by T. G. Ayer
Sienna shook her head. “And Saleem? What if he dies? You happy to have his blood on your hands? Happy with the choice you made? A crumbling kingdom paid for with the life of your best friend?”
Logan stiffened, his anger rising. But he had little right to take his fury out on his sister. She was right. He’d never be able to live with himself knowing his position as ruler of Drakys came covered in Saleem’s blood.
Logan took a deep breath. “So what happens if I go? How do we hold back this crazy tide until I return?”
“How long would you estimate it to take?” asked Sienna, tapping her finger against her lip.
“That’s the problem. It could well be an easy in and out. Or we could be looking at a week. I don’t see it taking longer than a week.” Logan nodded, confident that whatever the mission was, very few would take more than a week.
Sienna shrugged. “That’s manageable. We’ll announce a viewing of the Northern Reaches, to check on the flooding as it will affect the city as a whole.”
“And leaving the capital unattended for a week? Not risky?”
“No. Because the Northern Reaches will be assessed by General Lyandr who will be surveying the realm with old Vyrian. Tactical military assessments are seldom seen as opportunities for social interaction or for lobbying. They’ll lobby me here in the city if they want.” Sienna smirked as she folded her arms. “You’ll have almost ten days, maybe twelve. Make them count, brother.”
Chapter 34
When Logan arrived at Natasha’s homestead, he didn’t immediately reveal himself. He told himself that it was because he didn’t want to startle them with his dragon form, but a whisper in his mind called him a liar.
He didn’t deny it.
Still, he approached in silence and studied the gathered group. Baz, Lily, and Steph were chatting, the younger group appearing to have formed a stronger bond. Lily’s skin was pale, but she appeared to be in better health than she’d been when Logan had left Tukats. Corin’s treatments must have worked, for which Logan was very glad. Darcy and Nerina were huddled, conversation appearing light and free from tension. Drake was crouched near the trees, his dark skin almost blending with the shadows, though his shoulders rippled with a tension that was reflected in his silvery eyes.
Near the edge of the pond, the white witch chatted with Cassandra, both appearing polite, rather than friendly. Interesting.
Logan shook his head. He’d barely returned and already he’d begun to parse body language and assess moods. Guess being a detective was a natural instinct.
Mel stood at Ivy’s side, both deep within what looked to be a serious conversation. Logan found himself smiling as he realized he’d missed Grams. It had taken him some time to get his mind around referring to the her as a grandmother, what with her young appearance and her badass persona. The stern pale-blonde matriarch was a woman not to be trifled with.
Good thing Ivy seemed have had a soft spot for Logan.
Kai sat across the clearing, her face half-hidden in shadows, but even from this distance, he could feel her tension, her disappointment, as she repeatedly scanned the trees discreetly. He’d disappointed her with his refusal to join the mission. And he’d hurt her too, when he’d declined to continue the discussion. He’d been cool, imperious, almost arrogant. But he’d done it deliberately, needing to make her leave, believing the choice his heart was making would impact his duty to his people.
How wrong he’d been.
Mel moved away from Ivy. “Ready when you guys are,” Mel said before she and Ivy shared a brief but significantly conspiratorial glance.
Logan smiled—a mystery for another day. He focused on Mel, who strode toward the clearing and dropped onto a blanket. Fire flared at the center of the group, the white witch throwing warmth and light onto the sober gathering.
Logan wondered what Saleem would think if he could see this; so many people all who cared for him in some way, all now focused on bringing him home.
“Wow, now that’s cool,” Baz said as he peered closer at the fire, which gave his ashy skin a bit of a golden tan. “It’s even hot.”
“Be careful you don’t burn off your nose, you idiot. The fire is real.” Lily was rolling her eyes as she smacked the hacker on his arm.
Mel cleared her throat as she studied the faces around the fire. “So I don’t think we’ll be here too long. We just need to go over a few things. The agreed time, as requested by Saleem for reasons still unknown to me, is tomorrow midnight. We’ve obtained a portal key to help us with access.”
