Chapter 30 #2
It opened, and I pushed myself up to crash into their arms. They squeezed me tight to their chest, and I sucked in a shuddering inhale.
The warmth of them surrounding me, the scent of currants, of the sea, the way their presence quieted something inside me—Ursuline was all I wanted.
Their tentacle curled around my thigh, and I clutched them a little tighter, as if we could merge into one.
“Sorry to cut this reunion short, but we need to jet,” Mal called over.
I stepped back at once. Right. In the middle of an Alpha Blue holding cell.
Sofia and Mal stood upright, but I noticed the three Alpha Blue guards did not. They lay on the floor, and despite their all-black attire, I caught the dampness on a shirt here, an uncomfortable twist of a limb there.
“Only one of them is dead. The other two are incapacitated,” Sofia said. “Whether they survive or not will depend on timing. But they’re not our problem.”
“We need to get out,” Ursuline said, grabbing my hand and gliding toward the entrance.
I stumbled at first but then hastened to catch up.
Mal and Sofia barely breathed hard after taking out three Alpha Blue guards, and an air of deadliness simmered around them.
They’d handled these armed, trained men with ease.
My stomach roiled at the awkward placement of one guy’s neck, his eyes vacant.
The sight imprinted on my brain as I rushed past.
When we broke into the cool forest air, all four of us headed toward Sofia’s car at a record pace. My shoes kicked up dirt, my steps springing off the loam. Unlike on the way here, I claimed the back seat with Ursuline, while Sofia hopped into the driver’s side and Mal in the passenger’s.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” She turned the engine on and circled around down the path.
All it took was one glance at the road ahead of us to see the obvious problem.
Two Alpha Blue vans rolled our way.
Oh fuck. I clutched Ursuline’s hand, and they exchanged a worried glance with me. My heart thudded hard. No matter what happened, the fact we’d reunited, the fact I’d found them—it mattered.
The tension in the car skyrocketed as the vans barreled toward us.
“What can we do?” I asked. “If you can pivot around them, we can try the main entrance.” If any of the people I knew were manning it, I could probably sway them to let us go. Maybe.
“You ready?” Sofia asked, glancing at Mal.
“Of course,” he said, flashing a charming grin. “Happy to oblige.”
With that, Mal cracked open the car door, while we were moving, and he rolled out.
A shout of surprise lodged in my throat.
One second a scaled dragonkin tumbled onto the ground, and the next he began to expand.
His tail extended, his body grew larger, more dragonlike, and his face transformed into a maw.
Massive wings expanded from his back with a powerful flap, and he rose above the car.
I plastered my face to the window, just to catch a glimpse of the magnificent black dragon that now hovered above our car.
I’d never seen one up close before, and the sight knocked the breath from my lungs.
All black shining scales, deep obsidian claws, and the same clever eyes that belonged to the man who’d been sitting in the car.
His legs and arms were poised as he sailed on his wings above us, the wicked arch of them mesmerizing.
The Alpha Blue vans slowed down. They must’ve caught sight of him.
Except he didn’t shrink back from them in the slightest. No, Mal opened his mouth, and a stream of fire descended upon the vans.
My heart raced.
“Well, damn,” Sofia cursed as she turned the wheel hard to the left, taking us off the path. Sticks crunched under the tires, and we bumped over rocks as she zoomed us around the Alpha Blue vans.
“If they made it in through the side, that means their sentries are back in action,” Ursuline warned.
“Main entrance,” Sofia said. “Think you can help us out, Elrich?”
“What about Mal?” I asked, twisting around. He released another torrent of flame, a bright orange and gold stream.
“He’ll be flying off,” Sofia said. “He was just buying us a few minutes.”
I swallowed hard, my throat impossibly dry. “I can try at the gates.”
Ursuline squeezed my hand, and their eyes met mine. “Thank you.” The seriousness there settled on me like a weighted blanket, offering a security I craved right now, even though the panic threatened to carry me away.
Sofia turned right at the fork in the road onto a pathway I knew by heart, one I’d traveled a thousand times over.
Approaching it from this foreign place, after living outside of here…
my head buzzed like I’d stirred a hornet’s nest. And the guards stood at the gates, Michel and Jeremy, guys I’d waved hi to for years, given a smile and a greeting on a regular basis.
We’d already left a trail of bodies. My gut churned. I couldn’t stomach more—not them.
