Chapter Thirty-Eight
Roman
Basil’s magic was amazing and perfect for this mission.
I’d met and worked with witches with a shadow affinity in the past, but never one as powerful as Bas. And to be honest, I wasn’t even sure how his magic was working exactly, but it was as if the four of us had become shadows.
I could feel my body, and I still felt whole and… three-dimensional, for lack of a better word. But people had walked right next to us in a small hallway and… didn’t bump into us, didn’t see us, didn’t feel us standing there.
So were we actually still three-dimensional? Or were we actually a flat shadow against the floors and walls?
I didn’t know the answer to that question, and now wasn’t the time to ask Bas for more details.
We’d breached the building three minutes ago but had to hold our position in the first hallway while several people moved about.
It was unfortunate that we’d had such bad timing, but there’d been no way to know what was going on inside the building.
Their wards were too strong, and since we didn’t want to make them aware of our presence, we couldn’t disturb them more than needed to let us four pass through unnoticed.
Luckily, Ailin and Sebastian had supplied us with the strongest anti-sound and anti-scent spells I’d ever seen.
Honestly, I was pretty sure they were both worrying over Bas and Hiro coming in here without them, which was why they’d cast such strong spells—they’d definitely overdone it. But I’d rather be overcautious than be caught in here, surrounded by an unknown number of blood witches.
The spells were cast over all four of us, so we were able to speak to each other—albeit quietly, just in case—and still hear one another. And each of us had an earpiece mic so we could communicate with our teammates outside. All of them were surrounding the building.
I’d wanted to take the lead, but Bas was the one casting his shadow magic and had told us that it was easier for him to ensure we were all covered if he went in front.
Something about it being easier to have a large portion of his magic following behind him, rather than trying to push it forward and predict exactly how far someone in front of him might walk or which way they’d turn.
It made sense, but I didn’t like being in the back. If I didn’t think Oak would know exactly what I was doing, I would offer to switch places with them so I could cover them—block them—from attack. Although, I supposed I was covering them from the back as it was, so at least there was that.
Basil gave the go signal, and we all remained close, moving as one down the hallway. Hiro was behind Bas, then Oak, then me.
Bas and Ailin had come up with a spell that would map out the building as we walked through, which worked out well so everyone could focus on keeping each other safe and figuring out exactly what was going on here and who was behind it, instead of one of us mapping things out with a pencil and paper.
Plus, there was less room for error this way… or so I was told.
It was Ailin’s spell, but he’d given control over to Bas.
There was a large leaf, of all things, following behind Basil’s shoulder.
I could see lines glowing lightly on it as we moved.
I’d never seen anything like it, but I hoped Ailin wouldn’t mind sharing the spell with Tan and the other witches that worked for us because it could really come in handy on recon missions, and I was sure in other situations as well.
We were also placing video surveillance throughout the building so we’d have a better idea of what we were walking into when we raided the place. Plus, more evidence against all these horrible people.
The surveillance was spelled so it was undetectable and invisible to the naked eye—Ailin and Bas worked on those together—so I wasn’t worried about them being found.
Hiro was in charge of placing those since he apparently was used to doing recon like this.
It made sense since he and Bas worked for the BCA.
We rounded a corner, and Bas took us straight up the staircase.
We quickly went all the way to the top floor.
The plan was to work our way down. We figured the hostages were in the basement, and we needed to get a look at them and take stock of their numbers and possible injuries.
But we really needed to find out who was in charge of this operation so we knew exactly what we were up against.
Because they were going down.
“Hell yeah, they are,” Oak’s voice echoed in my head. They must’ve overheard me.
The thought made me smile a little.
The closer we became, the stronger our bond grew, the more we’d be in each other’s heads. We were both still figuring out how to block one another so we could have privacy when we wanted—although I didn’t really mind them overhearing me, generally speaking—so random things were sneaking through.