Mel’s words drew a frown from Kai who opened her mouth to speak. But the jumper just nodded and Kai fell silent. Logan wanted to go to her, but he decided it would be best to gauge the crowd first before he made his presence known.
“So just for clarification for everyone,” Mel scanned the group again, “the story is as follows, just in case you are missing any of the pieces.”
She got to her feet and walked a few feet back and forth, confirming to Logan that though she was good at keeping her emotions in check, she was still a bundle of tension, and nerves. He didn’t blame her.
“A couple of weeks ago—Okay, maybe I need to go back a little further than that,” Mel said, and was rewarded with a round of subdued laughter from the team. She inhaled sharply and said, “A couple of years ago, Queen Aisha of the Djinns was kidnapped while on a trip to the Earth-World. Her sons were concerned—she’s not the flighty or irresponsible type—and the elder son who was also the next in line to the throne, came to our plane to investigate, hoping to find her. What he found instead was Omega, who recruited him with promises of helping him to find his mother. What Saleem didn’t know was that Omega themselves had taken Aisha and was holding her hostage…sort of.”
Logan blinked, and his gut tightened. There was so much Saleem hadn’t told him. Yes, the djinn had mentioned his responsibilities and that he was searching for his mother, but the Queen of the Djinn? That was something a guy ought to have told his friend.
Logan shook his head. He was the last person to judge. How much of his own turmoil had he kept from Saleem? Granted some of his omissions had been for pride, the stupid male ego refusing to admit to suffering from mental issues. And then, when things had escalated, there just hadn’t been time to sit and have that heart to heart.
Was it too late?
Maybe. But even if it were, both he and Saleem had their own history, their own responsibilities. Which did nothing to detract from their duty to each other.
Mel’s voice rose, cutting into Logan’s thoughts. “—uncovered clues but kept getting stonewalled. In the interim, he became concerned about his brother who’d been left to control the realm. He's not known for having important character elements, like a spine.”
Steph snickered at that, but quickly composed herself.
Mel’s eyes though, had taken on a faraway expression. “But Saleem was also tied down by his agreement with Omega, and although he didn’t say as much, I think he’d attempted to return home and was shut down by them. Which is when he came to me. As far as Omega was saying, they’d been unable to track Aisha down, but it didn’t take me too long to find her.
“Omega has a property out in Aspen where they are currently holding the queen. It took only one visit to confirm her presence, and I went in to speak to her at Saleem’s request. That’s when things got a little complicated.”
Mel paused as she appeared to struggle with something and then her expression cleared.
“On my announcement that I was there to break her out, the djinn queen refused and promptly reminded me that her powers as queen of the djinn meant she could get out of her captivity whenever she wanted to. Omega was well aware of her abilities and had threatened her with something—this is another unknown variable that I hope to find out—and as a result, she refused to leave. It’s possible the lives of her sons were threatened, but I couldn’t figure out exactly how. Either way, Aisha has refused to join the mission.”
&
nbsp; “It certainly would have helped to have her guide us through the Veil,” Kai said. Tension coiled around her and her voice rippled with something—annoyance perhaps. Logan couldn't blame her. Seemed both Logan and Aisha—two people who should have cared the most for Saleem’s safety—had summarily declined to help the mission when first approached.
“But you’re a jumper?” Lily frowned, her lynx eyes glittering like liquid honey in the firelight. “Why can’t you get us there? And we have Nerina as well.”
Mel’s nod was a sharp jerk as she replied, “Unfortunately we have it on good authority that cross-Veil travel has been shut down. Mithras has been quarantined, and we’re concerned there may be protective wards set up. Not sure about that but better to be safe than sorry.
“So to avoid setting off any wards, we’ve obtained a portal key. So we have our way in sorted. And we have the allocated time set in stone. Other things we need to be well aware of is the city is under the control of an as yet unconfirmed element, but I have my suspicions.”
