Bloodied marks ran along the base of Jax’s back, like Lucien had sunk his barbed tail into his skin. “You are the most badass little guy, but fuck, did you have to hold on to my flesh like your own personal reins?” He winced as Lucien jumped from his back, creating a portal in the open area while appearing completely unbothered by Jax’s pain. We quickly stepped through and escaped this miserable place.
We fell out of the portal, thrown off balance just as we were the first time, landing in the middle of Lana’s chambers. Lucien popped out of the portal beside us, exhausted and panting, but on all fours. The portal closed quickly.
Lana, Kalliah, Raya, and both seers were seated in her sitting area. Our friends jumped to their feet, while the seers watched us with unreadable expressions.
“What happened?” Lana demanded, as Kalliah examined Jax while Raya came to my side, helping me up. “Tell us everything.”
Jax frowned and wiped the sweat off his face. “It’s bad.”
Lana’s gaze shifted rapidly between Jax and me. I grabbed a glass of water off one of her tables and gulped it down, the liquid not only cooling my throat but helping my body recover slightly from the intense heat.
I set it down and reached for Lana. “Kade’s at Firestone. He’s with Thames.”
She brought a hand to her chest and rubbed. “And the weapon?”
“I think…” I frowned, running my hand over my neck. “I think the volcano’s the weapon.” I hesitated for a second. “He’s going to feed Kade into the volcano and let it erupt.”
Chapter 32
Lana
Despite knowing in my gut that Thames had kidnapped Kade, hearing it stated didn’t make the confirmation any easier to accept.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach as if I could hold myself together. If Thames had Kade in the volcano, which was the weapon we needed to destroy, how would we win?
We hadn’t agreed on much, but not meeting Thames until the darkness was eliminated seemed the most important, the one thing we all knew for sure.
“Okay,” I said a few times to myself under my breath.
“One step at a time. Just like before. We think, we plan, we execute. We don’t rush so we avoid making mistakes.” Storm’s hands rested on my shoulders, giving me strength as I closed my eyes.
I stepped out of his touch and turned, facing the room so I could take in each of my friends. Kalliah tended to an injury on Jax’s back, while Raya and Ian sat side by side on the couch, whispering to each other.
Storm didn’t take his eyes off me though, tracking my every move. My anger at the seers would be enough to distract me, soI avoided looking toward where they stood in the corner of the room.
Instead, I paced in front of my fireplace.
“How is the weapon the volcano?” I questioned. “Or does it only work if Kade is thrown in somehow?”
Ian sighed, leaning his arms forward onto his legs. “I don’t know.”
“It’d be safest to destroy the whole thing,” Jax surmised, turning his head to face Kalliah. “I know you love me, but you needn't worry, beautiful. I’m already healing.”
Kalliah smacked the back of his head before retreating to one of my chaises. She crossed her arms, rolling her eyes at Jax, who merely grinned at her.
“How do you destroy a volcano?” I ran a hand up my arm to ground myself and not allow my panic to rise at the impossibility of it. I’d never even seen a volcano. “Describe it,” I said, not bothering to direct my command to Ian or Jax specifically. “What does it look like? Where is Kade in relation to it?”
Jax leaned back against the side of the couch. “It’s a fairly large monstrosity. It took Ian a few minutes to fly around the perimeter to gather the size of the army.”
“Which is massive,” Ian said, running a hand over his face. “A few thousand at least camped at the base of the east side of the volcano.”
Storm grunted. “He’s been busy for years. I’m surprised it’s only that.”
“Oh, and don’t forget the voidlings,” Jax added.
I shuddered. Raya had told us immediately about Thames keeping the beasts locked away with his army.
“We’re working on creating the antidotes,” Vivienne said. “We’ll have as much as we can before the battle.”
