by Sarah Piper
“Do… do I know you?” the blonde croaked out, her lips barely moving.
Haley burst out laughing, and I cried silent tears, both of us falling to our knees in relief.
“We’re your sisters, Adele,” Haley said. “And we’re here to liberate you from this one-star shithole.”
Forty-Three
GRAY
It took all of us the better part of three hours to transport everyone from the underground cells. They had to be triaged and temporarily healed as best as McKenna and Yvonne could manage, bundled into warm gear, and slowly brought up to the mausoleum, where Lansky, two more RCPD wolf shifters, Sunshine, and four more of our witches would stand guard, waiting for the rest of us to do a full sweep of the underground facility.
After that, we’d begin the long trudge back to basecamp, and then, to the lodge. We had about eight hours until sunrise to get all of the vampires to safety, and something told me we’d be using every last second to finish this job.
It had been a long and brutal night, and the end was nowhere on the horizon. But fatigue and soreness were no match for the joy that Haley and I felt at finding Adele, and as we watched Ronan carry her up to the top, my heart felt instantly lighter. I wanted nothing more than to stay with her, to keep her in my sights, but I had to believe we’d have plenty of time for that later.
Right now, we had a lot of work ahead of us.
Including locating Georgie, who—much to our frustration and concern—had not been among the imprisoned witches.
“Okay, the prison is clear,” Ronan said when the last vampire prisoner had been taken upstairs. “Time to move out.”
After securing everyone in the mausoleum, there were only a dozen of us left down here—Haley, me, and two other witches named Bex and Sasha from Verona’s group; Ronan and Ash; Darius; Jael: Sparkle; Elena and Detective Hobb in their wolf forms; and Emilio, who’d shifted back into human form. We fanned out down a long corridor that branched off from the prison chamber, creeping past dozens of abandoned offices, unoccupied cells with barred entries, and bare-bones sleeping chambers without them. Asher managed to find a couple of dead tablets and a cell phone, and Darius tracked down a file box containing four thumb drives, a few maps of Washington, two hand-written notebooks, unused shipping labels to an address in Blackmoon Bay, and a bunch of receipts, all of which we’d sort through later.
Other than that, we’d come up pretty empty on the intel front.
“Seems like they started clearing out days ago,” Emilio said. “The food wrappers in the trash cans are at least that old.”
“You’re right.” Darius sniffed the air. “No human or fae has been down here in at least that long, maybe longer. They’ve probably moved on to Blackmoon Bay.”
“And left their prisoners behind?” I shook my head. “No way. There has to be more to it than this.”
“The prisoners we’ve just liberated couldn’t possibly be of use to them anymore, Gray.” Darius said. “To the hunters and fae, transporting them probably seemed like a liability—look how long it took us just to get them aboveground. Perhaps they decided to cut their losses.”
“I might agree with that,” Emilio said, “but something isn’t adding up. Why leave so many guards behind just to deal with a couple dozen prisoners who don’t even have the strength to stand, let alone mount an escape or attack?”
“We need to keep looking,” I said, and Haley nodded. Our other sister was here somewhere, or at the very least, she had been—and recently, too. My instincts were screaming at me loud and clear. I wouldn’t leave until we found her, or found some clue that would indicate her whereabouts.
We continued down the corridor, checking every single room, until we finally reached the T at the end. There was a large, locked door in the center of the T, made of heavy oak and carved with runes, bigger and stronger than any of the others. From there, the corridor branched out again in both directions.
We cleared the corridor first—just more of the same abandoned office spaces with a few rooms in between that looked like doctors’ exam rooms.
I tried not to linger too long in those—the dried blood smeared on the floor and exam tables was enough to make the bile rise in my throat.
The only additional pieces of intel we’d come up with were a couple of folders containing some kind of medical records, presumably for the prisoners.
None of them bore my sister’s name, or anything that sparked even a glimmer of recognition.
