Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
CADEN
I must have been out of my fucking mind to agree to this—bringing her into my home.
Killian. Geoffrey. The memory of her slitting and crushing their throats like it was nothing, burned into my mind.
Even if they had threatened to force out her translation—had planned to break her in that sterile, godsforsaken room at Coastal—they had been under strict orders not to touch her, unless necessary.
Which they hadn’t.
She still killed them. Cold. Efficient. Unapologetic.
And I loathed her for it.
But my duty as First Offensive was clear: protect the Collective above all else. Keep the power balanced. Make the hard calls. A maga with untraceable translation would be a huge liability in a world already cracking at the seams. Ignoring it would have been reckless. Stupid.
I was neither.
Sitting in the command center, my team couldn’t stop watching her—every glance laced with suspicion, with quiet resentment. She was the outsider. The one whose choices had cost us two of our own.
Plus, a lot of people here blamed her for James too—for the interrogations, the executions, the men he’d taken out to keep her safe. We all knew what he’d done. Whether she did was still up for debate.
So yeah, nobody trusted her.
And neither did I.
Seated at the round table with the rest of the Offensives, I studied her, trying to figure out what the hell she was after. What made her come here?
She sat across from me, silent, her face a careful mask. I could see the rigidity in her shoulders, the way her jaw was set a little too tight. She wasn’t broadcasting anything—not anger, not regret, not fear. Nothing.
This wasn’t the woman I had faced at Coastal. That version of her had been all fire and fury, reckless and sharp, too dangerous to ignore. Not the emotionless ice-queen she was pretending to be right now.
The memories of the day I met her came rushing back. I wasn’t Walker’s biggest fan, but I had to hand it to the guy, he’d trained her well. Fifteen seasoned Offensives against one little maga? It should have been easy. Restrain her. Contain her. Lure out her translation.
Instead, she broke out faster than anyone expected, faster than I expected.
And no matter how much it pissed me off to admit it, on some level I respected the hell out of her for it.
Of course, now it turned out she had all that Elder-power inside of her so that did kind of explain it.
Before I could dwell on it, the door swung open, and Enya stepped in. All business, her expression set, ready to drop the intel she had gathered from her time with the Radicals.
The shift in the room was immediate, everyone turned to her, eager to learn what she’d found out.
But I wasn’t watching Enya, I was watching Emma.
Shock flickered across her face, quick but unmistakable. Interesting.
Then I remembered—Enya had mentioned something about befriending Emma during her time at Cyclos.
But as fast as it had come, Emma wiped the surprise away, smoothing her face into the same unreadable mask she had been wearing since she walked in. Taking a page from my book, maybe?
Enya gave her a quick nod before sliding into her seat at the table. The rest of us welcomed her back, warmth in our voices, but the real focus was on what she had to say.
I could feel it—the anticipation coiling around the table. It was about time we’d get some answers.
“Enya,” I called, demanding her full attention. “Can you report to us what you found?”
She gave a curt nod. “I’ve been undercover for the last few months in one of the two Radical camps inside Crown.”
“Inside our Collective?” Rocco asked, his brow furrowing.
She nodded again, looking a little irritated to be interrupted. “Yes. There are two sites inside our Metasphere and two more in the Human World, all close by.”
With a swift motion, she translated a large map onto the surface of the table, revealing the locations scattered across both the Human World and magi territories.
Her gaze swept over us before she circled two specific points on the display—one in the eastern region, one farther west. “This one is the base I’ve been stationed at for months,” she said, tapping the eastern one.
“Let’s call it Camp A. It was cleared out yesterday, though I couldn’t find out why.
After I called it in, Caden decided to pull me out—in case they suspected I was compromised. ”
Kate, our soft-spoken Scottish girl with warm brown hair and a quiet, contemplative air, leaned in and traced a finger toward the second marked point on the grid. “What about that one?” she asked, her touch light but deliberate.
Enya exhaled through her nose, brushing a loose strand of her short ashen hair behind her ear.
