Chapter 5 Arabella #2
“Because, as you well know, that’s what War wants,” Eve said. “Don’t suggest shit like that.”
“First things first.” I ran a hand through my hair. “We need to get everyone inside and then lock down the institute. Everyone is down in the bunkers, right?”
“Yes,” Blackwell confirmed.
“We need to close them.”
“Close them?” my father asked, his brows raising at the idea.
It wasn’t that it was particularly hard to do, but we never did it.
It was a last resort. In fact, I couldn’t recall a single time that we had, and the emotional wave of panic that it would no doubt cause would be… a lot, because of what it signified.
The danger and threat level the institute was under.
“I know what it means.” I exhaled. “But I think it will allow us to work without worrying about anyone infiltrating the walls and hurting everyone here. In fact, let’s station the sentinels outside.”
“Yeah, no one is getting through that,” Zain agreed.
“The sentinels?” Ashur asked.
I squeezed his hand. “I’ll show you.”
“I think it would allow the teams to fight without distraction,” Razar said in a tone that said he hated to admit it. I had a feeling my night terror—hell, a lot of my mates—wanted me in there as well. Not that they would say it right now.
“Great.” I clapped my hands, pleased we had agreed on that. I had a feeling that convincing them to go along with the following two parts of my plan was going to be a bit more difficult.
“This weapon they’re using,” Irina said, “what exactly do we know about it?”
Damian answered. “We have the schematics and know how it works, the type of bullets and poison they’re using. That doesn’t help when someone gets hit, but it may help us defend against it.”
“I actually have a solution to that, I think.” I nibbled my lip and looked at my dad. “Do you remember those shields we tested last year, the ones that didn’t go past beta testing because they were too ‘medieval’ or whatever?”
“I liked them,” Saint said.
“She did say medieval,” Amun mused, causing the god terror to scowl.
“Yes, they wouldn’t work for missions,” my dad drew out, “but…for a battlefield operation, it could work.”
“Do we have enough?” Razar asked.
“I think we had about one hundred made for testing, but we didn’t get to actually test more than a few before deciding it was a waste.”
I nearly pouted at that. I loved the shields, but I’d been forced to concur with my father’s decision—they were just too wieldy for normal missions, where speed and stealth were key. Even if they were so strong they could protect you from just about anything.
“It should be enough,” Cy murmured, his gaze darting down as he calculated how many we’d need.
“But you may find it hard to convince the other teams they need it,” Damian said. “Nightmares are stubborn as fuck.”
No shit.
“Then they don’t go out there,” I leveled. “We are not losing anyone to War. I don’t care if they’re pissed—they use the shields or they don’t fight.”
“Love the hardass mentality,” Eve chirped.
Hardass? That was a total compliment.
“She is a bit badass despite being so little,” Keres agreed. Which was funny since she really wasn’t much larger than myself—she was even more delicately built than me.
“I will put in the order to have them brought out,” my father said, pulling out his tablet.
I felt a surge of magic spark through the air, making me realize he was using his nightmare magic openly—something he clearly had been hiding before.
I blinked, wanting to ask him about it, but instead turned my attention to the last part of my plan.
“Alright.” I took a deep breath. “So we have everyone protected the best we can, which means the last thing we need to handle is War.”
“Bastard is like a roach, always comes back,” Slater sighed. “Nothing to do but chase him away.”
“But there is,” I said softly. “I could do what I did with Hate.”
Silence filled the space.
“Absolutely not,” Razar snarled. I avoided his gaze.
“What do you mean?” Eve asked, her brow dipping.
“She messed with his magic and made him sick,” Keres said. “Something with her sis meta shit.”
“But she had to be on the battlefield with him,” Blackwell snapped.
“I was able to stop him—literally like compulsion.”
“It’s true; it was fucking amazing,” Zain said.
“You are not going to be on that goddamn field again,” Damian growled.
“I think that’s a bad idea,” Amun said, looking more tense by the moment as Cy began pacing. Saint squeezed my hand, and Ashur stayed quiet, his gaze on my face as if waiting for me to explain further.
“I think it’s the best idea to ensure maximum damage to his actual magic and ability to use compulsion,” I said, trying to keep my voice strong enough to show that I wasn’t going to bend on my idea but also filled with understanding that this would be hard for my mates.
“I understand I would need to be shielded, and not just by Mykia—although you did great.”
She offered a happy bark.
“But,” I continued, “I need to break the control he has over the humans here so they can understand what’s happening and run for their lives—as they should—and leave him without an army.
I know it’s not a full fix, but it would stop this particular battle and buy us time to figure out a more permanent solution. ”
“He would try to escape if that happened.” Irina said. “The minute he suspects you’re interfering with his magic—if we are going to do that—he’ll run. You need to have a way to trap him.”
“We can do that,” Saint agreed.
“I’m not okay with you going out there,” Razar growled, more adamantly this time.
“We can figure out a way for me to go out there safely,” I said, trying to compromise, “but something that wouldn’t affect my ability—”
“I have an idea,” Ashur said. After staring into my gaze for a long moment, he spoke candidly.
“I hate the idea of you out there,” Ashur admitted, “but this could work. Last time you had to fight through and break the compulsion nightmare by nightmare, and while I think you could do that this time, it would be easier if you could access all of the humans at once in a big burst of power.”
“I’m going to hate this,” Blackwell predicted.
“I can keep you surrounded by wards on your journey across the battlefield. Once you get to a centralized location, I can mold my power to yours and keep it as a protective barrier, then help you explode it out to break the compulsion of everyone at once—”
“What’s the catch?” Eve asked.
“That catch is that our magic will be permanently combined, to an extent—bonded,” Ashur said, his voice trailing to end on a softer note.
I smiled, recognizing that he was concerned about my reaction when he totally didn’t need to be. “Is that all?”
“That’s everything,” he said under his breath.
“Well then, it’s decided.” I squeezed his hand and looked at the others. “It’s time to get all of these humans away from our damn home.”