Chapter 28 #3
I wrap the power cable around my fist and pull it out of the wall.
The machine shudders. The centrifuge winds down. The tubes go slack. The blood in the last bag settles, dark and still.
"All teams. All sites cleared." I breathe once. "Every locked door. Open."
Simone's voice comes through the channel.
"Copy."
One word.
Enough.
Simone is sitting on the loading dock with the girl from the children's wing. The girl is wrapped in a blanket. She's leaning against Simone's arm and Simone is holding still, not moving, not breathing harder than she has to, just being the surface this child chose to rest against.
The Tides healers move through the building.
I watch one of them kneel beside the man who raised his fists at me.
He's sitting on the floor in the hallway now with his back against the wall, the IV still taped to his arm.
The healer reaches toward him and he flinches.
She pulls her hand back. Waits. Reaches again. This time he lets her.
The teenager who asked if it was real is standing in the yard, no shoes on the gravel, looking at the sky.
One forty-three. Two hundred and nine. Forty-seven from the basement. Five infants. I lost count of the second floor somewhere past twenty. More than four hundred people. Three facilities. One night.
You promised Simone every locked door. You kept it.
Maximus walks out. His shadows are tucked close, pulled in tight. He crosses the gravel toward me.
I reach for his hand.
His fingers close around mine. His skin is cool against my palm. The crescent marks pulse between us, steady, two hearts in sync. We stand at the edge of the property and the night is quiet and the doors behind us are open.
I lean into him. Just my shoulder against his arm. He shifts his weight to take it. I can hear the Tides healers inside the building. I can hear the teenager breathing in the yard. I can hear every person we freed tonight alive behind us because we opened the doors.
"Four hundred people," Maximus says. "We can't leave them here."
"We can't take them to the compound either. There's no room, and if Konstantin retaliates, the compound is the first place he hits."
"They can't go home. He'll find them."
"Get Lanthar," I say.
"Seraphina, get Lanthar here," Maximus says through comms. Within minutes, the Veil opens at the edge of the property. Lanthar steps through alone.
He surveys the building. The humans in the hallways. The Tides healers moving between cots. The teenager standing barefoot in the yard. His expression doesn't change, but his eyes stay on the girl in the yard longer than the rest.
"They need somewhere Konstantin can't reach them," Maximus says.
"Thessivane," Lanthar says.
The word lands. I look at Maximus. He looks at me.
"Humans have never crossed the Veil," I say. "Has that changed?"
"No. They haven't." Lanthar pauses. "But the Veil will hold them. Konstantin cannot follow. My court can provide shelter, food, and healing beyond what your mortal medicine offers." He looks at the building. "When this is over and Konstantin is dealt with, they go home."
"And the memories?" Maximus asks. "Humans who've seen Thessivane. Who've walked through the Veil. Who've met the Fae."
"We have ways. When they return, they will remember being safe. They will remember being cared for. The specifics will fade." He meets Maximus's eyes. "It is not erasure. It is gentleness."
Maximus looks at me. I nod.
"All three sites," Maximus says. "Can you move this many?"
"Not at once. But before dawn. I'll open crossings at each facility. My people will guide them through." He pauses. "I will stay behind to facilitate the transport. You will not have my forces for whatever comes next."
"Understood."
Lanthar inclines his head and walks toward the eastern farm entrance. I watch the teenager in the yard look up as he passes. She doesn't flinch. She watches him with the same steady gaze she turned on me when she asked if this was real.
"Julian, Marcellus," Maximus says through comms. "Lanthar is opening Veil crossings at all three sites. Fae transport for the survivors. Coordinate with his people on the ground."
"Copy," Julian says.
A pause. Static. Then Julian again, and his voice has changed.
"Maximus, I'm getting reports. Downtown Atlanta. Multiple feral attacks. Piedmont Park. Centennial Park. Midtown." A long pause. "They're being filmed. Cell phones. News helicopters. It's on camera."
Maximus looks at me.
"How many?" he says.
"Counting. At least a dozen confirmed. More incoming." Julian's voice tightens. "A livestreamer has ferals converging on a crowd in Piedmont Park. Erik's wolves are responding but they're on camera too. A wolf took down a feral on a live feed. It's already spreading."
Three farms. All hit at once. Every fighter we have deployed to north Georgia. And while we were here, Konstantin deployed ferals downtown.
My hand tightens in Maximus's.
"All teams," Maximus says. "Farm operations secure. Lanthar handles the survivors. Everyone else, redirect to Atlanta for multiple feral attacks. Now."
We run.