“Are you hurt?” Graeme demands, voice frantic. He steals the phone from Jack, clutching it like a lifeline.
“A little,” Cora lies. It’s plain in her stricken voice that she’s been more than a little injured, but she’s alive, and we’ll be on our way as soon as Simon can track her, and Cassian can get his fathers’ plane. “I found the facility. It wasn’t easy since the area on the map was so big,” she grits out. “I must have tripped a ward when I was checking it out to see if I finally had the right place. An alarm went off, and a guard in a mask came out. He got in a hex before I could escape.”
“A hex?” Jack growls.
“Calm down,” Cora says with a weak laugh. “I’ll be fine. The Soldiers abandoned the facility, though. I think because I tripped that alarm.”
Jack and Graeme don’t believe her, but I do. Cora’s resilient. She’s proven that time and time again. She survived on the streets for years, lived through hell at an omega rehabilitation center, then endured captivity and being subjectedto Rad’s experiments in the collar facility. I have every belief that we’ll get to her in time.
“The facility must have been used for something medical. What I don’t know, but they had a ton of omegas there. Maybe fifty or sixty. I saw them all being loaded into vans, but I was too injured to save any of them. My count could be off. I was trying to find a way to snag them, but they were surrounded by masked guards. Soldiers of Saint Aldous. They had scary masks. Those are the Soldiers, right? I’ve never seen one before besides on the news back at the safe house.”
“It sounds like Soldiers, yeah. They’re incredibly dangerous and without scruples. It’s good you didn’t put yourself at risk,” I tell her, something lightening in my heart. She survived. Despite our fight, despite her bold actions, she survived and was able to pass on vital information we desperately need. Information or not, I’m just glad she’s safe. I don’t know what I would have done if she’d been injured more severely—or worse. It’s good that she’s able to call us, to call Jack. “You’ve already given us more than you know. We’re coming for you, Cora, I promise. Leave your cell on so Simon can track you. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Cora stayson the line with Jack as Simon traces the call. Graeme is on a new burner phone, already mobilizing a few trusted resistance members. We’re going to do this right—safely and with sufficient numbers. Just because the facility is abandoned doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. The Soldiers could come back at any time.
“It’s coming from an industrial complex,” Simon says, squinting at the computer screen through his glasses. “And, shit, the area’s been drawing a ton of power, magical andotherwise. It must have been heavily warded, and I’m guessing whatever they were doing there used a bunch of power.”
I sit on the ground next to him, pressing into his side and resting my head on his shoulder. “Can you tell why?”
He shakes his head. “Not yet.”
“You should have told me or Graeme what you were planning,” Jack says in a soft voice, not castigating Cora, but speaking out of an abundance of care. I almost feel bad overhearing their private conversation.
“You would have stopped me,” Cora protests, but there’s no heat or censure in her words. If anything, she sounds relieved that she’s on the line with Jack.
“We could havehelpedyou.”
“I got by,” she promises, something soothing in her voice.
It’s not enough to calm Jack.
“But you’re injured,” he says, pain and panic in his voice. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”
“You’d cry for me,” Cora manages with a weak laugh.
“For the rest of my life. Just sobbing all the damn time,” Jack teases, though his voice is strained. “Making coffee, sobbing. Fighting with the resistance? Nope, sobbing. Writing exposés and take downs. Sobbing.”
Cora rewards his tease with a breathless giggle.
“You’d get over it,” she tells him.
Jack is quiet as he responds. “I don’t think I would.”
“We’ve got a lock on her location,” Simon cuts in. “Junes, call Cass and tell him we need to be wheels up in half an hour. He’s expecting the call.”
“We’re going to get our girl,” Jack says, resolute.
And we are. Cora is safe and we’ll be on our way to her as soon as possible.
“Juniper,you should stay behind with Marcus,” Cassian tells me as we’re crossing the tarmac. “We have no idea what we’re walking into. This could be dangerous, and I can’t risk losing you.”
“It’s my father, Cass. I have to see this through. You know I do. Listen, I’ll hang back until we’re sure it’s safe. I’ll sweep the area with my affinity to ensure it’s totally abandoned. I’ll be smart, and I’ll stick with Marcus the whole time. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Cassian frowns, closing his eyes for a breath, before finally nodding. “At the first sign of trouble, you get out of there. Get your shields up and go.”
“I will,” I promise.
My pack loads into the jet, a small contingent of resistance members with us. The resistance members crowd into the bedroom on the plane, filling the bed and floor, their scribes at the ready. They talk quietly among themselves as Graeme briefs them on what to expect based on Cora’s limited intel.
