Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
EMMA
Betrayal. It consumed me.
Betrayal from Julian. Who died.
Betrayal from James. Betrayal from Stephen.
The three men I had trusted from the start of this whole magi-adventure—those who I had thought to be on my side.
As it turned out, all they’d ever done was lie to me.
I was nothing more than a pawn in their game, not someone they cared about.
Just a pawn. And damn, it hurt so much it was hard to breathe.
There was no way to know how long I’d been sitting there, lost in the whirlwind of my own thoughts. James had been silent since our break up, a suffocating stillness settling between us.
I fought to keep the tears at bay, my eyes dry but stinging from the emotional strain. I dry-heaved a few times again, trying to quell the nausea constantly threatening to overtake me.
I couldn’t look at him—couldn’t bear to face him. Every instinct urged me to leave, to put as much distance between us as possible. But I had to stay. I had to be part of whatever these men planned next. I couldn’t risk being left in the dark again, not after everything.
And most of all, I needed to know what they’d say about my son.
With that pain, a whole lot of anger gnawed at me with brutal intensity.
Each time my gaze landed on James, a fresh surge of fury blazed within, clawing for release.
I wanted to see him suffer, not just a punch to the face but something deeper, something that would leave him as broken as I felt.
I wanted him to go through the same pain he’d inflicted.
He’d hurt me deeply—and I wanted him to feel every ounce of it.
When the other two men finally returned, the tension in the room was so thick it could have been sliced with a wet paper towel. They looked at us—James and me—sitting on opposite sides of the room, a chasm of hurt and rage between us.
James glanced at me, his eyes searching mine for anything—an opening, a chance to explain, to mend what was already broken. But I didn’t give him that. I couldn’t. My heart had been torn open, and no amount of words or apologies could close the wound.
Caden and Stephen sat down at the table, and I reluctantly returned to them, though I couldn’t sit near James, the closeness unbearable. With one swift motion, I grabbed my chair and moved it to the other side, next to Caden’s instead.
Caden’s lips twitched in silent amusement, but he wisely chose not to comment. Lucky for him, because if he had, I would’ve made a eunuch out of him.
Stephen’s silver haze turned up quickly as he manipulated the room’s arrangement. With a swift gesture, he transformed the square table into a round one, placing all of us in a direct line of sight, which to me felt like yet another layer of intrusion.
Asshole.
“I’d like to begin by informing you that while you were processing, Caden and I took another trip into the future,” he said softly. “We found your son still fighting the Trackers. Which means—”
“Julian wasn’t the father,” I cut in, finishing his thought.
Our Specialist nodded solemnly. “Exactly. So that’s a relief. Now, what we need is a solid plan for the coming months. We need to make sure no one finds out the Elder’s gone, nor that we had anything to do with it.”
He dragged in a lungful of air, holding it for a moment before exhaling. “And more importantly, we are about to face a war against Radicals on one side, and a daunting future on the other.”
“We must find the Radicals first and destroy their Amplifier once and for all. Additionally, we need to eliminate the LiaPrisms on every continent. The Great Exposure is nearing, and while we’ve managed to slow it down, the future still shows it’s coming.”
Stephen’s words sank in, but I shoved the emotion aside and focused on the next step. “If you’re behind the Resistants but not the Radicals, does that mean you had no part in threatening Collectives to reverse their consensus?” I was finally starting to process the flood of information.
Caden’s deep voice cut through my spinning thoughts. “We were trying to slow down the Great Exposure by having Resistants stand up against the consensus. But we would never use or even threaten to use a nuclear weapon on anyone. That shit is sole Radical territory.”
“I thought you found the label laughable?” I shot back, my tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Only when it refers to me,” Caden replied dryly.
I rolled my eyes, the familiar hatred of him briefly pushing through the fog of betrayal and confusion.
“The Radicals are now threatening Coastal, Sisu, and Alliance with an Amplifier to revoke their consensus,” Stephen said, all calm but also grim. “As much as I want to see every consensus rescinded, I don’t want to resort to nuclear weapons to achieve that.”
