Chapter 30
It would’ve been far too easy for Cillian to make a few phone calls, threaten a few people, and have them return Ursuline. Of course things didn’t work out that way. Yet I couldn’t help wishing we could’ve solved this situation simply.
Instead, we headed to an all-too-familiar place.
One that made my gut churn.
“Who knew your family had such strong ties to Alpha Blue,” Sofia mused as she headed down the winding back road in a direction I’d driven for years.
All those years, and I’d never realized we kept a holding cell for them on our grounds. I’d explored, sure, but there were areas I’d never bothered with, stretches of the woods too dense to wander on the massive expanse of what we owned.
“I sure as fuck didn’t,” I murmured, bile rising inside me. Not that the discovery surprised me, given the way my parents had always easily disappeared any problems, but the disappointment slammed into me regardless.
“I assumed,” Sofia said. “You don’t strike me as the type who’d tolerate that.”
I chewed on my lower lip. Maybe I’d remained too blind for too long. Too busy trying to please my parents rather than fighting against the crimes they stacked up. In a way, I could understand Arielle turning a blind eye to her father’s atrocities. The alternative was a hell of a lot scarier.
“I won’t,” I promised Sofia, since I couldn’t speak to the past. “My parents were talented at keeping our lives compartmentalized. Yet I should’ve looked closer. Should’ve realized what they’d been involved in.”
“Suddenly makes sense why Frederick wanted an arranged marriage with your family in the first place,” Sofia drawled.
That, I had figured out, even if I hadn’t realized my family had an Alpha Blue holding house on their property.
I’d spent so much time trying to leave the place that I hadn’t wanted to explore it.
And when I was younger, my tutors and nannies had kept a close rein on me, so I hadn’t been free to wander through the grounds.
The nearer we got to my parents’ house, the more my chest tightened.
The weight of those memories grew heavier and heavier, until it threatened to crush me.
Yet Cillian had gotten intel that they’d shifted Ursuline to the holding cell there, and the next step would be taking them back down to New Atlantis.
Where I’d be unable to do a damn thing.
“Mal arrived ahead of time,” Sofia commented. “So the guards at the back entrance should be dealt with.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to know what “dealt with” meant. “Should I be carrying any weapons?”
Sofia arched a brow and passed me a glance. “Not unless you’re trained in them. I’ve got a few spelled flash-bangs to use in a pinch, which I’ll pass on to you.”
A little relief fluttered through me, as I didn’t feel confident with anything sharp or dangerous.
The gates to the Durand family manor rose into view, and my chest constricted. My parents hadn’t tried to contact me once after they’d sold me off. Once I’d left, I hadn’t checked. I didn’t want to witness their disappointment.
We bypassed them, heading for the entrance that staff used, less ostentatious and more economical, just a pair of black iron gates with zero flourishes.
“Ready?” Sofia asked. My whole body hummed. The alternate option—being away from Ursuline permanently—wasn’t one I could consider. My heart twisted hard at the thought of them, how they’d be suffering in a cell, alone, after finding out about the death of their family.
“Yeah,” I murmured, my voice low.
We entered through the gates. True to expectation, they were empty of the normal guards. To the right led to the manor, but instead, Sofia jerked the car to the left, down a dirt path that wound its way into the woods.
“How many are in there?” I asked, my heart thumping hard.
“Threadbare operation,” Sofia said. “And I called in reinforcements. As long as Frederick didn’t sound the alarm…”
The shadows descended over us from the thick surrounding forest, and the coolness settled beneath my skin. Dread rose up inside me upon our approach. Seeing an area so foreign amid something I’d grown up with cast such a dissonance to my whole upbringing.
At the end of the winding pathway, swathed by darkness, was a small hut.
I could barely process that this had been here the entire time.
“When we head in, stay back,” Sofia said, slowing down outside the building. I didn’t spot any other vehicles, which meant the Alpha Blue stationed in there had most likely been dropped off. “I’ll stun the guards.”
I nodded, the words drying on my tongue. Once she shut off the engine, tension hummed in its wake.
We exited the car in silence, and the shadows settled over me at once, the air crisp out here.
I’d lost all sense of time today, disoriented like I’d been tumbling in a dryer.