Sofia slowed upon her approach, and Michel lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth, seemingly in discussion. Had Alpha Blue alerted them? Had these men known about the holding cell my parents had on their property? They had to. My insides curdled.
She rolled down the window and hung halfway out. “Just heading out.”
Jeremy strode over, dressed in his black turtleneck, black exercise pants. His head was shaved, and a glower twisted his features. “How did you get in?”
“The other entrance,” Sofia said, eyebrow arched in challenge.
“I’ve been told to hold you here,” Jeremy responded.
I pushed up between the seats. When his gaze landed on me, his brows rose.
“Elrich?” he asked, glancing between me, Sofia, and Ursuline. “What are you doing here?”
“The short version is that my parents sold me, I escaped, and I’m trying to live my life,” I stated.
Michel stepped around next to Jeremy. “Technically, he’s one of the people we listen to.”
“Was,” Jeremy clarified, but then he frowned again and cast a look in the direction of the manor. My heart hammered hard. Then he heaved out a sigh. “But it’s good enough for me.”
A grin ripped across my face. “Thank you.”
I wanted to believe in the good in people, that not all of them would disappoint, and little moments like these—they helped.
“Oh, fuck,” Michel swore.
I twisted to follow his gaze. Another car rolled up behind us, but it wasn’t Alpha Blue. My gut sank.
For me, it was worse.
“Who’s there?” Sofia asked, looking to me.
Ursuline squeezed my hand again. “Want me to come out with you?”
I shook my head. “I’ll take care of this on my own.” My legs trembled at the thought, but I forced myself out of the car, even though I fumbled with the handle a few times. Sweat already burst onto my palms.
Already waiting for me were two people I hadn’t seen since my engagement party.
Angus and Mina Durand. The parents who might’ve wanted a son, but they’d never wanted me.
“What is this?” My father’s voice was thunderous. “I got reports that someone had broken through the gate into the…”
“Alpha Blue’s containment unit?” I asked, my voice sharp.
The disgust welled in me, giving me power I’d never held before when facing them.
While I had known they were problematic, I hadn’t realized the depths of their complicity.
“They were holding my partner hostage,” I said.
“And we grabbed them, so now we’re leaving. ”
“We had an arrangement with Frederick, to try to salvage some of the deal after your failure,” Angus said, arms crossed, looming over me like he always had.
Except this time his posturing didn’t shrink me down the way it used to.
Because after witnessing the strength of my lover, I could see how weak this man truly was.
With all of Angus’s posturing, he was terrified to step an inch outside the rigid society he’d been born into.
He was fragile glass, one bat away from shattering.
“Oh?” I challenged back. “Didn’t think you made deals with monsterkind.”
Trying to plead with him for my sake would get me nowhere. But I was well aware of one thing he cared about.
Appearance.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, his voice sharp.
“Sofia, the pictures?” I called to the car, and she tugged her phone out fast, flipped through, then leaned out to pass it to me.
I showed the screen to my father, of Frederick being carried away, his mermaid tail fully showing.
“Those are going to hit the nearest news cycle the second we send them in. If I were you, I’d get away from the blast zone as fast as possible.
But if you don’t let us go, I’ll make damn sure to expose the deals you made with him.
We’ll see how your business fares after a blow like that. ”
“Elrich,” Mina chided, even though the reprimand was hollow and empty. My father gaped, opening his mouth and closing it like a fish.
I stood there with the phone in hand, clutching it tighter. My heart reeled from the confrontation, but a buoyancy rose inside me as well, a groundswell of energy that had been building, building, building all these years. I’d spent so long cowed by them, but no more.
I was free.
My father’s face turned purple as he processed, and I waited, hands balled into fists. Would he…? I resisted the urge to chew the inside of my mouth or glance to the car, facing him this time. Not backing down.
“Let them out,” my father snapped, then he turned on his heel and stormed to his car. Mina glanced between us, her eyes wide with shock. “Come on,” he barked at her, before he hopped back into his vehicle.
Michel passed me a broad smile and pressed the button to open the gates.
My heart thumped hard. I’d done it.
I’d stood up to them.
I swallowed, my throat dry, and I headed back to Sofia’s car.
Once I slid into the seat, Ursuline captured my face in their hands, and they crashed down on me with a bruising kiss.
I savored every second of it, the endorphins pumping hard through my veins, the exuberant joy rising like a tide to the point it overwhelmed me.
Sofia glanced back at both of us and winked. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
With that, we drove through the gate and out…into our freedom.