Chapter 37
Garrick
The creek, followed by the scent of fresh night air jolts me from sleep. Before I think it through, my hand reaches for the knife slotted between my mattress and the bed frame and throw it at whoever is breaking in.
“Wow. First the roof and now you try to decapitate me. I’m beginning to think you like being punished, Officer Zephyr.” That voice renders me conscious.
“Tacita? Gods fucking dammit.” Launching from the bed, sheet twisting around my body, I spring upright to see my female perched half way through the window frame, spinning my dagger in her hand.
Thank fuck for her quick reflexes as that throw would’ve aimed true, right through her eye socket.
“I’m so fucking sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to pay me a visit tonight. ”
Just as I think this might be some sort of booty call for us to have some fun, Wyatt pops into view, swinging himself through Tacita’s curled frame and landing on my bedroom floor.
“Why have you brought the dragon?” I ask.
“They’re coming, Garrick.” She places her feet on the floor but leans back through the open frame and reaches for something from the roof. That something happens to be her other partner. At least he’s a panther. “The Angels are coming.”
As soon as Milo is safely inside the walls of my room too, she and Wyatt launch into a full but succinct summary.
My stomach drops when she reveals that Milo is the other spy, and that he’s been feeding information to them this whole time.
My cat wants to rip his throat out, my claws even shift.
That is until I see that neither of them are angry.
I must growl, or look like I’m ready to kill, because both Wyatt and Tacita not so subtly move their positions until they’re in front of the traitor. Milo stands, back to the now closed window, his face ashen as he’s repeatedly signing, “I’m sorry.”
“He’s put you, us all, in danger,” I snarl.
“I know.” Tacita’s voice sounds so full of hurt, and yet holds a steely quality. “But he has tried to stop them. It wasn’t his choice.”
“Choice doesn’t matter. Fuck knows what they’ve learned. If they know where we are, and what the set up is, we’re all fucked. Hell be damned, Tacita, he knows who you are!” I reach for her, wanting to pull her away.
Milo starts shaking his head violently. He pushes through his two bodyguards and slams into me. “I didn’t. I didn’t let them get that far. They saw the Death Bringer, they didn’t see the connection.”
Wyatt pulls him back against his chest as my eyes flash into my cat’s form. “Are you sure about that?” I demand.
Milo nods as he clings to his boyfriend.
“But they know that she’s here? And they know what the rest of the compound looks like?”
Milo nods as fresh tears track down his cheeks. He looks distraught but I don’t buy it. He’s betrayed us, betrayed her. This whole time. We’re about to get annihilated, just like the team ten years ago was.
“Garrick, calm down.” Tacita wraps a hand around my arm.
“Don’t tell me to calm down, he’s the reason we’re all about to end up dead.
” I’m about to grab Nineteen by the scruff of his neck and drag him down to the cells to interrogate him alone when I see Tacita’s eyes fill with tears too.
It halts all the rage in my body. To see her on the verge of crying throws me completely, like the world has already shattered.
“Please Garrick, don’t kill him.” The words are a plea I cannot ignore.
“How can you still want him?” I look at my female, the ground unsteady under my feet. “He’s been lying to you this whole time.”
“Because I love him.” She says it so plainly. There’s a stab at my chest with the admission. We’ve not said those words to each other yet. I’m not sure we’re there, but hearing her say that she feels so deeply for another makes me crave to hear her say that kind of declaration about me.
“Love doesn’t mean shit when he’s the reason you might get hurt. He’s working for the fucking Angels, Tacita.” I try to sound reasonable but it’s still growly.
“I hid myself from him too, remember? And he forgave me.”
“Because he knew how fucking lucky he struck! I imagine he was elated to find out he had unrestricted access to not only the games but to Hades’s Assassin. If they take you out they have a clear shot at Hades himself.”
She recoils like I’ve laid a hand on her.
“You think I’ve been telling them everything that I do?
Do you really trust me that little? I’ve told them enough about our world to help them fucking survive these games.
But you’ve been teaching them as well! Just because I love them doesn’t mean I’ve been betraying Hades in any way.
Do you think so little of me to assume that I’ve been what…
Telling them all the classified information, giving them blueprints to all of Elysium? Fuck you, Garrick.”
