“Well, she only has a rebel daughter now,” she muttered.
And Sienna would rather chop her own head off at this point than come back under her mother’s evil thumb. I breathed deeply, then gently nudged Caspian.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Let’s go,” he said, quite sullen.
He was in a foul mood, and I couldn’t really blame him. It made my stomach churn, though. I didn’t like seeing him like this; however, time wasn’t on our side. But we finally had a precise location for Lumi.
Fiona
We left the room behind and followed Vincent’s instructions. On the first corridor to the left, there were three guards stationed at three different doors. Our guess was that they were keeping something or someone in each of the rooms they’d been assigned to, but we had no time to check.
Pheng-Pheng and Zane went ahead. The Manticore disabled one Correction Officer with her scorpion sting, then cut his head off to silence him.
Zane darted toward the second Correction Officer, who spotted his fallen partner and drew his sword. He had barely managed that before Zane cut him down with one swift slash.
The third one put his red lens on and reached for a whistle hanging from his neck. Harper reached him with lightning speed and drove both swords into his chest. He gasped, blood gurgling out of his mouth. His wide eyes were fixed on her, glassy with sheer horror, as she pulled her swords back then cut his head off.
We left the dead COs behind and reached the end of the corridor. Around the corner to the right it was clear all the way to the end, where, as per Vincent’s description, there were two Correction Officers on both sides of a large meranium door. The air rippled in two spots nearby, prompting us to put our red lenses on and spot the two daemon guards shuffling back and forth.
The door was different indeed. It had been lined with a copper frame and riddled with swamp witch symbol engravings. Even the doorknob was marked.
Harper took a deep breath.
“I’ll go first,” she whispered, then quickly kissed Caspian and ran out to tackle the daemons and Maras guarding Lumi’s door.
“Wait,” Caspian breathed, then rushed after her.
We followed.
A hiss made us stop. Caspian froze, just five feet ahead of us. Harper had ten feet on him already when she stilled.
Water sprayed out from tiny holes in the ceiling above us.
“Crap,” I muttered, then drew my sword.
Our cover was blown. The water canceled our invisibility spell and revealed us.
The Correction Officers were the first to spot us. Their blades screeched as they left their scabbards and the Maras moved toward us, but the daemons stepped in and held them back. Emilian Obara showed up from around the corner, joining the guards.
“Oh, no,” Arrah murmured.
Emilian smirked at the sight of Harper, who drew her swords and came at him. Emilian snapped his fingers, and a thin sheet of glass shot out from the wall—she bumped into it. Access through that corridor was blocked.
We ran toward her. My pulse raced.
Emilian snapped his fingers again, and another sheet of glass came between us and Harper.
“No!” Caspian growled.
He tried to break the glass, but he couldn’t even crack it. Harper looked at us, her eyes wide and her breath heavy. She rammed the hilt of one sword into the glass sheet in front of her, but nothing happened. She tried again. Just an unbearable clang.
Shivers ran down my spine. Emilian chuckled from across the corridor. He was definitely enjoying this. The jerk.
I made my way in front of the group and punched the glass. Nothing. I couldn’t get through. We all tried—fists, swords, arrows, knees… everything. We couldn’t break it.
Harper was trapped in the corridor between two sheets of weirdly unbreakable glass and two closed doors on both sides. She tried to open one, then the other, but they didn’t budge. They were locked.
“Harper!” Caspian shouted, banging his fists against the glass.
He was livid, angrily hitting the barrier, unable to get through. Harper looked at him—and I could see the pain in her eyes.
“This was a little too easy,” Emilian said.
The COs and daemons stood by his side, smirking at us. We looked like fools, struggling to get Harper out of there. Emilian was in his element down here, and I looked forward to wiping that smile off his face.
My blood curdled as the alarm blared through the building.
“Dammit!” I cursed under my breath, briefly looking over my shoulder.
