Page 48 of Warrior Unraveled

“Yeah, and I can tell how broken up you all were about that,” Virginia said in an icy voice.

Aiden cast her a sideways glance. “No offense, Counselor, that we weren’t all sitting around crying, but we’ve been busy shoring up our defenses to protect our own compound. Every compound in the world is on lockdown; we’re all running on emergency protocol.”

Virginia nodded and took a visible breath. “Fine. What of the rest of the council? Did they all make it to their safe houses?”

Aiden nodded. “I was in contact with my father not an hour ago. There are no losses to report. But nobody is leaving the security of the compounds for a while.”

“And here?” Wes asked. “Is everybody accounted for?”

“Hamish is bringing Tessa back from City Hall as we speak. There was an important meeting she couldn’t miss. Jay and Sean have brought their charges to a safe house and will remain there with them until this blows over. Pearce is in the command center, monitoring all messages coming in from the other compounds.”

“And Leila?” Wes asked, surprised that Aiden hadn’t mentioned his wife yet.

“She’s been feeling sick this morning. She’s in our quarters, resting.” He motioned to Enya, grinning. “That’s why Enya volunteered to cook, with catastrophic results, if I may add.”

“Can we stop talking about my cooking skills?” Enya snapped and glared at her colleagues. “And if Counselor Robson hadn’t taken Wesley away, I wouldn’t have had to cook, now would I?”

“I’m right here,” Virginia ground out from between clenched teeth. “And I won’t tolerate your insubordination.”

“Well, then maybe I should file a complaint about you attacking me out of the blue when you could clearly see it was me! How would that look on your spotless record, huh, Counselor?” Enya narrowed her eyes, daring Virginia to respond.

And from what Wesley could see, Virginia was going to respond, which would only escalate the situation. “Maybe you can cut your counselor some slack, considering that she just took a trip to the Underworld and barely got out alive.”

That shut everybody up.

Logan whistled through his teeth.

“Are you fucking serious?” Aiden asked, his gaze bouncing between Wesley and Virginia like a ping-pong ball in a confined space.

“That’s impossible,” Manus croaked.

“How?” Enya asked. “Nobody’s ever been to their world.”

“We’ll happily give you a full update and—” Wes said.

“Get everybody together in the command room, I’ll brief you,” Virginia interrupted him.

The four Stealth Guardians were already marching toward the door and into the corridor, when Virginia grabbed Wesley’s arm and held him back.

“You’re not gonna exclude me, are you?” he asked. So much for having saved her life.

“I’m not. But you have to understand one thing: you’re not in charge here. This is my domain.”

Wes raised an eyebrow. “You’re worried. Something I should know about?”

“Just don’t forget that you’re still a prisoner, even though I’m not locking you up.”

He was about to reply, when Aiden called out, “Are you coming?”

“Yes!” Wes replied and hurried into the hallway, catching up with the others.

Logan was on the phone. “Meet us in the command center. Yes, ten minutes.” He disconnected the call. “Hamish will be back in a few minutes.”

“Good, then we won’t have to tell the story twice,” Wes said.

“Can’t wait to hear about it,” Aiden said, slapping Wesley on the back. “I’m really glad you made it. Gave us all a bit of a scare when the council told us that you were missing. They suspected you had something to do with the demons’ attack and that you might have killed Virginia.”

“Hope you didn’t believe that.”