“I’ve got it,” he breathed, and the screen flickered.
I got up and walked over to see a hooded human holding a syringe and injecting Asher with it from behind.
The small phoenix boy collapsed as tourmalyke was injected into his bloodstream.
Rune swore under her breath. “I fucking loathe humans at this point.”
“You’re not alone,” I grunted.
Jesper’s aura roiled with the promise of violence.
After we found out it was definitely the humans from the terrorist faction, Cassie, Bradley, Rune, and Dimitri split off to question the marketplace.
Every supernatural they questioned gave the same expression of guilt for not noticing it happen, fear for their own children, and shame for being unable to stop it from happening.
They were able to speak to a fae woman who was running her herb shop. She’d seen a cloaked figure watching Asher for weeks, but she never thought this would happen.
It meant that the humans had stalked him and taken him when he was at his most vulnerable.
Sitting with Agnes, Hayes, and the rest of the squad was killing me.
I’d wanted to be out there, investigating. But I was a healer, and I was needed here, with the family.
While the spies were talking to the potential witnesses, the enforcers: Jesper, Jesse, April, Kyle, and Tobias, swept the rooftops.
A crackle came over the comms in my ears as Corin had a live feed of what they were doing on the rooftops above where Asher had been taken so we could see.
Slater was still looking through all the footage from the abduction.
Kyle paused, his red eyes zeroing in on something above the marketplace. “Uh, guys? We’re being watched, and not just by our team.”
A human drone hovered far above the marketplace. It was pulsating with some kind of illusory ward. The kind the Human Resistance Network stole from us.
Tobias destroyed it with one blast of phoenix fire.
After that, Morgan stayed with the parents while the rest of us met back up at headquarters. The enforcers took an hour to arrive, but once they did, Jesper gave way to Lysa, the intelligence analyst, to go over what we had.
Lysa spread the evidence over the meeting table as Jesper let her take the lead. “Tourmalyke confirms that it was the HumanResistance Network. The injection was too precise. Kyle found something else on the way back to Headquarters, too.” She projected a photo onto the holographic screen behind her and zoomed in on a burned scrap of metal. “The ash patterns show an access grate was opened. They went underground.”
“Into the tunnel system,” I mumbled.
Lysa nodded grimly. “And the trail goes right to the border and then evaporates. The enforcers went into the tunnels and followed the trail until it went cold. It’s unfortunately safe to assume the child is with the Human Resistance Network, and we won’t find Asher until we locate the facility they’re hiding in.”
My heart dropped like a rock into my gut.
Rune’s phone buzzed, and she grabbed it and froze.
Rage flooded the matebonds, and I looked over her shoulder at the text on her screen.
Unknown
Your mates will never know peace.
My blood ran cold.
“It’s Allison. It has to be. She’s provoking us!” Rune threw the phone onto the table, fury trembling through the matebond from her. “I’m going to inject her with my most painful, fatal venom when we find her,” she hissed before her eyes snapped to mine. “I’m so sorry, Koa.”
“It’s not on you,” I breathed out. “This is the Human Resistance Network’s doing.”
