Chapter 24
Iris
Ishoot a message to Noah.
Me: Are you at the compound?
Noah: Yeah. Why?
Me: Can you meet me in your room?
Noah: I’m already there. I wanted to talk to you anyway.
Fiery ants are crawling beneath my skin; that’s how hard I’m itching to get going.
However, I have to appear normal, so I slow my pace toward Noah’s room.
A thousand scenarios bounce in my head at the speed of light.
What if he tells Grayson? Or worse, the Kabal?
I have no idea what they actually do aside from being above the Order.
I would have asked my aunt for help if I hadn’t seen her in the library with Grayson.
I don’t think she would rat me out, but given their relationship, I don’t want her to unintentionally say something that would throw me right under the bus.
Plus, she knows about Emily being tortured. And she isn’t doing anything about it.
I knock on Noah’s door, then tap my foot as I count the agonizing seconds until he tells me to get in.
“I saw the news. That storage box unit…it was the same company as the one on the envelope we found in Erik’s apartment.
You were the one who gave the anonymous tip, weren’t you?
What the fuck were you thinking involving the human police in the Order’s business?
” Noah snaps from his standing position near the bed as I close the door at my back.
“You lied to me after you promised you wouldn’t anymore. ”
I raise an eyebrow, muttering, “Hello to you, too.” Then I shake my head in disbelief.
“I had to because I knew you wouldn’t approve.
And since when is a serial killer the Order’s business, huh?
You didn’t see that storage unit, Noah. I spent hours in there, combing through evidence and what he did to those poor women…
Jesus. I will never be able to get those images out of my head.
I wanted his victims and their families to at least get a semblance of peace. ”
“You already killed him,” he seethes. “Wasn’t that enough?”
“No.”
His nostrils flare. “You should have let the Aureal Council deal with it, Iris.”
I huff. “And have them bury everything? Yeah, no, thank you.”
“They would never do that.”
“Oh, trust me, they would.”
His eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t have time for this right now, dammit. I need to tell you something. It’s urgent—”
“Did you at least take care of the evidence tying you to Erik?” he inquires.
“I did, yeah. I spent two days in that fucking storage unit.”
“And what did you do with it?”
“It’s still at my apartment.”
“Good,” he sighs, plopping down on the bed and resting his elbows on top of his knees. “What’s so urgent?”
Nerves strung high, I start to pace the length of the room.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy for saying this.
” A manic laugh bubbles out of me as if trying to convince Noah that I, indeed, am losing my marbles.
I halt in the middle of the room before spilling the words, “I need your help to break someone out of the compound.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
I suck in a lungful of calming air. C’mon, Iris, just get it over with! Emily needs you. “Okay…so, um, you know how Erik went missing because he followed me to a club in the Raven district?”
“Yeah.”
“That club is owned by the Obsidian Conclave. Before you chastise me for it, I wasn’t aware of that, okay? Anyway, Tim tracked Erik’s phone there.”
He interlocks his fingers while narrowing his eyes at me. “How do you know all of this?”
“I overheard Grayson talking about it earlier. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that they kidnapped a woman working at the club. She’s a dark creature.”
“And?”
My eyebrows furrow at his question. “They are torturing her. They brought in Cain to interrogate her, and he is doing all these horrible things to her—”
“So? Why do you care what happens to a lesser being?” he says flippantly.
I recoil. He sounds exactly like Grayson.
“What do you mean, why do I care? Why don’t you?
Being a wolf shifter doesn’t grant her this kind of treatment; she’s still a person, Noah.
How can you even say that? And it’s a fucking violation of the Celestial Treaty.
She’s under the protection of the Obsidian Conclave,” I snap.
He raises a nonchalant shoulder. “Just use her as a scapegoat, then. Maybe they think she has something to do with his disappearance.”
The iciness in his tone only adds fuel to my fire.
I don’t know what the fuck happened with Noah in the past five years because I don’t recognize him in this moment.
Balling my hands at my sides, I throw him a withering glare.
“But she did nothing wrong! And what if she saw me with Erik? If she did and tells Cain, I’m next in the torture chair. ”
“Fuck,” Noah mutters under his breath.
