Chapter 9 Jesper
jesper
. . .
I stood outside of the academy with my squad, waiting on the new mentees to show up.
April stood next to me at a respectful distance.
She’d been more tolerable since she’d found out Rune was my mate.
I was thankful for that. She’d stopped asking about my personal life and stopped trying to get close to me.
She kept conversation to the minimum and only discussed mission-related topics.
April was no longer my direct mentee, but she was in my squad for clinical hours in her last year.
Tobias, Rune’s brother, was also a fourth-year doing clinical hours in my squad.
Darian had been in my squad, before he’d been declared wanted by the council.
Obviously, Lake had expelled him already.
Gavin had pulled strings for Rune and her mates to be placed on my squad, and I felt Rune’s matebond closing in.
“So, your mate is my mentee?” Cassie, one of my spies, asked nervously. She tucked a lock of curly black hair behind her ear.
“She is.” I nodded, trying to focus on my squad instead of Rune’s closeness.
“Right.” She winced, her green eyes flicking around. “No pressure. Just mentoring my squad leader’s mate.”
“Just be the spy you usually are, and everything will be fine,” I assured her.
She let out a breath. “Okay. I can do that.”
“And keep my mate safe when I can’t,” I added softly.
“There it is,” she mumbled with a groan. “I’ll do my best, sir.”
Arban, our envoy, giggled. “Let’s all just focus on getting along, yeah?”
Jesse, one of my enforcers, scoffed. “Sure, Arban.”
“Alright!” Gavin shouted, gaining the squad’s attention.
“Agents, train your third-year mentees well. Keep them safe. Fourth-year agents-in-training, you are with your placement squad to work alongside them for clinical hours. Keep yourselves safe. Squad leaders, introduce the mentees to their mentors. Best of luck on your first mission of the year.”
The mentees finally broke off from their classes and walked toward their mentor’s squad letter.
We were Squad A.
Rune stepped in front of me with a smile, the matebond singing with excitement. “I didn’t actually expect to be placed in your squad, mister agent.”
“I pulled some strings.” I shrugged casually.
“Clearly,” Dimitri muttered, nodding toward Slater, Koa, and Zuko as they joined us.
Rune’s smile was breathtaking as she noticed that all of her mates, minus Drecken, would be on this squad with her. It filled me with pride to do right by my mate, and a low rumble vibrated my chest.
Eleanor and Sylver were the last to come toward us, and Rune and Eleanor let out small squeals of excitement as they hugged tightly.
“I can’t believe you’re in this squad!” Eleanor grinned. “I’m so excited to be with you again. We have had no time to catch up.”
“Literally none,” Rune agreed.
Sylver hugged Rune next. “I’m interested to see what it will be like to work with my sister-by-mating.”
“Same to you.” Rune hugged her back just as Tobias decided to join us.
His arms wound around his mate as he smiled at his sister. “Hey, Roo. Glad to see you and Syl getting along.”
“Well, she is my sister-by-mating, Tibby.” Rune grinned at him.
Slater hauled Rune back into his arms. “Thank Fates,” he groaned, sniffing her hair. “I’ve missed you terribly, venom baby.”
“Not as much as I have, pretty little poison,” Zuko murmured, sandwiching her between him and Slater as he moved in front of her.
“Ugh, gross.” Tobias shivered, but Sylver shushed him.
“Okay,” I called out, my voice coming out strained but strict.
“Trust me, I understand the pull of our matebonds, but I promised Gavin that we would not allow the bonds to dictate our missions. That means, when you’re on this squad, you are squadmates.
No intimacy. It can cause distractions and put others in danger. ”
Zuko and Slater peeled off her and saluted me. “Got it, boss.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“Understood,” Tobias and Sylver murmured.
“Sorry, Jesper.” Rune clasped her hands behind her back and stared up at me with serious golden eyes.
“You did nothing wrong, honey drop.” My voice softened with her.
Cassie moved beside Rune. “Wow. I’ve never heard him be so kind.”
“Cassie,” I warned. “As a spy, you’ll be Rune’s mentor. Cassie Vex, introduce yourself to your mentee, Rune Bloodwyne.”
Cassie turned to Rune with a smile. “Hi, I’m your mentor. I’m a succubus, and I’ve been a spy for ten years.”
“Nice to meet you,” Rune told her with a smile.
“Bradley Ravenswood,” I gestured to the shaggy, red-headed incubus. “Your mentee is Dimitri Nocturnus.”
I went on to pair all of the third-years with their mentors.
