Spell Bound - Kelley Armstrong [57]
Roni flinched. I was pretty sure Althea did, too. The others shifted, uncomfortable. Giles only gave her a look of stern disapproval.
“There will be none of that,” he said. “Savannah is angry, and rightfully so. I can assure her, though, that we weren’t deliberately withholding answers. We were simply waiting until everyone was here to participate in this meeting.”
“So, can we get to it now?”
He smiled. “Yes, I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Right this way, please.”
He walked to a door and held it open. Inside it was dark. I stopped, ready to dig in my heels, then he pulled back a curtain, and I saw light beyond.
Roni hurried ahead to hold back the curtain for me. Giles had already disappeared. The others were behind me. Sierra jostled past, her brother following. The others circled wider, passing, until it was only Althea, Roni, and me.
I glanced back. I could take them. Even without spells, I was sure I could. It was the other eight people, only a few yards away, that posed a problem.
I continued into the meeting room. Ahead, Giles was blathering on in his outdoor voice, and it bounced off the walls, so loudly I couldn’t make out the words until I walked through the curtain. We were stopped there, in an alcove, the rest of the group hidden from view as Giles paced the front of the room and talked.
“We have promised you many things,” he was saying. “And while we continue to work together to bring our dreams to fruition, I have now delivered on one of my promises.”
He turned and motioned me forward. I stepped past the end of the curtain, and a gasp went up. Then a cheer.
“May I present a young lady who needs no introduction. Miss Savannah Levine.”
I turned and looked out, and found myself on a stage overlooking an auditorium. An auditorium filled with people, all looking up at me and cheering.
Oh, shit.
At first, all I could hear was the cheering, and when that stopped, the thundering of my own blood filled my ears. I stared out at the sea of faces. I tried to count them. My brain stuttered and I had to start over, and finally gave up and counted rows, estimating instead.
Close to two hundred people filled that room. Two hundred supernaturals, aligned to expose the supernatural world—
No, maybe I was wrong. I’d guessed these were the people behind the uprising, but my only proof was Sierra and Severin. No way could there be this many supernaturals already aligned in a plan that everyone with a brain knew was madness. It’d be a damned suicide cult.
Giles was still emoting as he paced the stage. “—long have supernaturals waited for this day. We have waited patiently because we knew it would come. The signs would appear. The signs foretold in the Phalegian Prophecy.”
Phalegian Prophecy? I searched for a memory of such a thing. Sure, supernaturals had prophecies, like any other group. Predictions of the future written by some nut-job, then warped and stretched to fit a current situation. Proof the world was going to end.
Proof that it was time to reveal ourselves, though? I’d never heard of that one.
“The signs have been clear,” he continued. “Signs that our day of revelation is coming.” He paused for a cheer. “Signs that our day of dominance is coming.” A bigger cheer now, so loud it made my ears ring.
Dominance? Seriously? What? Supernaturals are going to take over the world? Were these people idiots? I’d barely passed high school math, and I could do the calculations. Humans outnumbered us by tens of thousands to one.
“Now we prepare to put our plan in motion . . .”
What plan? Sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads?
“First, though, we must complete the gathering of the signs. Once we have them all, others will come. They will join our cause and unite to make this the kind of world supernaturals deserve. A world where we don’t need to hide. Don’t need to cower. Don’t need to fear persecution. And why should we fear persecution? We are supernaturals. We are superior. This is our birthright and we will