“Emile’s been undercover at the western outpost—we’ve designated it Camp B—and he managed to get a message through.
They cleared it out too. He hasn’t been pulled yet, but he’s faking a family emergency to get back and brief us in person as soon as possible. ”
She raised a hand, silencing the murmur of confusion with a single, precise gesture. “Based on everything I’ve uncovered, I believe the Amplifier—assuming there’s only one—isn’t hidden inside any Metasphere. They’re too cautious to risk setting it off accidentally and wiping themselves out.”
Emma’s expression remained inscrutable, but I could tell the gears were turning behind her eyes, quietly piecing together the implications.
Enya remained steady as she pressed on, her words precise.
“It seems the Radicals stumbled upon their nuclear weapon purely by chance. Despite their bluster, they don’t have as much control over it as they want us to believe.
My guess is, to avoid endangering themselves, they’ve relocated it to an undisclosed area in the Human World. ”
With a decisive flick of her wrist, Enya grabbed a red marker and circled another two points on the schematic laid out before us.
“As I mentioned, there are two abandoned sites inside our Collective. In the Human World, there’s still one active in London…
” She motioned to the first base with a flourish. “And another near Dublin.”
She paused, twirling the marker in her hand.
“The Amplifier wasn’t at my station, and I doubt it’s at Emile’s either, but we could recheck both locations to be certain.
After that, we better portal to the other two.
Given the pattern, the weapon is likely hidden somewhere near Crown, the last place where they actually used it. ”
I nodded, then acknowledged her with a sharp tilt of my head. “Sounds like a plan.”
Margaux, the only Healer at the table, fidgeted with the edge of her sleeve, her brow slightly furrowed. “What if the weapon isn’t in any of those places?”
“If they’ve already moved it, then these three spots are our next best bets,” Enya replied, circling new spots on the global map with precise, deliberate strokes.
“New York—strategically positioned near two major Collectives; Antwerp, still reeling from the initial attack, making it a prime target for their next move; and the Himalayas, conveniently close to nearly every Asian Collective.”
She straightened, her posture firm as her attention shifted deliberately from one person to the next. “We either deploy one of our deep undercover Offensives or infiltrate each site ourselves.”
I shook my head. “We won’t risk blowing the covers of our moles.
If there had been credible whispers about the Amplifier, we’d already know.
We need more than its geographical location; we need insight into their plans for the coming months.
Exposing our agents or pulling them out prematurely could jeopardize everything. ”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“So, we form separate teams to search their camps, one at a time?” Sean interjected, his eagerness evident—like a golden retriever, ready to leap into action at the slightest cue.
As the discussion shifted to tactical planning, my mind drifted back to her.
Emma hadn’t said a word throughout the entire exposition, just sat there—still, composed, detached.
Too detached. Her demeanor was cool, cold even.
But stillness like that isn’t peace—it’s a warning.
Whatever was brewing beneath the surface, it was waiting for the right moment to erupt—and I was pretty sure it could rip through our thoroughly laid plans if we weren’t careful.
Had I made a mistake, letting her into the fold? Should I have kept her at a distance, shut her out entirely, shielded our plans from her? Or was keeping her close the smarter move, where I could watch her, figure out what she was hiding?
Damn it, I should’ve thought this through before allowing her here. Why the fuck had I agreed? I couldn’t trust her for shit.
But then the reason hit me, sharp and brutal—Alek.
Her son. Maybe mine.
The thought twisted like a knife to the gut, a sickening churn rising in my throat. What the hell would I do if it were true? If I had a son in the future—her son?
And then there was the Amplifier. She’d been put into a coma after the Radicals attacked her people with that cursed thing, yet she fought them and somehow won. She survived, not even knowing about her son. And now that she did…
Maybe that was why she was here. Maybe it was what drove her—the need to fight for him, to make sure he had a future which wouldn’t end in blood. And if it were me, if it were my child…
I’d burn the world to the ground to protect him. And I’d kill anyone who got in my way.