Kane Groves, my warlock magical specialist, was mentoring Sylver.
Lysa Crowley, my witch intelligence analyst, was supposed to have a mentee, but they were killed during a simulation a couple of days ago.
Corin Lane, my phantom tech specialist, would be mentoring Slater.
My torture expert, a shadow demon named Rhyse, would mentor Zuko.
My diplomatic envoy, a griffin named Arban, would be mentoring Eleanor.
Morgan, my jaguar shifter healer, would mentor Koa.
Jesse, my phoenix enforcer, mentored Tobias last year, and Kyle, my vampire enforcer, mentored Darian until he was expelled.
Kyle hadn’t been surprised, and he never did like him.
Once introductions were over, I clapped my hands to gain their attention again. “Now that you’re going to be shadowing your mentors, you can consider me your boss.”
“Ooh, boss daddy,” Rune whispered, making Zuko and Slater chuckle.
April’s eyes widened at her, just like the rest of my squad’s.
My cheeks reddened, and I shot her a ‘behave’ look.
But I knew she felt my amusement through our bond.
“Anyway, that means you will answer to me. Today, we will be diving into an investigation about dragon scale trafficking. A rumored stormdrake scale is circulating through the fae-market in the fae realm. Not just that, but drake scales in general. The same scales that have been stolen from HQ. As you can imagine, this mission is top priority. We are to identify the thief and trace the network without revealing our involvement until it’s time to make an arrest.”
I took a breath and let it sink in before continuing, “Cassie, Bradley, Rune, and Dimitri will be going undercover in the fae market. Jesse, Kyle, Tobias, and myself will be waiting on the other side of the fae portal, prepared to come in should anything happen. Kane and Sylver will be researching fae magic with Lysa. You need to figure out what the fae could possibly need with dragon scales. Corin and Slater will be working on figuring out the surveillance. Rhyse and Zuko will be waiting until we can find someone for information. Arban and Eleanor will be on standby unless we need them for diplomatic reasons, and Morgan and Koa will also be waiting unless they are needed for healing.”
I gestured to my tablet. “Surely, you brought yours. Open up the email I sent through the academy’s drive.”
I waited for everyone to get their tablets out where surveillance stills, possible suspects, and a partial map of the fae market were sent.
“The fae dabble in what we consider illegal activities, but it’s not considered illegal for the fae.
Kalista has no control over them, so we can only detain supernaturals who come and go with illegal substances.
If we have evidence they are going to the fae realm for illegal pursuits, then we can take action to bring the supernatural back to Kalista.
We cannot touch the fae,” I repeated. “This part of the mission is intel only. Let’s move. ”
The air shimmered in front of the portal, rippling like a liquid blue-tinted mirror. Beyond it, fae magic pulsed like the heartbeat of the fae realm that was on the other side.
I stood with my enforcers on the Kalista side of the gateway, arms crossed.
The cool wind from the portal brushed over my magic.
The hum of fae magic made the air taste like rain.
Fae magic differed from Kalista magic, but nobody could ever truly pin-point what the difference was.
Other than fae magic being more potent than ours, of course.
Inside the fae realm, my spies blended in with the market’s clientele.
Slater’s reflection flickered across a mirror shard embedded in the surveillance circle beside me. Since the fae market didn’t have tech surveillance, Slater, Corin, Sylver, and Kane had to improvise.
Snakey hissed, coiling through the mirror shard like liquid code and reaching out toward Rune’s chaos manifestation inside of her. Slater and Rune’s chaos manifestations were the only way we could rig some sort of surveillance while being in different worlds.
Through the broken mirror shard, the fae market came alive through Rune’s snake manifestation’s eyes.
Slater’s mark was on her shoulder, where the small black snake with wings was etched into her skin. She and Cassie wore sundresses to blend in, so her shoulder was bare. Dimitri and Bradley wore button-up shirts with shorts.
They looked like regular supernaturals just going to the fae market.
The fae market sprawled at the heart of the fae realm, where all four kingdoms met. It was a vast area woven from the elements themselves, and the fae market was only on the edge of it.
Stalls of ice glittered beside steaming ones of molten rock. There was no tech, only the hum of fae magic. Wind fae used floating enchantments to display their items, and earth fae coaxed vines to curl into elegant displays. It was beautiful, but beneath all of that beauty, corruption soared.
Our mission was simple. They were there to observe. Not to make contact and not to interfere.
My spies moved through the crowd under their glamours. Enchanted makeup and a hair tie that changed their face structures and hair colors.