“Did you eat the mushrooms that the red caps we’re passing around by chance?” I inquired. “Enough about Spyder’s cock and his ladder. This isn’t the time to be throwing jokes, gentlemen.”
“How would he have a ladder on his . . .” Zander paused, dropping his head as he winced while looking at the general area of Spyder’s ladder.
Spyder just chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest to gaze warmly at Kahleena. “She’s a fighter, Synthia. Kahleena has the soul of a warrior, a heart of gold, and the innocence of a child living within her. The last one stopped me from—best we not go there. If anyone can change Arius’s path, it’s her.”
“What did the guard want?” Ryder asked while passing Spyder a warning with his gaze.
“He said someone was in the palace, but then another guard said the situation was hand—”
Alarms blared, and the entire palace shook. The walls hummed with warning, and the lights cut off. The palace was rapidly locking down, which meant something had either attempted to breach or had breached the protection barriers.
The soft glow of light flicked on was filled with prisms, which would seek out anyone who hadn’t been formally offered ingress into the palace. The loud crashing noise that followed was magical barriers sliding into place, baring each floor from being penetrated by foes.
Next the wards carved into the very walls and foundation activated. They would lock anyone the prisms identified as a trespasser into place. Finally, the alarm lowered before changing into sonic waves that rendered most magic moot. The sounds of fae collapsing to the ground as they attempted to sift, echoed down the hallway.
My heart thundered as I turned, watching both Adam and Ryder take off down the corridor. It would be a few moments before anyone could sift again, which meant we’d be forced to hoof it like mortals until then. I spun to Lucian, demanding, “Do not leave my daughter, Lucian, not for any fucking reason. Lena, I need you to stand in the hallway and make sure no one makes it around that corner. No one else can know she’s here. Do you understand? Once you can, I need you to find Erie so she can set wards and runes to back up the ones Kahleena painted. I want this place to be as impenetrable as Fort Knox.”
He gave me a calculated look before he nodded, moved to settle into the shadows of the room, and placed his hands on the walls. A second later, they began to glow a deep, dark shade of crimson, and he melted into them as if he were becoming the wall protecting her. The minute the power hummed around me, assuring me that Kahleena was safe, I headed for Dristan.
Then I sifted to the nursery, scanning for my son. Faelyn gasped, cradling Dristan in her arms. “You’re heading into the bunker. Grab his things and follow me,” I stated, but when she blinked and remained in place, I bristled with fear and worry of an impending attack. “Get behind me, Faelyn!” I ordered, watching as she and the other nurses accepted the children from the women sifting them into the room. They dropped off little ones, sifting out to gather more as their parents geared up for battle.
I marched to the bright mural on the wall and planted my palm against it, hearing the mechanisms working as the portal recognized my prints. It began to hum with power before an ultraviolet light washed over the room. Once it dimmed, I peered into the bunker, finding Cherry and other women already waiting on the other side.
“Test them,” I ordered while stepping back, preparing to unleash hell if they so much as twitched wrong. Scarlett, a newly recruited shapeshifter and enforcer from the guild stepped forth, oblivious to the threat. “Move another step, and I will end you.”
She held up her hand to show me the test she held. “Lucian had one of his men drop these off. He told me to pick women I trusted, test them, and then get our asses here. He also stated that Adrian needed us here in the event shit went south at the border?”
I blinked and then exhaled, relaxing. “Sometimes, that guy’s foresight into shit creeps me out,” I admitted, ushering the women through with the children. “No one goes in or out of the room while the children are in it. Understood?” I asked sharply with a hardened look.
“As much as I fantasize about Adrian punishing me, I’m not willing to fuck with Lucian and his merry band of lethal-looking men. I am trained to hold the bunker, and I will do so with my dying breath should it call for that. Is—I mean . . .” She paused as if unsure if she should ask me whatever it was she was trying to ask.
“Spit it the fuck out already,” I snapped, watching her eyes grow rounded at my outburst. “I mean it.”
“Alden’s going to be okay, right?” she whispered thickly.
“No, no one is okay.” I snorted and felt the guilt sharp against my conscience. They were scared, and I wasn’t easing it, or helping. “He’s alive, but he’s not okay. It’s a bad situation. Close the bunker, they’re all in.” I stepped back, watching her lift her hand as I did, sealing it from both sides.
Once the door was secured, I sifted into the corridor that had held Zahruk and Alden and cried out in pain. There was glass everywhere, and it sliced into the soles of my feet before I could glamor on shoes on my feet. My focus passed over Adam and Adrian before landing on Ryder, who was staring into the empty cells with disappointment and worry pinching his brow.
“Have you called the guards to go after them?” I asked.
“No,” Ryder mumbled, turning to me.
“Why? We need to find them now,” I hissed with fear wrapped around my words.
“If Zahruk doesn’t want to be captured, he won’t be. All we can do is hope that he can find a way to break free from whatever is happening to him. Zahruk is of the horde, and we always come back to where our brethren are. Horde is ruled by loyalty to family and blood—or, it has been since I murdered my father to free us and return us to the true meaning of horde. There’s nothing we can do but wait to see if he returns a monster or the brother I have stood beside since he drew his first breath.”
Layton snorted from the shadows, slowly pushing off the wall. He ambled over to us and frowned. “You know the things about titans that most people forget? Well, other than we’re sexy beasts, very deadly, and tend to be murderous fiends?”
“Layton,” Ryder muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If this is another story about your dick, can you fucking save that shit for another time?”
“It’s not about my dick.” Layton leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his wide chest. “You know why they didn’t like Lena?”
“The furies,” I stated to hurry up the game of one hundred random-as-fuck questions unfolding. He winked at me as if I’d earned a prize.
“It is their essence, which is primordial. The coolest thing about the furies is that they shed their essence when they leave a host. Well, we just happened to have some on hand, and I fed some to two women who were slated for execution.” My eyes narrowed, and he wagged his finger at me. “Nah, little Momma, those bitches sold their children to sick fuckers and had not a drop of remorse about it. I pushed one into Alden’s cage and the other into Zahruk’s. They fed and consumed the furies essence, which we hope will cause them to reject the ether. It might not work since it’s been a while since they were exposed, but it was worth a shot. At the very least, it should buy them time.”