The Ghost was shaking, obviously fearful of him. Good. He needed to instill more fear in them, it seemed. Sawyer had destroyed the best of his inner circle. These replacements were driving him insane. He needed the time to find who the best fit was, but he didn’t have that anymore.
Time.
That’s why Axel was doing this. He couldn’t have them running through his ranks, constantly taking out his most trusted generals, his confidants, and most loyal Magi. It left him constantly wasting resources to rebuild. If he didn’t do this now, early, while he still had some substantial power, then he knew he would be doing it in five years, and from a much weaker position.
He’d never expected his brother and Shadow to hunt so well. And it was Shadow coming for him. He’d heard the black mask he’d given her was making a reappearance, haunting those whose paths she crossed.
He refused to admit the feeling in his stomach was fear. Sawyer had always been an emotional girl - too easy to fall for someone and trust them. Shadow was all of that put away and deadly. He’d made the best assassin in the world by chaining Sawyer with her own emotions and then unleashing her cold rage on everything else. It was the only way he’d given her power, her kills. They would be the focus of all the pain he inflicted on her.
“Get out,” he demanded. The Ghost turned and hurried away. “Felix!”
His favorite Magi ran in, glaring at the Ghost as she left. He stopped in front of Axel, looking somewhat concerned. “Yes sir?”
“Are you ready for this?” he asked. “If anything happens, I’m relying on you.”
“I ran in Atlanta so that I could continue doing this duty for you, Axel. I won’t abandon you now.”
“Why couldn’t she ever be as loyal as you?” Axel didn’t know why he was asking, but if there was anyone who might have an answer, it was Felix. A bit cowardly, but loyal to the bitter end. He didn’t care if his master was dead, he would work and weasel his way to do his job without putting himself in danger. He also knew how to figure out other people.
“Sir…if I may be so bold to answer that honestly?”
Axel raised an eyebrow. “Of course.” He valued the honesty from Felix, his last original Ghost.
“You never gave her what she needed. Well, you did in the beginning, but something changed in you, which changed something in her. In the end, that ruined everything.”
“You mean I should have continued to indulge her, made her feel loved and secure.”
“If you had kept her as a thief, I think none of this would have happened.”
“But I needed an assassin,” Axel reminded him. “And she was perfect.”
Perfect.
If there was one thing he was willing to admit, she was perfection. Deadly and beautiful, a Magi meant to kill. It was why he had pushed her so hard, not realizing how close he was taking her to the breaking point. And himself.
“And yet, you had to do a lot to make her stay in line. You expect obedience, as you should. Once you made her your assassin, she didn’t give you that. She fought you in private, where none of us knew she was such a troublemaker. You had to blackmail her, you had to put her in her place, remind her where she belonged, and it ate away at your control. Until one day you snapped.”
Axel looked away after that. Snapped. Yes. It took years and a short time in prison to realize his own mistakes, his own lack of control over that entire situation. He had shoved both of them past ever repairing the situation. Then, while he was trying to regroup and figure it out so he could keep her in the end, she had already taken steps to betray him. The mess he had to make to resolve that had been disastrous and gave others a chance to step in. His own brother and that little bastard misfit team of his.
If she had just been obedient, none of it would have happened.
“I lost my heir because of her.” He was still enraged. He wasn’t a good father by any means, but Henry had been a chance for the next generation. He would have given that boy an empire to rule. A legacy that would have been unmatched. His son would have been great. Even better than him or his brother or anyone else in his family.
And there she had been, believing he would actually hurt the boy. Something about that always made him upset as well, even though he had used it against her.
“Sir, I’m still sorry that-”
“No, it’s not you, Felix. I should have kept you closer.” Axel didn’t blame his necromancer Magi. He’d put the man with Colt in Africa. Axel’d had to portal into the right country, then hunt his men down while they were doing a deal. By the time he’d gotten Henry to Felix, it was too late for the magic to work properly. Reviving Henry at that point would have made him a decaying vegetable, too long dead. “That wasn’t your fault.”
Axel had never considered he would lash out while angry at Sawyer and hurt his son. That had never been something he planned for. It was her fault. If she had just been obedient and followed orders. If only she hadn’t had such a damned moral compass telling her everything he wanted was wrong. If only she could crave power like he did.
He would have made her a queen, and yet, in the end, she was only his nightmare. She could have been, and for a short period was, the best he had, the strongest, the deadliest. He could always rely on her ability to kill, and he enjoyed her in bed more than other women.
And yet she just couldn’t fall in line.
Then he lost the only leash he had, the last leash.
“I should have never killed the damned cat,” he said to himself. “That was a bad move on my part. It left me with only Henry to control her, thinking nothing would ever happen to him. The cat was just taking up space, or so I thought.”
“Yes sir,” Felix agreed. “And now she’s coming for you again.”
“Which is why we’re here. She’s never going to stop, Felix. Even if I try to reason with her, let her live her own life and live my own, she’s never going to stop.”