But I honestly loved it. I loved hearing them, feeling them, knowing they were there, and that they were connected to me in all ways.
I hoped that feeling me, feeling my affection and love for them, was a comfort for them as well.
We made it to the top floor and quickly began clearing rooms. The building was large, but there were only five offices up here—they were huge offices, clearly for the people in charge.
I could only assume one of them belonged to the grand master.
The largest office in the building had to be it, right?
Assuming it truly was the grand master of the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron that was in charge of the trafficking ring. All the previous recon pointed in that direction.
After we made sure we were alone on this floor, we began searching for evidence, looking for a name, looking for anything that would help us and our investigation.
The last thing we needed was for this guy to get away during our upcoming raid.
We needed backup plans, we needed to know who he was and where he lived, where he hid out, where he might bolt to.
Just in case.
I said, “Search everything, but be sure you put things back exactly where you picked them up from. We can’t let them know we were here.” Our raid needed to be a surprise. Otherwise, those in charge would bolt before we could capture them.
Hiro grunted, Bas nodded at me, and Oakley shot me a grin, saying, “You got it, big guy.”
I shot them a grin back, double-checked that everyone had their gloves on—they were spelled to keep not only our fingerprints off everything but to make sure our scents weren’t left behind.
Like I said, we couldn’t let them know we were here, and leaving our scents behind would set off alarm bells.
If this office belonged to a blood witch, he likely wouldn’t be able to smell us, but Oak confirmed that there were still dragons in the cult, and one of them certainly could. These spells would prevent that.
Hiro worked at the computer while the rest of us searched the room, and after a few minutes, he said, “It looks like most of the emails are addressed to someone named Brinik. Does that mean anything to you guys?”
Oakley grimaced. “He’s a blood witch… Master Brinik Norfiel. If this is his office, he’s likely the new grand master.”
“That’s who we saw walk out of the building yesterday?” I asked, double-checking since Oak had given me a few names.
“Yes. He was always… especially cruel. No wonder the cult got caught up in trafficking with him in charge.” They shook their head and went back to looking through a filing cabinet, but I could feel their worry.
They weren’t scared, not really. They were simply… concerned, and I knew they weren’t looking forward to seeing that man again.
Using more effort than I probably should’ve given considering our situation, I pushed as much affection and love toward them through our bond.
I needed them to feel cared for, that they were in a safe place—well, not right now, literally—but generally speaking.
They had a true family now, one that would do everything in their power to protect them.
I wasn’t sure if it would work, but when Oak glanced over at me with a grateful smile—and I felt the same rush of affection and what I hoped was love come right back to me—I knew it’d worked.
A few minutes later, Oak said, “I found a letter addressed to Grand Master Brinik Norfiel, so I guess that confirms our suspicions. I haven’t found anything indicating that he’s answering to anyone else. Have you guys?”
Hiro said, “Nope. He seems to be in charge from everything I’ve read.”
“Same here,” Bas added.
I grunted my agreement. “I think we’ve found him. If you come across an address or even a picture of what looks like a home or anything like that, please share it.”
Through our comms, I quickly communicated everything we’d found to the others so they had the information and could begin putting together a profile of Brinik Norfiel.
The four of us continued our search.
We went another ten minutes without finding any addresses or anything like that, but we were out of time. We still had a building to map and kidnapped victims to find. So we hurriedly made sure everything was in its place and walked out of the room with Bas in the lead again.
He led us to the next floor down, and we did the same thing—checking each room and keeping an eye out for anything helpful.
By the time we made it to the basement door, I was thrumming with energy.
We hadn’t found much in terms of a paper trail, which made sense.
They wouldn’t want any of their illegal activities written down anywhere.
But we had run into several people, a mixture of humans, blood witches, and even one dragon that I didn’t recognize—strange considering there were so few of us left in the world.
I could tell from his power that he was on the younger side, no older than two centuries, but I didn’t know who he was.
But Oak had recognized him from their time in the cult.