He holds my gaze for a moment. Then he lifts his hand, pulling off his ring, holding it out to me.
“Take it.” His jaw flexes.
“Your Guild ring?” I arch an eyebrow.
“Please, I just need to make sure you’re safe.”
“How will this keep me safe?” I stare at him.
“There’s a tracker embedded in the metal. Noah would be able to track it if anything happens to you.”
I stare down at the ring. It’s icy silver, most likely white gold. Cold, elite. The dark blue sapphire glints with some brightness hidden in its depths. It represents Jace perfectly.
“Fine.” I take the ring and tuck it into the inner lining of my vest, pulling the zipper to secure it. His eyes heat as it rests against my chest.
I turn before he can say anything else.
I fall into step with the team, my weapons balanced across my body, my heart steady in my chest, and Jace’s gaze burning quietly at my side.
The transport hums beneath us, low and steady, like the breath of something alive. None of us speak. The air is too thick, with sweat, with silence, with everything we left unsaid.
Jace sits across from me, rifle resting in his lap, eyes locked forward. His jaw is tight. Focused. The kind of stillness that comes before impact.
Tex is next to me, shoulder to shoulder, warm and solid. He hasn’t said a word since boarding. His leg bounces faintly, and I can see the fire in his eyes, the itch to move, to fight.
Noah’s checking their comms, recalibrating the shared channel one last time. “Ping test: green across all units.”
Luca flashes me a grin like it’s a joke, but even his edges are sharp tonight.
The cabin lights shift from white to red. Five minutes.
The dropship starts its descent, tilting lower through the trees. I can feelthe change in air pressure. My stomach flips, and my fingers clench around the harness at my hips.
Outside the window, nothing but darkness and fog. Our target lies buried beneath a mountain range that looks dead from above, no thermal signatures, no comms. But we know what’s under it. A fortress. Mercenaries. Prototypes built to kill. And somewhere inside, the weapon Daniel’s betting his war on.
Jace stands first.
“All right,” he says, voice low. “This is it. We drop in silent, no chatter. Single-file through the north tunnel. Suppressors on. Tex, you take point. Luca, cover rear. Noah, you’re second. Isobel, on me.”
We all nod.
He meets my eyes for half a second longer than necessary, just long enough that I feel it in my chest, and then the bay doors slide open with ahiss.Wind howls through the chamber. A metal staircase drops down, swallowing itself into the dark earth below.
We move. One by one, boots hit steel. Then dirt. Then cold stone.
By the time I reach the bottom, the dropship is already gone, swallowed by fog, the sound of its retreat muffled by the trees.
Silence presses in.
Tex signals forward, rifle up, eyes alert.
We enter the tunnel.
It’s carved from old rock, reinforced in parts with metal beams and rusted scaffolding. Moisture slicks the walls. Our footsteps echo, soft and careful. Every breath tastes like iron and dust.
Luca’s voice whispers in my ear through the comms. “Tunnel forks in thirty. Stay left.”
I move closer to Jace, just behind his right side. He glances back, just once, to check on me, and then we keep moving.
