Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
SCORPION
This place creeped me the fuck out.
The ruins of Halálház lay over the terrain like tombs, left abandoned in the exact position as the day it was attacked by Sarkis’s army. Carnage on the surface, while worms and rats ate away at the intestines far below.
I was one of the people who snuck close enough to lay the bombs that night. Little did I know, underneath my feet was someone who would change my life. My entire world would recenter itself because she lived.
Even though I didn’t miss the tie with the asshole next to me, on the receiving end of their endless sex drive, without it meant Brexley was absent.
Not just physically, but from my soul, leaving a hole I never realized was there until she filled it.
My friends had become my family, but I never truly let them in, keeping everyone at arm’s length because it was easier.
In my life, I knew nothing but bereavement, and in our world, there would only be more.
Getting attached meant feeling continual loss.
With Brexley, there was no choice. She was rooted in my blood. Was part of me. Family. Because she wedged herself in, she must have left a crack open for others to sneak in. More specifically, one other slipped through, filling my thoughts and pounding my chest with worry.
It irritated the shit out of me. That wasn’t me. I didn’t think about women unless I was enjoying one. Keeping work and sex separate. I didn’t spend every moment fretting over their well-being or fantasizing about being inside them or having endless dreams and thoughts about them.
Never.
I would never admit my skin itched, knowing a certain blonde was over at HDF on a mission, and I couldn’t protect her if something happened. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself. It felt oddly wrong when Killian separated us. That I felt off if I wasn’t near her.
Stupid. It’s not like I cared about her more than just a buddy. Like Birdie. Though I hadn’t jerked off to Birdie like I did that fucking human hybrid.
Snarling, I peered through the binoculars, my gaze going over every inch of the old prison.
“Looks abandoned.” I shrugged, handing the pair to Warwick next to me.
“It’s not abandoned, lizard.” The brownie on Warwick’s shoulder folded his arms.
“Scorpion.” I gritted through my teeth. “And why the fuck are you here again?”
“Because, spider, none of you can make it without me.”
Chirp!
“. . . aannddd Bitzy,” he added quickly.
Chirp! Chirp! Fingers went up in the air.
“I didn’t forget you. You just weren’t listening. You’d think with those ears you would have heard me properly.”
Chirpchirpchirpchirpchirp!
“Both of you shut up,” Warwick growled at the two on his shoulder. “Or I’ll be chucking you both into the river below.”
“They seem to forget, Bitz, they can’t survive without us.
” Opie sighed, tugging at his black beanie, which looked like a sock with a knot at the top.
Bitzy was on his back, both of them wearing skintight black leotards, with a black sock tied around their face, black bird feathers glued at the corner like eyelashes. “Silly peons . . .”
Chirp! Bitzy flung up her middle finger in agreement.
“They know this place better than anyone. And can open locks,” Warwick grumbled. “Believe me, otherwise I’d be eating a brownie with imp sauce right now.”
Chirp!
“Yes, technically, he would be licking you, but not in that way.”
Chirp!
“I know he keeps threatening us with a good time. But all talk and no action.”
Warwick growled under his breath.
“Where are they being held?” I asked Opie, making me reconsider all my life choices because I was now asking sub-fae for advice.
Damn you, Brexley.
“They are being kept in the back section of the prison. It was the least damaged.” Opie pointed in the direction. “The sewer tunnels lead you right there.”
“Fuck, no,” I huffed.
“The only way in is a private door on the side,” Zander spoke up, motioning at the southwest side. “It was the door you and Brexley escaped out of that night I helped you.”
“Oh, the night I got to punch you in the face?” Warwick snorted. “Yeah . . . Good times, pony-boy. Like to do that again.”
“Not sure your sister would approve.” Zander shot back, a hint of a smile on his face as he looked through the binoculars.
Warwick growled under his breath, only making Zander smile more.
I could tell Zander was enjoying the hell out of poking at Warwick.
