I just notice Aimee’s fingers twitching before a gust of wind circulates through the room, causing the resistance members to gasp.
“I’m saving my lightning for the Soldiers,” she informs them archly. “And I’m frying the balls off of any affinitied alpha I encounter.”
Saints, I’m proud of her. She’s come so far in her affinity training, and her control is masterful now. They all have, a testament more to their hard work than my teaching. With Cassian’s crash course in combat fundamentals and all of Ian’s work with them on shields, I know they’re more than up to the challenge of freeing the omega test subjects. Ian taught every volunteer omega and all of Bravo Team the spell to unlock the collars before we retreated to the Leclerc Estate earlier today. They’re armed with everything they could need.
And so am I.
Though we don’t go into much detail regarding our mission, I let the assembled resistance members and omegas know that my pack and I will be subduing and capturing my father, the mastermind behind the affinitied alphas. Cora wasn’t able to determine where my father sleeps, but I’d bet it’s close to his workspace. It doesn’t matter, though. I’m bait, the thing he wants more than anything. He’ll seek us out, only to discover that I’m also our ace in the hole.
Ian leaveswith the first tactical team, and I feel his absence like a throbbing wound. I know he’ll rejoin me and my pack for our mission but having him gone now unsettles me. Luca sits beside me, bundling me to his chest, shielding me fromthe cold as we wait for our transport. It’s no easy task to get a group of our numbers to the tunnel entrance as discreetly as possible, but we rely on every tool in our arsenal: Simon’s technical prowess, Ian’s spells, switching our routes. I watch from the lodge’s wraparound porch as van after van of resistance members leave. It’s quieter out here and easier on my affinity. The omegas and remaining resistance members in the lodge are full of emotion for what we’re about to do, and while I feel as they do, separating myself was a protective measure. I can’t have my affinity tapped out by the time I face my father.
The wait frays my nerves, but finally the omegas start loading into vans to be taken to the consortium. When my pack and I are up, we crowd into a van with a few final omegas and take off into the night.
My pack doesn’t speak of turning back, not in front of the omegas who are so bravely joining our forces. Our ride is silent, but I feel everything through our bonds as though I were having a conversation with my pack. Cassian’s apprehension is a force of nature, and I know it’s both for me and for his parents. Marcus’ frustration ripples through our bond; he still wishes I had agreed to stay home, though he should know me better by now. I don’t back down from a fight, especially not one like this. And Luca? Luca is apprehensive, yes, but also proud. It glows through our bond and into my heart, lighting me up from the inside. It makes me feel brave. It reminds me that I have my thorns.
I can only barely read Simon through his bond with Cassian, but that doesn’t matter. He takes my hand between the seats and gives it a squeeze. When I look up into his hazel eyes, dark in the low light of the van, I know all I need to know. He’s just as courageous as I am. On the face of it, we’re the weakest members of our pack, the beta and omega, but still we’re a force to be reckoned with. Neither of us will everbe as good as Cassian at combat magic, but we’re no slouches. We’ve trained long and hard. I have no doubt we can both put the Soldiers on their asses.
We finally arrive at the tunnel entrance and pack into it, disappearing out of the glow of the streetlights. We wait for the rest of the resistance to arrive with Bravo Team, then we make our way deeper into the tunnel lit only by the dim light of a few scribes. We all come to a shuffling halt when Ian encounters the wards, and I only know he has by the murmurs that travel from the front of the column back to where my pack and I are waiting.
A few moments later, it’s on. We jog through the tunnel, Marcus ahead of me, once again acting as my human shield. Saints, I don’t know what I’ll do if he’s struck down. He sends me reassurance through our bond, and I nod resolutely. This is a risk we’re all taking, but we’re all prepared.
By the time we finally emerge from the tunnel, I can hear the sounds of distant fighting, of shouts and hexes flying. Omegas stream before me, heading toward the medical school within the consortium, some already pooling power in their hands. Bravo Team covers their front and their rear, scribes at the ready. We follow them toward the medical school, splitting off when moving past the treatment rooms. I don’t know if my father sleeps in the barracks. I truly doubt it, but he’ll come if we go to his precious operating theater. He won’t be able to help himself.
Spells fly behind us from the tactical team as they encounter their first Soldiers of Saint Aldous, and I hear a powerful wind kick up, thunder crackling down the hallway. Their fight has begun.
And in mere moments, so will ours.
CHAPTER FORTY
We quietly make our way through the halls. The pandemonium of Aimee’s storm has drawn the Soldiers away from where I was held by my father. They held me apart from the other omegas, in another wing of treatment rooms, no doubt so my father could put additional security on me. Since Cora wasn’t able to get deep into the medical school and all we have to go on is Simon’s hacking of the power consumption, I’m going to have to retrace my steps from that terrible room where I passed some of the worst days of my life.
Ian carefully guides us back to the room I was held hostage in, and my heart kicks up in my chest when I see it. It’s been left untouched since I stayed here, the sheets still rumpled, the cuffs still attached to the bed frame. I lean against Marcus, remembering those days.
“I can’t believe that monster cuffed you,” Ian growls.
Luca casts a quick transmutation circle and turns the cuffs to slag. “Never again, princess. You’ll never be held captive like that ever again,” he promises.
One thing’s for sure; I am done with balls.
“I can make my way from here,” I manage, swaying a little on my feet. Marcus wraps an arm around my waist to steady me and nods toward the door.
We creep through the halls, scribes at the ready, but the dark halls are deserted. I can hear the distant fight, but it feels so far from where we are now. Quiet. Too quiet. I halt my pack, and they surround me as I future gaze, trying to sense for my father. I don’t sense him, but I do sense more minds than I can quickly count.
Soldiers. And a lot of them.
I see them coming to attack us, coming around a corner from the operating theater, and shout at my pack to fall back, that we’re walking into a trap. “Go, we have to go!”
“Too late,” Cassian rumbles as the clamor of footsteps sounds around the corner we were approaching. My pack falls into tight formation around me, scrambling to cover me from all angles.
Saints, we’re on our own. The tactical team and omegas are too far away to come to our aid. We’re pinned down, trapped. We’ll all have to fight if we’re going to survive this. The Soldiers will be hexing to kill my pack—and so must we. The Soldiers stream around the corner, more than twenty of them, and my pack forces me behind them. Simon takes my side, his scribe raised, determination glinting in his hazel eyes.
Cassian fires off the first round of hexes, catching the Soldiers by surprise. If they expected an easy fight, saints are they in for it. They may have the numbers, but my pack has the skills.
“Down! On your knees!” I command from behind my pack, aiming my intention at the Soldiers. Five of them drop to their knees, confusion clear in the way they tilt their heads behind their gruesome masks. My pack makes quick work of dispatching the kneeling Soldiers.
Ian fires off a barrage of hexes, taking down three of the Soldiers. Luca lunges forward, landing a hex and a punch when the Soldier sways on his feet. Ian finishes the Soldier off with an agonia spell.
A few Soldiers advance on Luca, and I drop them to their knees, stabbing my magic into their minds. Luca flicks his scribe to one and then the others, landing spell after spell as Ever Ember hexes fly in the confined space.
