Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
DAMIAN
It wasn’t normally this cold in California.
In fact, I could tell you without a doubt that this was an unnatural chill, caused by War drawing on all the possible power he could.
Probably because Arabella’s magic had messed him up, similar to how it had affected Hate, although we didn’t know that for sure—it was just a hope of mine.
As we stepped off the jet and looked around the empty private airport, I could feel the change, and the silence that filled the air told me everything I needed to know.
We were walking right onto a battlefield.
There would be no extra preparation. In fact, War was probably aware we were already here. What he didn’t know was that three more jets would be landing within an hour, filled with sis metas ready to take him down.
“We should go straight to him,” Arabella said as we walked across the tarmac towards a dark SUV. Razar grabbed the key from the tire, and I used my magic quickly to search it for any explosives, all of this being done without Arabella even noticing.
“To provide a distraction so he doesn’t feel when the other sis metas arrive,” Zain murmured, because the natural inclination was to say ‘absolutely fucking not’ regarding the idea of her going anywhere close to War. I knew we couldn’t avoid it though.
“I have no doubt he’s already aware we’re here.
” Saint shook his head in annoyance as we loaded into the car, Razar choosing to drive with Ashur up front.
I pulled Arabella against me before buckling her seatbelt.
I knew it probably seemed ridiculous considering the situation we were walking right into, but I couldn’t help the protective urges I had towards my cherry blossom.
“Good. I hope he’s worried.” Arabella narrowed her eyes outside the car as we began to make our way towards the base. Unlike last time, there was no stop at a luxury hotel or a diner. It was just the nine of us on our way to face War, hopefully for the last time.
Actually, it wasn’t ‘hopefully’—I would damn well make sure it was the last time.
My thoughts wandered to happier places as we drove along the deserted streets.
Something had clearly caused everyone to leave, or maybe go to the base.
One of those. Instead of focusing on it though, I thought about what came after this.
Of living with Arabella and waking up every morning to her beautiful smile.
Of building a house on institute lands and marrying the woman we all loved.
Of starting a family together and seeing where the future led us.
All of it would start after we handled this, and it gave me all the motivation in the world to ensure it went to plan.
Which is why we should’ve known War would somehow fuck it up.
As we planned, Razar pulled to a mountainous lookout along a section of caves that would give us a high up view of the base. As we exited the car, I let out a curse at the amount of bodies that War had protecting him. I mean, that was really the only way to describe it.
Humans, soldiers and civilians alike, were standing like lifeless zombies around the walls of the base. How long had they been like this? I was surprised some of them hadn’t died…or maybe they had. Maybe there’d even been more than this beforehand.
“He’s using them as a shield,” Arabella growled. “What absolute bullshit.”
“He’s scared,” Saint pointed out, an odd note to his voice. “He’s almost always on the offense, it’s his preferred strategy, and now he doesn’t know what to do now that the tables have turned.”
“Can you tell what his life force is like right now?” Amun asked Saint. “I’m too far away to tell.”
Saint’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Yeah, I can’t get a good read on it because of the wards he has up, but it doesn’t seem like his usual strength.”
“I think Arabella’s powers could have hurt him like they hurt Hate,” I suggested. Blackwell nodded absently in agreement, more focused on hovering behind Arabella, probably because she was so damn close to the cliff’s edge—
My tail wrapped around her waist, carefully pulling her back against me. She made a small surprised noise and offered me a soft smile that I loved. Then again, there wasn’t much I didn’t love when it came to her.
“We have no choice but to go down there,” she stated evenly. “I recognize it’s essentially a trap, but he won’t leave there, and we don’t have time to be at some weird standoff. I don’t know how the humans will be affected in the long-run by this weird state he has them in, but it can’t be good.”
“Should we wait for the sis metas to arrive?” Ashur asked, examining the steep slope down. I’d originally thought we’d have to find a way down, but I had an idea of a way he could help us in that endeavor.
“No.” Arabella turned and offered all of us a determined look. “I need three of you to go and lead the groups here when they land. Hopefully the nightmares they’re with and your magic will keep War from noticing them. Bring them here to this clifftop—they’ll be able to use their magic from here.”
