Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
ARABELLA
“I promise, we are just landing.” I tightened my hold on Three, who was clinging to me.
For most of the flight, which had been a quiet one—all of us trying to not disturb our small guests—they had been sleeping.
The minute we started to descend, though, they had started waking up, and Three had nearly flung herself into my arms.
I was trying to soothe her right now, Amun watching with concern from the doorway of the bedroom.
Up until now, I had been curled up on his lap.
Maybe I should have been in a seat since we were about to land, but I knew the kids felt safe in here, protected and sheltered, and I wasn’t about to take that away from them.
“But then what?” Synthia demanded, her hard exterior cracking as her eyes stayed glued to the window, watching the night landscape fly past. We weren’t landing on our normal air strip this time—unfortunately, because of the humans, we were landing nearly an hour away and would have to take a car all the way back to the institute so we could sneak back into our own damn home.
“Then we are going to get you your own dorm, bedrooms, showers, clothes, food—whatever you want.” I maintained my calm tone with her. I knew she only used the aggressive tone to protect those around her, and I could respect that.
“I don’t want to be separated.” Benny immediately tightened his hold on Three’s hand as she nodded.
“You won’t be,” Amun spoke up. “The dorms are like small homes. They have kitchens and living spaces, and each of you will have your own bedroom.”
One of the wolves barked happily at that, the two of them running between Nia’s legs.
She stood next to Synthia, her arms crossed, her fingers rubbing softly as if cold.
It was a nervous tic, and I was starting to wonder just how long she had been imprisoned.
If I had to guess, it had been a very long time.
The way she reacted to everything seemed off just enough that it concerned me.
She was sweet—really sweet—but wounded and quiet, afraid to speak her mind and constantly stopping herself from adding to the conversation. It made it clear how hard it must have been for her to talk to me when we connected through our powers.
I was just glad we had burned that damn place to the ground. Even if they knew what she was, they would never find her.
“I like that,” Three offered before looking at the wolves. “Maybe they will finally shift if they feel safe enough.”
The quieter wolf tilted its head in thought at her words but didn’t say anything. I knew they could turn into a humanoid form, but I had to wonder why they were so hesitant to change. Maybe they never had before.
I was more than glad we had Ashur, for so many reasons, but I had a feeling he would be able to communicate with them to some extent.
“We are going to have about an hour drive,” I told them, “so you will be able to sleep just a bit more. We are having someone meet us with a few cars.”
That someone had been hand-selected by my father, in fact, and I couldn’t think of a better fit to help make these little ones feel as comfortable as possible.
Don’t get me wrong, I was good at soothing nightmares, but Isla was on an entirely different level when it came to baby nightmares. The woman had a gift.
Let’s just hope her mates didn’t scare the hell out of these kids.
They did. Unintentionally, of course, but when we landed on the airstrip, I could feel their unusual power, and my boys became defensive. I did my best to casually remind them that this wasn’t about dominance, this was about getting these kids somewhere safe and inside institute walls.
That seemed to go a long way to helping.
I was currently in the first of the SUVs with Isla and the six children, her mate Dranos driving with Razar sitting next to him.
Their conversation was quiet and intense, probably having to do with what was going on in the institute.
I did my best to not pay attention to that, knowing I needed to stay focused on the nightmares around me—the ones who were already peppering Isla with questions.
“The institute is so fun.” She offered a sweet smile that even had Synthia relaxing.
“During the day, you can go to school if you want, or you can play and test out all your neat powers in the nursery, and then at night you will all get to hang out and relax in your dorms. We have a few nightmares a bit older than you, maybe ten of them, that will live on the same floor—I promise they are super nice. Don’t worry. ”
I didn’t really know how to describe Isla.
In some ways we were similar, especially when it came to both of us wishing for the love of nightmares we didn’t think we could have, but in other ways we were a world apart.
I wouldn’t consider myself a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, but Isla, at the very core of who she was as a person, was good.
She was so authentic, and it was probably why she managed to make living with three extremely lethal nightmares seem like it was nothing.
Alright, maybe we were a bit more similar than I originally thought.
“We don’t have to separate, right?” Three asked again.
“Nope,” Isla promised, shooting me a concerned look as Nia shifted, wrapping her arms around herself. Something had been wrong with her since we had gotten off the plane, but there was really no way to ask what was going on.
“You good?” I nudged her shoulder lightly, the two of us sitting close together towards the front. Her eyes went wide, and she began to nod—only to stop.
“No,” she whispered. “I’m actually in a lot of pain.”
“What?” I asked, my eyes widening.
“Before you came, they ran some tests on me, and it was a particularly bad session… My body really hurts.” Her eyes were heavy as she explained her situation, making me feel an intense pang of worry for her.
My eyes darted forward to Razar, who was already watching me, though his gaze was a bit distant as if what Dranos was saying had his full attention.
If I had to guess, the situation had grown more complicated here at the institute.
My father had undoubtedly kept me in the dark while we were away, knowing that I would be worried about what was going on at home instead of focusing on the important things, like saving these kids.
“We will get you to the clinic right when we get there,” I promised her before adding, “Unless you need us to stop now. I think we have some medical supplies—”
“No.” She squeezed my hand. “I will feel a lot better once we are at your home. I don’t want them to know I’m hurt.”
Despite being young, there was a wisdom to her gaze that was fostered from suffering. I was in awe of how brave all of these children had been.
“How close are we?” Benny asked. I realized the lights to the car had been turned off as we slowly made our way down a winding forested path.
I knew we were close to the entrance of the underground garage, and I was thanking the fates that we had thought to put in that type of measure.
Then again, my father seemed to have an uncanny ability to calculate all the possibilities that we could undergo in the future.
“Maybe five minutes until we park,” Isla guessed. Dranos looked back at her, and I almost smiled, seeing the same light in his gaze as I saw in my mates’ when they looked at me.
Although, I would say this—and this was coming from the woman mated with Death—Isla’s mates were insane.
I didn’t mean it in a bad way! But just in the type of way where they would literally hunt her down when she went somewhere without telling them.
Around five years ago when I first met her, she had been checking in on some baby nightmares, and Wyre had come into the nursery and stolen her away. Honestly, it was pretty adorable.
As we began the shallow descent downhill, I could see the faint light of the human forces surrounding the institute.
My jaw clicked as I tried to not let my building anger show—I could tell how receptive these kids were to emotions, and I didn’t want them to be worried at all when they were around me.
I may have had little experience with being around children, but so far I had loved spending time with them, and I wouldn’t lie, it took this entire situation to a whole new level I hadn’t considered.
I knew there were some families living in the institute, but this brought the stark reality of how hard we had to fight, no matter what, to keep this place safe.
There were innocent little nightmares here, children who had been safe their entire lives and who didn’t know what humans were capable of. I didn’t want them finding out now.
After driving through the long parking lot until we were under the institute, I slipped out of the car and Zain immediately had me up in his arms, kissing me hard on the lips before he set me down.
I could tell all my men were relieved to be back, and when I heard the garage door’s airtight seal, relief truly hit me.
I also felt a surge of adrenaline at being back in my element.
“There they are!” Eve’s voice had me looking over to the bank of elevators that would take us upstairs.
I immediately smiled. “We made it back.”
“And with guests.” She motioned, her silver eyes lighting up with interest on Nia before glancing to me, obviously wanting to know if I realized what she was.
“They have been through a lot,” I explained to Saint’s sister as we walked towards the elevator, the kids following behind as Isla recounted them with a funny story from the nursery. I craved to be part of the conversation, but I also knew I needed to stay focused.
“Humans?” She asked with a frown.