I had no idea the major was even here. Washeleading the bombing mission, even though he seemed like he might be open to hearing our side?
Or maybe he just wanted to stay close to the operation so he’d have more of a say.
“We need to stand down,” he shouts to the colonel, sounding not at all pleased with his superior officer. “I’ve witnessed the entire confrontation. The shadowkind are telling the truth. They’ve avoided doing any major harm. No lives lost, even though it’s clear these beings could easily have slaughtered us. We need to hear them out in good faith.”
“Good faith?” Hueber lets out a strangled-sounding guffaw. “They’ve frozen the baseandset it on fire.”
“Only to stop us from going through with the bombing,” Yin says. “They’re pulling their punches. If it matters that much to them to avoid hurting us even when we’re trying to destroy part of their world, I think we should assume they’re telling the truth about the bombs too. They’re trying to prevent us from hurtingourselves.”
The colonel waves a meaty hand through the air in a dismissive gesture. “You’ve been brainwashed, Major. Get the fuck out of my sight and consider yourself relieved of duty.”
Yin’s jaw flexes with tension, but he stands his ground. “No, sir. I believe you’re the one who’s violated your duty to the American people. We swore to defend our nation with?—”
“Yes,” Hueber interrupts in a caustic tone. “We swore to defend them, and you’re siding with the monsters who want to tear us apart. Now scram before I skip straight from court-marshalling you to telling my men to open fire.”
A pang of protest shoots through me—but Major Yin must have been prepared for the colonel’s reaction. Resignation tightens his expression and prickles through his emotions.
“I tried to give you a chance to do the right thing.Anotherchance, after you’ve thrown away the opportunities the shadowkind already gave you.”
“What the fuck are you?—”
“I’m relievingyouof duty,” Yin says, and gestures toward Raze, whose shoulder is still trickling essence but who’s managed to scrape the worst of the paintball stuff off with Gracie’s help.
Understanding gleams in my mate’s eyes. He fixes his gaze on the colonel.
Hueber is still blustering. “Now look here?—”
He never gets to finish his last threat. His eyes roll upward, and the rest of him sags down.
A couple of the nearby soldiers scramble to catch the colonel before he can slide right off the hood of the vehicle. The hunters glance between him and Major Yin, shifting on their feet uneasily behind the lines of dancing flames that still hem them in.
One of them points at Hueber. “We took our orders from him.”
Yin draws his slim frame up straighter. He doesn’t cut as imposing a figure as his—former?—boss, but he exudes plenty of authority all the same. “The colonel isn’t giving any more orders today. I’m the highest ranking officer currently conscious on this base. Stand down and leave these beings alone.” His gaze flicks to Sorsha. “And maybe our shadowkind helpers could simmer down too?”
Sorsha shrugs. Her flaming wings and the barriers of fire waver away at the same moment.
I brace myself, but Hueber’s force of soldiers, hunters, and sorcerers stay where they are. I get the impression a lot of them would like to turn tail and run, but no one wants to break formation first.
Hail turns his head and mumbles, finally coming to. I bend down next to him and touch his cheek.
His eyelids flutter open. “Planes still on the ground?”
“Yep. You did it.” A poignant smile tugs at my lips. I look over at the jets. “And they’re leaking something out of their bellies, so I don’t think they’ll be flying anywhere anytime soon.”
The winter fae struggles to push himself upright. “There’ll be more. Too many fucking planes. Too many bombs. Stupid humans.”
We’ll just hope none of the humans standing around us heard that last part of his muttering.
Gracie sputters a laugh and swipes at her face. “He isn’t wrong.”
He isn’t. Yin just bought us a reprieve, but how long will it last? For all we know, some other colonel is arranging a different bombing run at a different base right now.
We can’t go running across the countryside, sabotaging every fighter jet in existence. And even if we could, it wouldn’t solve the real problem of that warped rift still spewing its toxicity over the city and into the shadow realm on the other side.
Nothing will be fixed until we fixthatcatastrophe.
But how? It could take me years on my own or with just my mates. When I tried to bring more shadowkind into the mix to ramp up the effect of my power, we just distracted each other.
