Seated at the round table with the rest of the Offensives, I studied her, trying to figure out what the hell she was after. What made her come here?
She sat across from me, silent, her face a careful mask. I could see the rigidity in her shoulders, the way her jaw was set a little too tight. She wasn’t broadcasting anything—not anger, not regret, not fear. Nothing.
This wasn’t the woman I had faced at Coastal. That version of her had been all fire and fury, reckless and sharp, too dangerous to ignore. Not the emotionless ice-queen she was pretending to be right now.
The memories of the day I met her came rushing back. I wasn’t Walker’s biggest fan, but I had to hand it to the guy, he’d trained her well. Fifteen seasoned Offensives against one little maga? It should have been easy. Restrain her. Contain her. Lure out her translation.
Instead, she broke out faster than anyone expected, faster than I expected.
And no matter how much it pissed me off to admit it, on some level I respected the hell out of her for it.
Of course, now it turned out she had all that Elder-power inside of her so that did kind of explain it.
Before I could dwell on it, the door swung open, and Enya stepped in. All business, her expression set, ready to drop the intel she had gathered from her time with the Radicals.
The shift in the room was immediate, everyone turned to her, eager to learn what she’d found out.
But I wasn’t watching Enya, I was watching Emma.
Shock flickered across her face, quick but unmistakable.Interesting.
Then I remembered—Enya had mentioned something about befriending Emma during her time at Cyclos.
But as fast as it had come, Emma wiped the surprise away, smoothing her face into the same unreadable mask she had been wearing since she walked in.Taking a page from my book, maybe?
Enya gave her a quick nod before sliding into her seat at the table. The rest of us welcomed her back, warmth in our voices, but the real focus was on what she had to say.
I could feel it—the anticipation coiling around the table. It was about time we’d get some answers.
“Enya,” I called, demanding her full attention. “Can you report to us what you found?”
She gave a curt nod. “I’ve been undercover for the last few months in one of the two Radical camps inside Crown.”
“Inside our Collective?” Rocco asked, his brow furrowing.
She nodded again, looking a little irritated to be interrupted. “Yes. There are two sites inside our Metasphere and two more in the Human World, all close by.”
With a swift motion, she translated a large map onto the surface of the table, revealing the locations scattered across both the Human World and magi territories.
Her gaze swept over us before she circled two specific points on the display—one in the eastern region, one farther west. “This one is the base I’ve been stationed at for months,” she said,tapping the eastern one. “Let’s call it Camp A. It was cleared out yesterday, though I couldn’t find out why. After I called it in, Caden decided to pull me out—in case they suspected I was compromised.”
Kate, our soft-spoken Scottish girl with warm brown hair and a quiet, contemplative air, leaned in and traced a finger toward the second marked point on the grid. “What about that one?” she asked, her touch light but deliberate.
Enya exhaled through her nose, brushing a loose strand of her short ashen hair behind her ear. “Emile’s been undercover at the western outpost—we’ve designated it Camp B—and he managed to get a message through. They cleared it out too. He hasn’t been pulled yet, but he’s faking a family emergency to get back and brief us in person as soon as possible.”
She raised a hand, silencing the murmur of confusion with a single, precise gesture. “Based on everything I’ve uncovered, I believe the Amplifier—assuming there’s only one—isn’t hidden inside any Metasphere. They’re too cautious to risk setting it off accidentally and wiping themselves out.”
Emma’s expression remained inscrutable, but I could tell the gears were turning behind her eyes, quietly piecing together the implications.
Enya remained steady as she pressed on, her words precise. “It seems the Radicals stumbled upon their nuclear weapon purely by chance. Despite their bluster, they don’t have as much control over it as they want us to believe. My guess is, to avoid endangering themselves, they’ve relocated it to an undisclosed area in the Human World.”
With a decisive flick of her wrist, Enya grabbed a red marker and circled another two points on the schematic laid out before us. “As I mentioned, there are two abandoned sites inside our Collective. In the Human World, there’s still one active inLondon…” She motioned to the first base with a flourish. “And another near Dublin.”
She paused, twirling the marker in her hand. “The Amplifier wasn’t at my station, and I doubt it’s at Emile’s either, but we could recheck both locations to be certain. After that, we better portal to the other two. Given the pattern, the weapon is likely hidden somewhere near Crown, the last place where they actually used it.”
I nodded, then acknowledged her with a sharp tilt of my head. “Sounds like a plan.”
Margaux, the only Healer at the table, fidgeted with the edge of her sleeve, her brow slightly furrowed. “What if the weapon isn’t in any of those places?”
