Chapter 11 #2
Apex Capital wasn’t just supposed to be safe—it was supposed to be invulnerable.
Which was why my stomach dropped the second Jesper briefed us that a phoenix child who was only seven years old had been taken an hour ago.
The briefing room fell into a suffocating silence as the holographic screen behind him flickered with aerial footage of the Apex Capital, a city we all trusted. And yet, a child was now taken.
My fists clenched before my brain even caught up because I knew the name of that child.
Asher Cinders
I knew his family.
Jesper’s voice cut through the air, snapping me back to the briefing. “The threat level is critical. We believe the Human Resistance Network is responsible. Their pattern matches the kidnapping.”
My heart seized.
“Shit,” I muttered.
Had they targeted someone I knew simply because I’d infiltrated their ranks?
Rune immediately shifted closer, her hand sliding onto my knee, a grounding heat blooming through me. “Koa,” she murmured, low so the others wouldn’t hear. “We’re going to find him. We’re not failing a child. Not today.”
I nodded, but the pressure behind my ribs didn’t loosen.
We entered the family’s home in the capital thirty minutes later.
The child’s mother, Agnes, was wrapped in her mate’s arms. When she saw me, her sobs grew heavier. “Koa,” she sobbed. “They stole our baby. Please, please, bring Asher home.”
I swallowed hard, grief burning up the back of my throat. “I will,” I promised. “I swear it.”
“Excuse me, ma’am, please take a seat. Let me heal your emotional distress so we can get more information from you.” Morgan, my mentor, stepped in and gently guided the mother to sit.
Morgan’s special power whipped around Agnes. Her magic soothed the worst of the panic. It couldn’t erase the terror in her eyes.
The father, Hayes, cleared his throat. “He was taken on the walk home from school.”
“There’s a fifteen-second gap in the marketplace cameras,” Slater murmured, having already hacked the surrounding security cameras.
Rune’s jaw tightened. “Hopefully they did a shitty job of it, unlike that fae in the Bizarre.”
“It’s definitely looped footage,” Corin muttered, brows pulling together. “And they knew exactly how to hide themselves from the enchanted cams.”
“But not from this,” Slater whispered, summoning Snakey, who hissed and dove into the corrupted footage through the screen.
Seconds later, Slater’s eyes glowed red with his connection to Snakey.
“I’ve got it,” he breathed, and the screen flickered.
I got up and walked over to see a hooded human holding a syringe and injecting Asher with it from behind.
The small phoenix boy collapsed as tourmalyke was injected into his bloodstream.
Rune swore under her breath. “I fucking loathe humans at this point.”
“You’re not alone,” I grunted.
Jesper’s aura roiled with the promise of violence.
After we found out it was definitely the humans from the terrorist faction, Cassie, Bradley, Rune, and Dimitri split off to question the marketplace.
Every supernatural they questioned gave the same expression of guilt for not noticing it happen, fear for their own children, and shame for being unable to stop it from happening.
They were able to speak to a fae woman who was running her herb shop. She’d seen a cloaked figure watching Asher for weeks, but she never thought this would happen.
It meant that the humans had stalked him and taken him when he was at his most vulnerable.
Sitting with Agnes, Hayes, and the rest of the squad was killing me.
I’d wanted to be out there, investigating. But I was a healer, and I was needed here, with the family.
While the spies were talking to the potential witnesses, the enforcers: Jesper, Jesse, April, Kyle, and Tobias, swept the rooftops.
A crackle came over the comms in my ears as Corin had a live feed of what they were doing on the rooftops above where Asher had been taken so we could see.
Slater was still looking through all the footage from the abduction.
Kyle paused, his red eyes zeroing in on something above the marketplace. “Uh, guys? We’re being watched, and not just by our team.”
A human drone hovered far above the marketplace. It was pulsating with some kind of illusory ward. The kind the Human Resistance Network stole from us.
Tobias destroyed it with one blast of phoenix fire.
After that, Morgan stayed with the parents while the rest of us met back up at headquarters. The enforcers took an hour to arrive, but once they did, Jesper gave way to Lysa, the intelligence analyst, to go over what we had.
Lysa spread the evidence over the meeting table as Jesper let her take the lead.
“Tourmalyke confirms that it was the Human Resistance Network. The injection was too precise. Kyle found something else on the way back to Headquarters, too.” She projected a photo onto the holographic screen behind her and zoomed in on a burned scrap of metal.
“The ash patterns show an access grate was opened. They went underground.”
“Into the tunnel system,” I mumbled.
Lysa nodded grimly. “And the trail goes right to the border and then evaporates. The enforcers went into the tunnels and followed the trail until it went cold. It’s unfortunately safe to assume the child is with the Human Resistance Network, and we won’t find Asher until we locate the facility they’re hiding in. ”
My heart dropped like a rock into my gut.
Rune’s phone buzzed, and she grabbed it and froze.
Rage flooded the matebonds, and I looked over her shoulder at the text on her screen.
Unknown
Your mates will never know peace.
My blood ran cold.
“It’s Allison. It has to be. She’s provoking us!” Rune threw the phone onto the table, fury trembling through the matebond from her. “I’m going to inject her with my most painful, fatal venom when we find her,” she hissed before her eyes snapped to mine. “I’m so sorry, Koa.”
“It’s not on you,” I breathed out. “This is the Human Resistance Network’s doing.”
I hadn’t felt this helpless within the belly of that shark.
Tobias set a steady hand on my shoulder. “We did everything we could.”
“But not enough,” I whispered.
“Stop,” Jesper said firmly. “Do not take on what isn’t yours. We’ll find that child, Koa. And the humans who took him won’t survive long enough to regret it.”
I drew a shaky breath in. “I know what they do in those labs. I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’ve experienced it. That kid doesn’t deserve to see or feel any of it.”
Rune squeezed my hand. “Which is why we’re not giving up.”
“We can’t let this become another cold trail,” I whispered.
“We won’t,” Jesper promised, and he sounded a hell of a lot more confident in that than I felt.