“She was in agony. I could feel it," Jet said without any emotion on his face or in his voice. To anyone other than Faction, he may seem cold, but I could feel his emotions as well as my own. The guy was a mass of anger and hatred, just waiting for a target.
Zeke and Zane hadn’t said ten words to anyone since the incident. I knew it was taking every bit of control they had to keep their Draxon from taking over and destroying the world.
At this point, I was all for it, starting with the Council. Those bastards hadn't been helpful at all. Reverie’s fathers, along with myself, had tried several times to get them to take action to prepare us for what was to come, but they failed. Now, with the attacks, they’d been forced to at least pretend to rally the troops. From what I’d seen, Sly and Damien had organized most of the Aurathion forces so far. Jesse and John, along with our Faction, were helping to train those inexperienced in battle. I was waiting for concrete proof that they were conspiring with the DF. When I had it in hand, the days of them drawing breath would be over.
“I need to get to her now!” Nathan collapsed into the chair in front of my desk and buried his face in his hands. “How the hell did this happen? Five men, and none of us prevented her capture. What kind of Faction are we?”
“It was my fault.” Jet scowled. “I was the only one there.” He walked to Nathan and laid his hand on his shoulder. “I swear on my life, brother, I will get her back. And when I do, I’m going to rain hell down on the motherfuckers that took her.”
Zeke spoke in a voice that was so deep and gruff it wasn’t even recognizable as his. “There were mistakes made by us all.”
When I made eye contact with him, I saw that his pupils had retracted into slits. I tensed and prepared to contain him if need be. This wasn’t Zeke; it was his Draxon talking.
“They will not be made again. I’ll see to it.” He looked at Jet, his head turned too slowly, too smoothly, like oil poured over glass. The motion was silent, but it carried the weight of something coiled and patient, the stillness of a predator before the strike. “You won’t be the only one raining hell on my Treasure’s enemies.”
Before I could form a reply, I heard the door slam, and everyone in the room assumed a defensive stance that relaxed when Chloe, Oliver, and Deshawn entered.
“What’s going on? I felt an indescribable pain that I know came from Reverie," Chloe said breathlessly, clearly having run all the way here.
When Zeke turned to look at her, Oliver and Deshawn stepped in front of her protectively.
Zeke growled low at their actions, and Chloe pushed between them. “For fuck’s sake, that’s my brother, and he’d never hurt me in any form he chose to take.” I heard her mumble under her breath about overprotective men. “Now what the hell is going on? The marks on mine and Oliver’s arms lit up, and we both felt the call to aid Reverie.”
“We aren’t sure.” I stood and walked around my desk. “I’ve tried reaching out to contacts that might have spies in Aurathia, but so far I’ve got nothing.”
Jet straightened. “What about the spy my military contact has planted? Fuck! Why didn’t we call them immediately?” He rushed out of the room.
“Firefly, I’m going to help him get the info you all need.” Deshawn kissed Chloe briefly, then followed Jet.
“What can we do while we wait?” Nathan had a look of hope on his face that I’m sure mirrored mine.
“We need to finalize our plans to hijack the portal when the DF attacks Copper Creek. If Jet’s contact doesn’t come through, that may be our only hope.” I ran both hands through my hair, needing to kill something more than I needed to draw my next breath.
“Not according to Pantar.” Chloe started pacing the room, obviously having a hard time sitting still. Oliver pulled her into his arms as she walked near him. When she tried to pull away, he whispered something in her ear. She stayed in his arms, but a single tear rolled down her cheek, unchecked.
“What do you mean?” Zane growled low, his Draxon at the forefront as well.
“Pantar still believes he holds the only hope of opening a portal. He can also still…” Chloe slapped her hand over her mouth and looked around guiltily.
“Still what?” I demanded. What was she hiding? Pantar had been scarce ever since Reverie was taken. Popping in less and less as the days went by. I’d been busy trying to get to my Nexus, so I hadn’t paid as much attention as I should have, apparently.
“He didn’t want me to say anything.” Chloe hung her head. “I don’t want to break his confidence, but with what just happened, I feel like I should tell you.”
“Tell uswhat??!!” Nathan yelled, losing his patience. Nothing was left of the man he used to be—once easy to smile with Reverie by his side.
Oliver stood, “Don’t speak to my Nexus like that, ‘ula vale!”
Both men stood chest to chest, with Oliver, a full head taller than Nathan… not that Nathan was intimidated. The damn fool — which ironically was what Oliver called him in Samoan — wasn’t afraid of anything if it stood between him and his Nexi.
The tension eased when my cell phone rang. Most staff and students didn’t bother with their phones because, typically, they were useless here. Mine was not. I didn’t want to be unreachable when waiting on information, so I’d found a way to remedy that.
I looked at the screen. “It’s Jesse.” I answered and put it on speaker.
“Get over here now!” Jesse yelled into the phone and hung up immediately.
Before we could recover from that abrupt command, Mira popped into the room.
“I’m here to open a portal to my Faction."Without delay, she did so, and we stood to step through, alarmed by the urgency in Jesse’s voice.
