Guards wearing mage tech.
Just like how I could sense Andrew Radcliffe through the mage tech he wore when stalking me, I can sense the guards as well. And they have to be guards for whatever this clandestine facility is.
My stomach sinks as it all comes together.
Rad hasn’t been in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Radcliffe Industries headquarters, because he’s been here the whole time.
He watches me intently, waiting for the moment I realize that his part of Project Halcyon is based here, not even an hour from the academy.
No, it can’t be. This whole time, I’ve felt some semblance of safety, knowing he was hundreds of miles away, but he hasn’t been. He’s been here all along.
He leans in close enough to whisper against the shell of my ear. “Surprise, beloved.”
A chill of disgust ripples through me.
“Come,” he says to Willow. “Let me show you Radcliffe Industries’ newest R&D facility. I think you’ll find the results we’ve achieved here to be eye opening, to say the least.”
He tugs me forward by my arm, and I go on wooden legs.
Saints, no wonder he didn’t want me to bring my phone or wear the tracking charm Marcus gave me. He doesn’t want me to know where we are. He might not even want Willow to know the facility’s true location.
We step through the facility’s wide double doors, and I feel the buzz of powerful wards against my skin.
We pass through magical and metal detectors, and I’m made to surrender my scribe.
“You’ll get it back, beloved,” Rad promises with a sneer as he draws me into the lobby of the building.
It’s crawling with guards and scientists in lab coats, and Rad quickly checks us in with the security desk. The lobby is a hive of activity, and we pass a few scientists and guards in the hallway as we go deeper into the facility. I try to count them, to tally them in my head. If nothing else, Graeme Miller has been looking for information about this facility, and I can supply it.
The busyness in the lobby does nothing to prepare me for the chaos that assaults me the moment we step into one of the wings of the facility. Screams of pain bombard me and I clutch my head as agony wails through me.
“Juniper?” Willow asks, a hint of concern in her sharp voice.
Saints, does she not hear all this? The shouts and screams, voices pleading in more languages than I can make out, cries of help falling over each other in a cacophony of suffering?
She doesn’t.
Everything I’m hearing is in my head. The tumult presses in against my senses, too many voices to count, every terrorized, agony-filled scream sapping more and more of my energy until I collapse to my knees, clutching my head. Rad yanks me to my feet, swipes an ID card at the door, throws it open and shoves me through it.
I trip into a hallway filled with small rooms.
Cells.
Bespelled glass walls line the hallway, allowing me to see into every room. Rad grabs my arm again and drags me past cell after cell. In each one, there’s an omega test subject. Some rage against scientists, some call out in their minds, others in words, beseeching me for help I can’t give them.
Saints above.
All these omegas have affinities.
One whips water through the air, shaping it and lashing it at the glass. Another levitates above her cot, watching me with a guarded but curious expression.
We stop by a cell where guards are pelting an omega with hex after hex, but not a single one lands until she tires, and her affinity fails her. She lets out a wail of pain so sharp I feel it in the very core of my being, and I want to reach out to her, to catch her thoughts, but Rad drags me onward, a small smile turning up the corners of his lips when he sees how upset I am.
I see more affinities than I can properly commit to memory. Fire magic. Time distortion. Telekinesis. Each omega seems to have a different affinity.
Pleas for help tumble over each other in my mind, and I feel my knees go weak once again, but Rad doesn’t let me fall. He holds me up and forces me to look into the cell we’re in front of.
“Watch,” he commands, alpha command heavy in the single word.