It was a loud, ear-piercing noise, high-pitched and nasal, like a firetruck siren on steroids. It made me cringe.
“Harper! No!” Caspian shouted, still fighting against the glass sheet.
The door suddenly opened to her right. I froze. “Uh-oh.”
A Correction Officer came out and stabbed her in the neck with a metallic syringe, before she could even react.
“Harper!” Caspian lost it, banging and kicking at that glass sheet, as Harper’s eyes rolled back in her head.
The CO caught her in his arms and took her inside the room, slamming the door behind them. Zane pulled Caspian back. “Come on, we have to get out!”
“No! Harper! They got her! This… I can’t do this! No!” Caspian was devastated.
It tore me apart on the inside, but Zane was right. I could already hear the boots on the ground. We ran back down the corridor and went straight ahead, instead of taking the first left turn to head back. As soon as we got out of the sprinklers’ coverage, we swallowed more invisibility paste and kept a low profile behind a corner, watching several Correction Officers come through from the other side.
We vanished, one by one. Caspian was pale and ready to bring down the entire Palisade, but we had to regroup. We had to go back and stick to the plan. Otherwise it was all for nothing.
Emilian pointed in our relative direction, prompting the COs to come our way.
“Let’s go,” Zane whispered. “Follow me.”
We darted through the hallways, taking a series of left and right turns to avoid the clusters of COs looking for us. They had red lenses on, so our best bet was to sneak out before they could spot us.
Caspian cursed under his breath as we turned left into another corridor. Boots rumbled all around us, but not in immediate sight.
“We know where to find her,” Zane muttered. “Hang in there, my friend. We’ll get her back.”
“I… I didn’t expect this.”
“We’ll get her back,” I reiterated Zane’s point.
Correction Officers spotted us from the back, just as we reached the main hallway. That secret staircase was our only way out, and it had yet to be inundated by incoming Maras. We ran as fast as we could, shooting down the hallway with COs hot on our tail.
We couldn’t get ourselves captured, too. It wasn’t part of the plan.
Avril
We infiltrated the prison stealthily, bypassing the guards as we made our way through the bottom level. The tunnel gates were down, with at least an hour left until daemon chow time. It ate away at me to not be able to do anything for the prisoners, since most of them were, in fact, innocent Imen and Maras who had been resisting Azure Heights and Shaytan’s dirty alliance.
The Exiled Maras didn’t pay much attention to prison security at this point. Their main concern was to guard the swamp witch, so the lower levels of the city and the prison itself weren’t as heavily secured as the top side.
It worked in our favor, as we’d already planted all the explosive charges and charms that Patrik and the other Druids had prepared for this mission. Levels one, two, and three were fully loaded and ready to go for part two of our mission.
For now, however, we still had to get part one out of the way.
Velnias took the lead on this particular venture. We followed and provided backup if needed.
“I’ve come to this place more times than I can count,” he whispere
d as we advanced through the bottom level of the giant, cylinder-shaped prison. “I picked up high value prisoners for Draconis from here.”
We were invisible, with our red lenses on, just in case. We’d allowed the Exiled Maras to surprise us before in different circumstances—we’d learned our lesson by now.
Velnias bolted toward a pair of Correction Officers doing their rounds. He instantly decapitated one, then grabbed the other by the throat and rammed him through the bars of an empty cell. The metal bent under the COs mangled body, and he grunted, then wheezed from the impact.
“Where’s Cadmus?” Velnias hissed.
“Oh, wow, he does not play around,” I muttered, keeping a hand on my sword as I looked up and around. We were in a blind spot for the time being, as the other guards were on the upper levels. Velnias had certainly picked the right time for this.
Consider me officially impressed.
The Correction Officer pointed directly above with a shaking hand. “Up… First level. Cell 20.”
“Most kind of you, thanks,” Velnias replied bluntly, then cut his head off.