“You should have let it lie when we discovered she was active and alive earlier this year, but hindsight is twenty-twenty. We had no idea or reason to believe we would fail.”
He nearly smiled at Felix’s ability to reason and understand where his head was at. No, there had been no reason to believe they would fail trying to kill her not once, not twice, but three times.
“I warned Naseem and Councilman Suarez that she refuses to die. They should have listened more carefully.” Axel began to chuckle, remembering how easy it was to bend the Councilman just enough to cause a mess in New York. Axel hadn’t particularly cared what the outcome would be, just that it was big enough for him to quietly rebuild with no one paying attention. It had done just that, only helped by some vengeful IMPO agent outing her to the world. None of them had even considered there was anything else going on until Vincent’s team got involved.
For a moment, he was proud of his brother, and even a bit jealous. Vinny commanded the loyalty from her that Axel never could. In the end, she was on a Castello’s leash.
“She’s resilient, that’s for sure, sir.” Felix walked closer and pointed to a table. Axel looked over to see his father’s chess set, a game half played on it. It was set up exactly as it had been the night Vincent killed their father and then realized Axel had been using him. Mistakes. Axel was very good at manipulating people, but when they were those closest to him, he always made small mistakes that ruined it in the end. He was beginning to see his own weaknesses. “Shall we finish the game, sir?”
“No, I never finish that game,” Axel answered. “White is in check and Black will get checkmate in two turns. There’s no hope. I leave it there to remind myself that I can never fall so far behind.”
“And?”
“And the only people who have a chance of taking me to that are coming here for me. We either win or we lose, but I have to do this now. I have no other options.” He didn’t say it out loud. He was doing this now so he was never at the point where he had no other option but to lose. At least if he dictated the field, forced their h
ands, he would have the advantage. “Give me a run down on my brother’s team again.”
“Sir?”
“I underestimated them for years. We’ve spent the last month making sure we know everything we can about them. Run me through it again.” He wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
“Well, you know your brother, so I’ll skip him. His second in command officially is Elijah Grant.”
Axel just listened after that. Elijah Grant, Zander Wade, Jasper Williams, and Quinn Judge. His brother’s little friends, who were playing games they probably didn’t understand. Their abilities, who they were. Young men, like his brother, all thinking they could take on the world.
“There’s only one I think you should worry about,” Felix added as he finished.
“Which?”
“This…Quinn Judge.”
“Oh yes, I remember that one.” Axel sighed. “The most powerful Magi in North America, and probably the world. I’ve had those rumors brought back to me. And I remember how his magic felt in Atlanta. You’re right. He’s the only one on that little team more powerful than me. He’s target number one. We need to take him out first. He has two animal bonds, wolves. Impressive, but…” He knew what to do to Magi with animals bonds. They were easily crippled.
And with that, Axel collected himself and walked out of his suite with Felix. They had final preparations to make. With no idea when the enemy would show, they had to be prepared at all times.
He couldn’t lose this time. He was throwing everything he had at them. He would come out on top, and then no one would be smart enough to stop him and there would be no team made for the job.
29
Sawyer
“Is everyone ready?” Sawyer called out, looking over the team. Travis stood next to her, uncomfortably shifting around. He was about to do a very long range portal and she knew it was making him nervous. Anything could go wrong, but she trusted him with this. Even when he’d been high, he could take her across the continental United States without a problem. He could get them to Italy. She wasn’t worried.
“Yes,” Quinn answered, standing behind the entire team. They had gotten Travis and Thompson, then come home immediately. If they moved fast enough, they could slam Axel before he had any idea it was coming. The longer they waited, the more prepared the man would get.
“Thompson, are you sure you can stay here with Charlie for the evening?” Zander asked, and she waited patiently for the same answer Thompson had given for the last hour.
“I can stay.”
“I’ll be fine, young man. You go do this. End this.” Charlie crossed his arms, turning his gaze off Zander and onto her. “Finish this, Sawyer.”
“I will,” she promised softly. Vincent coughed right after that, stepping forward. She let him take her place in front of the team.
There really wasn’t much else for them to do. They had packed up everything they needed for a raid and an hour and a half long, very quiet walk. They weren’t going in with too many people. The IMPO office in Rome would meet them once they reached the edge of Axel’s current property. That office had no idea they were even on their way yet. They would get a call from Thompson when the team felt it was safe to let the world know what was about to happen. If the office had a leak, there wouldn’t be enough time for Axel to get the information that the team was there.
“Travis, make the portal,” he ordered.
Sawyer swallowed. This was the final mission. It was noon in New York. Sawyer considered the time. It would already be six in the evening in Italy and after sunset, which would have come much earlier thanks to it being the dead of winter. She pulled up her phone just to make sure, checking. Sure enough, the sun had set for Axel an hour before.
Dawn in Italy would mark a new day for her, and it was so close. She would either be dead, and so would everyone on the team, or Axel would be.
