Chapter 33
PHAEDRA
Only an indent remains where Mathias slept beside me. Getting up, I slip on the robe and pad out into the living room to find him peering down at his computer. The minute he sees me, he opens his arms, and I slide onto his lap.
“What are you watching?” I ask after giving him a kiss.
He puts his lips to my ear, not wanting the guards to hear. “It’s disturbing. Are you sure you want to see? I can summarize.”
He draws back, and when I reluctantly nod, he waves to his laptop where an image is paused.
He presses play, and bars appear on the screen.
It’s a cell. Frederick comes into view, and a curl of dread squeezes my insides.
Fangs flashing, he crosses over to the woman huddling in the corner.
I gasp. It’s the judge, Sarah. Drawing back his fist, he strikes her over and over.
Then he bends her over the cot and…Mathias presses stop.
“When was this?” I whisper, appalled, not wanting the guards outside to hear.
“This morning,” he replies in a low voice, his lips compressed in fury. “Frederick mentioned the cameras, and I hacked into them so I could see what happened with Bennett a few days ago. Sarah didn’t set him free; Frederick did.”
He rewinds the feed until he reaches that spot and shows me the footage. “Based on Frederick’s expression, he’s pissed about letting him go, but my guess is Bennett forced him to do it. Maybe blackmail or an incentive he couldn’t pass up. They don’t mention anything, so it’s purely a guess.”
His thumb absentmindedly rubs my shoulder as he talks, and it makes me smile. “Have you heard from Jamison?”
“They’re ready,” he murmurs. “I also have confirmation from your friend. They retrieved the package. It’s time for us to get out of here.”
I smile and take a relieved breath.
“I’ve disabled the alarms and set a few traps.
Unfortunately, we can’t portal out of here, and if we go through the city, they’ll catch us.
We’re going to have to walk out. I’ve got a route mapped through hidden tunnels, but it will take us right by a guard station, so we can’t be a second late.
Can you be ready to leave in the next twenty minutes? ”
I start to nod, then look at the screen. “We can’t leave her.”
“She’s Nolan’s daughter,” he reminds me, whispering the words in my ear. “We don’t even know if she wants to leave.”
“Is she evil?” I ask, wondering if I missed something since I don’t know her that well. Maybe there’s more to this than I realize.
“No, not really. She’s…complex,” he says with a cautious glance at the door. “Nolan made her tough, but even he couldn’t stamp out her emotions. I think she yearns for love. Knowing that she’s mated to Frederick…I can see why she hasn’t found it.”
“We can at least ask her,” I persist. “See if she wants to leave him.”
He nods several times, and I can see him mentally recalculating our plans. “You’re right. It will be tight, but we can make a stop.”
It takes me ten minutes to grab a quick shower and pack a few items into his backpack. He’s waiting when I finish, pack on, and short swords in his hands. Mathias dips his head toward the coffee table, where I see a gun. Surprised, I check the ammunition and slide it into my waistband.
He flips his hands behind his back. “Open the door, then move back.”
I take a deep breath in and center myself, then with a smile, fling the door open. “Hello, boys.” Mathias moves in front of me, and I step back a few feet.
“Sleep,” he says, and two of the guards slump to the ground. The third charges forward, and Mathias blocks his weapon, then swings and cuts off his head. Mathias turns to me. “Ready?”
My chin dips as I pull the gun from my back.
Alarms begin blaring in the distance, and he rushes out of the room with me behind him. “I remapped the locations of the alarms, but it will only buy us a few minutes.”
“What about the cameras?” I ask breathlessly as we sprint down one hallway after another, Mathias following the map in his head.
“Hacked to display a loop. It will take them a few minutes to figure it out,” he says, his voice tight.
He suddenly stops at an alcove and twists the right sconce. Stone against stone grates as the back wall opens, revealing a secret hallway. We step through, and he punches a button on the side to close it.
Unable to penetrate the darkness, I reach out with my hand, and he grabs it in his. “Can you see?”
