Out of Control
Jayce
Istare at the images Leo has passed me; my jaw tight as I look over the blurred photographs.
The dome looks odd, as if it were vibrating or rippling when the pictures were captured, the air around it distorted. Even the images themselves are warped slightly, like the force around the dome is interfering with the camera.
Unease settles deep within my chest. The change in it is drastic. What the fuck even happened?
We’re all suited up and currently on Leo’s jet heading straight for Russia. There are nine of us here: Leo, Dad, Raihana, two witches from the Coven and two of Leo’s strongest warriors who are piloting the jet, whilst Sienna sits beside me, quiet as she takes a few of the images from me.
“Did something trigger it?” I ask, still staring at the photographs.
“Nothing that we know of,” Leo replies coldly, his eyes hard. “First, we lost contact with Mikhail, then the Communication Outpost stopped responding, too.” He rubs his jaw. “Without you or Alejandro there, no one knows what the fuck happened.”
“Were there any signs of the Indomitable?” I ask, brows furrowed.
Dad shakes his head. “Nothing unusual was picked up in the airspace.”
Leo glances at him. “But the atmosphere around the dome has been unstable-as-fuck. If magic was involved, something could’ve slipped past the radar.”
I lean back slightly, tension coiling in my stomach. Something feels off.
Sienna turns to Raihana. “What about Ahren? He’d be useful here. Why isn’t he coming with us?” she asks.
Leo and Raihana exchange a look, and instantly I know there’s something more going on.
“Ahren, Royce, Ares and Heaven are already there,” Raihana says quietly. “But we haven’t been able to contact them.”
Sienna stiffens beside me, her heart thudding. “What?”
“But Tatum, Liam, the Black Storm Pack and the Shadow Wolves Pack haven’t felt anything through the pack-links, so they’re alive.”
For now.
No one says it out loud, but we all fucking think it.
“Why the fuck didn’t you call us back immediately?” I ask sharply, looking between Leo and Dad. “You know Sienna has some kind of connection to the dome. We should’ve handled this shit together.”
“We didn’t want to disturb you,” Dad says quietly.
I frown, irritation seeping through me. “Well, you should have.”
Silence follows.
“We already sent four of our strongest warriors down there,” I continue. “And now we’re down that power, too.”
Leo leans back in his seat with a curse. “Yeah, I said the same fucking thing.”
I glance at him. “Then next time trust your gut instinct.”
His eyes harden slightly. “Yeah, I know.”
The jet falls silent again besides the low roar of the engines and the storm outside.
We need to tell them you’re pregnant, I mind-link Sienna quietly.
She glances at me briefly before nodding. I have already put protection spells around myself, just in case.
A faint flicker of pride rises in my chest.
Of course she fucking did.
I place my hand on her thigh, squeezing lightly. My woman is fucking smart, but they still need to know, I reply.
She nods once.
“We need a plan,” Raihana says, looking at Sienna now. “And with the visions you have been having, we all can agree that you’re important in all this.”
My jaw tightens instantly. “Well, whatever happens, we’re going to have to be extremely careful with putting Sienna at the front.” I turn to Sienna, unable to keep the pride from my voice as I continue, “After all, she’s carrying the Blood Moon Pack heir.”
Every head turns towards us.
Dad’s eyes widen before emotion flickers across his face. Real emotion. Relief. Happiness. Something softer than I’m used to seeing from him lately, which makes the tiredness he carries fade a little.
“Really?” he asks, sounding surprised.
Sienna nods, and a smile graces his face as he reaches over and takes her hand.
“That’s good news, and I will make sure to protect you both with my life.”
And he means it, not because he’s tired of life but because he genuinely wants to.
Leo exhales heavily, dragging a hand through his hair. “Well, that changes things. Let’s take a minute to back up a bit and figure out another plan. We are not throwing Sienna into the middle of this shit if we can avoid it. We’re already going in blind.”
