Chapter 37
Brooke
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t watch. But I couldn’t look away either.
Rav charged toward a cloud of what might be deadly vapor.
And I was too far behind to stop him.
Was the misdirection that it was being deployed aboveground instead of from the sewers? Or that it was aerosolized Greek Fire instead of liquid?
My boots slipped on the grass-covered steps as I ran after him. The white mist expanded outward from the golden phoenix, horribly beautiful in the stage lights. The crowd cheered. They all thought it was part of the show. They had no idea they might be watching the beginning of a massacre.
Rav vaulted the stage barrier in one fluid motion, landing in a crouch. The mist enveloped him immediately. My stomach churned, bile rising up my throat.
No. No. No. No!
“Rav!” I screamed, probably deafening everyone on my open comms. But they didn’t matter. He did.
He hadn’t sealed his mask properly. He was sacrificing himself for me again. Not again! Not again!
“It’s not burning, Brooke!” His voice cut through my earpiece and my terror simultaneously.
My boot hit the grass wrong, and I slid, falling hard on my ass. But he was alive! He was all right! I leaped back onto my feet and continued after him.
If that’s not the Greek Fire, where is it?
He crossed the stage in three strides and drove his fist into the masked emcee’s jaw. The man crumpled backward, and Rav landed on top of him, his facemask springing off. The two men grappled on the stage, fists flying.
Rav’s got this. Don’t worry about him. You have other priorities.
I hit the barrier seconds later, using my momentum to vault over rather than climb. The podium holding the phoenix was at least ten feet high. I couldn’t reach the statue. Instead, I lowered my shoulder and slammed into the podium with everything I had.
The impact rattled through my bones, but the statue toppled. It hit the stage and broke apart—not with the heavy thud of gold, but with the tinny crash of cheap alloy I could barely hear over the dimmed music.
I yanked a test kit from my pack, swiped the nearest wing, and stuffed it into the pouch. Crack. Shake. Flick. The chemical indicators didn’t change color. I ran to one of the spots where the mist was coming from and tested the condensed liquid gathered around the opening. Still nothing.
“There’s no Greek Fire here at all!” I shouted into comms, relief and fury warring in my chest. “And the statue isn’t even fucking gold.”
“Bloody hell!” muttered Will. “Rav, Brooke, I’ve got a drone above you. I count six men headed your way. Police are also approaching. You need to get out of there.”
The crowd surged, half of them forward, cheering on Rav’s attack and the destruction of the prop, as though it were all part of the performance. Others—too many others—started yelling and pushing for the exit.
There was going to be a stampede.
“You’ve got ten minutes, maybe fifteen,” continued Will, “before the police arrive.”
In my earpiece, chaos erupted. Jayce swore as someone shoved past her. Drew tried talking his way past a security guard who’d finally confronted him at the fireworks displays. Malcolm and Scarlett said they would distract the Fenix men headed our way.
“Rav,” I said, darting over to where he was standing after his fight. One he’d clearly won. “It’s not here. We need to figure out where the egg—”
Rav hauled the fallen emcee upright by his shirt. Blood ran from the man’s nose and busted lip, but without the mask on, I immediately recognized him from the photo in the robot dog’s memory.
Enzo. One of Fenix’s captains. The one with the scar across his face. The one who’d tried to kill almost every member of the Reynolds team. He laughed, showing red-stained teeth. “You’re too late.”
“Too late for what?” Rav’s fists rolled against Enzo’s collar, pulling him closer.
“Did you hear that, traitor?” Enzo’s head rolled backward, so he could yell at Noah, who was beginning to stir. “You see what happens when you betray us?”
Scarlett had been right. Noah was a pawn, just like the rest of us.
“I saw him meet with you.” Enzo met Rav’s gaze and swung his right shoulder, as though attempting to make his obviously broken arm work. “He always had a soft spot for the one with the tits.”
Rav slammed his forehead into Enzo’s. “Don’t talk about her that way.”
“You couldn’t stop us, Noah!” Enzo laughed weakly, squeezing his eyes shut.
His good arm rose, as he’d done at the microphone earlier, and he spoke as though incanting a ritual.
“When the world has failed, and the land is covered in disease, a hero will appear. He will be worthy of the gift of the gods. The egg will crack open, and from it, the ancient phoenix will rise again, and the world will know forever!”
Hero? Who was their hero supposed to be? Martinelli? Enzo?
“Oh shit, you’ve got three inbound,” said Brie over the earpiece. “Rav? Brooke? Get out of there!”
“The phoenix rises from its ashes, asshole,” growled Rav. “Not from an—”
“Egg!” I shouted, the pieces finally clicking into place. “Holy shit, I know where it is!”
Rav spun to face me, causing Enzo’s broken arm to swing, and the man cried out.
I grabbed Rav’s shoulder, looking around to find the men Brie had spotted. There was too much white mist. I couldn’t see them. “We need to go. Now.”
Rav’s nostrils flared once, and he freed one of his hands long enough to send it crashing against Enzo’s nose. Rav dropped the man onto the stage, where he crumpled in a heap.
“Where?” He breathed deeply, standing over the man who’d fooled us all week, as though waiting for him to dare move.
