Basil had done to him so easily sickened me.

“He wants me to bring him Damon and the book.”

My stomach dropped .

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. He said he’d kill Zinna if I don’t.”

Zinna was his only family aside from baby Sage and Poppy. He couldn’t lose her.

“Fuck.”

Oak chuckled. “I know. Zinna is just looking for an excuse to get some payback. She’s fine. I’ll warn her of course, I just wanted time with you, not thinking about all the shit hanging over my head.”

I put my head in my hands, unable to understand the depths my brother had stooped to. Threatening Zinna to make Oak get him the coven grimoire and Damon was beyond anything I thought he was capable of.

“Are you sure Zinna will be okay?” Worry ate at me, forming a ball in my gut.

“Baby, she’s surrounded by elves, has Poppy and Sage to care for. She’ll go all mama bear on anyone that tries to touch them.” He tried for a smile. “At first I panicked. I really thought he could pull it off. Then sense kicked in. She’s in Abrocaelum. She’s safe. I’ll make sure she’s protected.”

His use of the endearment made me feel better. He seemed to relax the more he talked.

“Here.” He leaned over to get his phone. “I’ll text her now. If I call I’ll never get her off the phone. I’ll add Pops to the text so she can be on guard, too.” He fiddled with his phone for a moment before silencing it and setting it aside .

“Okay. So what do we do now?”

“We tell Damon. He deserves to know. The messages yesterday were Basil getting impatient. I’ve got three days to come up with something. Maybe you can help me delay him?”

“I’ll try to think of something to buy us more time. Three days isn’t a lot of time to work with.”

“Are you ready?” We were standing together outside of the living room. The rest of the house, minus Barr who was visiting Jorgoth, were waiting for us inside. I’d texted them all to say we needed a house meeting.

“Not really, but we have to do this. Damon will never trust me if I don’t tell the truth.”

“Do you still have the messages?”

“Kept them all.”

“Good. Those are your proof.”

“I dunno about that.”

He handed me his phone, open to the text thread with Basil. I glanced at the bottom message, the reply from Oak to Basil about working on a plan. Eek, that didn’t sound good. I must have made a face because he let out a bitter laugh .

“See?”

“Well, yeah, but also it’s vague enough to string Basil along.”

“That’s what I was going for. C’mon, let’s get this over with.”

Following a step behind Oak, my hand in his, we entered the room. I stood beside him as he explained the confrontation in the cafe, the demand Basil had made, including what would happen if Oak didn’t obey, then the attack.

All through him talking, Damon kept a blank face. The others went through a range of emotions from horror to anger. They all stayed quiet until the end.

“Figured as much,” Damon finally said.

“What?” I blurted.

“Basil wants to use Oak like the Trojan horse. An inside man. I thought he might after he started texting Oak again after so long. I mean, I’m sure Oak gives good dick, but Basil’s managed to go without him for months.”

Oak coughed and spluttered with shock. Everyone else laughed. Damon was as cool as a cucumber as I stood looking at him aghast.

“Sit down both of you,” Damon chided. “I’m getting a sore neck from looking up at you. We need to figure out how to stop him visiting the mansion. When we confront him, it needs to be on neutral ground.” He had a good point there. “Plus, I really don’t want him messing this place up. I happen to like this house.”

“How do we buy time?” Cody asked anxiously. He was tucked up under Toth’s arm with Hela on his other side. Even from this distance, I could hear the Hellcat purring to calm Cody down.

“We make it look like Damon doesn’t trust Oak,” Parker said. “Create lots of opportunities for Basil’s spies to see the distance there. Then Oak can ask for more time to get Damon to lower his guard.”

“Yes,” Gregoris agreed. The demon was like Toth, he didn’t speak much, though everything out of his mouth was worth hearing. “If there is no opportunity for Oak to steal Damon away, then Basil will be forced to be patient. We should also keep the house busy so there are no chances for Basil to attempt to get in himself.”

“How do we do that?” I asked. The idea was solid. I could see how a busy house would prevent Basil from trying to get to Damon himself. It would also give his spies a chance to see Oak struggle to get near Damon.

“We offer training to the coven to fight against the shifters. We can see if the pride will let us borrow some of their members to spar with. Sweetwater is locked down tight because of the aviary.” Damon’s face was thoughtful. “We’ll have to play at disagreeing on every decision. ”

“Yeah, that’ll work. I can text him telling him you’ve been impatient over how long I took to heal. Tell him you’ve been avoiding me.”

“There’s another thing,” Damon looked apprehensive. He shared a look with Mori who nodded.

“What?” I glanced at Oak, who was staring at Damon, a resigned expression on his face.

“You two cannot be seen together,” Damon finally said. “Basil will lose his shit if Oak is seen with someone else. He’ll go nuclear when he finds out he’s with you.”

My jaw dropped. “Seriously? I finally get my man and now I can’t have him?”

Cody giggled, making Toth relax. I was pretty sure Gregoris cracked a smile while his mate, Parker, was full on grinning. Damon and Mori, though, they stayed serious.

It was Oak who answered his question. “Only while others are in the house. Once they are gone—“

“And we’ve scanned the place,” Parker interrupted. I would have said he was paranoid, but given his former line of work, perhaps he had a right to that. “Once we’ve checked there are no bugs to listen in, then you can do whatever you do that makes Thyme make that noise.

I flushed. “Fuck off. ”

Parker blew me a kiss, which made Gregoris growl and pull him close.

“So we have a plan?” Damon checked in. We all nodded. “Cool. Me and Mori might have to make a trip to the demon realm later in the week, but we’ll only be gone a day at most.” The pair shared secretive smiles.

“Even better. Can’t steal you if I can’t find you,” Oak teased. Damon only raised an eyebrow. “What? Too soon?”

Parker laughed. “We’re going to have so much fun with this.”