Heron and I stared at each other for a second, not knowing whether we should be horrified or in awe of his badassery. Scarlett and Patrik covered our backs as we stayed behind Velnias and made our way up to the first level.
We found the cell in a matter of seconds, following the numbers mounted above each compartment. Cadmus sat on the floor in a dark corner, his head down.
“Cadmus,” I whispered, moving next to Velnias, who fiddled with his lockpicking tools. The High Warden had an arsenal of small metal picks for precisely this kind of operation, and he kept them in a leather pouch attached to his belt.
Cadmus’s head shot up. He frowned, noticing the air rippling in front of him.
I tossed a red lens into the cell. He was quick to grab it and put it on. He immediately beamed at the sight of us, then stilled when he saw Velnias and what he was doing.
“I’d like to say I’m happy to see you’re all okay, but how did you get a daemon to do your bidding?” Cadmus muttered.
Velnias scoffed, shaking his head. “Typical Mara grunt. Thinks we’re puppets,” he muttered. “I’m here of my own volition, Cadmus. Unlike you.”
Cadmus smirked. “I know you. You’re a High Warden in Draconis. I’ve—” He stopped himself as burns blossomed on his face in blotches of red.
“Blood oath,” I murmured.
Cadmus raised his eyebrows at me. “Yeah, we know. We know everything,” I replied. “We’ve been busy since we last saw you, Cadmus,” I added, then tossed a small satchel of invisibility paste at him. “But we can catch up later. Let’s get you out of here first.”
He checked the satchel and smirked. “You kids are impressive.”
“And you, good sir, are a free Mara,” Velnias replied, and finally opened the cage door, sliding it to the side.
Cadmus jumped to his feet and ingested the invisibility paste. A few seconds later, he shimmered out of sight. “Thank you for the rescue,” he muttered. “Is Caspian okay?”
“We certainly hope so. He’s upstairs looking for Lumi,” I replied.
He froze, as if we’d given him the worst news possible. That didn’t sit well with me.
“What?” I asked.
“I can’t say. I’m sorry.” He sighed, then turned his head to the side, showing me his blood oath symbol and reminding me of how much he actually knew, but couldn’t tell.
“We’ll frown about this later,” Velnias hissed, then gently nudged us both to get moving.
We headed back down the stairs when a whistle blew across the hall. I groaned, my ears hurting from the high-pitched noise. Correction Officers had spotted us from the other side. There were six of them.
“Dammit, move!” Velnias muttered, then rushed down the stairs and headed back to the secret door through which we’d come through.
Within seconds, however, more Correction Officers emerged from the top-level offices, their boots thundering down the metal stairs. We fought our way through, tackling a group of ten COs, with more coming in from behind. We hacked and slashed, left and right.
I even gave Cadmus one of my knives—he only needed it for one hit, before he disabled a CO and took his sword away. Even with an extra fighter on the team, it wasn’t enough. Patrik employed his blue fireball spells, too, but we were still outnumbered, as more Correction Officers swarmed down the stairs and converged on our location.
“I saw this coming, but I totally underestimated the numbers,” Heron muttered, then dodged a sword hit, swerved to the left, and ran his blade through the CO’s neck. Seconds later, the Mara’s head rolled on the stone floor.
“I’m not surprised, honestly,” Scarlett replied. “This isn’t the first time we’ve dived in head first, anyway.”
She then flashed between two COs and delivered a flurry of sword hits with her hyper speed, then decapitated them both in one three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. She was truly an artist—of the bloodiest kind.
Velnias took the brunt of the attacks, still, tackling multiple opponents at once. The daemon definitely had game, unafraid to fight up to four COs at once. Despite his considerable size and muscular mass, Velnias was extremely agile and light on his feet.
“You go ahead. I’ll catch up,” he breathed, then cut the head off a Mara.
More COs came down, while bodies gathered at our feet.
“No, we’re not leaving you behind,” I shot back, then killed another guard.