I didn’t know them well, but it seemed Eliza and Zander were in that first stage of love where they couldn’t stop touching each other.
Drove Warwick insane, which made me happy.
The man was already hanging by a thread being without Brexley.
It would take very little to tip him over.
A rumble from the ground froze me in place, the sound of several heavy vehicles laboring up the incline to the ruins. Blinding light from headlights had us duck down farther behind chunks of cement blocks.
“Szent szar,” Ash muttered as three enormous tanks and two armored trucks rolled up, stopping at the end of the road.
The four of us didn’t breathe. The door Zander had just been pointing at opened, and a guard strode out, heading to the last armored car. All of us reacted when his face came into view, opening the car door to a beautiful blonde in the back seat.
A snarl rose into my throat at seeing him, my body locking down in response.
“Majesty.” The man bowed to Sonya.
“Captain Boyd.” She nodded at him. “Are they ready?”
“Kapd be a sz?ros faszom!” Suck my hairy dick. Warwick sneered to himself, his head shaking, probably thinking the same thing I was.
I wished I had killed him when I had the chance.
“Yes. Everything is set, my queen.”
I heard Ash inhale sharply through his nose.
“That fucking bitch,” he snarled protectively.
Probably thinking about Lukas. That guy really did have a shit family.
Sonya wasn’t only setting herself up to be leader of the fae; she was going to be queen.
And I doubt that would stop at the Hungarian borders.
Of course Boyd was with Sonya. Probably had been the entire time. I always wondered why he had been working for Istvan. Now I realized he was a spy all along—for the future Seelie queen.
“Good.” She crossed her legs, not leaving the car.
“I want a big show. I want everyone to see us crossing the bridge and heading for HDF. There can be no doubt left this city is mine now. One ruler for all. We will together squash Killian’s pathetic excuse of an uprising.
The humans will know their place once again. Servants to us.”
Boyd grinned. “Exactly, my lady. Can I say how happy I am that you are finally in charge? Putting fae back where they rightfully belong?”
“Yes.” She preened. “Now don’t let me down, Boyd. Andor is expecting us soon, so let us not dally.”
General Andor? Wasn’t that Istvan’s second in command? What did she mean he was expecting them? Weren’t they on opposite sides? What the fuck was going on?
“Yes, my queen.” He bowed again, closing her car door and motioning back to another guard at the prison entrance who propped the door open, shouting a command.
The rhythmic boom of hundreds of boots hitting the metal stairs in sync tapped at the back of my neck, my heart beating with dread. Acid coiled in my stomach as I absorbed everything she said, fear spiking through my nerves.
This was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. Check out what the Brownie had told us about Halálház and the labs. Yet in one moment, everything took a sharp turn, tilting everything on its axis.
Soldiers started coming out of the door loaded with guns. Their movements were robotic, and they were dressed in black leather with her insignia like we saw the other night.
The outfits reminded me of the days of the Seelie Queen Aneira.
Sonya’s army lined up and marched down the road as more and more flooded out, joining them. They kept coming, hundreds and hundreds of them.
Her car pulled away with the tanks, leading the marching troop right to where Killian and Rosie happened to be breaking into HDF at this moment.
“Eliza . . . Simon.” Zander shuffled back. “We have to get back to base. Warn them and get everyone out.”
Fear was wild in Ash’s eyes, his head nodding in agreement. Warwick moved with them.
Fear twisted my body another way, overriding everything else.
Our team at HDF had no idea they were coming. They were focused on the enemy in front of them, not coming behind.
“Scorp! Where are you going?” Ash yelled at me when I moved the opposite way.
“HDF! I have to warn them!”
“They know. Caden does.” Warwick replied, his jaw setting. The energy coming off Caden lately was the same as Warwick’s. They never talked about it, the tension between them only getting worse, but we all knew something happened in Istvan’s lab . . . that they carried the same magic.
Warwick’s statement didn’t stop me. I started running, only one thought coursing through my mind.
Hanna.