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I should be sobbing with Sarah right now, but it wasn’t sadness I felt. It was unadulterated rage.

“We’re going to kill them, Sarah,” I promised her, kissing the top of her head. “We’re going to kill every last one of them.”

I tried my best to quiet her and calm her back to sleep. But it took Leo’s night, whispering against her temples, for her to drift into unconsciousness. Her body finally relaxing back against the bed.

I hugged her one more time before I left her side, then threw back the curtain, making for the exit.

Leo appeared like a wraith in my path, his face serious. “I know you’re angry. I understand the thoughts running through your mind right now⁠—”

“You don’t understand anything,” I seethed.

“But I do.” His eyes turned sad. “I know what it’s like to lose the people you love. My parents ruled peacefully for nearly two hundred years, and no more than a week after they returned their powers to the earth, they were senselessly murdered by people who thought that their cause meant more than a life.”

I felt his sorrow through the darkness that had begun to leak beneath the soles of his boots. Like ink from a tipped-over inkwell. His mind elsewhere, completely unaware of the power seeping out of him.

The veins of his hands grew black like his eyes, and his voice trembled. “There will come a time when you will remember this pain, and you will use it. But not now.” His eyes cleared, his darkness drawing back into himself. “You need to have a clear mind now.”

I reached out and touched his jaw, the beginnings of stubble softly poking through. The friction of it against my skin calming me.

“You’re right,” I whispered, reaching up to place a soft kiss on his lips. “We’ll get our revenge another day, together.”

“Another day,” he agreed, kissing me back to seal our promise to each other.

And when that day came, I would watch the Deks burn for what they’ve done.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

BRYN

Ifollowed Adrian through a patch of woods, his daggers sheathed at his sides.

He had offered me one before we started walking to the Dome, the sacred spot where The Nine held their meetings when on One, but I had declined his offer. I’d be more likely to harm myself than someone else with one of those things.

Leo had thought it best we waited until the meeting was underway before I arrived. My presence was sure to bring about chaos, and as important as it was to figure out what the hell was going to happen to me, the council needed to focus on the pressing issue of the Decodons and the portals first.

But Leo had assured me when it was my time to address the council, I would be under his protection. No matter the outcome.

I could hear the words he hadn’t said. He meant to harm anyone who dared to harm me.

Like Aaron.

I wasn’t okay with Leo’s lack of remorse for not saving Aaron. But how could I expect that from him when all he’d seen was a man he didn’t know trying to kill me. I would’ve reacted the same way if roles had been reversed. Like Leo had said: That’s what we do.

Adrian stopped walking and waved his hand across the empty air in front of him. “We’re here.”

I looked around but only saw darkness and the silhouettes of trees.

Adrian stroked the air again, and this time I watched as a rift opened, soft light spilling through the crack in the air to reveal a large dome-shaped building with honeycombed panes made of obsidian. Torches, lit with flame, were staked into the ground surrounding the entire structure, and a small path lit with solar sconces ran all the way up to the large entrance doors, where two guards stood lookout.

In addition to the unusual shape of the structure, floating silver discs hovered oddly above the Dome, creating four corners of a square.

Adrian caught my look of wonder and regarded the discs himself. “They’re called Nullifiers. Their vibrations suppress the use of magic. Here, everyone is equal.”

“Let me guess, another invention of Four’s?”

“Yep.” He smiled, but it quickly disappeared when he stepped in front of me. “Listen. I don’t know what’s going to happen in there, but if I tell you to run, you do it. You run as fast as you can and hide until I can come and find you.” He grabbed both of my shoulders. “Do you understand?”

I ignored the sensation I felt from his touch. “How will you know where to find me?”