I welcomed the snippet of rest I’d gotten beneath that cloaking spell. I was fresh and ready to tackle whatever Neraka threw at us, and more. I looked at Caspian as we both sat up, and reveled in his soft smile. With so many eyes on us, I didn’t have the courage to kiss him, even though everyone knew we’d gotten significantly closer. Nevertheless, he seemed to read my mind, and gently brushed his knuckles against my chin. I couldn’t get enough of the warm, golden glow of his feelings for me.
“How are you doing, energy-wise?” Blaze asked me.
“I’m okay for now,” I replied with a smile. “You’re still my go-to guy for raw power, though. I’ll tap into you before we go down.”
Blaze chuckled softly. Caia rubbed her eyes and got reacquainted with our cloaked environment. “Our dragon is thoughtful like that,” she grinned, resting a hand on his muscular shoulder. As hard as he tried to keep his cool, Blaze couldn’t hide his emotions anymore. Not from me, anyway. He was burning like the sun for Caia, and she was just as lit for him.
“You can always feed on me, if you need to,” Caspian said to me, lowering his voice.
“I know, and thank you,” I replied, fighting the urge to wrap my arms around him and kiss him like there was no tomorrow. Judging by the jade flames in his eyes, he was thinking the same thing.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Jax said, raking a hand through his black hair.
As soon as he steered the conversation back to the second part of my mission, I remembered the last string of thoughts I’d had before falling asleep. “I would like to suggest something,” I spoke up.
I had their undivided attention. “Go on, Harper,” Hansa replied with an encouraging half smile.
“Going about this extraction mission the same way as before won’t work this time.” I sighed. “Cayn and his cohorts are on high alert and are particularly pissed off. While we haven’t seen any of his fiends tracking us in invisible form this time, there’s nothing to stop any of his scouts from spotting us once we get down there. They had good angles from which they followed us before; otherwise I would’ve seen them. We need to be as devious and as paranoid as they are. Most importantly, we need to be unexpected. Chances are, Cayn knows we’re coming back. I mean, he must have considered it.”
“That’s true. We’re severely outnumbered, so it stands to reason that we’ll need all the supernaturals we can get out of that prison, to strengthen our ranks,” Jax replied, nodding slowly. “My only concern is that Cayn might’ve heard Laughlan tell us about the swamp witch. Which means we need to move fast, before they try to move her.”
“I doubt he heard that part of our conversation,” Laughlan said. “Based on your accounts so far, the daemons and the Exiled Maras have gone out of their way to limit the flow of information where you’re concerned. Cayn never would’ve let me speak, had he even heard the word ‘witch’ leave my lips. Besides, nobody knows I know.” He smirked.
“That’s slightly comforting, I have to admit,” Hansa replied, then looked at me. “What’s your plan, Harper?”
“Call it a three-pronged approach, I suppose,” I began. “For starters, we do have a slight advantage. Other than the maybe ten percent chance that the daemons think we’re going back to Draconis for their prisoners, they’re most likely assuming we’re already out of Kerentrith. That gives us an element of surprise.”
“I agree. The daemons don’t know GASP as well as we do,” Jax replied with a smirk.
“True. So, with that in mind, and with Laughlan’s promise to resolve our charmed locks problem and the information he provided about the delegation prisoners, here’s what I’m proposing. Prong one, Fiona can handle Zane’s extraction all by herself,” I said. “With invisibility cover and her titanic strength, she is perfectly capable of sneaking through Draconis and into his meranium box. To ease our operation, she and Zane should immediately get back up here beneath the cloaking spell.”
Laughlan nodded in agreement. “Yes, I can fix the lock issue. Velnias uses his special, swamp-witchy keys, and I’ve had plenty of time to observe and study them throughout the years. I also learned enough from Lumi to put together several skeleton keys. I know the swamp witch spell from which the spells are derived. I’m confident I can crack it. Your charming little fire fae here can help me melt a piece of metal into three simple keys, and I’ll engrave the right symbols. Once activated, those keys will open any prison door in Draconis.”
