Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
ARABELLA
“It will be fine.” I promised myself for the fourth time in the mirror as I pinned my hair back. The tropical humidity was causing my natural waves to grow in volume, and while I didn’t mind it in theory, it did make it harder to wear it down.
After a once-over of my appearance, I stopped myself from repeating the mantra again and turned towards the door—only to nearly run right into Saint.
“Flower.” He looked over my outfit appreciatively before noticing my expression. “You look tense.”
“Because I have no idea what they’re going to say.
” My gaze moved past Saint to the suspiciously empty bedroom.
Where had all of them gone? Then again, I couldn’t really blame them when I was the one who’d gotten out of bed first. The massive bed where I’d been wrapped up between what felt like all of them.
I knew it wasn’t really all of them, but even Ashur, who had been knocked out on a nearby couch, let his magic roll over my skin most of the night.
I’d honestly been surprised, especially knowing how sensitive they could be, that so much conflicting magic hadn’t caused a dominance fight.
Nope, instead I’d had an amazing night of sleep listening to the ocean and feeling the tropical breeze circulate through the room and caress my skin.
I completely understood why living here would inspire so much joy—it was the quintessential paradise, and the way they styled the villa with rattan furniture and green and white tropical patterned fabrics only added to it.
“I do.” Saint smirked. “Want to know?”
“Wait, do you really know?” I asked, my focus completely back on him. “How?”
“I am literally Death, flower. I feel like you doubt my abilities. Didn’t I say I was wise?” Saint teased, tugging me around the waist.
“Don’t listen to him, precious,” Amun said as he walked in, looking effortlessly laid back. The environment very much suited him. “Jalissa is right outside and just told us her decision.”
Saint let out a low snarl, and I stifled my giggle at Amun giving him shit. I went up on my toes and brushed Saint’s lips. “Don’t worry, I believe you are super powerful. Pinky promise.”
I was gone then, sashaying past Amun, as Saint grumbled something about my pinky finger being very small.
I probably would have been offended by him doubting my promise, but instead relief filled me as I walked through the villa, squeezing through the wall of my men at the door, to find Jalissa patiently waiting.
“I thought I was supposed to come to you,” I said with a big smile, her eyes lighting up with the obvious knowledge that I’d been told she was here.
“Wanted to get an early start on the day.” Jalissa motioned to me. “Come walk with me over here—I want to talk to you.”
Ignoring my men’s disgruntled disagreement, I walked with her along the hilled edge of the piece of land our villa sat on, which overlooked the village. Immediately I noticed the village was very awake and active, the pavilion full of people.
“I assume your men have already let you know our decision,” she said after a long exhale.
“The family leaders and many of our warriors stayed up for a few hours following the festival discussing it, and this morning the news has spread. The consensus is that we will help you—assuming you have a plan.”
“I do.” I did have a plan, but I was going to use our trip back to the states while on the jet to really solidify it.
“Good.” She looked down on the village again. “I don’t know how many will go with you or how many nightmares will go with them, but their children will stay here, so please make sure they return.”
“I want that more than anything,” I said, hoping she could hear the sincerity in my voice. “I have no doubt that with this many sis metas, we will be able to handle War.”
“Oh, I agree.” Jalissa’s lips pressed up slightly. “I’ll be cheering you on from here, especially since my daughter and her mates are going with you.”
No freakin’ pressure.
“Did you tell them everything?” I asked, wondering if I’d need to conduct additional briefings for those who chose to come with us.
“They know everything I know. What I don’t know, which is fairly important, is how are you getting back to the states?”
“We had a boat waiting for us—”
“That’s long gone,” she mused. “I would love to say differently, but realistically, it’s probably gone. Though I could be wrong.”
That would suck, but Damian had ensured we hadn’t left anything essential on there, just some clothes because it was extra to carry and pack.
“Well then, I’ll call my dad and arrange for transportation,” I said, offering the easiest solution.
“Now that is a good idea.” She smiled, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“We have an air strip here. It’s not a large one, but it’s large enough to land a personal jet on—or several.
If we give your father the direct coordinates, if you trust him enough to do that, then he will be able to get through the wards and land them. ”
“I think we can manage that, and yes, I trust him completely,” I assured her and turned to find my mates way closer than ‘private conversation’ should have allowed.
It was also clear that they’d heard the plan because Razar nodded, and a few of them went back to the villa, presumably to contact my father.
“Efficient,” Jalissa murmured.
“We’re the top team at ISS,” I said proudly.
“With you leading them, that doesn’t surprise me.” Jalissa squeezed my arm. “Now come with me. I want to introduce you to a few of the women and men who will be helping you lead this expedition—they are the same people I trust every day to help run this place.”
‘A few’ was a bit of an understatement, because after meeting nearly twenty individuals, including Jalissa’s own daughter, my social battery was hitting damn near zero. There were only so many names, expressions, and power signatures I could process before my brain began to short circuit.
I was just glad we’d managed to get a count for my dad to send aircraft here.
