If she had never woken back up? If we had found her dead? My heart couldn’t have taken it. First my sister, then my mother. My fathers. If Ezra fell too it would be the final blow, the last one needed to completely shatter me. I’d never be the same, and that’s if I could even keep myself from doing something in the midst of all the pain and loss. I need her as much as I need my next breath, my existence tied to hers.
Call me obsessive if you will, but I never claimed to be perfect. I have my flaws as much as the next person; mine just tend to revolve around clingy attachment and abandonment issues.
“You were completely right, I just needed to rest so I could start looking at things from a different angle. But I think I’ve figured out a plan, if you guys are game,” she says, moving towards the armory and opening the door.
“We’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, angel.”
She rolls her eyes and smiles. “And if I jumped off a bridge, you’d follow my lead?”
I don’t even have to consider my answer. “Absolutely.”
Her expression softens before she claps her hands, getting our attention. “Okay, so they may have an army, but we’re one in our own right; they just caught us with our dicks out.”
“You don’t have a dick,” I helpfully point out.
“I have three now, shh, I’m trying to be inspirational here.” I have a broad smile as she continues on like I never interrupted her. “Aaaaaanyway,” she draws out, “we know what to expect now, so we can prepare. If they can’t shoot us with their fuckin’ poison dart, they lose their main advantage.”
She comes out of the armory with a suit of armor tailor made for her that she caresses lovingly. I glance in there, seeing one for each of her brothers as well. Cai and I are similar to the triplets’ size, so we can use those, but we’ll need to rig something up for Soren.
It’s as fluid as fabric, but when I feel it, it’s made of the most tightly knit metal I’ve ever seen, more so than chainmail. It’s black as night, and it’s not nearly as heavy as I would imagine.
“How the hell did they?” I trail off, mesmerized.
Ezra smiles sadly. “They always could do the impossible and now we’re going to. This will cover all but our hands, feet, and heads. If we can keep them from shooting us in the face, that gives us a massive advantage.”
“What about Ren?” Cai asks, mirroring my thoughts.
She rubs the fabric between her fingers, willing it to reveal all of the answers. “There’s no way they got this as perfect as it is on the first try. They would have been experimenting with it for a while, so there has to be some discarded attempts somewhere we can work with to make something for Soren. It may not be as perfect, but I can fuse it with armor already tailored to his size at the forge so he’s just as protected.” We start making something to eat, moving upstairs into the kitchen as we continue to hear Ezra’s plan.
Soren frowns down at her, radiating concern. “What if you go into heat or have another pheromone episode? It will give away our position.”
She nods, filling up her plate and sitting at the table. “Then we use it to our advantage.”
Protests fly from my lips as loudly as the others. “We aren’t using you as bait!”
She reaches over to squeeze my knee beside her under the table. “No, but if ithappenswe will spin it to our advantage instead of considering it a weakness. You three are far more immune to me than anyone by now, and it won’t affect my brothers or the women; it’s cosmically perfect. So if enemy eyes fall on me, use their distraction to strike.”
Soren grits his teeth, hating it and not willing to blindly go along with it. “What if we fail? Then you’re right back in that hellhole in full blown heat. Let’s not pretend we don’t all know what that would mean. Are you really willing to risk that? You should stay here while the three of us get them back.”
Ezra gets up to walk around the table and climb onto his lap. He wraps his arms around her, wanting to shield her from everything.
“I’m not going to just sit here with my thumb up my ass while you put your lives at risk to solve all of my problems. I’m never going to ask more from you than I expect from myself, Soren. We fight for our flight, and we’re stronger together than apart. They’re my brothers, and they’re there because of me. I know it’s not myfaultthat all of this has happened, but that doesn’t stop me from blaming myself. I have to live with myself in the aftermath, and I refuse to be someone that spends her future swimming in regret and self-loathing.”
He sighs, resting his forehead against hers. “I hate this,” he admits honestly.
She puts a palm to his cheek, tilting his face up so she can kiss him gently. “But hiding from it won’t make it go away.” He doesn’t release her as she twists on his lap, including Cai and I into the conversation. “I hope you’re ready to leave your moral compasses behind, gentlemen, because we aren’t playing fair any more. Not only did they hurt my family, but they stole from me, and that fact alone seals their fate.”
Her emerald eyes are hard enough to cut stone. “They stole from my hoard. Now? They. Will. Burn.”
***
“It’s a huge fuckingrisk. You’re sure you’re okay doing this?” Ezra whispers, nervously biting her bottom lip.
With driving here, we didn’t need to bother setting up camp to rest. We drove the SUV right up the path on the opposite side of the mountain, left it parked beside four other vehicles, and blended straight in like we belonged. Clad in armor beneath our clothes in case someone looked twice at us, the four of us blend in well enough with the black t-shirts and camouflaged pants of the grunts. The actual scientists are in dressier slacks and button ups instead of lab coats like a bad movie, but it still makes their position known to anyone they come across.
Ezra’s now short hair is tucked under a dark hat and she’s wearing a baggy shirt to hide her curves. It’s enough to blend in at a quick glance, but anyone that studies her for longer will figure it out. As such, after we found an opening, we headed off into the woods. Even Ren is in the massive oak tree with us, the four of us climbing high in the branches to escape notice, though it obstructs our view of what’s happening beneath us.
Cai answers her with conviction, his blue eyes bright even in the shroud of night. “I am. If I can get Saige the note, it will eliminate our worry of people getting hurt in the crossfire. I’m under no illusions that we’ll be able to magically save everyone, but the less that get hurt the better.”