“I agree,” Raihana says, a frown on her face. The other two witches nod, too, although they’ve barely spoken the entire flight.
“No,” Sienna says quietly. Everyone looks at her as her fingers tighten slightly around mine. Unease flickers in her eyes. “I had another vision last night. I’m important in all this… I just don’t know why yet.”
The tension in the jet thickens.
Leo looks out of the cockpit window towards the storm ahead of us.
“Well,” he mutters coldly. “Looks like we’re about to fucking find out.”
I follow his gaze. Outside, the storm is getting worse.
We’re over the Siberian Wastelands now. And the closer we get, the stronger the feeling of unease within me grows.
The snow is blinding, violent winds smashing against the jet hard enough to make it vibrate beneath us. Lightning flashes through the blizzard in jagged silver streaks, illuminating clouds that twist unnaturally around the mountains below.
Something about it feels wrong, unnatural even. My wolf suddenly stirs, sensing something is wrong.
“That’s not natural lightning,” I say, as another blinding streak illuminates the sky. “Something’s-”
The entire jet violently jerks sideways.
Sienna gasps as a violent groan of metal runs through the cabin.
“What the fuck?!” Leo snarls as another brutal impact slams into the side of the jet hard enough to send one of the witches crashing into the wall.
The lights flicker before going out.
“We’ve been hit!” one of the men flying the jet shouts from the cockpit.
The jet drops suddenly.
I brace an arm out to stop Sienna as turbulence tears through the aircraft, harsh enough to shake the entire fucking cabin.
Dad curses sharply, steadying Raihana, who is thrown into him, her seat belt snapping, before another impact rocks us again. She’s the first to react, chanting a spell, and the other witches and Sienna follow her.
“Something came out of the storm!”
The entire left side of the jet groans horrifically.
Metal twists somewhere behind us.
Then another slam hits us.
“The force of the air outside is too much; we can’t push the barrier outside of the jet!” Raihana shouts, her aura glowing around her.
The jet spins violently sideways.
“Fuck!”
Sienna nearly slides from her seat, and I grab her instantly, hauling her against me as my pulse begins hammering.
Outside the window, I catch a glimpse of something massive moving through the storm.
Too fast to properly see what it is.
“What the fuck was that?” Sienna breathes through gritted teeth as she tries to hold her barrier.
“We’re losing altitude!” one of the men shouts.
Warning alarms scream through the cabin now, and the jet lurches downward again.
The witches continue chanting, trying to hold the jet together, magic crackling through the cabin as they try stabilising the aircraft, but the storm around us keeps growing stronger, winds smashing against us hard enough to make the entire jet shudder.
I can see Leo’s frown; this jet was made from the strongest metal around, and yet it is being destroyed so easily.
“Brace yourselves!” someone shouts.
Another impact tears through us.
This time, something punctures the side of the jet. The cabin explodes with freezing air, and it’s suddenly hard to breathe.
Sienna cries out as papers and loose equipment are ripped violently towards the opening.
“Shield!” Raihana shouts. Dad and I are already moving, trying to create a barrier where the jet is being ripped apart, but it’s futile. I can already feel how unstable everything is becoming.
The jet’s spiralling downwards way too fucking fast.
“We’re going down,” Dad says grimly.
“No shit,” Leo snarls. “Switch to slowing the fall; we’re not going to keep this shit-show together!”
The witches obey, changing the spell to levitation, but even as they try, I can see the jet begin to crack, as if it were made out of paper.
The storm outside grows louder, the ringing in my ears violent.
I wrap one arm tightly around Sienna, shielding her body against mine as I force power through my veins. Power surges beneath my skin instantly, my magic exploding outward as I throw up a shield around everyone within the jet, within the witch’s spell. If we hit on impact, I’ll absorb the shock.
Black energy crackles through the cabin, and it’s not mine, but it’s one I recognise.
Vincenzo.
“He’s here,” I say, not knowing who heard and who didn’t.
The pressure immediately fights against it.
Fuck.