“Brilliant!” Caia exclaimed. “Whatever you need…”
“Just a chunk of metal, really,” Laughlan replied with a shrug.
Caia produced one of her large knives and showed it to him. “Will this do?”
“Absolutely.” Laughlan nodded. “But won’t you need it down there?”
Snapping her lighter open to produce a bright flame, she smiled. “Not really. I carry blades in case other members of my team need one, mostly. I usually make do with my fae powers.”
“What do you think, Fiona?” I asked. “Is my assessment fair?”
“Absolutely,” Fiona replied with a confident smirk. “I’ll get that prince out of his birdcage in no time.”
I stifled a chuckle, then moved on to the next part of my proposal. “Okay, prong two. Caspian, Pheng-Pheng, and I will be the first line of extraction. We’ll do the deed, basically, and get the Druid delegation out. We’ll start with Idris and Rayna, then Ryker, the second Druid, and Rush and Amina, the two Maras. I bet that, once we’re down there with them, they might be able to point us to other meranium boxes that we could unlock.”
“Wait, just the three of you?” Jax raised an eyebrow, ready to object.
“Yes and no,” I replied, the corner of my mouth twitching. “The three of us will be at the front, but we’ll need you and Hansa and Blaze and Caia to cover our backs. Ideally, you should work in pairs, with Blaze and Caia keeping an eye out at the far back. We need to avoid another ambush, and I think this is where our element of surprise is. The daemons won’t see us coming like this, especially if we keep some manageable distance between us. You know, far enough and hidden enough so as not to be easily detected, but close enough to jump in if needed.”
Jax and Hansa looked at each other for a few moments, then nodded almost simultaneously before they shifted their focus back to me and gave me their most appreciative smiles.
“Excellent suggestion, Harper,” Hansa said. “When I told Draven that I saw a great future for you, I obviously knew a thing or two.”
I felt my cheeks burn, unable to stop an ear-to-ear grin from splitting my face.
“You were made for GASP,” Jax added.
You’re damn right I was made for this, I thought to myself. I mean, sure, I came from a place of love and all that, but there was no denying that the Shadian mindset was deeply embedded in my system.
“Prong three,” I continued, trying to ignore the temporary burst of pride in my chest, “is that Vesta will stay up here.”
“What? No, I want to come with you and get my parents out of there,” Vesta objected, her light brown eyebrows pulled into a frown.
“We need you to booby trap this escape tunnel,” I replied, pointing at the bookcase-door in the corner. “Once we’re done collecting our prisoners from down there, we’ll be coming through this tunnel. Chances are we’ll have a tail. On top of that, we’ll need you to prepare an escape route from here to our horses over on the western slope.”
“Don’t worry, Vesta,” Hansa said, “we’ll bring your parents back. But Harper is right. We need someone to stay back here and rig everything. With the right timing, this cloaking spell will act as a cork in the bottle, so to speak, since the daemons won’t be able to pass through the tunnel without our blood.”
“And, with the right cocktail of explosives and accelerants, of which there are plenty in Kerentrith, I could do a lot of damage to this place,” Vesta replied, her gaze wandering around the library. Her mind was already processing her options. “I know where the armories ar
e. I can definitely dash over and get some good ol’ fashioned sellictites and marsonic powder, so we can go out with a veritable bang.”
A few seconds went by in absolute silence as we all stared at Vesta, until Laughlan said what we were all thinking. “You know, for a fae raised by rebel Imen, you are quite the deviant.” He smirked appreciatively. “And I mean that in the most positive way.”
We all laughed lightly, and Vesta blushed and offered a timid smile. “Thank you, I guess,” she murmured. “But, yes, leave this place to me. I know exactly what to do. Just, please, make sure my parents get back up here safely. I’ve only just found them.”
“I promise you, Vesta, I will obliterate anyone who tries to hurt them,” I replied, then pulled a diamond stone from my bag and proceeded to sharpen my twin swords. That was, by far, the most impactful statement I could make, for her peace of mind.
