He pulls up an employee ID photo of a young alpha. “Meet Nathan Wickman, mechanical engineering wunderkind. I have no doubt that he’s behind the creation of the collars. Such a feat of engineering, however repugnant, would have required a special kind of genius—one that I believe only Nathan Wickman possesses. If he were to work with a caster as accomplished as Cadigan, saints, they’d be a powerhouse of mage tech engineering.”
He works his lower lip between his teeth and squints at his screen.
“What is it?” I prompt.
“I think he’s there under duress,” Simon mutters. “He left a really prominent academic post in California abruptly last summer, which on its own wouldn’t bethatsuspicious, but Wickman isalwaysaccompanied by at least two guards, and he only seems to work at night. And now that I’m looking at the logs properly, I have no data on him swiping in and out of the facility—only moving around within it.”
“They’re keeping him there?”
Simon shrugs. “Best guess, yeah.”
I let out a long breath. “If he designed the collars, then he would have to know how to unlock them.”
“But if he’s designing this tech under duress, Project Halcyon has some kind of leverage over him. He won’t willingly tell us how to unlock them.”
“He won’t need to if you can get me in the room with him.”
Saints, this is it.
What my affinity was telling me I’d need to do. Nathan Wickman won’thaveto tell us how to unlock the collars because I can take it from his mind with my affinity.
“Yeah, Cassian’s going to hate this,” Simon says lightly.
“Saints know I do,” Ian mutters with a dark sigh.
Because he knows I won’t back down. Not when this is something only I can do.
“I’m covering you in shielding spells,” he vows. “The pack stays with you at all times. You are not to leave our sight under any circumstances. Understood?”
I go to him, tucking myself into his arms. His scent is sharp with fear, and I feel it in the way he holds me close. “Yes, alpha. I promise. But I have to do this.”
I have to save those omegas. I have to set them free.
* * *
We tellthe rest of my men about our newest discovery—and my mission—the next day, and as Simon predicted, Cassian isn’t happy about it, nor are Luca and Marcus. Still, there’s no question that this is something only I can accomplish and so it’s decided, with no small amount of alpha grumbling.
Simon receives two dozen smartphones in the mail the next day and spends the entire weekend taking them apart and muttering over the pieces. He consults Ian and Luca often, and by the end of the weekend, he has a single working prototype of a device that can read magical signatures—including mage tech.
“You realize you’ve done a lifetime’s worth of work in a weekend, don’t you?” Ian asks Simon. “Even the most talented mages I know won’t accomplish in decades what you’ve done in days.”
Simon offers him a tired smile. “Say that again when it works.”
Ian turns his back, and I cast the most complex warding spell I could find in one of the books he got me for Yule. When he turns back to me and the wards I’ve just created, he holds the device up to them and then gasps when sigils appear on the screen. He reads them off to me and I confirm them, tracing my finger down the page in my book, nodding at each one.
“Saints above,” he murmurs, awe in his voice. “If I can get readings like this off the warding around the facility, I can reverse engineer it and dismantle it.”
“Child’s play?” Simon asks him, knowing that, together, they’re about to accomplish the impossible.
“Child’s play,” Ian agrees with a self-satisfied smirk. “Truly, you’re a genius, Simon. I won’t pretend to understand how you’ve done it, but this is… this is unbelievable.”
“Fuck yeah, it is,” he yawns before turning to me with a sleepy smile. “Come nap with me, kit-kat. I want to cover you in kisses, and then sleep for a week.”
* * *
We don’t sleepfor a week, but Simon does sleep all the way through dinner until the next morning.
With Ian’s begrudging blessing, I skip class that Monday, and Simon, Luca, Marcus and I make the drive to the main road Luca had traced on Simon’s map. We’re cautious as we go, Simon continuously checking the device on his lap for any nearby magical signatures. The last thing we want to do is trip some silent alarm and have the facility crack down and change all their wards.