“Do tell.” Kai boosted to her feet, then stepped to an ancient oak. She rested a shoulder against the gnarled trunk, appearing nonchalant. But she hadn’t fooled Logan, because he could see the emotions in her eyes, part hurt, part annoyance, part understanding. Mel hadn’t told her.
The jumper’s features were indecipherable as she replied, “I’ve spoken with Saleem a few times. A couple of times in a dream and then in an astral projection. The first time I visited him, I could see that he’d been tortured. And he was confined to his quarters. We didn’t have time for him to detail exactly what had happened that ended in him being in chains in his own home, but what he did say was we needed a team, and he told me when to come. I visited him recently again, and this time I walked in on the torturers—figuratively speaking. They were doing the whole let’s-whip-the-bottoms-of-your-feet-until-we-break-you routine, with spiked whips, just FYI. So his feet were a bloody mess, though the rest of him did look in slightly better condition. Not sure how much longer that will be for though.
“Anyway, the most shocking part of the scene was the mage who was attending Saleem. He’s a MindMelder named Ward who is apparently supposed to be dead. He’s a lowlife piece of shit who seemed to enjoy what he’s doing to Saleem. I watched him work on Saleem to change his memories, to make him more compliant.”
Logan’s gut tightened at the mention Ward’s name. Darcy had told Logan that the Mindmelder was dead, but the fact that he was still alive meant there was a chance he could help to remove whatever was left in Sienna’s mind that was blocking her memories of her past.
Kai glanced at Darcy who replied, “Ward’s powerful, but Saleem is a djinn, with royal blood and the future king. Add to that the fact that he’s also a strong-willed, powerful, and passionate guy, and I don’t think Ward realizes it’s not going to be all that easy to crush Saleem.”
Logan’s fingers fisted. Not only had this asshole raped his sister’s mind, he was now doing the same to Saleem, the best friend Logan had ever had.
“Well, they already have Rizwan under their control,” said Mel as she pursed her lips. “Which likely happened a long time ago. He betrayed Saleem and helped capture him, so there’s going to be some sibling issues we’ll have to work through. But, Darcy is right, Saleem’s not about to give in easily.”
Under the oak, Kai pushed off the trunk, about to ask a question when she paused and shook her head. Her green eyes widened. “There’s more?” Kai said, then shook her head. “Right. I’ll wait.”
“So, apart from the back from the dead MindMelder, I ran into someone else, whose presence raised a shitload of questions.” Mel stopped speaking for a moment and something told me that I wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.
“Agent Blake seems to be running things in Mithras.”
The clearing erupted with outraged swearing, though Logan’s shock had stilled him into silence.
Blake was alive? And involved with Saleem’s captivity.
A wave of unadulterated fury rippled through Logan, and only when the fabric of his black leather jacket reflected light from a new direction did he calm himself. His eyes would have revealed the dragonflame, and he had to simmer down before he spoke to anyone.
Chapter 35
“So what we are likely looking at is a human-run operation to control the djinn realm, for reasons we have yet to discover. Division 7 is going to be who we need to fight.”
Silence blanketed the clearing for a long moment as the team glanced at each other, sharing sober, worried glances.
Then Kai spoke, shattering the tension. “That guy seems to be everywhere. I’d love to know what interest they have in Mithras and the djinn, but I guess we do need to prepare in terms of weaponry.”
The gargoyle shifted as he cleared his throat. “I’ve commissioned a truckload of weapons and ammo, all capable of bringing down a djinn army, or a gargoyle one if it came to that. And any weapons we have that can fell a supernatural is pretty much deadly to a human.”
“Problem is I’m not entirely certain these humans are going to be vanilla.”
“Shit,” Drake swore, the guttural quality emphasizing his surprise. “Still, they’d have to be some superhuman meta not to go down.”