I was also glad that he was able to use resources from the mainland and get them deployed within hours instead of days.
I was already feeling eager to get on the road, and not just because I didn’t want to meet another sis meta or nightmare.
Don’t get me wrong! They were wonderful, very friendly and determined, but there was only so much that my brain could catalog between appearances, family connections, magical signatures, and classifications before it became overwhelmed with information.
I literally didn’t think I could add anything else to my mental rolodex right now.
Jalissa continued to chat away with a group as I leaned back into my Blackwell and Damian sandwich, my eyes skyward as I waited to see the first sign of our jets.
Three jets were coming, each able to carry at least twenty people, plus the jet we’d taken to South Africa originally.
That one would be the first to arrive, the one where I would be able to sit and consider our next move.
The deciding factor would be War’s location—where had he gone to lick his wounds?
Wherever it was, that was where we were going. I wanted to tackle this head-on, so we wouldn’t wait for him to come to us. I would’ve asked my mates if they had any more intel, but nightmares had amazing hearing, and I wanted to wait until we were in private to fully discuss it.
After only a few more minutes, the muted roar of engines had me searching the sky again, watching as the familiar jet descended onto the airstrip buried in the middle of the jungle.
The group that was going had all said their goodbyes to their families and were buzzing behind us, and I had to force myself to not read into their magic too much.
It was a natural inclination, but the sis metas also naturally blocked their mates, so it was like hitting into brick wall after brick wall, and not on purpose.
“Ready to go?” Razar asked, grabbing our bags from the ground.
“Ready to handle War,” I agreed. Ready for this to be over, to finally extinguish the threat that had only grown exponentially since that first attack.
As the jet landed, gracefully and silently, I turned to find Jalissa watching me with a small smile. “Thank you, Jalissa. Thank you for being my voice to your community.”
“Thank you for handling a danger that has plagued our kind for far too long. You’re right—we do need to take a stand, and now is the time.”
Nodding sharply, I turned towards the large group and spoke up.
“The institute has three more jets arriving. Split into even groups, and please feel free to spend the time relaxing and resting during the journey. We have a lot to do when we land, and I know all of you want to get back to your families as soon as possible. You will be briefed en route regarding the full plan and our landing location.” Once we figured that out.
My gaze met Maeve’s, the determined set of her chin nearly making me smile.
I had absolutely no idea how she’d convinced her family to come with us, but I would take all the help I could get.
If everything went according to plan, they wouldn’t experience any true harm or danger—hell, they may not even see violence.
It was all up to me to create a strategy for that to happen, though.
After some nods of confirmation and murmurs of excitement amongst the group, I followed my mates to the jet.
They greeted the pilot as I made my way up the stairs and let out a long exhale, happy to be in the familiar cabin.
I was equally as thrilled to find a dark box that I knew contained intel from my father.
Opening it up, I cozied up in the seat as my mates got ready for takeoff, Cy joining me to sort through everything. It didn’t take long for me to find exactly what I needed.
“War is back at the base in California.” The one we’d already been to, which meant it was familiar territory. That was good news, at least.
“It looks like he has a heavy amount of troops with him,” Razar said while looking over the papers with Cy.
“That’s unsurprising,” Blackwell growled. “He’s fucking hiding.”
“Pussy,” Damian muttered.
Now was not the time to mention how tough that actually was…right?
“Focus,” Cy murmured from next to me, looking amused. How did he freakin’ know what I was thinking?
“We need a plan, and a damn good one,” I breathed out. “First things first—do we need the sis metas spread out throughout the country? For when his influence breaks? I didn’t even consider that until now.”
“Normally I would say yes,” Saint said, “but the goal here isn’t to break the compulsion over the humans. It will result in that, but our focus is to render War incapable of fighting back so that I can kill him.”
“And once he’s dead, the compulsion should break entirely,” Amun agreed.
Ashur’s gaze darkened. “How close, exactly, do you need to be to War to make this happen?”
“I think just enough to see him, maybe? Both times I did it to god terrors, I was in their presence, so I would assume the same, but we should confirm with some of the sis metas. When we send over our plan and briefing, let’s have our contacts ask them that as well.”
My dad had mentioned to my mates that each of the sis meta jets would have a nightmare representative from the institute—ones that were allies despite not normally living with us.
And if he trusted them, so would I. We just had to communicate the message to them, and everyone would be on the same page.
“So we need to draw him out,” Ashur said.
I frowned. “I don’t want a battle.”
“Unavoidable, but the sis metas have mates for a reason. They will happily fight for them, and it will probably be over before anything serious happens,” Zain said lightly, his tone at odds with the tension in his frame.
“So we draw them out for battle like last time, and then we use the sis metas’ power to render him useless, which means we need to keep as quiet as possible about their presence, and then Saint…”
“You leave the rest to me.” Saint winked. “Trust me, Arabella, War will die.”
Oh, I trusted him to do that—just how all of the sis metas, their mates, and families were trusting me to ensure that they would get back home in one piece.
Let’s just hope I could deliver on that.