The front door slammed open down the hall, and heavy feet hurried towards the kitchen. Barrett burst into the room, followed closely by Vincent, Zephyr, Thalia and James.
“You got any food for us,Mitera?” Barrett hurried over to her, leaning over her shoulder to look, popping a kiss on her cheek. I didn’t know how this poor woman had put up with them for so long.
She swatted his hand when he reached to grab a bite. “Mind yer manners, Barrett. Sit ye arse down, an’ Ah’ll fix ye a plate when I can.”
Thalia shook her head at him as she settled into a seat next to me. Her cornsilk hair slipped over her shoulder as she leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I’d love to see her clobber him with that spatula.”
I huffed a giggle. “You just missed her do that to Damien.”
Disappointment flashed across her face as she gaped at Damien as he settled into his chair. Barrett joined us at the table, kicking back in his chair. He popped a stolen piece of bacon into his mouth, winking at me as he leaned back in his seat. Everyone was oddly chipper and awake for being out so late patrolling. I couldn’t understand how they functioned on such little sleep. Then again, they were immortal, and there was a lot I still didn’t understand about their race.
James walked over to Ethel, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. “G’mornin’, Nan.”
“G’mornin’ deary. Ah’ll ‘ave ye some breakfast ready ina bit.”
James propped his laptop up on the table, and Damien leaned in. “Have you been able to recover any of the footage from Cole’s escape yet?”
Adrenaline spiked in my blood, but I did my best not to react. Cole had evaded capture over the last couple of months, and there had been no signs of him since he broke out of his cell at The Complex. Damien had lost two warriors in the process, and it remained a mystery how he’d gotten free.
“Whoever got inta our system knew wut they were doin’. It took a while tae comb throo’ everythin’, but ah managed tae get some o’ eh footage recovered.” James typed and clicked away at his keyboard. “And Damien... there’s also evidence o’ electrical damage.”
Damien’s elbows settled onto the table, his fingers knitting together as he rested his chin on them. “So, it was one of our kind who helped him, a Stoicheion user.”
My brows furrowed and I looked at Damien. That’s what he’d called my flame magic. “Wait a minute, isn’t Stoicheion flame magic?”
“Stoicheion users are elementalists,” Barrett interjected, running his fingers through his short blonde hair. “Vincent and I come from House Stoicheion.Members of our house are born with one set elemental ability, always at random. I can control Flame Stoicheion while Vincent controls water. There’s flame, water, lightning, earth, and air, though air and lightning are rare abilities. I haven’t seen a lightning Stoicheion user in decades.”
My eyes lowered, thinking about when I’d gained the ability to use the flame magic, how I’d wanted to forget that power—refused to test or use it after what happened to Marcus. Would I only be able to use flame magic? Or, given that I was meant to use every house’s blood trait, would I be able to use all the elemental powers?
“So, we’ve got a lightning Stoicheion user and an Aíma.That’s a dangerous combination.” Damien’s eyes hovered on the tabletop, thinking beyond the words he spoke, his knee bouncing faintly beneath the table.
I’d seen Cole’s abilities firsthand, so I understood the truth he spoke. He was the sole living heir to House Aíma,manipulators of blood, thought to have been wiped out during the battle of The Fall of Kingdoms. Cole could bend a person’s blood to his will with a simple touch. The things he could do were beyond my imagination. My experience was limited to him altering my blood pressure and heart rate to prevent a heart attack when Marcus had—
I drew a deep breath, pushing the images out of my mind.
“All right, ‘ere we go,” James chimed, spinning his laptop around for us to see the video.
I leaned in, eyes scanning the screen. The video was rough, fragmented and corrupted. Cole sat in the cell, the chains loose, but still binding him, keeping him contained. Though I didn’t feel any sympathy for him, it was still difficult to look at. The familiarity of being chained in the same manner had never quite dulled.
“It’s ok,mea luna,” Damien whispered in my ear. He laced his fingers with mine, and I realized I’d been rubbing my wrists again, the faint scars still rough and fading under my fingertips. I breathed deeply and resumed watching.
The lights flickered in Cole’s cell, and the door swung open. His guards entered, scanning the room. There was no audio, so we couldn’t hear what they were saying. The screen suddenly flickered and shook when what looked like lightning shot into the chamber. The currents of electricity surged around the guards, leaving them lifeless on the ground. A woman entered the room; dark brown hair was her only identifying feature, her back turned to the camera. She hurried over to Cole, knelt before him, and cupped his face in her hands as she spoke.
We all watched the screen intently, waiting for a clearer view of who’d aided Cole’s escape. She released Cole and helped him to his feet, his arm tugged over her shoulders to stabilize him. Her head turned in the camera’s direction, her face blurred and unrecognizable, before her hand shot out and the camera went black. James reversed the footage back to the last clip before the camera went offline, showing the blurred image of the woman.
Zephyr looked across to Damien. “Is that Amara?”
“It definitely looks like it,” Damien said, his dark brows furrowing as he scrutinized the image.
Vincent let loose a breath as he lifted his gaze from the laptop. “She hasn’t made another appearance since we busted Marcus’ hideout. No one has seen or heard from her.”
“I didn’t know she had any abilities,” Damien said.
“It’s possible.” Barrett sat back in his chair as Ethel brought over plates for the others. “She’s not a warrior of The Order, so we wouldn’t know of any ability she might have.”
“I’m not surprised she would side with Marcus,” Thalia said as Ethel set a plate of food before her. “She was always a pain in the ass.” She got to work on her breakfast as Ethel continued to set full plates out for everyone.
The food sitting before me suddenly looked unappetizing. It wasn’t enough for Cole to have a target on my back. Amara already didn’t like me, and I could only imagine how furious she must have been to be knocked out by a human.