This war wasn’t only mine anymore—it was hers too. A battle against a future so bleak, so twisted, even thinking about it made my skin crawl. And right now, it was a fight against the same people who had nearly killed her—using the very weapon we were about to hunt down.
The Amplifier.
The thing capable of wiping out entire Collectives. And it was likely hidden somewhere in the Human World, a world where every magus could be tracked, where she was the only one who couldn’t.
Which made her an asset, whether I liked it or not.
And as for her motives— there was but one way to find out if I could trust her.
“Agreed,” I said, rough and decisive as I nodded firmly at Enya. “We’ll prioritize these locations and get our people moving for the search. We need to locate the Amplifier before the Radicals either relocate it or, worse, deploy it again.”
I paused, letting the seriousness of my words sink in. “We’ll start our search at Emile’s site, Camp B, inside the Metasphere. I’ll form a small unit to do the first sweep—Sean, Emma, and myself.”
Emma’s gaze snapped to mine, and for the first time that evening, a flicker of real emotion crossed her face. She wasn’t alone; the whole table was staring at me in shock.
Sean was the only one ballsy enough to voice his doubts. “Uh, boss? You’re seriously thinking of including an outsider on a mission this dangerous?”
I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head slightly, silently daring him to challenge my decision.
“Because that’s just brilliant,” Sean added quickly, his courage shrinking faster than his dick staring at its own reflection. The rest of the table nodded in reluctant agreement with palpable unease.
“Great, then it’s settled,” I said, shoving my chair back and standing up. I strode over to the door and flung it open. “You’re all dismissed, except for Sean and Emma.”
The group shuffled out, their low mutters of skepticism trailing behind them—grumbling about my decision to bring in an unknown agent, who had tried to kill them last time she’d met with them.
But they didn’t know what I knew. No one knew about my possible connection to Alek. Not even Sean. And I was keeping it that way until I could figure out what her deal was.
The door slammed shut behind them, leaving us three in the room.
Sean, as expected, was the first to speak up.
“I get the strategy and all, but why include Emma in this mission? We’ve spent ages building a crew that clicks.
She’s not exactly part of it.” He glanced her way, thumb grazing the edge of the table before retreating to his lap.
“I don’t mean to question yer skills. It’s only…
it’s taken us a long time to get this team running smoothly.
Yer not a part of its dynamic, and it’s a risk. ”
Emma stayed quiet, her face giving nothing away.
I felt a flicker of irritation rise, but I kept my voice steady. “Do you know if the Radicals are in possession of a LiaPrism?”
Sean blinked, caught off guard. “Uh, no, I haven’t heard anything about them having one.”
“Does that mean they definitely don’t?” I pressed, not letting him off the hook.
He hesitated, swallowing hard. “Not necessarily. They could have one. After all, they managed to acquire an Amplifier, which was thought to be impossible. So, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume they might have a LiaPrism as well.”
I straightened my spine, then forced him to see the bigger picture. “And if we execute our missions in the Human World, could we operate under the radar if they do?”
Sean’s face shifted as he finally caught on. “We need her because her translation is untraceable.”
I nodded, feeling a small sense of satisfaction at his understanding. “Right.”
Emma crossed her arms, trying to steady herself. “So, that’s why you brought me here? Because you could use me?”
I kept my expression impassive. “Of course. What did you think? You thought I brought you in here out of pity for your high school relationship drama?” I let out a short, disdainful laugh.
I could practically see the anger flare in her eyes. “No, gods forbid you’d care about my personal problems.”
Meeting her glare, my tone took on a biting edge. “And I never will. I’m First Offensive of this Collective. As far as you’re concerned, I’m your commanding officer and no more than your worst nightmare.”
“Trust me, you still are,” she muttered, only loud enough for me to hear.
I didn’t react, keeping my face as stern as ever. “Good. Now both of you, listen.”