The jet spins sharply again, and one of the overhead compartments rips clean off the ceiling.
Sienna grips my shirt tightly with one hand, the other facing the floor of the jet as she tries to slow its descent. Jayce-
I’ve got you, I say through the mind-link, tightening my arm around her.
But even I can hear the strain in my own voice now, and another deafening sound tears through the aircraft as the metal rips apart.
Everyone is thrown forward violently as the jet tilts.
“Pull up!” Leo roars towards the cockpit.
“We’re trying! It’s not working!”
Lightning flashes across the windows.
Then, for one terrifying second, the storm clears enough for me to see the frozen mountains below us rushing closer at a fucking horrifying speed.
We’re too low.
Fire briefly flashes outside the wing before disappearing into the storm.
My shield strains harder around us as power crackles through my arms painfully.
The force is becoming too much.
“Brace for impact!” Leo roars as he grabs one of the witches who almost flew straight through one of the cracks.
The witches are pale now, struggling to maintain their spells as the aircraft practically barrels through the sky uncontrollably.
Sienna is thrown hard against me as alarms scream throughout the cabin, the storm outside swallowing us whole. Loose equipment flies everywhere whilst metal groans around us like the entire aircraft is being torn apart midair.
I hold Sienna tightly, shielding her body beneath mine as darkness crackles violently around us.
The need to protect her – protect our pup – is stronger than anything else.
Then something massive slams into the jet again.
The impact is catastrophic.
A deafening crack tears through the air as the floor beneath us splits.
Everything slows for one sickening second.
Then the aircraft tears in two.
The force violently rips the cabin apart between us and the others.
“JAYCE!” Dad roars as his side of the jet suddenly separates from ours, and the barriers we created shatter.
Leo grabs onto Raihana as Dad’s power tries to reach us, but darkness envelopes our half, and I see one of the witches get ripped from the jet.
Fuck!
I wrap my power around Sienna and me as a scream pierces through the air. I catch one final glimpse of Dad and Leo’s side disappearing into the storm.
Then our side slams into something, the impact ripping through the cabin.
My aura bursts from me instinctively, shielding Sienna as pain rips through my body.
Everything spins.
Then suddenly there’s an intense ringing as pain explodes through my head.
Snow lashes against my face as I force my eyes open, every part of my body aching from the impact. I look down at Sienna, whom I’m still holding tightly in my arms.
Breathing a sigh of relief when she opens her eyes as I look her over. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she says softly, wincing slightly as she pushes herself upright. “You softened the fall.”
I nod. “Are you sure?” I ask.
“I’m fine.” She manages a small smile. I brush the snow from her face as I look up at the part of the jet that came down with us; it’s fucking destroyed.
Metal is twisted around us, half-buried beneath snow, whilst smoke rises into the blizzard above. I lower my barrier; Vincenzo will be near; he brought the jet down.
Dad? Can you hear me?
Nothing.
I raise my Schattensicht to my face. “Can anyone hear me?”
A faint crackling, but nothing.
“The mind-link to Dad didn’t work either,” I mutter, unease filling me.
Sienna raises her hand, magic surging as she whispers a spell, and something envelopes us.
“It’s a concealment spell,” she explains. “If something attacked the jet, the last thing we need is to be found sitting in the wreckage.”
“Good point.”
I slowly stand up and scan the mountains around us before my eyes narrow.
“I can’t even see or sense the dome from here,” I say, my brows furrowing.
The dome should be visible from almost anywhere nearby, which means we’re nowhere near where we were supposed to fucking land.
“Which means we have a long way to travel,” Sienna says quietly.
Yeah.
“Do we continue or wait...” I muse, debating the pros and cons.
The thought settles heavily in my chest, but right now my priority is standing beside me, shivering in the middle of a Russian fucking blizzard, carrying my pup.
I tighten my grip on her hand before looking out into the storm ahead of us as I make up my mind.
“We continue towards the dome. Let’s go.”