“So, are you willing to help me get”—shit, I almost said Emily—“that dark creature out?”
He works his jaw. I wait with bated breath for his response.
He finally nods after a few moments of blistering silence.
“There’s this charity gala. It’s an event my parents used to attend every year.
They were big donors. They extended the invitation to me over the years, but of course, I couldn’t attend until this year.
If I do this for you, I want you to come with me. And no more fucking lies. I mean it.”
“Fine,” I clip out, and tell him my plan.
Twenty minutes later, I’m plastered against the concrete basement wall, adrenaline surging through my veins.
It’s different, though, from the times I’ve mentally prepared myself for a demon fight.
It makes me feel off-kilter. It’s probably the old Iris—who thought the sun rises and sets with her duty to the Order—screaming in my head that this is all wrong.
My hands have already been stained by lightborn blood, so what’s another minor transgression?
If Grayson finds out about everything I’ve done, he’ll send me to rot away anyway.
Also, I can’t let them do this to an innocent person—dark creature or not.
Before, I couldn’t understand the disdain Kaiden showed every time I mentioned the Order.
Now, it’s slowly filtering through the cracks in my beliefs like black ink.
I don’t know where Cain went since he hasn’t shown his face in the last hour, but I’m grateful, because he left an opening for me. I take out my phone to send Noah a text.
Me: Ready to go in.
He’s supposed to distract Tim from the wall of security footage in his office. Luckily, I’ve avoided all the cameras around the compound so far. At least, I hope so. I send a text to Kaiden, too.
Me: I’m getting her out. Meet me at the end of the tunnel.
Kaiden: Be careful, angel. I’ll see you both there.
Every second that passes spreads over my skin like a poison ivy rash as I wait for Noah’s reply.
It’s an itch I can’t scratch. A bead of sweat falls from my hairline, gets stuck in my eyelashes, then rolls down my corset.
I changed into the spare hellseeker gear I kept in my locker for surprise demon attacks, just in case.
But I’m sweating worse than a pregnant nun at confession, even if the sanctifiber is breathable and the basement is chilly.
The phone buzzes.
Noah: Done. You have 15 min.
Even though I know I’m alone, I still scan the perimeter before tiptoeing to the interrogation room.
I snap my eyes closed. Inhale. Exhale. Open them.
Then tap into the hellseeker speed to push open the door.
I flick my wrist, sending a dagger flying into the air at light speed.
It impales the security camera perched in the right corner of the room right in the middle.
The sound of the glass shattering, followed by the dagger clattering to the floor, fills the air.
I pick it up, sliding it back into the sheath strapped to my leg.
If I thought the smell of burnt human flesh was terrible before, it’s ten times worse in the small space.
Emily is still passed out, her legs caught in the middle of changing into her wolf form, clothes hanging in tatters from her body.
I bend to place the sneakers I brought with me next to the chair.
I don’t want her to walk barefoot in the tunnel.
Who knows what’s down there? I need something to break through the chains holding her to the chair, since Cain must have taken the key.
So, I make a beeline for the table in the corner of the room.
The torture instrument spread reminds me of the one in Kaiden’s basement.
Swiping the pliers, I hurry back to Emily.
I crouch, then begin working on the chains around her ankles.
It’s not easy because my still-bruised ribs keep sending jolts of pain throughout my body when I put my whole strength into it.
However, I push past it, teeth grinding, and finally manage to cut them off after a few moments.
Her skin is so bloody and raw under them it turns my stomach upside down.
She stirs as I cut through the chains shackling her wrists.
They rattle when I drop them to the floor next to the others.
A pained whimper leaves Emily’s lips. She opens her eyes, confusion blanketing them before her amber gaze meets mine. “I-Iris. Wh—” she rasps.
“I’m here to help you, okay?”
“But…are you…aren’t you going to get into trouble?”
“Probably, but I don’t care,” I shoot back. “Do you think you can change back your legs now that the chains are off?”
She sucks in a serrated breath. “I don’t know. That bastard injected me with something really strong. It did a number on me.”
“Can you try, please? It’ll be faster if you can walk. That motherfucker Cain has been gone a while and I don’t know how much time we have left.”