“I’ll stay with Vesta, I suppose,” Laughlan continued, then nodded at the Ekar bird resting on Pheng-Pheng’s shoulder. “I suggest you leave your feathered friend with us, too. I imagine it had plenty of adventure yesterday.”
“Agreed,” I replied, watching the bird as its gaze followed an insect running up the wall. “It’ll be safer up here.”
“We’ll need to make sure we have at least two minutes ahead of the daemons, should they spot us, before we go into the tunnel,” Jax said, then pulled a piece of chalk from his backpack and started drawing a rudimentary map of Draconis on the stone floor.
His hand moved, leaving behind white traces as it offered us a simple, bird’s eye view of what we were to expect downstairs. He’d memorized the cells we’d passed, and began adding numbers to each, based solely on what he’d seen.
Hansa analyzed the numbers for a while, then smirked and pointed at the cluster of cells where Rayna and the others were kept. “See how they’ve numbered the meranium boxes?” she asked.
Her hand hovered above Cell 132, then moved over to the eastern quadrant, and farther to the left, before going back to the first cluster and pointing over to the west. “Hah,” I scoffed, noticing the pattern. “Yes. Clusters of twelve, ascending order from east to west.”
“Exactly,” she replied. “So, if we find out where specific prisoners are held, we could potentially make our way to their locations and free them without the use of a map or a guide.”
“As long as we have the cell numbers, yes,” Jax muttered, narrowing his eyes at the chalk map. “But why? What are you thinking?”
Hansa looked at Jax, then me, and pursed her lips. “I’m thinking two minutes of chaos would certainly give us the edge we need before we come back through the tunnel. All it takes is one extra prisoner freed and equipped with a skeleton key and invisibility paste to get the job done. We don’t have to be the ones to do it,” she said, then nodded at Laughlan. “You’re making three skeleton keys, right?”
“Yes. One for Fiona, and two for your… prong,” Laughlan replied.
“Perfect. So, once we get our delegation members out, we can free another prisoner and have him go around and open the other cell doors,” Hansa said.
“Absolute chaos, yes!” Jax replied.
“And! If we get some specific cell numbers from the daemon guards—I can be very persuasive and intimidating, and you know it—we can send this prisoner to release daemon pacifists,” Hansa said, wearing a most devious grin.
“Leave it to Hansa to topple an entire city,” Jax quipped, lovingly gazing upon her. The look in his smiling eyes made her light up, and she blushed in a silvery glimmer that made her look almost ethereal. No wonder Jax was smitten. She was even more beautiful when she experienced intense emotions.
I had to give Hansa credit. If anyone knew how to wreak havoc, it was the former leader of a succubus tribe. They’d lived in the wild for centuries, hindering many of Azazel’s operations over the years, from small transports to large-scale construction sites. Hansa didn’t hold back on creativity when it came to sabotage.
In this case, the target was a prison citadel filled with creatures who would love nothing more than to burn the place down to the ground. Even the daemons, with their Death Claws and pit wolves, couldn’t deal with a mass jailbreak, especially when there were so many supernaturals who could inflict considerable damage on their structures and their numbers.
Add the throng of Imen prisoners in the central penitentiary and voilà! The perfect storm to bring down a city as powerful and as well-equipped as Draconis.
Caia
I melted down one of my knives and helped Laughlan craft three skeleton keys for the meranium boxes, then prepped my backpack for the mission. While the others geared up and stocked their bags and satchels with fresh supplies of healing powders and the invisibility spell, courtesy of Vesta’s gathering skills, Laughlan proceeded to etch specific markings onto each key.
Most of the group didn’t even notice when Blaze withdrew into a corner behind one of the bookcases enclosed in our cloaking spell, out of sight. They were too busy sharpening their blades and replenishing their satchels, counting the available red lenses and wiping Jax’s chalk map from the floor.
I walked over to Blaze, noticing his brooding shoulders as he stared out through a hole in a stained glass window. His dark hair was ruffled, casting deep shadows over his forehead, and his midnight-blue eyes carried a sadness that made my heart ache. I joined him by the window, trying to get a glimpse of his view through the five-inch gap that had once held a piece of colored glass.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked, giving him a faint smile.