“Don’t be stupid! I can handle myself. Take Cadmus and complete the mission!” he growled at me. It sent shivers down my spine.
Patrik released another fireball, the blue flames consuming two COs at once.
“He’s right, we need to go before more of them come down,” the Druid said.
I groaned with frustration, then backed away from the scuffle, accompanied by Cadmus and the rest of my team. Patrik left the COs with a blistering souvenir—a cluster of five exploding fireballs—while Velnias roared and kept the remaining dozen busy.
An alarm went off, blaring throughout the prison.
“Go!” Velnias shouted. “Go now!”
We had no choice at this point.
I shot up the service stairs and slipped through the crack in the stone wall. It was a narrow little passageway that led to a hidden tunnel, connecting the prison to the second level. We’d never used it before. We hadn’t even known about it until Velnias showed us the way.
My stomach twisted itself up in a painful knot as we got out of the prison and reached the second level of Azure Heights. Echoes of the prison alarm rose from below, prompting nearby Correction Officers to rush to the other side of the second level, where one of the main access routes was.
We hid behind some greenery, watching them go.
For the first time, I found myself praying to all the possible forces in the universe. Please, please let Velnias come out of there alive and in one piece.
“He knows where to find us, babe,” Heron whispered, then motioned to the upper city levels. “We need to go.”
I exhaled and darted up the stairs with the rest of our crew.
Mission accomplished. Casualties: none. Missing in action?
One. For now.
Hansa
We could hear voices and scuffles nearby. Something was going on in the city—and we knew exactly what that something was.
Dion paced up and down the stone path in the garden, while Jax and I stood by the secret tunnel door, occasionally glancing at each other. Our nerves were frayed as we waited for the kids to come back. There was a dull pain settling in my stomach. I’d been so stressed, I’d forgotten to eat during the day. It was finally catching up with me.
“Should they be this noisy?” Dion asked, looking at us.
“It depends on which group is making the mess, at this point,” Jax replied with a shrug. “We all knew they might have to fight their way out of there. Just have your weapon ready, Dion.??
?
“I still don’t feel completely comfortable with the plan,” I muttered. “I mean, I know I suggested most of it, but… I don’t know. It feels bad.”
“As it should,” Jax said, giving me a gentle smile. “It just shows you have a conscience. But this calls for tough choices, and we had to make them. Otherwise, we’ll never get out of here.”
I sighed. “I know.”
“It will work out,” Jax added. “I trust our team with my life.”
The way he said it made me smile. The strength in Jax was definitely part of the reason I’d fallen so hard for him. He often played the role of the realist, but I could see the glimmers of hope in his jade eyes. We’d all made our bed. One way or another, we were going to sleep in it until we brought that shield down.
Avril, Heron, Scarlett, and Patrik were the first to return, rushing into the garden with Cadmus. I frowned, counting the figures.
“Wait, where’s Velnias?” I asked.
“He stayed back to help us escape,” Avril replied, her eyes glassy with tears and her voice trembling. I felt as though I’d been punched in the gut.
“He knows where to find us, provided he makes it out of there,” Patrik added. “I trust they won’t kill him. They need every soul they can feed on, even if it’s from a traitor to the kingdom.”
Avril rolled her eyes. “Yeah, not making me feel any better.”
Jax shook Cadmus’s hand. “Good to have you back,” he said to Caspian’s lieutenant. “Were you followed? We’re hearing noises out there. What happened in the prison?”
“Getting Cadmus out of his cell was the easy part,” Heron explained, his hand clutching Avril’s. “One of the COs spotted us, though. There are lots of red lenses in this place!”
“We fought our way out, but there were too many of them piling up on us,” Scarlett added. “Velnias gave us the window we needed to get Cadmus out. I doubt we were followed up here, though. I think the ruckus we caused downstairs is one of the reasons why there’s all this commotion outside. There’s a large number of COs running down to the prison now.”