We finally converged again at the large door in the center of the T. Those of us who’d brought weapons drew them, Haley and I readying our magic as Emilio kicked in the door.
For such an imposing piece of wood, it splintered and swung open easily, the runes remaining as dead as everything else. Motion sensors triggered the lights, bathing the space before us in a warm, pleasant glow.
Leaving Elena, Sasha, and Detective Hobb to patrol the corridors, the rest of us headed into the office. Instead of the same basic setup we’d expected to find, this one was massive and ornate, with gleaming hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookshelves stuffed with dusty old tomes and lore books, a wall of high-tech computer peripherals, a small conference table with six leather chairs, and a huge mahogany desk situated square in the middle—something you’d expect to find an in an executive suite in Manhattan rather than in an underground outpost.
“Whoever worked here was pretty high up the ladder,” Bex said, running her hand along the conference table. Like Sophie, Bex was able to pick up on the psychic imprints people left behind on objects, and now she let out a deep sigh. “A lot of people got fired in this room. Some of them were killed.”
Suppressing another shiver, I glanced at Haley, who had the same wide-eyed look on her face as I felt on my own.
“I’ve been here before,” I whispered, images of the place flickering through my mind’s eye.
“Me too,” Haley said. “It was the place we saw in our vision during the blood spell for Darius.”
She was right. I could almost see the woman again now, paging through the books spread out across her desk.
“She’s a vampire,” Darius said, his voice holding a note of surprise. He scented the air again, then slid open a recessed panel on the far wall, between two bookcases. The space he’d revealed lit up immediately.
“It’s a refrigerator,” he said, and I peered over his shoulder to peek inside.
Every shelf was lined with neat, unbroken rows of the same thing.
Blood. Bottles and bottles of blood.
“This is the expensive stuff,” he said, opening one up and sniffing it. I waited for him to take a sip, but he didn’t.
“From the blood bank?” I asked, though I had my doubts. In all my time delivering blood orders for Waldrich’s Imports, I’d never seen anything like that.
“I’m afraid not.” Darius capped it without drinking it, and set it back on the shelf. “This collection was bottled at the source, so to speak.”
My stomach churned. Humans. She’d been draining humans, bottling their blood for her own personal collection. Who knew whether she’d kept them alive; perhaps they were the people who Bex thought died here.
After making my way back to the center of the room, I looked through the books on the desk, finding nothing of particular interest, then moved on to the drawers. There wasn’t much—just a few random office supplies, a phone charger, a chocolate bar.
And then the pin. Shaped like a crown, with two swords crossing beneath it, it shone like liquid silver, catching the light and reflecting it in tiny prisms that scattered rainbows across the ceiling.
“It’s definitely her office,” I said, passing the pin to Haley. “She was wearing this on her jacket lapel in the vision.”
Emilio caught sight of it, his face ashen. “Are you sure, querida?”
“Positive. I saw a silvery crown with two swords underneath, exactly like this. Do you recognize it?”
“It’s the council’s
insignia.” He met my gaze, the space between his eyebrows pinched with new concern. “As far as I know, there is only one pin—this one. I’d heard the custom had fallen out favor decades ago, but back then, they used to give it to the ultimate ranking member.”
“So the woman we saw in the vision was Talia?” I asked.
Emilio shook his head. “Talia is powerful, but the title of ultimate ranking member is typically reserved for fae royalty. One who has the last word in all council matters, but who seldom visits our realm. He or she typically sends emissaries. I wasn’t even aware the council had someone in the position right now.”
“Emilio, why would Gray and I get a vision from some random royal fae?” Haley asked. “And if she’s so important, why would she have an office at the bottom of this outpost? Wouldn’t she have more important things to focus on?”
“Like plotting the downfall of the entire human race?” Ronan asked. He and Asher had been quietly searching the bookshelves up until that point, and now they joined us at the desk, a large leather attaché case in hand.