“Glad to know there are still some boundaries you’re willing to respect,” I muttered, bitterness threading through every word. It would be a cold day in hell before I showed any respect to any of my current tablemates.
But, despite my overwhelming urge to walk out and never look back, I couldn’t abandon my son—Alek—or stand by doing nothing while innocent people suffered. The magnitude of the situation anchored me in place, though every fiber of my being screamed at me to flee.
I let out a sudden, unsettling giggle, the kind that bubbles up when you're standing on the edge of madness.
“So every time anyone said, ‘Stone is on his consensus tour,’ you were actually sabotaging it.” The sheer absurdity of it hit me like a wave, and I giggled again, the sound almost manic.
My sanity felt like it was slipping further with each breath, the situation spiraling into something almost too surreal to grasp.
The gray haired man smiled faintly, resignation flickering in his features. “I’m glad you find that amusing. And yes, that’s absolutely what I was doing.”
I shook my head, forcing myself to focus on the more pressing matter. “So now what?” I asked, sharper than I intended.
James remained silent, his face a mask of guilt and despair. The sight of him so broken only stoked the fire of my anger. Where did he get the nerve to act like he was the victim here?
It took every ounce of restraint not to launch myself at him, to scratch out his eyeballs for everything he’d kept from me—for every betrayal, every lie. But I stayed rooted to the spot, my fury simmering just beneath the surface.
Stephen breathed in deeply, his chest rising, clearly aware of the static simmering around the room.
“We need to finalize our strategy. Time is running out, and we have to act swiftly. We need to mobilize our forces, gather intel, and take decisive action against both the Radicals and the future Trackers.”
I glanced at James, who was clearly wrestling with his own demons, then at the other two, who were focused on the immediate future. “All right,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady despite the chaos swirling inside me. “Let’s get this over with. What’s the plan?”
“We divide assignments,” Caden replied, speaking with blunt efficiency. “We have LiaPrisms to destroy, Amplifiers to find, and we have you to protect.”
I must have misheard him.
I shot a questioning look at James, whose expression, for the first time since our conversation, seemed to hold a flicker of life and interest.
“Why do I need protection?” I frowned, feeling a tinge of impatience.
“Because we have to start informing people about what we saw in the future,” Caden explained. “We need to alert the United Chiefs and once they know, they might start investigating. And if they find out about you and your untraceable translation the same way we did…”
“They’ll come after me,” I finished, my mind racing with the implications. Caden gave a curt nod in affirmation.
James’s gaze was now locked on Caden, his expression a volatile mix of anxiety and anger.
“So, you’ve gone from torturing me to protecting me. Care to explain the sudden one-eighty?” I asked Caden rather harshly.
“Not really,” Caden replied, his response devoid of emotion. “But seeing as the only person who might have had some answers about what you are and how you came to be is dead…”
“Ah yes, admitting that decapitation might have been a little hasty on your part?” I prodded, bitterness shining through.
“No, not at all,” Caden shot back, his glare filled with contempt. “I wouldn’t have trusted a word out of his mouth anyway. Besides, ensuring that you wouldn’t get raped again seemed a more pressing priority.”
His words cut through the air with a harshness that made my cheeks flush with anger. As if me being raped was somehow funny to him. Or was he being sincere?
James raised a hand, stopping the rising tempers cold. “There’s another option,” he said, every muscle tight with urgency.
I scowled, my frustration boiling over, but still turned toward him.
“Gordon.”
I frowned. “The man who forced Julian into making me an abomination of nature?”
James nodded, his expression resolute. “I don’t believe Julian really killed Gordon.
Over the past few months, I’ve been digging into this and couldn’t find a shred of evidence to support what Julian claimed.
So I started scouring the archives for any record of a ‘Gordon’ who were fighting the Battle of ’59.
To my surprise, I found several who are still alive.
We need to investigate them and make sure none of them are the one responsible.
If we find the right one, I suggest we interrogate him about what he exactly did to you before we decapitate him. ”
Oh so that’s why he kept his research on the Battle of ’59 locked behind that small portal in his room. Well, at least I got some answers.
