Relief slammed into me, followed by embarrassment. I scrubbed at my chest as I matched Sofia’s pace. “I should’ve figured to do that.”
She shook her head. “None of that pitying shit. You thought fast—snagged the pendant in the first place, then you broke through Frederick’s veil of being human. Wonder how Alpha Blue and the Human First assholes will take to learning they’ve been rubbing elbows with a monster.”
A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside me, exploding out. Out of anyone, I knew intimately how well that would go over.
Sofia unlocked her small purple sedan and slipped into the driver’s seat. I hopped into the passenger’s side, casting one more glance at Ursuline’s apartment, now brimming with smoke. Any moment now, the fire engines would be arriving, and we wanted to be gone beforehand.
“Where to now?” I asked, my heart thumping hard.
A grin stretched Sofia’s lips. “We’re going to jailbreak Ursuline.”
Chapter 30
It would’ve been far too easy for Cillian to make a few phone calls, threaten a few people, and have them return Ursuline. Of course things didn’t work out that way. Yet I couldn’t help wishing we could’ve solved this situation simply.
Instead, we headed to an all-too-familiar place.
One that made my gut churn.
“Who knew your family had such strong ties to Alpha Blue,” Sofia mused as she headed down the winding back road in a direction I’d driven for years.
All those years, and I’d never realized we kept a holding cell for them on our grounds. I’d explored, sure, but there were areas I’d never bothered with, stretches of the woods too dense to wander on the massive expanse of what we owned.
“I sure as fuck didn’t,” I murmured, bile rising inside me. Not that the discovery surprised me, given the way my parents had always easily disappeared any problems, but the disappointment slammed into me regardless.
“I assumed,” Sofia said. “You don’t strike me as the type who’d tolerate that.”
I chewed on my lower lip. Maybe I’d remained too blind for too long. Too busy trying to please my parents rather than fighting against the crimes they stacked up. In a way, I could understand Arielle turning a blind eye to her father’s atrocities. The alternative was a hell of a lot scarier.
“I won’t,” I promised Sofia, since I couldn’t speak to the past. “My parents were talented at keeping our lives compartmentalized. Yet I should’ve looked closer. Should’ve realized what they’d been involved in.”
“Suddenly makes sense why Frederick wanted an arranged marriage with your family in the first place,” Sofia drawled.
That, I had figured out, even if I hadn’t realized my family had an Alpha Blue holding house on their property. I’d spent so much time trying to leave the place that I hadn’t wanted to explore it. And when I was younger, my tutors and nannies had kept a close rein on me, so I hadn’t been free to wander through the grounds.
The nearer we got to my parents’ house, the more my chest tightened. The weight of those memories grew heavier and heavier, until it threatened to crush me. Yet Cillian had gotten intel that they’d shifted Ursuline to the holding cell there, and the next step would be taking them back down to New Atlantis.
Where I’d be unable to do a damn thing.
“Mal arrived ahead of time,” Sofia commented. “So the guards at the back entrance should be dealt with.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to know what “dealt with” meant. “Should I be carrying any weapons?”
Sofia arched a brow and passed me a glance. “Not unless you’re trained in them. I’ve got a few spelled flash-bangs to use in a pinch, which I’ll pass on to you.”
A little relief fluttered through me, as I didn’t feel confident with anything sharp or dangerous.
The gates to the Durand family manor rose into view, and my chest constricted. My parents hadn’t tried to contact me once after they’d sold me off. Once I’d left, I hadn’t checked. I didn’t want to witness their disappointment.
We bypassed them, heading for the entrance that staff used, less ostentatious and more economical, just a pair of black iron gates with zero flourishes.
“Ready?” Sofia asked. My whole body hummed. The alternate option—being away from Ursuline permanently—wasn’t one I could consider. My heart twisted hard at the thought of them, how they’d be suffering in a cell, alone, after finding out about the death of their family.
“Yeah,” I murmured, my voice low.
We entered through the gates. True to expectation, they were empty of the normal guards. To the right led to the manor, but instead, Sofia jerked the car to the left, down a dirt path that wound its way into the woods.
“How many are in there?” I asked, my heart thumping hard.
