The DarkWorld SoulTracker Series Box Set Vol II

by T. G. Ayer

  “Sort of?” Lily frowned.

  “Yep, I’ll come back to that. So, Saleem continued to work for Omega, 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.”

  Someone snickered.

  “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.”

  I’d been about to voice my betrayal to Saleem to the entire team but then swallowed the bold truth down. “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.”

  “It certainly would have helped to have her guide us through the Veil,” said Kai, her expression dark.

  “But you’re a jumper? Why can’t you get us there? And we have Nerina as well,” Lily said with a frown.

  I nodded. “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. Another thing we need to be well aware of is the city is under the control of an as-yet-unidentified element, but I have my suspicions.”

  “Do tell,” said Kai as she too got to her feet. She shifted over and leaned against a nearby tree. The look she gave me was filled with admonishment, given that this was something I should have already clued her in on, but given that she was traveling to meet her dragon, that wasn’t entirely possible.

  I cleared my throat. “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.”

  Kai looked over at Darcy who nodded and said, “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.”

  “Well, they already have Rizwan under their control, which likely happened a long time ago,” I said. “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.”

  Kai shifted forward, mouth open to ask a question and I grinned. “There’s more?” she asked, eyes wide. “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.” I paused for a few moments and then said, “Agent Blake seems to be running things in Mithras.”

  Lots of swearing echoed around the clearing, everyone present likely having had their own run-ins with the asshole.

  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.”

  The team was silent for a few moments, and then Kai’s voice broke the tense quiet, “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.”

  Drake 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 are pretty much deadly to a human.”

  “Problem is, I’m not entirely certain these humans are going to be vanilla.”

  “Shit,” muttered Drake. “Still, they’d have to be some superhuman meta not to go down.”

  I shook my head, and Kai began to pace, hands on her hips. “We ran into those shadowmen, the ones who were boosted with supernatural 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.”

  Someone snorted and then the group chuckled at that.

  “So now you guys know the basics, 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?” asked Baz. “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 pursed his lips, squinting as he 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?” asked Kai, scowling now as it became clear that our way in wasn’t going to be easy at all.

  “Leave it to me,” said Ivy, her forehead creasing as she nodded. “Sentinel will have the plans, maps, etc. I’ll do a little digging and grab what we need.”

  “Right, so once we get the maps and city plans, we’ll be left with one big issue.”

  “Which is?”

  “Transport. 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?” Darcy offered, also looking a little concerned. I understood why. If Ward were a danger, she’d want to avoid him. But if they did end up bumping into each other, she’d need to yell loud, and we’d need to move fast.

  I was about to reply that we’d have to work on something or maybe take another jumper with us, thinking of suggesting Larsson. But a voice from the dark cut me off. “You do
n’t need to worry about transport. I think I can manage that part of the mission.”

  The entire team turned toward the darkness where the voice had emanated and watched silently as a tall, dark-haired man strolled into the light of the fire.

  “Logan!” Lily squealed. I didn’t have a chance to duck aside and was bumped almost off my feet as the shifter flew at Logan and flung herself into his arms.

  I hid a smile as I searched out Kai’s gaze, but she was grinning too, her expression filled with relief. The darkness I’d seen there was fading away, although she still looked a little uncertain.

  “Lily, if you’re done squeezing Logan to death, we’d like to get a chance to do that too,” I said, raising an eyebrow in mock-impatience.

  Lily laughed and let go of Logan. “Sorry, I’m just so damned glad to see his face. He’s all yours now,” she said and skipped off to join Steph within the shadows.

  I stepped forward and wrapped Logan within my own hug. Logan and I had spoken in the past, but we’d never had the chance to bond in order to reach hugging level. It was more because he was my only link to Saleem, the one person I knew who would care just as much as I did that the damn djinn was in trouble.

  Logan squeezed tight and said, “Hang in there, Jumper. We’ll get him back.”

  Tears flooded my eyes, and I swallowed a sob. But he seemed to feel my pain and squeezed harder, then turned me around and walked me back into the darkness where we could have a modicum of privacy.

  With his arm curled around my shoulders, we walked a short distance then stopped, the light of the fire now a dull glow. “I thought you weren’t going to come,” I said, sniffing at the tears that still threatened to flow.

  Logan chuckled. “I thought I wasn’t coming either.”

  “Did she give you an earful?” I asked, imagining Kai ripping into him when he’d declined to join the mission.

  “That she did. And then some. I deserved it though. It shouldn’t have taken me so long to change my mind.”

  I shrugged. “What difference is a few hours? You’re here now, that’s what matters.”

  Logan shook his head. “No. I should have dropped everything the moment Kai told me. I was just…torn. I guess I wasn’t sure if leaving Drakys would seem like a betrayal of my duties.”

  I snorted. “What did your sister have to say about it?”

  Logan’s grin was wide as he shook his head. “You know what they say about dragons breathing fire?”

  I laughed at that, the image I conjured up far too amusing. “I’m glad you’re here. The team’s large and filled with talents but I’m not a seasoned operative, and to be fair, neither is Kai. We’re best working alone or in small teams. With you here, I can breathe a little.”

  Logan nodded. “I’ll do whatever is needed, but I won’t take point.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  Logan stared at me for a long moment. “You’ve done everything up to this point. I won’t step in now just because I finally deigned to join you.”

  I let out a hard laugh. “You’re hilarious, you know that? I’m beginning to wonder if you accidentally fried your brain cells with that new-fangled DragonFyr of yours.”

  I folded my arms and watched as Logan stared at me, confused and a little surprised at my attack.