Mel was shaking her head as Kai shifted on her feet and paced, hands propped on her hips, a scowl on her face. “We ran into those shadowmen, the ones who were boosted with natural shadowmen powers. They were not easy to take down, that much I can say. Granted I was in the astral plane the first time around, which is what made it harder. My second run-in with them went a little better, but they do pack a huge punch and if you can’t teleport you’re in for a bit of a shock.”
A snort echoed across the fire, which snapped the tension a fraction, enough to elicit a round of chuckles.
“So now you guys know the basics,” said Mel, her face sober now. “And we have weapons covered. We just need to map out the process. If we had eyes on the inside or someone familiar with the realm, it would help. Not as though we can hack into the city archives for palace plans.”
“Why not?” Baz asked with a scowl. “If they have even a modicum of modern security systems we should be able to find a loophole and get in. To be honest, it would be far easier if they didn’t do things old school. A security system we can hack but manual security rounds, real eyes on every corner…that’s going to be a problem.”
“Even then we don’t have a clue unless I go back to see the queen. Probably should have thought about that before I stormed off so angrily into the ether.”
Drake shook his head. “Still, unless she’d have had access to city planning, she wouldn’t know the kind of details we need, like access tunnels, water pipelines, security routes, and schedules.”
“And even if she did know something, how much is likely to have been changed by Omega when they took over?” Kai’s scowl made Logan smile.
“Leave it to me,” Ivy called out. Her frown said her mind was already focused on how she was going to obtain that info. “Sentinel will have the plans, maps, etc. I’ll do a little digging and grab what we need.”
“Right,” Mel said, letting out a breath. “So once we get the maps and city plans, we’ll be left with one big issue.”
“Which is?” replied Ivy, one eyebrow curving.
“Transport,” Mel said. “Once we get inside the djinn realm, we’re going to have to be able to get around fast. We have a couple jumpers, but I’m not sure that’s going to cut it if we split up. Someone’s not going to be covered.”
“We’ll have a team comm set up. Maybe we could use that to call for emergency extraction?” said Darcy, the worry in her eyes clear.
Logan’s history with the woman made his feelings for her a little conflicted. But now, her expression made it clear she hid a deeper fear.
Mel was about to speak but Logan had already decided he’d remained silent long enough. “You don’t need to worry about transport. I think I can manage that
part of the mission.”
Heads turned slowly toward Logan, remaining unmoving as Logan moved toward the firelight.
“Logan!” From the other side of the fire, Lily sprang to her feet and raced toward Logan. He winced as the lynx shifter’s elbow slammed into Mel, almost tossing her off her feet—though the tracker only grinned and as she steadied herself, eyes filled with amusement.
Lily though, was oblivious as she flung herself at Logan, who barely had time to reach out before her arms closed around his waist.
From beyond Mel, Kai watched, a broad smile on her face, her relief clear, though Logan caught a hint of something else. Did she doubt his return? Was she unsure he’d come to stay?
His stomach twisted with the knowledge that she didn’t trust him, but he deserved it, didn’t he? Sienna’s voice in his told him as much.
“Lily, if you’re done squeezing Logan to death, we’d like to get a chance to do that too,” Mel called out, her eyebrow raised.
Lily chuckled and released Logan at last, and he smiled down at her bright, and healthy-looking face. The treatments were most definitely working.
“Sorry,” Lily said, though she didn’t sound at all apologetic. “I’m just so damned glad to see his face. He’s all yours now,” Lily called out as she scampered back to Baz and Steph.
Mel hurried over Logan, giving him the same, if a lot less exuberant, treatment. Which Logan returned with equal affection. The djinn’s main squeeze was an all-round great gal. He’d told Saleem that he’d given his approval early on in the pair’s sort-of relationship.
Saleem had denied anything formal, but formal wasn’t needed when emotions came into play.
“Hang in there Jumper,” Logan whispered. We’ll get him back.”
One glance down at her tear-filled face had Logan swearing in his mind. Trust him to say something to make Mel, of all people, cry.