Inside, they’d found a half-charged tablet containing all kinds of unencrypted notes and plans. There were digital and paper maps, travel itineraries for an entire staff that appeared to have been regularly moving into and out of the Bay from other international destinations for at least a year. There was a leather calendar, also full of notes and details about meetings and missions.
“Darkwinter isn’t interested in eradicating all supers and humans,” Jael said, scrolling through the tablet. “They’re planning to enslave them. Once the witches are out of the picture and the hybrids have done their work ushering in the destruction of most of the world’s communities, those left standing against the dark fae will be captured and enslaved.”
“Bloody hell,” Darius said.
“There are a bunch of passports, too,” Ash said, fishing them out of one of the attaché pockets. They were all from different countries, issued in different names, but the photo inside every single one was identical.
“It’s her,” I said, and Haley confirmed with a nod. “The woman we saw.”
“Employee ID badges,” Ash said, pulling them out of the bag as well. “Same chick. Looks like her actual name is… Trinity O’Leary. Same name on three badges, plus some of the paperwork and notes we found.”
“Trinity,” I whispered, my heart pounding. “She’s… she’s not a random fae royal, Haley. She’s not fae at all. She’s a witch. And apparently a vampire. And I believe she’s our birthmother.”
“Holy shit,” Haley whispered. Her face was sheet-white.
“Looks like there’s an assistant, too,” Ash said, flipping through more of the paperwork.
My chest constricted, all the air whooshing out of my lungs. I knew what he was going to say before he’d uttered another sound.
“Georgina Mertz.”
The last name didn’t matter. No witch in her right mind would use the name Silversbane.
Just like with Trinity, the first name was all the confirmation I needed.
Our mother had infiltrated the fae council, using them to spearhead a plan of mass destruction—to what end, I had no idea. And my sister, our sister, the one who—along with Adele—was prophesied to help us unite the covens… She was our mother’s right-hand woman.
Haley’s mouth rounded into a pale pink O. But before she could formulate a single question, Asher dropped the case, his eyes wide with panic.
“Uh, guys?” Asher said, and Sparkle issued a low, warning growl behind him. “We’ve got a serious fucking problem, and it ain’t your family tree.”
Forty-Four
GRAY
Shadows came to life, peeling themselves from the walls, morphing into the brutal monsters of nightmares. In the span of three heartbeats, we were completely surrounded.
No, not shadows, I realized. Hybrids. Part shifter, part vampire, part wild creature I couldn’t even identify, they’d emerged from a passageway that’d been spelled to look like a bookcase, baring sharp teeth and wielding razor-sharp claws that glinted in the light. By the time we realized what was happening, they’d already divided our group in half, six of us on the inside, six near the outer door we’d entered through.
They outnumbered us four to one.
All that was left to do now was fight.
Instinct took over as the office erupted in pure chaos, a blur of gore and flashing blades and gnashing teeth. Deep underground, my connection to the earth was strong, and I called on its magic to infuse my own, drawing it deep within, then sending it out through my palms in white-blue electric arcs.
All of this happened in an instant. My first attempt crashed into one of the bookshelves and fizzled out, but my next hit was true, igniting one of the hybrids in flames. I didn’t have time to watch him burn; I was already charging up for another hit, shooting it at one of the beasts just before he swiped at Bex.
In the blur of my peripheral vision, Darius was in perpetual motion, grappling with one vamp-monster after another, fighting off their attacks. They seemed nearly evenly matched in speed and strength, and for every one he managed to take down, another took its place. Two wolves charged in through the door—Elena and Hobb—trailed by Sasha, wielding her own magic, yellow-green flames bursting from her palms.
“Asher, duck!” Ronan shouted, and Ash dropped to the floor just as Ronan threw a silver dagger into one of the beasts’ chest. Part vampire, part shifter, the thing dropped to the ground instantly, the silver poison already wreaking havoc on its bloodstream.
