37. Thalia
Chapter thirty-seven
Thalia
War
The neutral point is mapped somewhere a few hundred miles from our family’s compound.
We’re still in Ohio, or at least on the state line.
The barren opening we stand in is utterly calm with tall grass that sways and tickles my knees.
The fresh air and wind circle my lungs, but it isn’t as calming as it should be.
Not when the surrounding dense forest is about to become a battleground.
Blood will spill, and this will all be over before the sun has fully set.
Yet all I can think about is the man I left behind.
What did he look like? Was he upset? Angry? Will he ever forgive me for what I’ve done?
Rowan straightens at the head of the group, and Bailey does the same as the others take their stances across from us. Faces we know and should know blend together into a mass. Our grandfather and Brooks are at the head of the group, their faces set like stone.
Brooks.
The whole fucking reason behind this. The reason I had to let go of the one person who I felt understood me outside of my own family. The reason I’m going to fucking end him and enjoy every second of it.
For Reed.
A woman with auburn hair and square glasses makes her way to the center of the clearing. Alana Meets her halfway, shaking hands with the Western branch’s intel expert.
“We’ll monitor the grounds and track everyone’s progress from the base camp.” The woman says.
“If anyone makes it outside of the battlegrounds, you’re eliminated immediately. Each person has a wire that’s directly tapped to their team.” Alana continues.
“May the best branch win.”
My best friend tilts her head. “Funny,” she says, loud enough for both sides to hear. “I thought we stopped pretending this was a competition.”
A ripple moves through the crowd. Across the clearing, Brooks’s jaw tightens.
Good.
Let him be uncomfortable.
Because for once, there’s nothing for him to hide behind. No one he can swindle and sweet-talk. Just us and the fate that he’s brought on himself.
The auburn-haired woman clears her throat and adjusts the tablet in her hands. “The battle begins in sixty seconds. Once the signal sounds, the grounds are active.”
A digital timer appears on the screen of her device. It begins the countdown, and the whole clearing goes silent. Even the wind seems to die down as my pulse slams in my ears.
56.
55.
54.
I glance at Rowan out of the corner of my eye. He doesn’t look over, but his fist tightens into a clear sign. Be ready.
Beside me, Bailey rolls her shoulders.
The rest of our team spreads out instinctively, each person already calculating routes through the forest. Logan, Addison’s brother, is scanning beyond the opposite team, noting where the fight will end up. Ford, the Northwestern leader, narrows his eyes on the horizon, sizing up each member.
45.
44.
43.
Theo cracks his knuckles, a wicked smile tugging at his lips. Dom hasn’t moved since the countdown began, but he also hasn’t shown a single sign of weakness to the other side. He’s calm, collected, and ready.
Atlas makes eye contact with me, flashing a crooked smile as he mouths, “Fuck him up.”
I can’t help returning his grin with a nod.
32.
31.
30.
My eyes shift to Brooks across the field, and he offers me that ridiculous, smug expression of his. But he’s only met with despondency—as if he’s already dead. To me, he is.
And that throws him off for a split second. His natural confidence wavers, his face falling a fraction before he recovers.
21.
20.
19.
Everyone shifts forward, no weapons drawn, but the glint of predators from every direction. A thick silence blankets us as Alana and the other intel expert retreat to the sidelines. Connor watches his wife closely, ensuring she’s out of range before squaring his shoulders for the fight.
10.
9.
8.
One breath. One second of reprieve. I close my eyes, the image of Reed flashing in my head—his smile, his deep, throaty laugh, the last image I have of him in my study, my centipede held gently in his hands. Everything leads back to him, and I remember exactly why I’m doing this.
My eyes open.
3.
2.
1.
The sound of the alarm blares through the clearing, and no one wastes a second. Some assassins retreat to the forest for a vantage point to hide or stake out. Others go for the obvious kill, rushing across the clearing.
Atlas clotheslines some poor fucker so hard I’m certain it shatters the guy’s trachea. My brother sends his victim to the ground before kneeling on the guy’s sternum and twisting his neck until his head rests at an unnatural angle and there’s no chance of survival.
Bailey is nearly at the treeline, her legs pushing her until two men block her path, but they don’t stop her.
She goes for the one on the left, crashing into him before she jumps, wraps her legs around the guy’s neck, and swings them to the ground with a sickening thud.
She catches his arm in her grasp and snaps the bone after a fierce cry.
The man beneath her screams, his eyes screwing shut as his partner tries to pry her off him. But she’s relentless.