He chuckles. “Perfectly. You’ll have to trust me.”
I tighten my grip. “Lead on.” A second later, I’m startled to feel a kiss on my hand, and I smile.
Then we’re racing through the pitch-black corridor, so many twists and turns I lose count. We stop, and I hear him hit something. Light filters into the darkness around us as the door swings open.
He creeps forward and places a finger to his lips. I hear a thud a few seconds later, then he motions for me to join him.
Stepping into the dim, damp space, familiar bars come into sight. I peer through them and see Sarah lying in a ball.
“Is he your mate?” Mathias asks, to my surprise.
She stirs, then stands, her movements stiff. If she had been anyone else, she would have died from the beating he gave her, but her vampiric blood is quick to heal her. Shuffling over to us, she stares at Mathias with dead eyes.
“What do you want?” she asks with a derisive laugh. “Let me guess. The panels? Jokes on you. I don’t know where he hid them. If I did, I’d have destroyed them. They’ve caused me nothing but misery. First with my father, then him.” She doesn’t even say his name.
“Are you in love with Frederick?”
Her eyes widen at my question. “Love can’t survive without hope or kindness. He destroyed any residual feelings I had centuries ago. Why do you want to know?” There’s a devastation in her eyes that says his betrayal of their bond has cut her to the bone.
“If I open the cell, will you leave him or raise the alarm?” Mathias interjects, silently warning me of our clock.
“I don’t have anything to offer you,” she cautiously replies. Footsteps sound in the hall, and she grips the bars tightly. “Except perhaps a secret way out of here. Only known to me and my father. He never shared it with Frederick.”
Mathias cranes his neck to see down the hallway, then reluctantly nods. “If you betray us, I’ll kill you.”
She lifts her chin. “If he catches us, he’ll kill me. Key is on that idiot’s waist.” Her head tilts toward the guard Mathias took out.
I hurry over and slide my hand along his belt, then with a flick, slip it from its loops and retrieve the ring of keys. “Which one?”
She takes the ring from me and selects one, then fits it into the slot. “I’ll get you out, then we’ll split.” With those words, she turns and points to a smaller hallway. “This way.”
Mathias stops her. “Where are you leading us?”
She rolls her eyes. “Below the city.” She strides over to a small stone door and shoves it out of the way.
“My father created the aqueduct that serves this city two thousand years ago. Before Frederick. Hell, before there was much of a city. He wanted a fortified place that could withstand a siege.”
Smooth stone turns to rough-hewn boulders, held together by a mortar mixed long ago. The academic in me slides a hand along the walls of the aqueduct, admiring the perfectly preserved ancient site. “This is remarkable.”
Some of the tension leaves her shoulders. “Thank you. Vanescue, and its supporting infrastructure, is my father’s greatest achievement.”
Soon, we reach the banks of the river far below the foundation of the city. Even today, Sarah informs us, water rushes through the channels into large distribution tanks where it is siphoned into the city’s more modern water system.
“Now we go up,” she says, pointing to a light in the distance. “Our exit will put us roughly ten miles outside the city’s walls, near the northwest corner. Scouts won’t think to look that far out, so it should buy you some time.”
Bright sunlight guides us through the dark, damp interior of a cave and out into the open. If I hadn’t just walked through it, I wouldn’t have guessed a cave was even there. “Clever.”
Mathias opens a portal to the location she wants and holds out his hand.
“Thank you. If you ever need anything, reach out. The debt is mine,” he says.
Her hand briefly touches his before she jerks it back. “Do us both a favor?”
Mathias nods, and she continues. “Kill him, and we can call it even.” Then she steps into a portal.
He opens a portal for us, reaches back for my hand, then steps forward. Seconds later, we’re surrounded.
Massive arms sweep me up, nearly crushing me to death. I close my eyes and breathe in the wonderful scent of him while I take some of his strength for my own. “Gatlin.”
“Give her to me,” Jamison demands.
Gatlin reluctantly releases me and pulls Mathias into a bear hug.
