I nodded and focused, pushing aside the lingering haze of intoxication. I envisioned my body as clear and sober, my mind sharp and alert. It took a few minutes of concentrated effort, but gradually, I felt the alcohol’s grip on my senses begin to dissolve.
Fun fact about healing drunkenness: you get to keep every single memory.
Caden’s next words were swift and authoritative. “I need you in the command center. Now. You’ve made us late. I’ll give you two minutes to fix yourself up, but I expect you fully dressed in Offensive attire.”
Before I could even react or gather my thoughts, he portaled out, leaving me alone in the room. The abruptness of hisdeparture was like a slap to the face, leaving me with a mix of confusion, guilt, and a rush of urgency. And fear.
Fear I’d irrevocably broken something which, as it turned out, I desperately needed.
FORTY
CADEN
The green portal spat me out into the harsh, clinical light of the hallway outside the command center. My fists curled tight at my sides as I moved—fast, focused, but barely holding it together. Every step echoed the restraint burning through me like a slow fuse. There was a smoldering ache under my skin, and it carried her name like a sin.
Emma—pinned to the wall, eyes glassy with adrenaline and liquor, her laugh hushed and loose—it all flashed through my mind like a godsdamn fever I didn’t want to break. Her fingers on me, the soft drag of heat and boldness. The way she’d whispered I was hot, like it was some half-kept secret she couldn’t hold in. It was branded into me now, hot and scalding and fucking dangerous.
That grin—teasing, reckless, like she knew exactly what she was doing—had slid under my defenses, making me question everything I thought I’d buried deep.
The way she’d talked about Saoirse, so casually revealing intimate details I hadn’t expected to hear—it wasmaddening.The way her mouth shaped those words, describing something I would never be allowed to see but now couldn’t stop picturing. Saoirse’s hands on her. Emma curious. Willing.Learning.
It was unbearable.
A visceral blend of jealousy and arousal coiled low and taut inside me, like I’d been set alight from within. I hadn’t felt that kind of need in years—not like this. Raw. Unfiltered.
Cursing under my breath, I stalked toward the command center. I had to clear my head, get it back into the game before this all got out of hand.
Right before reaching the door, I stopped. Leaned my head back against the wall. Closed my lids.
Fuck.
I had to shove it all down. Bury it. Drown it in ice.
I drew in a breath through clenched teeth as I pushed open the doors, then entered the room with a steely resolve to focus solely on the matter at hand.
Which was easier said than done, especially when I saw Emma already waiting for me in her Offensive attire, as I’d instructed. She sat with a tense posture, her eyes bright and alert despite the lingering haze of our earlier encounter. I gave her a curt nod, no more than a simple acknowledgment of her presence.
Rocco sat next to her, his expression a mix of irritation and curiosity. Saoirse slumped beside him, clearly still drunk, her head resting on his shoulder.
“How the hell are you sober?” Rocco whispered harshly to Emma, his attention darting between her and Saoirse.
Before Emma could respond, I snapped, “Can everyone shut the hell up?”
The room fell silent, the air taut under the clear edge of my irritation.
“Emile and Enya returned from a Radical camp in the Human World, near Japan,” I began, each breath in the room seeming to stall around me. “By sheer luck, they discovered the whereabouts of a high-ranking Radical and tracked him into the Himalayas, where they overheard a conversation about the Amplifier’s current location.”
A collective murmur swept through the room as I conjured an in depth map of the range, the contours and peaks appearing with crisp clarity.
“As Enya correctly deduced a few months ago,” I furthered, “the Radicals have hidden their nuclear weapon in the Human World. More specifically, it’s encased in ice somewhere within the Karakoram range.”
“What do you mean, ‘somewhere within’?” Rocco interjected, his brow furrowing in confusion.
“Emile will explain,” I said firmly, then took my seat next to Sean.
Emile rose and projected a detailed scan of the Karakoram range, zooming in on Batura Sar. The image shimmered as he enhanced the view to reveal a concealed path within the mountain.
“Here,” Emile pointed to a narrow trail on the scan, “is where the Radicals created an invisible breach. It’s nearly at the heart of the massive, but entering without clearance is a guaranteed death sentence. They’ve retrieved protections from various Collectives’ Layers and molded into one Layer of Protection, surrounding the entire summit. We need to find a way to cut through these defenses, retrieve the Amplifier, and portal it out without triggering any LiaPrisms.”