She releases her victim, only to roll, sending her legs over her head and taking out the other guy by his ankles. He’s beneath her now as she straddles his waist and rears her elbow back before delivering a harsh hit that would rewire anyone’s brain.
Rowan makes it beyond the trees, his sight locked onto our grandfather.
It seems the Western branch has a protective streak, because not a single assassin is giving my brother room to breathe.
They come from all angles, jumping from the trees and trying to ambush Row, but he’s far quicker than any of them.
One man falls directly onto my brother’s back, already sliding an arm across his throat, before Rowan grips his wrist and tosses himself forward, throwing the man onto a downed tree and knocking the wind from him.
Before he can regain his composure, Rowan slams a boot onto the man’s neck, choking the life from him as he claws at the leather that’s strangling him.
Theo is cutting through everyone at lightning speed, his laugh reverberating through the woods as he cracks someone’s head against a nearby tree.
Dom moves silently, but he’s right on Bailey, monitoring her as he rear naked chokes a woman until her face turns blue and her arms fall limply to her sides.
My earpiece crackles to life as I sail past my family with determination. Logan’s voice filters through seconds later. “I’ve got a visual on Brooks to the Easter side. About a hundred yards to the left.”
I press my earpiece. “Keep your visual. Clear out the area.”
“Vincent is on the move,” Rowan warns. “I’ve lost sight of him.”
Fuck.
“Thalia,” Atlas calls. “Shout for backup if you need it. Do you understand?”
I don’t answer as my legs pump faster. My heart pounds in my chest as I clear a log and continue in the direction that Logan gave.
“Answer us,” Rowan commands with a hard edge.
“Copy,” I say through gritted teeth.
I keep pushing, my lungs burning as the brush scrapes across my shins. My sixth sense kicks in the moment I feel eyes on the back of my neck, and I spin.
A woman launches herself at me from behind, sending us both to the rugged ground in a mess of limbs. I send our momentum forward, turning our position until she’s under me and I’m straddling her hips. She unsheathes a knife, gritting her teeth as she slashes wildly at my face.
I lean back and blink at her. “Oh, this is just sad. Would it make you feel better if I let you get a good one in?”
She releases a fierce, high-pitched sound as she reaches out for me, and I snatch her wrist before angling her knife at the base of my neck.
“Right there,” I smirk. She barely makes a nick before I suck my teeth. “That’s pathetic.”
“Fuck you!” She spits before trying to buck me off.
“It’s almost like you don’t have…any…training…” my voice dies as the realization slaps me. Hard. “You don’t.”
She stops fighting, her limbs falling as she pants beneath me. “I-I’m not an assassin.”
I stand quickly, towering over her with a scowl. “Explain yourself before I fucking kill you for the fun of it.”
She looks away, ashamed as her lips wobble. “Brooks said he needed bodies. I didn’t know we were going to war…”
He hasn’t been trying to get money for his cause. He’s been trying to fill the void of not having enough people. Vincent never would have agreed if Brooks had only a few assassins behind him. No, he needed more bodies…
I sigh, stepping back before I reach out for her hand. She stares at my appendage before slowly taking it, and I hoist her up. Before she can release me, I yank her close with a warning.
“Find as many civilians as you can and retreat. There’s a highway two miles away from here. Go and never look back.”
She swallows, nodding quickly. “Okay. Thank you—for sparing me.”
“This isn’t a mercy,” I clarify. “You shouldn’t have been here in the first place.”
She nods quickly before disappearing through the brush. As soon as she’s out of sight, I call in on the earpiece. “We have a problem. Some of these people aren’t assassins. Brooks needed more people for his cause, so Vincent would agree.”
“Motherfucker!” Rowan curses.
“I knew these guys didn’t seem trained well enough,” Logan mutters.
“New plan,” Bailey says. “Release the civilians unless they’re dead set on being slaughter.”
“No one is to harm another civilian unless they refuse to cooperate,” Rowan agrees.
A chorus of responses come through the channel before everyone continues tearing through the Western Branch and Brooks’s men.
Another man steps out from behind a tree in front of me, his hands tightening into fists at his sides as he cracks his neck.
“Okay,” I sigh, cocking my hip as I cross my arms. “Are you an assassin or not?”
He doesn’t answer as he advances like he’s stalking prey.
“I guess that’s my answer,” I mutter under my breath before he breaks out in a dead sprint and I meet him halfway.