I had no vampire superstrength or speed, no shifter instincts, no weapons but my own magic. It took every ounce of strength and focus to control it, but somehow, I managed to take out three more monsters, burning each one to a crisp.
Unfortunately, the office was now burning too. If we didn’t get to the exit soon, we’d all be engulfed.
“Jael, behind you!” Darius shouted, then put up his arms to fend off another attack. Jael was near the doorway, but it wasn’t an escape route. Hybrids had surrounded him on all sides, closing in fast. He swung his fae blade, decapitating one of them, but another took a chunk out of Jael’s arm. The sword clattered to the floor.
“Ronan, help him!” I shouted, firing another bolt of magic at a monster charging Emilio, who was back in his wolf form, his powerful jaws descending over a hybrid’s throat. Sparkle took down two more, all of us desperately trying to reach Jael.
I’d nearly broken through when I saw Ronan’s eyes go wide with fear, clear on the other side of the room. He opened his mouth to shout at me, but it was too late. In an instant, I was slammed into a bookcase, the wind knocked out of me, my skull cracking against the wood. I hadn’t even seen my assailant, but he was on me now, one impossibly-strong hand around my neck as he lifted me a foot off the ground.
I felt the insistent push of his vampire influence on my mind, paralyzing my body as he flooded me with images of all the things he wanted to do to me.
Teeth shone inside a wicked grin, his chin already stained with blood.
The room was darkening around me, acrid smoke and the monster’s tight grip choking off the last of my air supply. I couldn’t call on my magic, couldn’t even swing a fist.
I was fading.
The beast hauled me close to his mouth, inhaling my scent. His tongue darted out to lick my cheek, the rotten funk of his breath and the low, desirous growl in his chest my final warning. My final goodbye.
I’d never felt so weak. So powerless.
I am going to die…
I closed my eyes, waiting for the bite of those teeth.
And then he dropped me.
My ass hit the floor hard, my shoulders crashing into the bookshelf behind me. I had just enough time to cover my head before an avalanche of books cascaded down on top of me.
When the room finally swam back into view and I could actually breathe again, I saw the monster at my feet, his head cleanly separated from his body, blood pooling beneath him
. I looked up to see an outstretched hand reaching for mine. Grabbing it, I got to my feet and came face-to-face with the man who’d just saved my life.
The ancient blue light of his eyes called me home.
“Liam,” I breathed.
“No time,” he said, a fae sword held firmly in his other hand, dripping with blood. “We need to move, Gray. Now.”
“Jael!” I shouted. “Go help Jael!” But Liam shook his head, his grip on my hand tightening. He wouldn’t leave my side, not when we were still surrounded by deadly hybrids, with more emerging from the walls with every passing heartbeat. Smoke billowed around us, thickening, blotting out the light.
At a painfully slow pace, Liam and I fought our way to the doorway where I’d last seen Jael, but it was too late. In the intermittent flashes of my magic attacks and the fire eating up the walls behind us, we watched in horror as the beasts dragged our fae prince down the left corridor, descending on him like a pack of rabid dogs. Seconds later, a wall of flames cut him off from us for good.
“Jael!” I screamed, my throat raw, my legs propelling me forward, even as a strong arm looped around my waist and hauled me backward. Eventually I stopped fighting it, and I collapsed against Liam’s chest. Tears streaked my face, my insides burning with shame and grief. None of us could reach Jael. None of us were even close enough to hear his final cries.
“Move, Gray! Now!” Liam’s panicked voice shook me out of my stupor, and I slipped out of his hold just in time to avoid a strike. I dropped to the ground as Liam swung his blade, taking our attacker’s head clean off.
He hauled me to my feet again and we spun around, looking for another exit, some way to lead everyone to safety, but every corridor was rapidly filling with hybrids. With nowhere else to go, we ran back into Trinity’s office, trying to discern friend from foe amidst the chaos.
With the notable exception of Jael, I spotted everyone in our group. They were all still on their feet, still fighting hard.