“They don’t have pointed ears.”
“Oh, we bred that out of them. It was gone within a few generations.”
An isle of near-permanent twilight, the home world of her breed of Fae … A land of Dusk.
“Dusk’s Truth,” Bryce breathed. It wasn’t just the name of this room that Danika had been talking about with Sofie.
Rigelus didn’t answer, and she didn’t know what to make of it. But Bryce asked, “Why lie to everyone?”
“Two breeds of Fae? Both rich in magic? They were ideal food. We couldn’t allow them to unify against us.”
“So you turned them against each other. Made them two species at odds.”
“Yes. The shifters easily and swiftly forgot what they had once been. They gladly gave themselves to us and did our bidding. Led our armies. And still do.”
The Prime had said something similar. The wolves had lost what they had once been. Danika had known that. Danika had known the shifters had once been Fae. Were still Fae—but a different kind.
“And Project Thurr? Why was Danika so interested in that?”
“Thurr was the last time someone got as far as Danika did in learning about us. It didn’t end well for them. I suppose she wanted to learn from their mistakes before acting.”
“She was going to tell everyone what you were.”
“Perhaps, but she knew she had to do it slowly. She started with Ophion. But her research into the bloodlines and the origins of the shifters, her belief that they’d once been a different type of Fae, from a different Fae world, was important enough that they put her in touch with one of their most talented agents: Sofie Renast. From what I gather, Danika was very intrigued by Sofie and her powers. But Sofie, you see, had a theory, too. About energy. What her thunderbird gifts sensed while using firstlight. And even better for Danika: Sofie was an unknown. Danika would be noticed poking about, but Sofie, as a passing human working in the archives, was easily missed. So Danika sent her to learn more, to go undercover, as you call it.”
She’d made an enormous mistake coming here.
“We were eventually notified by one of our mystics here, who learned it from prying into the mind of one of Ophion’s Command. So we did a little tugging. Pointed Micah toward synth. Toward Danika.”
“No.” The word was a whisper.
“You think Micah acted alone? He was a brash, arrogant male. All it took was some nudging, and he killed her for us. Had no idea it was on our behalf, but it played out as we planned: he was eventually caught and killed for disturbing our peace. I thank you for that.”
Bryce shot from her chair. They’d killed Danika—to keep all of this secret. She would rip them to shreds.
“You can try to run,” Rigelus said. “If that will make you feel better.”
Bryce didn’t give him a chance to say more before she teleported back to the alcove, Hunt’s power fading like a dimming flame inside her.
No sign of Ruhn. But Hunt—
He was on his knees, Umbra Mortis helmet discarded on the stone floor beside him. Hands behind his head, bound with gorsian manacles.
His eyes turned wild, pleading, but there was nothing Bryce could do as freezing stone clamped around her wrists as well, and she found herself face-to-face with a grinning Harpy.
74
Tharion ran—or tried to. The mech-suit blocked his exit with a giant gun.
The pilot inside grinned. “Time to fry, fish.”
“Clever,” Tharion ground out, and leapt back as the cannon-gun fired. Only a smoking pile of rubble remained of the concrete where he’d stood.
“Go!” Cormac yelled again, and Pippa’s rifle thundered.
Tharion twisted to see the prince collapse to his knees, a gaping hole in his chest.
He had to get him out. Couldn’t leave him like this, where recovery would likely be thwarted by a beheading. But if he stayed, if he wasn’t killed outright …
He had four hours to reach water. The rebels would use that against him. And he might have sold his life away to the Viper Queen, but to live without his fins … He wasn’t ready to lose that piece of his soul.
Cormac’s eyes rippled with fire as he met Tharion’s stare. Run, that gaze said.
Tharion ran.
The mech-suit behind him fired again, and he rolled between its massive legs. Shooting to his feet, he sped for the hole the mech-suit had made in the wall. Daylight poured in through the billowing smoke.
That tether in his chest—the Viper Queen’s leash—seemed to whisper, Get to water, you stupid bastard, then return to me.
Tharion dared a glance back as he leapt through the opening. The mech-suit was advancing on Cormac. Pippa marched beside it now, smiling in triumph.
Beyond them, row after row of half-made mech hybrids slumbered. Waiting for activation and slaughter. It didn’t matter which side they fought for.
Cormac managed to lift a bloody hand to point behind Pippa. She drew up short and whirled to face the five glowing beings at the far end of the space.
The Asteri. Oh gods. They’d come.
Cormac gave no warning as he erupted into a ball of fire.
Pippa was consumed by it first. Then the mech-pilot, who burned alive in his suit.
But the ball kept growing, spreading, roaring, and Tharion began running again, not waiting to see if it could somehow, against all odds, take out the Asteri.
He ran into the open air, following the tug of that leash back to the water, to Valbara, dodging the wolf guards now racing to the building. Sirens blared. White light rippled into the sky—the Asteri’s rage.
Tharion cleared the trees. Kept running for the coast. Maybe he’d get lucky and find a vehicle before then—even if he had to steal it. Or put a gun to the driver’s head.
He was half a mile away when the entire building exploded, taking Cormac, the suits, and the rebels with it.
Slumped on the cell floor, Ruhn’s body ached from the beating he’d taken. Mordoc had surrounded him with dreadwolves—no shadows would have been able to hide Ruhn from the bloodhound anyway. He’d have been sniffed out immediately.
Had Day betrayed him? Pretended to be captured so he’d come here? He’d been so blind, so fucking blind, and now—
The door to the cell far beneath the Asteri’s palace opened. Ruhn, chained to the wall with gorsian shackles, looked up in horror as Bryce and Athalar entered, similarly shackled. His sister’s face was wholly white.
Athalar bared his teeth at the Harpy as she shoved him in. Since Mordoc still lurked by the cell archway, grinning at them both, Ruhn had no doubt that the Hind was somewhere close by—that she’d be the one who got to work on them.
Neither Athalar nor Bryce fought their captors as they, too, were chained to the wall. Bryce was shaking. With fear or rage, Ruhn didn’t know.
He met Mordoc’s stare, letting the dreadwolf see just who the fuck he was tangling with. “How did you know I’d be here?”
The dreadwolf captain pushed off from the archway, violence in every movement. “Because Rigelus planned it that way. I still can’t believe you walked right into his hands, you stupid fuck.”
“We came here to assist the Asteri,” Ruhn tried. “You’ve got the wrong idea.”
From the corner of his eye, he could sense Bryce trying to catch his attention.