Less than twenty-four hours to go, and she found herself thinking about the wrong thing. What would come after this?
The portal drew her attention and she took a deep breath, bracing for the sensation of crossing through it, holding Sombra’s leash to make sure she didn’t lose the cat in the dark.
She went in before Vincent, first of the team. She had no idea what she would see on the other side. They had picked this location because no one had lived in it or checked on it in five years.
She closed her eyes as she went through and exited the other side to smells and sounds that haunted her. She stepped further away from the portal, Sombra walking pressed to her thigh. As she opened her eyes, she found herself in a place she never thought she would see again. A living room where she once had experienced the happiest and worst memories of her life.
And she couldn’t help but think about what would come next. As she stood in the very place where another chapter of her life ended, she couldn’t help but think.
She took the leash off Sombra and let the feline roam, checking the other rooms and hallways to make sure they were alone. Sawyer already knew they were, but the cat needed the reassurance.
Sawyer wandered into the kitchen. The house had been cleaned and repaired since her last memories of it. She found the wall. No longer was there cracked plaster. No longer was there a puddle of blood on the floor where he’d been.
It was like it had never happened.
And standing there, she considered a future, and something worse. Now, in this place, she realized the worst thing she could have.
She knew the team was through the portal. She could feel the disappearance of Travis’ magic, meaning the portal was gone as well. But she kept staring at the wall.
“Sawyer?” Vincent called out softly.
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Right here,” she whispered. “I lost him right here.”
He only nodded, walking closer. None of the team had followed him. She could feel them waiting in the next room.
“Vincent…what are we doing tomorrow?” she asked softly. “When this is all said and done?”
“I…I was thinking I would talk to Thompson…” She could hear the unsure way he said the words.
“As I stand here, I can only think one thing,” she admitted. “How much I don’t want to do this.”
The look on his face was what she’d expected. Shocked, confused. She could relate and knew the next question coming.
“What do you mean?”
“Henry wouldn’t have wanted me to have to do this,” she answered. “He thought I was so good.”
“You are.”
“Then why am I here to kill someone?” She knew the answer. She was just leading Vincent through her thoughts. “I’m here because the WMC ordered me to be. They could have sent us to recapture him. They could have had us lead another team to do it. They could have done anything, but they sent me here to kill a man.”
“He’s already sentenced to death,” Vincent reminded her.
“He is, but they would have held a real execution, allowing him one of two options. To fall on his own sword or to be beheaded. Honorable…it would have been honorable. This is dirty. We both know it. I knew the WMC would ask me one day to be an assassin, and I’m so good at it. But I don’t like the job.” She took a deep breath. It was easier away from this place to cover it all up and pretend she could shoulder the task of killing time and time again. For the greater good, they would always probably say. The Druid was mad. Axel was a danger.
But it was still the only thing they would ever use her for.
And standing there, she wanted more. She wanted to be something else. She wanted to be something Henry looked up to. She wanted to be the Sawyer he saw.
“Are you having cold feet?” he asked softly.
“I’m thinking maybe I don’t want to work for people who ask me to kill people for them. And I don’t care if it’s for personal gain or the concept of the greater good. Because in the end, it’s still just killing people, isn’t it?” She couldn’t stand there, where Henry died, and say s
he could do it. She couldn’t say she could kill another person. It all felt wrong suddenly. How was she supposed to move forward? When was it time to stop? When did the ends stop justifying the means?
Her hands were shaking as she braced them on the wall, tears in her eyes. Here, she could no longer lie to herself and say this was simple. That she had to do this to protect everyone.
No, the only thing she found in this place was suffering and regret.
Because no amount of violence and pain, no amount of killing was ever good enough. Not for Axel. Not for the WMC. All it ever did was weigh on her soul and break her. All it did was add another scar that she had to live with.
Because no amount of killing was ever enough, and in the end, it didn’t help her truly protect anyone. In the end, she still lost this boy. In the end, she still lost Midnight.
In the end, it could still break her and lose the team.
“I can’t do this,” she admitted.
“Then I will.”
The words shocked her enough to push off the wall. She spun to see the darker version of Axel’s eyes. Vincent…
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I was never going to let you take this on yourself,” he explained. “I just want you to make it through this. He’s mine to deal with. Not yours.”
She couldn’t open her mouth to explain how much that meant to her. She also couldn’t open her mouth to explain how much she disagreed with his logic. A man should never kill his own brother.
“No,” Elijah’s clear tone rang out. “I knew there was something going on with you, Vin. Now I know. You aren’t doing this either. Neither of you are killing him.” The cowboy walked into the room, the team following.
She caught a glimpse of her jaguar in the shadows beyond the room, watching with bright gold eyes. Something akin to acceptance flowed through the bond. They would hunt, they would capture, and they would let others take the kill.
“Then who will?” Vincent demanded, turning to glare at Elijah.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 161