Sofia pressed a magic-based flash-bang grenade into each of my hands, and I gripped them tight, my palms slick with sweat.
She didn’t say a word, but I assumed we were past the time of talking.
The hut was simple, with a black clapboard roof and spartan white exterior.
The door had black bars over the front, as did the windows, making it clear this was a prison not a cottage.
How many people were inside there? Alpha Blue was always armed to the teeth, and I’d what, sparkle them to distraction?
My throat was dry, and my limbs trembled as we approached.
Sofia tested the knob, and it jiggled. A slow smile rolled to her lips.
Then she flung the door open and marched inside.
Panic flooded through my veins as I raced in after her, then skidded to a halt.
Three men in all black surrounded another guy in the center of the room.
Their guns were trained on him. On closer glance, the black horns, the dark scale patterning along the side of his face signaled he wasn’t quite human.
Along both sides were jail cells, a pale seafoam-green color, and I couldn’t help but scan them.
A familiar figure stood behind them to the left, clutching the bars.
Ursuline.
Their dark eyes locked in on me, widening in surprise. My heart cracked open at the sight of them.
They were alive.
They were here, and they were alive, and our window hadn’t closed yet.
“Sorry, Sofia, I got caught,” the monster in the middle of the room called out. All attention diverted to us as Sofia continued her march toward the Alpha Blue guards. The monster shrugged, his hands slightly lifted, but I caught the glint in his gaze, the hint of a grin.
Hope bubbled up inside me.
“Mal,” she said. “Just the dragon-in-distress I was looking for.”
“What are you talking about?” one of the guards called out as he rushed toward Sofia.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave me alone.” Mal’s voice grew deeper, darker. “You never know what a dragon will get up to.” A wicked grin split his lips, and the air hummed. His whole body began to shift into an orange-red, like he immolated from the inside out.
“Fuck,” the guy next to him yelped. “He’s on fire!”
“Go, get Ursuline out,” Sofia commanded me.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I raced up to the bars holding Ursuline back, and at the first brush of my hands against theirs, a sob welled up in my throat.
“You came for me,” Ursuline murmured, wonder shining in their eyes. For a moment, all that existed was us—the air thick with tension, the joy rising within me fast and fierce.
“I always will,” I promised, meaning those words with every ounce of my soul. When I’d been stuck at the manor, they’d sacrificed everything to get me out. And there wasn’t a future I wanted more than the one with them by my side. “Now, how do I free you?”
“The lock is there,” Ursuline said, caressing the large lock keeping the cell shut with a tentacle. “The keys are with the asshole over by Mal.”
The guard they gestured to had backed away a few paces, as Mal turned himself into a bonfire, the flames licking up around him. My stomach churned. Out of one fire and into another.
The guard’s keys jangled at his side. I squeezed the grenade in my hand. I had to try.
I raced up to him.
He whirled around right as I reached for the key loop on his belt. My hands dropped to the loop, and he dipped down to his other side—for his pistol.
I yanked for the loop at the same time I tugged at the pin for the flash-bang grenade—and then shoved it right into him.
His boot thudded into my chest, and I staggered away. The keys clattered to the ground, right as the flash-bang exploded.
I slammed down to the floor, winging my arm over my face. A crack sounded in the air, and light flared, along with another flash that sizzled around me. Sparks zapped at my skin, and I cursed. White spots filled my eyes, and I blinked as I fumbled forward, hoping to land on the keys.
Any moment, more Alpha Blue could be arriving, and we’d be fucked. We needed to get out, and soon.
My hand landed on cool metal, and I yanked it.
Just as it tugged in the opposite direction.
“Fuck,” I swore, trying to tighten my grip, even as I squinted and blinked. Trying to get my vision back again.
“Get off,” the man growled, but a second later a thump sounded, and the tug went lax. I teetered backwards, the keys in hand as I caught a flimsy glimpse of a man on the ground and Sofia looming overhead. Lightning crackled around her like a living entity.
I scrambled backwards on the floor, the keys jangling in my grip, until I hit the bars with a thump.
“Good job, sunshine,” Ursuline said, their voice so steady and tender. My heart squeezed tight. Fuck, I hadn’t been sure I’d ever hear them call me that again. Their tentacle slipped around the key loop, and seconds later they were undoing the lock to their cell.