  “You have years of experience on me, leading missions, taking on military forces. You have the skills in tactical measure and weaponry. Do you think it’s smart not to take point when the next best thing is a jumper chasing her tail who barely knows her ass from her elbow when it comes to subversive tactical missions? I’d say you’re a little reckless.”

  “I’d say you’re underestimating your abilities and those of your team. But this argument would have been moot had I decided not to come.”

  “Not a relevant argument. If something goes wrong and I muck things up, you’re going to live the rest of your life knowing you didn’t do everything in your power to ensure we got Saleem out alive.”

  Logan lifted an eyebrow, though the corner of his lip had a distant curl to it. “I’m thinking you’ll be blaming yourself if the djinn did end up biting the bullet,” he said with a smirk.

  “No. I’ll just be blaming you,” I replied, squeezing my folded arms tighter as I avoided his gaze.

  Chapter 36

  Logan let out a loud guffaw, then reached for me. He grabbed ahold of my shoulders again and gave me a quick shake before ruffling my hair. I let out a low squawk and nudged him in the ribs. “What was that for?” I ran my fingers through my hair and glared at him, peering up at him as he hadn’t let go of me yet. Logan just ignored me and kept walking, leading me back to the fire and to Kai’s side.

  “Did you tell him off?” Kai asked me serenely, giving Logan a dangerously sweet smile.

  “I tried. But he’s too much of an idiot,” I muttered. “I don’t think common sense works for him.”

  Kai’s eyes widened as she looked at Logan and then at my face, curious and amused. I said nothing, and he eventually let out an impatient sigh.

  “Fine. I’ll take point.” I grinned at his words, but Logan continued, “But you’re still in charge. You don’t get off scot-free.”

  He looked at Kai. “Was she just waiting for me to arrive so she could hand the mission over to me?” he asked, smiling as he curled his arm around her waist.

  Kai looked at me and studied my face for a moment. Then she smiled. “She wasn’t waiting. We never knew for sure if you’d come. But seeing as you are here, and this is your forte, you may as well get your ass moving.”

  Logan muttered something rude then jerked a chin at Drake, who was standing a few feet from us. “What about Drake. He’s Gargoyle military. Surely he’s capable.”

  “Hey, dude. I’m the medic in this outfit, okay. I may dabble in weapons, but no way you’ll get me taking charge, especially with you around.”

  “See,” I said brightly. “Now, I can give you a recap after the meeting’s done.”

  Logan nodded, although something told me that he’d been lurking in the shadows for far longer than he’d let on.

  I headed back to the fire and said, “Okay, I think we have everything sort of lined up. We’ll text you all the final plans and groupings before we meet tomorrow. So, just before midnight, tomorrow, right here. We meet at my place in the evening first. Please don’t be late.”

  Everyone was nodding, and I glanced over at Ivy who was watching Logan and Kai, the expression on her face sublime, as though the sight of the two of them together filled her with joy. No doubt it did; what grandmother wouldn’t want her grandchild to be happy. And rumor had it that Grams adored Logan, so there was that.

  As the team began to disperse, I nodded at Ivy whose shoulders curved in a defeated sigh. She stalked over and muttered, “Fine. Do you want to do this now?”

  I glanced over at Kai, who looked a little lost. Only until she’d stared at Ivy and then at me for a moment, did she pause and nod, then turn and yell out, “Darcy, Nerina, Cassie. You are summoned.”

  The three woman looked over at us, all bearing almost identical startled expressions.

  “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” said Cassandra as she strode over, her long-legged stride emphasizing her height.

  Ivy chuckled, and I bent to look around her to wave at Natasha. The witch flipped her hand in a wave that said, “don’t worry,” then pointed up at the house. I nodded and smiled as the rest of the team followed her into the darkness.

  As I turned, Logan was already sprinting toward them, leaving us alone with Ivy.

  I was curious as to how this was going to happen. How was Ivy going to ask the delicate question?

  So glad it wasn’t going to be me.

  Ivy clapped her hands and smiled, “Ladies, you can all stop looking so worried. I have a question to put to you three, one that I believe I should have asked a while ago. I’ve just been a little reluctant to step in where I didn’t belong. But after what Celeste has been through, I
believe it’s time to talk about it. I only hope that the answer to my question is going to be yes for all three of you because, if not, then we have a little problem.”

  Darcy shrugged. “If you want to do this one on one I’ll be fine with it?”

  Ivy looked over at me. “That sounds like a good idea.” She waved a hand at Cassie and led her off into the shadows, while Kai seemed to naturally gravitate toward Nerina. I agreed with that choice, given that Darcy was potentially sister-in-law material, which would make things a little uncomfortable if the mage’s answer was no.

  I walked off toward the water’s edge with Darcy, and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry about the whole cloak-and-dagger thing.”

  “No worries. Seems like this is something important…”

  I nodded. “Well, I guess I may as well ask the question instead of wasting time.” Darcy gave me a squeeze of the forearm and smiled. Taking a deep breath, I asked, “Have you received a letter?”

  Darcy’s eyebrows rose, and she gave an uncomfortable smile. “I guess I have to say yes if you refer to a paper in an envelope kind of letter?”

  I smirked. “This one does this mysterious thing where it appears out of nowhere and often lands inside one’s bedroom or personal space.”

  Darcy swallowed although her features remained bland.

  I frowned. If she’d read the letter, she’d have at least suspected who the other members of the Ni’amh were.

  Then she shook her head and gave a murky smile. “If the letter you are referring to references a prophecy, then the answer is yes.”

  I let out a sigh of relief and then gave her a quick hug. “You have no idea how glad I am you said yes. Until I asked the question, I hadn’t really thought what it would mean if you didn’t yet receive the letter.”