Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
POE
I stand over the mangled bodies, studying the way debris from the ceiling crushed their ribcages. Blood pools beneath them, mixing with the dust and concrete. Their faces are frozen in permanent snarls. These obviously aren’t clean kills, so the facial recognition software on my comm unit struggles to identify them.
A screeching sound from the speaker as the software completes its search tells me everything I need to know.
Heavy footsteps approach from behind, accompanied by labored breathing. Ares might be built like a tank, but he avoids cardio days like the plague, no matter how often I chastise him for it.
“This you?” he huffs, gesturing to the bodies at my feet.
“Unfortunately not. The roof got to them first.” I nudge one body with my boot, noting the royal insignia partially visible on his collar. “Their uniforms are palace-issued, but neither of these men are in the system. We’ve been infiltrated, no idea by how many.”
“Does that mean you know what the fuck is going on, then?” Ares moves beside me, his massive frame casting shadows in the emergency lighting. “I’m having a hard time understanding why the palace is falling down around us.”
I swear I’m done giving safety briefings. No one listens to them, anyway.
“It’s part of the defense protocol,” I remind him as I sink down to my knees to inspect one of the dead Alpha’s features. “If the security system’s AI detects invaders in the palace, corridors are strategically blown to create chokepoints that protect the royal families and the harem.”
“Does that mean the damn harem is trapped behind a pile of rubble?”
I scoff. Idiot. “Only if you don’t know about the fortified and well-guarded auxiliary entrances created for exactly this reason.”
Ares crosses burly arms over his chest, expression mulish. “We still need to make sure Maya is okay.”
“Already done, I’m just waiting for confirmation.” I wave my comm unit at him as I rise to my feet. “Right now, we need to make sure that every single one of these invaders is found and then figure out why the fuck they’re here.”
Ares looks like he wants to argue, but still follows me down the hallway.
I keep my steps silent as we move through the debris-strewn corridors, my tablet casting an eerie blue glow across the destruction. The emergency lighting flickers, creating dancing shadows that make threat assessment difficult. My nerves prickle. Everything about this situation feels wrong. It shouldn’t be possible for our intel to fail this spectacularly. How could anyone coordinate an attack like this with no one seeing it coming ?
A notification pings. Three more unidentified bodies found in the east wing. All wearing palace uniforms, none of them in the system.
We systematically search, but most of the damage appears to be restricted to the central corridors. Most of the palace’s inhabitants were already safely located in the ballroom, the harem or their own apartments.
“You’re sure Maya’s safe?” Ares’s voice echoes too loudly in the strange quiet.
It isn’t the first, or second time, he’s asked.
I shoot him a glare. “For the third time, yes. The harem’s security protocols are designed specifically to protect valuable royal assets during attacks.”
The words taste bitter. I’d rather not think about Maya right now.
“Where is Logan?” Ares asks.
“He went looking for Cillian with a contingent of guards.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea.” Though I have my suspicions, there isn’t the time or space for speculation right now. “You’ll have to ask him next time you see him.”
My comm beeps with a new message, distracting me from further rumination on impossible things. I quickly scan it.
“Fuck.”
Ares is immediately at my shoulder. “What?”
“Maya isn’t in the harem.”
We take off running, instantly in sync without another word.
I race through the darkened corridors beside Ares, my boots crunching over broken glass and pieces of concrete. The emergency lights cast everything in an eerie red glow that makes the destruction look even more apocalyptic.
“Split up,” I bark at Ares. “You take the west wing. I’ll head east. She has to be somewhere in this mess.”
Ares nods and peels off without argument. For once.
I pull up the palace schematics on my comm unit as I run, checking for any signs of movement on the thermal imaging. Most of the sensors are down after the explosions, but a few still function enough to show scattered heat signatures moving through the building.
The scent of smoke and dust fills my lungs with each breath. Years of training kick in as I systematically clear each room, marking them on the map as I go. No sign of Maya, but I find more bodies — palace guards with official uniforms and no records in our system. If they’d known beforehand that the palace’s defense system utilized strategically placed explosives, this would have gone differently.
A silhouette moves ahead of me through the smoke-filled corridor, stride too purposeful for someone fleeing chaos. A long, dark robe with a hood obscures their identity even under the emergency lights.
Not the stride of a guard and moving with too much purpose for an innocent bystander. My hackles immediately rise.
“Stop!” My voice bounces off the crumbling walls and should be audible.
The shadow doesn’t even hesitate, continuing its measured pace away from me. The emergency lights flicker, casting everything in hellish red before switching to stark white. In that flash, I catch a glimpse of familiar hair spilling over the figure’s arm. Maya’s head lolls limply against the stranger’s shoulder, the distinctive strands colored magenta under the lights.
My hand instinctively reaches for my sidearm before I remember that we’d all been forced to disarm for dinner. My gaze darts around the debris-strewn hallway. A chunk of concrete about the size of my fist lies at my feet. Not ideal, but it’ll have to do.
I snatch up the makeshift weapon, testing its weight for a split second before hurling it with all my strength at the kidnapper’s back. The concrete strikes true between their shoulder blades.
The figure stumbles forward with a grunt, their grip on Maya loosening. She slides from their arms and crumples to the floor as the stranger catches themselves against the wall. Before I can close the distance, they push off and sprint around the corner, footsteps fading rapidly into the darkness.
Maya moans from the floor, barely conscious, with her head lolled to the side. I don’t miss the gash on the back of her head that must have been caused by hitting the ground.
And I can tend to her or catch the man who just attempted to kidnap her.
Not really a choice at all.