“I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Razar cautioned. I nearly nodded in agreement, but I could tell my cherry blossom’s mind was moving a million miles an hour.
“Trust me.” She reached over to squeeze his hand. “The other seven of us will go down there and draw him out. Then, when he thinks he’s just facing us again, the sis metas will use their magic from this hiding spot.”
“And it will keep them out of battle,” Zain pointed out.
“I know we don’t want to split up—”
“It’s smart. It’s a really good plan,” Razar admitted. “Who wants to go?”
No one. No one wanted to go—but I knew who would go.
“I will,” Zain offered, then looked towards Amun and Cy. “Both of you have nightmare forms that work more effectively with space, and considering the body count down there, it would probably harm more than hurt. I think it should be the three of us.”
“I don’t like the idea of leaving you, precious,” Amun said immediately, holding Arabella’s gaze.
She offered a soft smile that nearly had me scowling.
Despite accepting Amun, I found myself jealous of the attention she gave him—specifically him.
I don’t know, I think Saint was right, it was just Amun—something about him made you want to punch him.
And I would tell him that eventually. Probably. Eh, Arabella loved him, so probably not.
“For you, pixie,” Cy said, walking over to kiss her before grabbing the keys and going to the vehicle. I watched my cherry blossom say goodbye to the other two before the sound of the dirt and sand under tires filled my ears as they went back down the other side of the mountainous region.
Arabella turned towards us and frowned. “We maybe should have gotten a ride down there with them.”
“Actually…” I looked to Ashur. “If we want to make an impact and really draw his attention, maybe Ashur could create us stairs leading down right into the crowd.”
“Could you do that?” Arabella looked at him hopefully.
“I could open up the earth and swallow it whole if you wanted me to,” Ashur said, nearly making me laugh at the way Arabella’s eyes widened in surprise. “It obviously wouldn’t kill War, but I could do it for you.”
“That’s a really sweet offer,” she teased, “but just the stairs will work for now.”
“Sweet.” Saint scoffed, and Blackwell grunted in agreement.
One downside of Cy, Amun, and Zain leaving was that they were far more rational than those of us left.
Razar, Blackwell, Saint, and hell, even myself weren’t the most controlled with our tempers.
Ashur was unproven in my mind, although he seemed relatively calm—he had just offered to kill hundreds of humans in one sweep of power.
Not a bad ability to have on your side when it came to moments like this.
Ashur, ignoring Saint’s comment, walked to the edge of the cliff, and in an easy pulse of power, the ground itself shifted, toppling some of the landscape, but it wasn’t close enough to hurt the humans.
Stairs grew from the cliffside, looking as if they’d been personally carved for us.
I guess they kind of had been. Not only were they fairly wide, but they weren’t very steep, which made me feel a hell of a lot better about the fact that Arabella was already walking down them.
Fuck.
I snapped in front of her and offered a scowl, lifting her with my tail and setting her back five steps. “You do not go first, cherry blossom.”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “Don’t use that growly voice to distract me. I’m going down there—now.”
I blinked, trying to remember exactly what my voice had sounded like since she seemed to enjoy it.
As I unwrapped my tail from her waist, her eyes tracked it sadly, but then she put her chin up and tried to walk ahead.
Luckily, Blackwell and I were able to lead the group as we made the several-story climb down.
The reality of just how large War’s body shield was didn’t hit until we were looking at it from about ten feet up, paused on the stairs. An eerie, uncomfortable feeling worked its way over me as all of the humans’ blank gazes slowly turned to us.
I had a feeling War was watching us through them.
“Where’s the entrance?” I asked, looking around to reorient myself.
“I’ll create one,” Ashur stated, and almost immediately the massive wall, similar to the one I had been shot on while trying to scale it, broke into tiny pebbles.
It wasn’t a huge opening, but it was enough to reveal a second layer of humans standing outside the main building of the camp where War was probably hiding.
I didn’t know for sure, but considering how it was guarded and the magic radiating off it, I was going to take a bet and say that was the case.
“He’s in there.” Razar looked at Saint for confirmation, and he nodded sharply.