He looked at me, and I felt an instant heatwave spread through my chest. I was never going to get used to the way he made me feel. And that was a wonderful feeling, because every time our eyes met, I had the impression that the novelty would never wear off, that we would always be surprised by one another.
“I’m just thinking about what comes next,” he said, his voice low. “The risks, the lack of options. What choice do we have but to fight, tooth and nail, until we manage to reach out to GASP?”
“None whatsoever,” I replied with a shrug. “Normally, I’d say failure is a great opportunity to learn something and gain experience. But, unfortunately, in this case, failure isn’t an option. We either do this, or we die.”
He nodded. “I agree. And I will burn this whole place to the ground before I let anything happen to you or the team, Caia. I just want you to know that.”
My chest tightened—a frequent effect of his words on me, particularly when he said my name out loud. It sounded so different, as if he put his very soul into the one consonant and three vowels that represented me. “I know,” I whispered, then gently squeezed his shoulder. His muscles were rock hard, my fingers unable to even dig in. But still, he reacted to my touch, his lips parting as his gaze found mine. “And each of us will do the same for you.”
He scoffed, then resumed his study of the outside world through the gap in the stained glass window. We could see the white marble terraces and buildings unraveling beneath, and the flat, reddish land surrounding Kerentrith. If I inched closer, I could even spot the brick-colored sand dunes in the south.
“And that’s the problem,” Blaze muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“Technically speaking, I am this team’s biggest, deadliest weapon,” he replied. “And yet, you’re all worried that you’ll lose me somewhere along the way. After the Infernis debacle and Rewa’s mind-bending stunt, it’s no wonder. I feel like I’m more of a liability than anything else.”
I shook my head, then crossed my arms in a bid to get my point across. Given that I was basically half his size, I felt as though I had to employ dramatic body language just to underline my statements, especially when talking to Blaze. “That’s nonsense! You are crucial to our survival. You’re essential, Blaze. You have no business beating yourself up like this,” I cajoled him as softly as I could.
“All it took was a few words from Rewa, and I almost killed you,” he br
eathed, then closed his eyes. His pained expression as he relived that moment back in Azure Heights threatened to bring tears to my eyes. He was still punishing himself over that.
I moved to face him, tilting my head back, and firmly gripped his shoulders. His muscles didn’t give in to the pressure, but the look in his eyes told me I had his full attention. “I’m just as susceptible. And so is Hansa. Vesta. Patrik. All non-vampires and non-Maras can fall prey to these mind-bending tricks. It’s not like you’re defective or weak!” I scoffed. “In fact, you’ve got more strength than all of us combined, and I’m not talking about your dragon form here! If anyone can keep us safe and get us through to the end, it’s you, Blaze.”
He sighed. “I can’t help but feel useless. Look at what went on in Draconis, for example. I couldn’t even go full dragon because I would’ve crushed the prisoner boxes around us. I could’ve turned and ended it all there.”
I couldn’t help but smile, slowly moving my hands over his broad chest. “There’s more to you than your dragon form, Blaze,” I replied softly. “In some instances, you’re better off without turning. But, once we reach Ragnar Peak, you can go wild and dragon out as much as you want. We’ll certainly need you up there with us to protect the fortress.”
“Way to see the bright side,” he said, the shadow of a smile crossing his face.
“It’s true. We can’t all be fully functional at all times,” I insisted. “That’s why they assigned us like this. Our team has varied skillsets and abilities. Each of us is trained for a specific situation, not for all of them, and that’s okay. But don’t think for a second that just because you’re susceptible to mind-bending and too big in dragon form for the narrow spaces we sometimes deal with, you’re less useful. That’s crazy, Blaze. We’d already be dead if it weren’t for you.”
He took my words to heart. It was written all over his handsome face that the handful of honest thoughts I’d just given him meant the world to him. I found his reaction quite endearing. For a young man as strong and powerful as he was, Blaze still seemed to need a bit of validation once in a while. But, then again, didn’t we all?
A Shade of Vampire 57: A Charge of Allies Page 2