11. Chapter 11
Chapter 11
I t’s in the dead of night, in absolute silence and in the tightest formation ever that we make our way to the top of the cliff — Nuala at the front, Dryden in the middle, and Jaeger and myself to the back.
Even before we come to a stop, my heart plummets to my stomach. Nuala’s blueprints seem to match the sight before me precisely.
The place we’re infiltrating is a huge building complex perched on the edge of a cliff, with a high, heavily manned wall and a flat, stony terrain for hundreds of meters to the front.
No place to hide, at least not without powerful magic. And Dryden’s magic really is powerful, I think as I fix my eyes on the strong back right in front of me. We need to be as close to him as possible, but he’s successfully using his Tension Magic to keep us all hidden from view.
It’s what’s keeping me hopeful, despite everything. That and the fact that I honestly believe the plan is quite clever.
Once she’s ready, Nuala executes the first step. From where we’re still standing, she uses her earth bending to get rocks shoot out of the ground.
We take cover behind them, my wolf almost immediately hearing the sound of the main gate opening.
Then four pairs of footsteps coming to investigate.
We pull all four guards behind the rocks, Jaeger taking control of them using her Mind Magic.
She finds out how they identify each other, we put their uniforms on and step out of the cover.
Calmly, we walk to the main gate, where Jaeger uses Mind Magic to get us in and tells the soldiers manning the gate, “It’s nothing urgent, a minor Nature Magic mishap, but we’ll need to consult with the groundskeeper.”
“Alright.”
We enter the complex and head straight for the lab.
So far, so good.
Now all we need to do is find the scientist in charge of developing the shadow curse, erase his memory and burn his papers.
But once we get to the lab, we find no scientist there. We start searching the place and Dryden digs out his log.
“Sent the finished sample,” he reads once we gather around him.
That’s the last entry. No. He finished it. Goddamn it.
And the others look just as devastated as I am.
Now what?
“Since we’re already here,” Nuala says, “we might as well still burn the papers and find the man.”
We start searching the lab for documentation, burning it along the way.
I take the opportunity to skim the contents. It’s all scientific, none of it telling me anything, until I stumble on the folder seemingly containing the information on the subjects the scientist has been experimenting on.
This didn’t even cross my mind, that he’d use actual people, but of course he would. Horrified, I start skimming through the names, until my wolf reacts to one of them. A man by the name of Phinelis, held in cell number twelve.
“We need to get going,” Nuala comes to tell me, snapping me out of it.
When I look up, I see that the rest of them have already finished burning the materials.
I nod, put the folder down and start following them out, but my mind is still on the subjects.
No, I think with a frown, the experiment seems to be fully wrapped up, they’ve probably already gotten rid of them.
But right as we step out the door and I turn around to close it, I hear a sound coming from behind my back. I freeze in place, listening.
There are more rooms to the back. The people could still be there — the victims of all this, including that Phinelis person.
“Anna,” Jaeger hisses.
I turn to look at Nuala. “Five minutes,” I ask, motioning at the rooms.
“No.”
And I can see how determined they all are, but there could be people in dire need of saving back there. And I have a feeling — based on my wolf’s reaction mostly — that this is not something I should be walking away from, no matter how dangerous it might be.
Then again, the last thing I want is to force Jaeger, Nuala and Dryden to risk their lives for me. “Don’t worry about me,” I tell them all, and before they can protest, let alone do anything to stop me, I step back into the room and shut the door, locking it so they have no choice but to leave me here.