“Whichever driver’s closer,” I said, tugging Rav’s arm. “Rav and I need exfil at the—”
A rough hand hauled me backward by my hair, while two men grabbed Rav. I retrieved my baton and swung wildly behind me, making contact with something solid. The man who’d grabbed me fell to the ground, and I smashed one of his ankles, hopefully grounding him.
Rav moved with violent grace. He tossed one man easily off the stage, striking the other in the throat. When another fool came at him, Rav ducked his first blow, caught him with a shoulder, and tossed him easily.
Screams erupted from the crowd.
“We need exfil. Zac? Emmett?” I said.
“I’m closest,” said Zac. “Two passengers?”
“Yes,” said Scarlett. “The rest of us will follow once we’re sure the police have secured the Fenix personnel.”
Rav looked at me, placing a gentle hand on my cheek. “What did you figure out?”
“Martinelli donated to a restoration project at the Castel dell’Ovo.
It means the Egg Castle. That’s where they are!
” I’d been there once, during a break while I was attending a conference.
“Legend had it that a magical egg was buried under the castle, and that if the egg were ever broken, Naples would fall.”
“It fits Enzo’s rambling.” How he switched from such violence to such tenderness amazed me. “Are you all right?”
I put my hand over his, and my other on his chest. “We need to—”
A boom overhead made me flinch. Fireworks exploded from the amphitheater’s rim, showering gold and crimson sparks across the night sky. My chest seized. If they’d mixed Greek Fire powder into those charges—
No. The test kit results had all been negative. They were just ordinary pyrotechnics. My skin wasn’t burning, and Enzo had confirmed he’d been screwing with us.
I grabbed Rav’s arm and pointed up to the grassed-over steps, the way we’d come in. “We need to hurry.”
More explosions painted the sky purple and green as we ran. The crowd’s panic seemed to shift, as though the fireworks told them it was all a planned performance. Then another cheer went up.
“Castel dell’Ovo is the perfect spot,” I said. “It’s right on the harbor. The whole waterfront will be packed with people.”
But even as I said it, doubt crept in. What if it was another misdirection?
“I’m one minute out,” Zac said. “But traffic’s a nightmare. A lot of streets are closed for Notte Bianca.”
“Pendragon’s en route,” Bobcat cut in. He’d been mostly silent since they confirmed the Greek Fire had been in the lab, as they were busy sneaking their way out to avoid being arrested. “But we’re at least an hour out.”
Blue lights flashed at the amphitheater entrances as uniformed officers pushed through the crowd.
“Scarlett,” said Rav, as we crested the top of the amphitheater, ducking low so the police wouldn’t see us. “Get Noah before the police do. Find out if he has more intel.”
“I’m on it,” she said.
The police were filtering in through the entrances. One of them approached the guard, who still had our Fenix operative from underground.
Rav nodded to the stairs opposite the police and guard, and I crept along behind him, staying out of sight.
My phone buzzed in my backpack. Not the Reynolds one mounted on my forearm, but my regular Pendragon phone. The vibration pattern meant it was a text from someone on my team.
I slid the pack around to my front, unzipped it slowly so we wouldn’t tip off the police, and pulled the phone out.
Rav turned to cock an eyebrow at me, and I put a finger to my lips, promising to be quiet.
But the text on the screen caused my stomach to drop. From Percival, it read: Must have had connection issues at the lab. Did you hear about Owen?
I typed back: Owen?
The three dots began dancing immediately, and part of my brain didn’t want to read the response. But it read: Detainee said Dr. Kensington had gone to the egg.
My knees wobbled, and I put a hand on Rav’s shoulder for balance before tripping down the stairs.
He whispered, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. I missed a step.”
He just patted my hand and kept moving, acting as my protector. My support. Like always.
But Owen? Working at the Fenix lab?
Of course he was, Brooke. Dr. Norris had told me Owen had been hired by a private pharmaceutical company, where he was focusing on applications of his polymer research. The same research that had made me think Owen would be a solid resource for understanding Greek Fire.
You should have sucked it up and reached out to him.
At the bottom of the stairs, we stayed in the amphitheater’s shadow, following the wall until we were clear of the police presence. Rav caught my elbow, pulling me toward the exit. “Let’s go.”
We ran. Over a hill. Into a cluster of trees. Down an embankment. Over another. And finally, to the road.
Owen was your research partner for a year. You dated the man! You spent almost every waking hour with him. And he’s here? Not just in Naples, but with the Greek Fire?
“There!” Rav pointed to where Zac had stopped the SUV nearby, its engine running.
We sprinted toward him. Behind us, more fireworks shot into the sky—someone trying to salvage the show, maybe, or the launches were automated. Each explosion made my shoulders tense, waiting for the chemical burn that never came.
Why would Owen be working with these fanatics? His expertise is in barriers, in containment. In making sure dangerous substances stay precisely where you want them, not in—
Oh, shit. A good barrier also ruptures exactly when you need it to.
“How far to the castle?” I asked as we reached the vehicle.
“On a normal day, maybe half an hour,” Zac said. “But with this traffic?”
“I’m calling one of my friends, who’ll be able to give us the best directions for tonight,” Rav said, yanking open the door. “We’ll get as close as we can, then make a run for it.”