My father brushes the chalk off his hands, gathers his briefcase and leaves the room, turning back just long enough to shoot me a vindictive smirk.
Seventy-five percent. My father’s success rate is seventy-five percent. He’ll be coming for me soon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
My sleep is filled with hazy dreams of my father’s new affinity, of feeling bolted to my chair. Watching my fingers tap a table when I’d done nothing to lift them. I dream that I’m his puppet, forced to do whatever he wants me to do.
It’s past midnight when a buzzing stirs me, and I clamber over my pack to reach my phone, waking them all in the process. When I see the call is from Graeme, I immediately assume the worst. Has Cora been hurt or caught? We haven’t heard from her in over a day, and I’ve been worried.
I put the phone on speaker, and my pack circles around it.
“Graeme?”
“Wrong again. It’s Cora.”
Thank the saints.
My heart thunders in my ears. “You’re safe?”
“Right outside the castle’s magic. I’ve got Graeme and Jack with me. I got it, Juniper. I have the information we need to take down the Soldiers and free the hostages and omegas.”
“And the hostages?” I ask, feeling Cassian’s glimmer of fear through our bond.
“Alive,” Cora confirms. “But you heard the Prince’s announcement. We have to act fast. Come to the castle and bring your map.”
“Cor,” Jack protests. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“We’ll be there in twenty,” I promise, looking around the circle of my men, earning a nod from each of them.
Simon and I dash to the library, and he rips the map from the wall before rolling it up tightly. He pulls me in for a quick kiss, energy thrumming through his whole body. “This is it,” he says, just a whisper between us. “And you’re ready, kit-kat. I know you are. Ian told me how well you’re progressing in your training, and I couldn’t be prouder. We’re doing this, and we’re going to win.”
I return to my nest, and Simon heads to the adjoining room he shares with Cassian. We dress quickly and meet the rest of my pack at the door to the garage. We pile into the SUV, and then we’re off into the night.
By the time we reach the castle, Cora and Jack are both wired on coffee, ready for the long night ahead. Graeme puts on a fresh pot of coffee as we enter the makeshift kitchen, nodding to each of us in turn. He nurses his ever-present cup of tea as we crowd around the table. While Cora would have balked at being surrounded by so many alphas before, she’s at ease now—and determined. Simon spreads out the map and hands Cora a few colored pens.
“Have at it, Cora,” Simon says, and Cora gets down to work.
She writes furiously on the map for a few minutes, marking off rooms in red pen.
“It was hard to get a count of the Soldiers,” she says, “because when they’re not asleep, they’re in those creepymasks and they all look alike, but my estimate is that there are two hundred Soldiers in the consortium.”
“Two hundred? Truly, that many?” Jack grimaces. “I don’t like our odds. We’re more than outmanned.”
“Idolike our odds,” Cora says quietly. “Especially if we attack at night.”
“We?” Graeme asks, aghast.
“Obviously I’m coming with you,” Cora says, a hardness in her voice I recognize. I used it with my alphas when we were talking about infiltrating the collar facility. “I can help. You know I can, so why are we arguing about this?”
“You could be hexed again! Or worse,” Jack exclaims.
“I survived the hex, didn’t I? And I survived life on the streets, confinement in an omega rehabilitation center and time in that awful collar facility. I’m stronger than you think I am.”
“We have no doubts about your strength, Cor,” Jack says softly, a look of supplication in his dark eyes. He reaches across the table and takes her hand. She flinches until she realizes she hasn’t zapped him, still wary of her magic, then laces her fingers with his. “Surely you understand why we don’t want you fighting.”
“I do,” Cora admits. “But you need to understand why I have to do this. There are omegas in there who will suffer a worse fate than I did as a collar test subject. Thirty-four of them, Jack. Slated to die so an alpha can have their affinity.”
“Did you see my father?” I ask quietly.
