It takes a couple of minutes for Erich to siphon the data, but once he does, the computer begins to sizzle with Nyx’s telltale electricity encasing it, and a new alarm sounds, this one down here. The overhead lights shut off, leaving only the red swirling beams of the security alert to light up the room as all the cell doors pop open, the computer finally fried.
Pandemonium breaks out immediately.
There are screams, roars, flashes of light from unknown abilities, and a near stampede for the stairway.
“Shit.” Laurant is behind me when he speaks. “We should have made them wait. They’re disorganized.”
“They’ll be fine.” I turn to him. “They’re fighting for their freedom now. Let them earn it. They’ll be more grateful for it that way. Believe me.”
His brow tightens before he nods, then looks past me to Erich and Nyx, who are talking to a small group; more than one of them limps and staggers.
Laurant and I near the group together.
“—ut I can make it.” An injured Alpha looks around at all of us. “I’ve just been here too long. Made me weak.”
And just like that, I’m back in Tenebrosa, shivering and huddled in the corner of my cell at ten years old. A frightened and caged animal.
“But you made it out, Zephyr. You’re strong now. More than strong enough to help these people who need you. You can help them get out. Help them start new lives.”
I lift my head to find Laurant there, crouched before me in my cell. He holds out a steady hand to me. When my trembling fingers touch his, I’m back in the facility on Long Island, twenty-two years old again, hand in Laurant’s. He smiles at me with such love and kindness.
Processing what just happened, or asking how he did what he did isn’t possible as a large group of soldiers begins to rush down the stairs at us.
The battle is on again, this time with far more Cursed powers on our side.
Laurant looks like a sex-personified badass as he tosses several blades in the air, waves his hand at them, and sends them flying into the faces of the first line of soldiers to reach the bottom.
Then, Erich sends the next group screaming, dropping dead much quicker than I’d expect, his fire far hotter than it had once been.
With the soldiers dispatched, we make our way back to the main floor, prisoners helping injured prisoners make it up the stairs. The released prisoners who made it up here before us slaughter soldiers and scientists all around them, screams and blood, flashes and beams of light.
And in the air above us, a dark puff of smoke, from it falling four familiar figures.
“Arlowe?”
Nyx’s shocked voice carries over the commotion as her friend grins at us.
“We were in the area and thought we’d drop in!”
Nyxeris
When Lowe severs another soldier’s head with pure glee on her face, I am stunned into near-paralysis.
She’s been wreaking havoc all around us, and I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since she joined the fight.
Only minutes after the arrival of Arlowe, Rodrigo, Lucas, and the Russian Alpha I still don’t know the name of, a huge batch of GBE reinforcements arrived, far better armed and armored than the group that was already here.
When she puffs beside me, she starts speaking fast. “The small backup team sent to help Mira and her crew didn’t make it. Rodrigo got worried, so we all went to make sure Mira was okay.” She disappears then reappears holding a severed head byits helmet that she tosses to the ground with a look of disgust. “It was a good thing we did, because shit hit the fan.”
As I zap a few incoming soldiers, Lowe, seeming a bit out of breath, pulls out two handguns from thigh holsters and begins to fire in front of her.
“Are they okay?” My voice is a near shriek.
“Oh, yeah. Of course.”
That was kind of the most important thing to tell me…
“They did their thing, too. The truth is being broadcast all over the globe as we speak. Fight. You know what I mean.”
