“Mai sent Daniel for him, love,” Cassian says quietly, his voice shaking with pain. “We weren’t sure when you’d wake. If you’d wake. It’s nearly midnight.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “It was just Kel. Thoughts he forced on me.” I don’t tell them what he made me see. They’re already too agitated at the state of me, and I don’t want to relive it any time soon. A headache thuds behind my eyes, and though Kel’s stunt should have tapped me out, I feel my affinity coursing through me, more powerful than ever.
“We need to find out how you can protect yourself from invasions to your mind like that,” Ian says sharply, just as another vision overtakes me.
I hear my men shout for me, begging me to resist. I hear Mai burst into the room, but it’s all to no avail. My mind burns with pain as I fall under the spell of the vision, sinking like a stone beneath the surface of awareness.
Baphomet’s Prince stands before a horde of alphas in masks, his own black leather mask shining like an oil slick in the silvery light of the moon. A faint smile decorates the front of his mask, while the other Soldiers’ masks bear vicious grins. The effect chills me to my core, but it’s nothing I haven’t already seen. I saw the Prince in Rad’s mind when he captured me and took me to his facility. My former betrothed knew nothing else about him. But I see him now, the slim horns of his mask reaching toward the moonlit sky. He barks a command, but it’s like I’m underwater, and I can’t make out the words. An alpha in a mask joins him at the front of the horde, fire trailing from his hands. No scribe in sight.
A victorious roar goes up from the crowd.
The vision changes.
A masked alpha shoots ice from his hands, narrowly missing an innocent omega. Another Soldier traps her in an omega trap until he can get to her, only undoing the trap to drag her into his arms and bind her wrists as she writhes. He forces her into the back of a waiting truck. Eight pale, scared omega faces stare back at me as I watch the vision unfold. I shout, but I’m not in the world I see, even though it surrounds me. Even though I can taste the acrid tang of hexes on the wind and hear the low whimpers of another omega succumbing to an omega trap.
The vision changes again.
The truck arrives at a low set of buildings surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. Omegas are forced from the trucks and shoved through a break in the fence, pushed along by Soldiers. One struggles, the last I saw trapped before my vision changed, and the Soldier with ice at his fingertips sets a hand on her shoulder. She freezes solid in an instant, breaking to icy shards when he kicks her corpse to the ground. None of the other omegas struggle as they’re forced into the camp—because I see now that’s what it is. An internment camp.
The vision changes again, this time to all-out war.
Packs fight against the Soldiers, desperate to save their omegas, and the omegas meet the same fate I did in Kel’s forced vision. They’re trapped in omega traps, just like the omegas of the Saint Jasper slayings, unable to do anything but watch while their mates are slaughtered.
And then I see myself, broken and bloody, my clothes ripped and dirtied, a scribe still in my hand, even as the omega trap hex sends me to my knees. This time, it’s Cassian who’s slain first. The alpha whose fingers trailed flames sets his hands to my mate’s heart and burns him from the insideout. The last thing I hear is Cassian’s scream mingling with my own when the flames are turned on me.
I snap out of the vision, a scream caught in my throat, tears streaming down my face. My pack surrounds me, and I reach blindly for Cassian’s hand, needing to feel his solid strength after the horrors I just witnessed. Even Ian has climbed into the nest now, hugging me around the waist as Luca holds me in his arms. They all touch me, hands stroking down my arms, along my hair. They whisper soothing words, but it’s not enough. I needallof my men around me.
“Marcus,” I croak, and then he’s there, silhouetted in moonlight as he approaches the infirmary nest. He drops down to sit at the very edge and takes my hand into his, rubbing his thumb along mine until my racing heart slows. Until I can finally relax into the arms of my men. Luca presses a fierce kiss to my forehead, and I reach for him to find his eyes shut tight against the threat of tears.
He hugs me to him, drawing in my scent just as I draw in his, needing the comfort of red wine and juicy cherries. Of cedar and citrus, and summer sunshine and salty sea air. Of great pine trees and winter on the wind.
I lose track of time as they calm me. Finally, Mai steps forward, her stethoscope around her neck and a penlight in her hand.
Luca lets out a low growl, but I set a hand on his knee until he stops and finally lets the young healer approach me. She shines the light in my eyes, tracking the movement of my pupils. There’s a sour, concerned expression on her face.
“Tell me,” Ian murmurs, insistence in the two simple words.
I shake my head as Doc listens to my heart and takes my pulse.
“It was too much,” I whisper. “I saw too much. The future.It could be weeks from now. Months. Years. I have no idea. It was horrific. I can’t… I can’t…”
Simon takes my other hand, holding it to his heart. “Don’t, Junes. You don’t have to.”
Mai sighs and pronounces me healthy for now, but her concern is as clear as the wave of fear that races through my pack.
“You’re weak, Juniper. Rest,” she pleads, though I know I won’t sleep again tonight. “I’ll be right next door if you need me.”
“Simon is right,” Ian says quietly. “Don’t relive it.”
But that’s what none of them can understand. I saw the future. I may have no choice but to relive it.
Mai excusesme from my classes the next day, despite my protests, which sound weak even to my ears. In truth, I’m exhausted. Between moving the omegas, my classes and my recent visions, I feel rundown, like I could sleep for weeks and feel no better.
My pack stays home with me that day, Cassian, Simon and Luca skipping out on classes while Ian stays home from teaching the freed omegas.
I’m curled up with Luca on the couch, halfway to sleep when I feel a spike of fear from Cassian.
“We have to tell her, Cass,” Simon mutters.
