“Haven’t seen Marcus or the girls either,” Aymeric answered. “They’re off because they had their chip replacement yesterday evening. Could they be outside, having dinner?”
Dimitri turned his head toward mine with a grave look.
“What?” I asked him.
“I think I know where she—theyare.” I waited as he started pacing, looking anxious. “Fuck. I should have seen this coming.”
“What’s going on?” Aymeric asked.
“I think she went to the prison to try and free Arc.”
My heart stopped.
Ohshit. “But Arc is—”
“Yeah,” he interrupted. “She told me yesterday morning she wanted us to go and get him out of there. I told her I needed a bit more time before I could deal with this but—fuck, I should haveknownshe wouldn’t wait.”
“You think she asked Marcus to go with her?” I asked.
“I don’t know him that well, but you said they’re friends, right?” I gave him a tense nod. “Then probably. She’s not stupid enough to go alone…But only the two of them?”
“Wait.” I turned to Aymeric. “You said the girls haven’t been here either?”
“I haven’t seen them since I woke up, although I rarely see them during the day anyway. But, yeah…The house has been quiet since I came back from work.”
Dimitri spun around, hands gripping the edge of the island counter as he cursed, his breathing turning labored.
“We need to go,” he said. “We need to gonow. Tostopthem. It’s too dangerous, and we can’t let her get to him.”
From what I’ve seen the few times I’ve been pulled in Arc’s head, Dimitri was right.
“I’m coming with you,” Aghen said, determined.
Dimitri pushed himself away from his spot and nearly got his hand back around his throat when I stopped him.
“We could use the help,” I said, placing a hand on Dimitri’s shoulder to keep him far enough from Aghen. “I’ll trail him and ensure he doesn’t stay alone with her if we do find her before you.”
“If we find her, we might have bigger issues,” Dimitri said darkly.
And he was right. We needed to get to her before she got to Arc.
Chapter 34
Lola
Marcus turned his head and gave me a tight nod.
Perimeter was clear.
Night had fallen. The acid rain made the dusty cracked floor muddy. The sand, flying around in the strong wind, had turned the whole area a dark, blurry, and steaming both orange and greenish color. No human could survive outside in these conditions. The water falling from the thick and heavy clouds could easily melt their skin if they stayed outside for too long, or even make them blind if they got a single drop into their eyes.
Even though immune, most Immortals tended to avoid staying out when the weather acted up like it did today. These kinds of episodes happened all over the world, but some places had it worse. Arizona was one of them.
The state had not only suffered from the worldwide nuclear attacks humans launched to try and eradicate our kind during the war, they had also poisoned the river and forced the Immortals to retaliate. I wasn’t there at that time, but I still remembered the news freaking out about all the humans in the statedyingwhen the water from the river had evaporated and rained. That had been a clever move from our side, but it had also been a destructive one, transforming the large state from a barely livable furnace into a deadly no-man's land. I wondered how the few humans patrolling around our camp fared most of the time…
Safe to say, when both Divines and Hellrisers had corrupted the Witches and Warlock a very long time ago, they also broke their commitment to protect the earth. No original Witches—the ones Astrals blessed—would have done something so damaging to the land. I understood then why my father and the other Astral species had worked to try and obliterate the corrupted covens…
Savi was sheathing all her weapons in her harness and thigh straps as Francesca and I were putting everything back inside the car, leaving no trace of our brief stop. Marcus was pacing at the entrance of our little cave, scanning the surroundings with watchful eyes.
