“Focus on the mission,” Hunter scolded them. “Jesper is telling us all the updated information from the spy.”
Reed and Bram nodded as if they were happy to not be scolded, and I bit back a smile.
Jesper briefed us again about the ritual site we were supposed to destroy within the building, but my focus was on the faint hum of energy pulsing from Nebula’s skull.
Dark magic tainted everything it touched. It was like ink that bled into water, tainting every drop, and Nebula was soaked in it. His soul was muted, but I knew it was his soul—I just couldn’t sense anything about it.
“Focus. Weaken her,” Nebula said before de-manifesting.
I carefully placed him into my bag and slung it over my shoulder just as Jesper finished the brief.
Jesper smacked his hands together in two rapt claps. “Move out. Stay aware.”
The agents went ahead of us and opened the door with a loud creak that echoed through the air. When there was no response but the howling wind, they motioned for the rest of us.
Our entire group stepped into the bitter cold building.
It was eerily silent, but as we reached the middle, dozens of souls honed in on us. Cultists stepped out of the shadows and from behind industrial shelves. What struck me as odd was thatnoneof them were infected with dark magic. Regardless, their intent to kill us was just as strong as the ones I’d fought who had been infected.
The thing was, there wasnotrace of dark magic within the Ice Factory.
“They aren’t infected, but they’re just as dangerous,” I rasped, and Jesper repeated what I said to his agents. “I don’t sense dark magic anywhere.”
“No, but I sense powerful magic…” Jesper titled his head. “Fae magic.”
The cultists’ eyes gleamed with devotion, lips curling into sneers as they surrounded us. They weren’t the first to strike.
As the supernatural agents circled around me and my mates and moved further into the building, elemental fae magic detonated all around us.
Fire roared to life, eating through the frostbitten floor, causing smoke to curl into the rafters. Agents caught fire, their screams piercing my ears so loud it hurt.
Ice came from the ground, jagged and razor-sharp, a frozen storm cutting through flesh and fabric of the agents on the outer circle.
Wind howled, lifting bodies and slamming them against walls, bones snapping like twigs.
The earth itself cracked beneath us, splitting open like a mouth ready to devour, and several of the agents fell inside.
“Fae traps! Be fucking careful!” Jesper shouted, his usual demeanor breaking.
“Jesper!” the student who was shadowing him screamed as she was picked up and tossed into a wall by air.
Scales scattered along Jesper’s skin as he let out his dragon roar. Then, he started shouting orders at his standing agents.
A jagged piece of ice ripped through my shoulder, penetrating my flesh and piercing straight through.
My breath hitched, but I didn’t falter as I let my magic surge, taking down a few of the cultists near me. Blood oozed warm down my arm, staining the floor beneath my boots.
“Pandora!”my mates screamed, but they were all too far away now. Reed’s voice was closest, but they were all desperately calling out for me.
“I’m fine!” I shouted, turning toward Reed’s voice as I swallowed some of the souls of the cultists, but a fresh gust of wind sent me crashing into a pillar.
My body met the pillar with an audible crack. I gasped as pain flared through my ribs.
Through the smoke and fighting of cultists and agents, I saw Reed, running for me, but a wall of fire cut him off.
“Pandora!”He was in full demon form, but he couldn’t get to me.
Rage exploded through our bond before a wave of raw, nightmarish energy pulsed outward, hitting every single cultist in the factory.