“Fine, we’ll split up. Amplifier versus LiaPrisms. I’ll take on the search for Gordon,” Stephen volunteered with a determined nod.
James glanced at him, then turned to Caden. “Caden knows Crown inside and out, where the weapon was last spotted. It makes sense for him to handle the Amplifier situation and deal with the Radicals he’s already familiar with. I’ll go back to Cyclos with Emma. We’ll focus on locating the LiaPrisms.”
Oh no. There was no way in hell I was going to let Mister Not-a-Real-Leader-and-Lying-about-Everything-is-a-Lifestyle dictate where I went. Not a chance.
“Actually, I’m going with Caden,” I announced firmly.
The shock that followed was almost tangible. I couldn’t tell who was more surprised—Stephen, James, Caden, or even myself.
“You what?” James froze, every trace of color draining from his face.
“I’m going to Crown with Caden,” I repeated, standing firm, unmoving.
Caden crossed his arms. “You’re not coming home with me.”
“Yes, I am,” I replied, resolute. “Out of the four of us, I’m the only one who hasn’t lied to any of you. I’ve never tortured or manipulated any of you. So, if anyone deserves to choose their own mission, it’s me. And I want to go to Crown. With Caden.”
Everyone fell quiet, my words casting a shadow none of us knew how to step out of.
Caden was the first to break it, his tone flat with the emotional weight of a grocery list. “Are you well-trained?”
I nodded, fully aware of the specific kind of training he was referring to. “I was trained by the Cyclos First Offensive and earned my own Skindo last month.”
I pulled up the cloth covering my mangled arm again, this time to reveal my Skindo tattoo. It wasn’t as elaborate as James’s sleeve, but it was still impressive. Shooting out the weapon, a small sense of pride surged at the ease with which I handled it.
Caden studied it with more interest than I’d expected before I quickly shot it back in and covered it up.
Hesitating for a second to tell them about my new healing powers, I opted not to in light of all the fucking betrayal. The next one I told anything would have to earn my trust. “Also, I survived the Amplifier once, chances are I could do it again.”
James shook his head. “You survived it because of the damper Julian put on your powers. He got that out during your coma, so chances of you surviving it again, are now less than zero.”
“Ah, yes. He removed the damper on my brain. Remind me, how did he do that again?” I snapped at James, who flinched, but didn’t bother to answer.
My focus locked onto Caden. “Since the Elder is dead, I am now the most powerful maga in existence, and my translation is untraceable in the Human World. Any way you spin it, I’m an asset. So I’m coming with you.”
Caden said nothing, just kept his eyes on me, a flicker of intrigue breaking his usual stoic mask.
“Agreed?” I asked, matching his icy demeanor.
His gaze roamed my face, as if searching for something buried beneath the surface. Whatever he found—determination, maybe—seemed to be enough. He gave a curt nod, sealing the decision.
James, on the other hand, looked thoroughly panicked. I wished I could feel some sympathy for him, but all I felt was a grim satisfaction.
I was angry. And maybe, on some level, I wanted him to suffer, knowing I’d be by Caden’s side—the man who had apparently a fifty percent chance of becoming my baby-daddy. I almost hurled again.
Like I’d ever have sex with either of them! The thought alone made me shudder in disgust.
“Then it’s settled,” Stephen said, rising from his chair. “Emma and Caden will go to Crown, find the Radicals, and demolish their nuclear weapon. I’ll resume my consensus tour and search for Gordon while I’m at it. James, you’ll start destroying LiaPrisms.”
We nodded in agreement, though James looked more reluctant than the rest of us.
His jaw clenched, his entire demeanor betraying the inner turmoil I assumed he was trying to suppress.
Without another word, James vanished through his portal, following his mentor.
The room suddenly felt smaller, and I found myself alone with Caden.
It was only then that it hit me—what I had done. What my anger, my thirst for punishment, had driven me to do. In my quest to hurt James, to make him feel the same pain he’d caused me, I had thrown myself into a situation I now dreaded.
Leaving with a man who still haunted my nightmares.
Fuck.