Jamison places his hands on either side of my head, his gaze searching. “I’m now a firm believer of Gatlin’s rule. Never split up. These last few days have been hell.” Grip tight, his firm lips descend on mine with a wildness that’s unlike him.
With a soft sigh of surrender, I reassure him that I’m here and safe in his arms.
He breaks away. “Sorry, I…”
I place a finger on his lips. “I quite like it when your emotions get the better of you. Doesn’t happen often.”
He takes a deep breath and brings my palm up to his lips, then hands me over to Hawthorne.
Picking me up, Hawthorne simply holds me in his arms, feet dangling, for several minutes. His face is buried in my neck as he breathes in and out. “Leaving you in that alley was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Good thing Gatlin was there, or our plan would have fallen apart.”
Our plan had been two-fold. Exposing Bennett and figuring out which vampire had the panels.
Then drawing our enemies out into the open and defeating them.
We knew our only shot was using me as bait, but none of them were willing to risk it outside of a controlled environment.
We anonymously notified the vampire guards that a meeting was being held so they could intervene at the right time.
I wince. The plan backfired. None of us expected Bennett to boomerang my curse and take me out.
Nor did we anticipate the trial and exposing me to the world.
But like all good plans, pivoting is critical, and a good distraction and allies are worth their weight in gold.
Marjorie didn’t actually stand us up at the coffee shop.
Instead, she slipped us a note on the receipt when she handed us our coffee.
It included the location of the panels and an additional note explaining how she was ordered to open the portals in Greece which set off all those bombs.
She swears she didn’t know but the guilt of all those deaths were killing her.
All she wanted was to leave Frederick’s new vampire-first world.
Mathias wanted to get the panels right away, but Jamison needed a couple more days to gather our forces.
So we stayed. But it worked in our favor.
By forcing us to attend the death matches, Frederick moved the security to the arena to watch us.
All of us. After all, not only were Mathias and I in attendance, but so were Jamison, Hawthorne, and Gatlin.
It gave Mercer and Caron the perfect opportunity to slip into the vault and steal the panels.
None of the men thought Mercer and Caron would be willing, but I made them a deal.
We pay Mercer to steal the panels, and if the tide turns against us, she and Caron can give them to Bennett.
A win-win either way. They agreed. And with their network of spies, it didn’t take them long to get the combination to the vault. In and out in five minutes.
Hawthorne finally sets me down, and I get a good look at the army they’ve amassed. Hawthorne recruited elves. Daegan, the dragon councilmember, brought an army of shifters. A surprisingly large number of council security agents and mages answered Jamison’s call.
I look over and see Gatlin standing with twelve men who are roughly the same build as him. His gryphon family.
Marjorie’s eyes meet mine, and I smile. We sent her a note to let her know where we were meeting our army in case she wanted to join us. Guess she did. And she brought a few vampires with her.
The smell of brimstone tickles my nose, and I turn around to find Maverick, Charlie, and Agos, along with a pretty wicked-looking demon crew. I smile.
Charlie walks over. “Who would have thought a spy for the gods would bring about the next revolution?” He’s fairly vibrating with adrenaline.
“Revolution?”
“Osian, the elven councilmember is out. Ousted by Hawthorne days ago. Lord de Vere is out. Vampires have already gone rogue and pulled out of the council, although I’m not a fan of Frederick’s little plan to take over the world.
Hopefully, we’ll take care of that problem today,” he drawls to my astonishment.
I hadn’t heard all of this yet.
“You look surprised,” he remarks with a twinkle. “We’ve been busy while you were on vacation.” His expression turns serious. “All the cards are on the table. We can’t keep pretending we’re not existing in the same world. It’s time for a new order. One that encompasses everyone, including humans.”
Full transparency. That’s an unnerving concept, but it’s time to stop pretending that the only ones with power in the world are gods and the supernatural council.
There was a time when stability and control were necessary, but this world has outgrown that structure.
Equality and rights for all is the only way to move forward. Charlie’s right. It’s a revolution.