“No, of course I don’t. But fuck knows how this mind magic works. If they’re in his head, they could be getting this very conversation.” Maybe I’m getting irrational, but fuck rationality when I’ve just found out that the entire realm is in danger. And a target may be on my female’s back.
“They’re not taking him,” Wyatt says. His voice is firm and level. “I don’t care if I have to fight them alone, they can’t have him.”
“It sounds like they’ve already got him,” I snap back and begin pacing in the small space, my room might be one of the larger ones but with four of us in here it’s feeling a little claustrophobic.
Tacita partially shifts, letting her horns and tail show as she steps up in front of me before I’ve even finished my second lap of the space between the bed and the door. Her tail flicks in worry, or anger, but the rest of her is fully composed.
“Garrick, the spy being Milo means we stand a chance of stopping them. They’ve lost the element of surprise.
We weren’t exactly close with figuring out what their plans are.
And the mind connection seems to be similar to what it was with Cameron.
It’s not constant, because Milo has been trying to force them out; they can only access him when he’s asleep.
” Her hands come to my chest, the skin on skin contact soothes some of the fear and anger sloshing around my stomach.
It reminds me that I’m still only wearing the pair of boxers I was sleeping in.
The shock of their revelations is wearing off and I start to run through the options we have at our disposal. Tacita is right, the fact that we know, and it seems like Milo is now willing to spill all that he knows, will definitely give us an advantage.
“When exactly should we expect them to arrive?” I look past Tacita, although I do put one of my hands to her waist, as I ask Milo the question.
“I’m not sure exactly, they just said soon,” he signs.
“So it could be hours or it could be days. Do you know how they plan to get here?” Last time they managed to open a portal directly over the games site.
Milo shakes his head.
“Do you know if they have any kind of location tracker on you?”
Another shake of his head.
“Wouldn’t Dom have felt something when he saved Milo if there was a tracker placed on him?” Tacita asks.
I think for a moment before answering. “If it’s the kinds of trackers we use, yes, I’m sure he would’ve felt the magic. But this seems to be different. If it’s all telepathic I have no idea what kind of signature it would leave, if any.”
“They’ve seen our surroundings, they made me show them all the buildings, and saw the first game where we hiked here,” Milo signs.
“So they may have figured out the location, but they’d need a damn good map of Elysium to figure it out exactly.”
“How they know doesn’t matter,” Wyatt cuts in. “The point is, how do we stop them?”
“You don’t,” I tell him frankly. “You’re a contestant here. You’re human.”
“I’m a dragon now, dickhead.”
“Only so long as you keep taking those potions. You’re not fully turned yet. And I’ve seen you fly. You’re not ready for combat.”
“Fuck you. I–”
“Hey!” Tacita interrupts. We all give her our attention. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Garrick, we need to get your team up to speed. We need to get prepared.” She points at me as she chastises me, right before ripping her top over her head.
“You can tell me to do anything if you’re going to get more naked.” Wyatt’s eyes heat as he roams the skin now on show. Idiot.
But when she also removes the leggings, I can’t help my gaze zeroing in on the line of her ass. My mouth salivates with wanting to shove her onto the bed and pull those thighs apart. Maybe I’m an idiot too.
With an eyeroll Tacita shoves through us and opens the wardrobe, pulling out her gear. “Males,” she huffs as she comes back to the bed, sitting on it to sort her clothing and starting to pull the skintight garments on, transforming herself into the Death Bringer.
I clear my throat. “Are you planning on addressing my team with me?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind. You’ll need me as the Death Bringer when this fight comes to our doorstep,” she answers as she laces up the Oni leather vest and puts on the cuffs in the same material.
Milo reaches forward to get her attention, “You’re going to fight?”
“It’s going to be the only way to stop them,” she answers him.
Nineteen turns ashen. Did he expect we’d all sit round a table and solve this diplomatically?
At his reaction, I wonder whether he should be here at all.
Did the Angels somehow fabricate his past?
Because he sure doesn’t have the bloodlust like the rest of the candidates for the games have–a quality we require for the jobs we tend to offer.
“They’ll hurt you,” Milo signs as Tacita starts to plait and hide her hair.
“Pfft. I’d like to see them try, she scoffs, before adding much more gently. “I’ve fought them a few times across the centuries, they’re skilled but I’m better. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“We have to call Hades,” I say, pulling on my own uniform now.