“I like where you’re going with this,” Zayne said, gently squeezing my shoulders. “Sounds like someone else should’ve been in the running to lead the clan.”

A half smile formed on Nicolai’s face. “I would’ve voted ‘Hell, yeah’ to that.”

Danika snorted. “As if that would even be an option. Half of the clan—no, half of the damn population of Wardens—would crap themselves at the mere idea of a female running a clan.”

That was sad.

And true.

Part of their mentality toward the females could land at the feet of their archaic social structure. The other half was because too many demons weren’t stupid.

Unfortunately.

Demons knew that the one surefire way to cut the Wardens off at the knees was to go after the next generation. Females and young Wardens were targeted. The locations of the communities they lived in were well-protected secrets. That was why the fact Danika was often out and about was surprising.

But also, again, they were superarchaic in their beliefs. Yes, it was more dangerous for the females and the wee baby Wardens, but if they were trained to fight and defend themselves, like Danika and Jada were, they wouldn’t be such easy targets.

One day and one day soon, they were going to have to change.

“I don’t know why we’re all standing here pretending like Danika doesn’t already run the show,” Dez commented from where he stood.

That got another big smile from Danika and a rather muted nod of agreement from Nicolai. I liked them together. A lot.

“Anyway, I started doing some research on ley lines and what could possibly disrupt them since we can’t very well go in and just blow the school and portal up,” Danika continued, and she was right. So charged with celestial energy, it would take out half, if not all, of the city if we attempted something like that, which would result in a whole lot of loss of human life.

And possible exposure.

“I couldn’t find anything on the internet other than some really weird stuff that made no sense,” Danika was saying, drawing my attention back to her. “So I went to our very own personal internet service.”

“Gideon?” Zayne surmised.

She nodded. “I asked if he knew anything, and at first, he wasn’t sure of anything, but he went and locked himself in the library for a couple of hours, emerging with an answer.”

While I wondered if he had found an answer to my oh-so-personal question about reproduction, hope sparked in my chest. I tried not to let it ignite. “Did he find anything?”

“He did.” Danika’s gaze bounced between Zayne and I. “Black tourmaline, hematite and black onyx.”

“Huh?” I murmured.

“Gemstones.” Zayne’s hands slid off my shoulders. “You’re talking about gemstones?”

“Yeah. I know, sounds like some hocus-pocus crap,” Dez said, looking at me. “But we know hocus-pocus crap is some legit stuff, don’t we?”

Yeah.

Yeah, we did.

Nicolai nudged Danika. “Tell them the rest.”

“Those gemstones can block energy—all kinds—and Gideon theorizes that enough of it could very well disrupt the energy of the ley lines,” she explained. “Not only allowing us to possibly destroy it without blowing up the nation’s capital, but if not, definitely rendering the portal useless to the Harbinger.”

23

“That’s huge,” I whispered, placing my hands on the cool granite. “Like really freaking huge.”

Danika’s smile was big enough for me to see as she lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know if it’s huge or not since it doesn’t completely eradicate the whole Gabriel issue, but it could at least prevent him from carrying through with his plans.”

“Being able to shut down his plans is huge,” I told her, nodding empathetically just in case she needed the extra reinforcement. “You’re brilliant.”

“That’s what I tell her.” Warmth filled Nicolai’s voice. “At least twice a day, and three times on Wednesdays.”

I thought Danika might’ve blushed. “You need to make that four times on Wednesdays.”

“That I can do,” Nicolai murmured.

Energy buzzed through my veins, mingling with my grace. I slid from the stool and started pacing. “How much of it would we need? Those gemstones?” I asked, already forgetting two of the names. “Onyx and what were the other two?”

“Black tourmaline and hematite,” Zayne answered, because of course he remembered.

“A lot.” Danika twisted at the waist. “Like either several tons of tiny pieces or a really large chunk of the stuff.”

Several tons? I folded an arm across my stomach.

“Where would we even find it?” Zayne asked.

“I doubt the answer is going to be Amazon,” I muttered.

“Not if we want to make sure we have the real deal,” Dez answered with a grin. “Black tourmaline is mined in Brazil and some other places in the world, but most of it comes out of Africa. And no, I didn’t know that until yesterday.”

“Africa?” I stopped for a second. “Brazil? How are we supposed to get our hands on that?”

“I’ve reached out to a few of the clans in those regions to see what they can get their hands on and how long it would take to get it to us,” Nicolai said.

“How would they get several tons or a large chunk to us?” I started pacing again. “I doubt that would be something you can put on a plane.”

“I imagine they’d ship it.” Zayne looked over at Nicolai. “Right?” When the clan leader nodded, Zayne sent me a quick grin.