Chapter 30
Periwinkle
The squeal of the base’s gate opening brings my head snapping around. Four boxy, desert-tan SUVs are pulling into the compound. Colonel Hueber’s dull brown face hovers behind one windshield, his expression hard as steel.
I might not be able to taste his emotions, but I’m pretty sure he’s not happy about recent developments.
He shoves open the passenger door before the vehicle has quite parked and pushes out into the yard at the edge of the chaos. Several soldiers spill out of his SUV and another; a bunch of people in civilian clothes emerge from the other two.
They aren’t just regular civilians. I spot the gleam of metal-woven nets and the handles of hunter whips. A few of the faces I recognize from among the sorcerers who gathered in the city.
This is not good at all.
“Wait!” I cry out, throwing my hands to either side of me.
A blaze of light washes over the entire yard, bright enough to leave spots in my vision but not enough to actually hurt. At least, no one yelps or whimpers, which I’ll take as a good sign.
The clamor of hollering soldiers and warbling powers dies down. Colonel Hueber strides a few steps forward but then stops with his soldiers flanking him.
I think… everyone is actually waiting to see what I’ll say.
They probably won’t wait for very long.
I stop closer to Hail’s slack body with automatic protectiveness, though I’m not sure what I could do for him that Raze can’t where he’s poised over the winter fae.
My voice reverberates up my throat. “We don’t want to fight. We’re trying to prevent an even bigger disaster. Please, just listen. Can’t you see how exploding the rift and all the toxic shadows that’ve come out of it could just blast the stuff all over the place?”
Hueber’s lips draw back in a snarl. “I can see that it’s no good listening to what you say about your own mess. You things would do whatever you can to protect yourselves. Is attacking our base supposed to prove your good intentions?”
“We didn’t hurt anyone,” I retort. “We’re only stopping them from flying off with the bombs. They’re a lot more likely to die carrying out your orders than staying here.”
“So you’d like us to think.” Hueber motions to the people around him. “Gentlemen?”
There are a few women in the crowd of sorcerers and hunters too, but I guess Hueber isn’t worried about accuracy. They all jerk to attention anyway.
The hunters brandish their gleaming weapons. The sorcerers open their mouths with a chorus of deep breaths that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
A warning bursts out of me. “Don’t let them use their magic!”
I didn’t need to point out the obvious. Raze has already lunged forward from where he cushioned Hail’s fall.
His eyes narrowing, he aims his deadly black glare at the crowd of sorcerers.
One topples over unconscious before any of them even manage to speak. With the first sorcerous syllable passing over their lips, another crumples to the ground.
My pulse jitters with the sense that it’s not enough, but Raze isn’t alone. A sudden spurt of water forms in the air and smacks into a few of the open mouths, leaving the sorcerers sputtering instead of ensorcering. Fen lets out a timid but bright crow of victory.
Nearby, Vim has hunched her shoulders with an impression of strain. Beneath a couple of the other sorcerers, the layer of asphalt erupts. They fall on their asses amid puffs of dry dirt.
And Jonah’s voice is ringing out louder than we could hear any of the farther-off sorcerers. The power resonating through his supernatural words tingles through my bones, uncomfortable but steadying at the same time.
Don’t listen to any other sorcery, he’s commanding, like the defensive orders he gave our small team months ago when we were investigating the rift up north and stumbled on my former captor. Ignore all other magical commands.
I don’t know how long that instruction will last against a full force of opposing sorcerers, but he’s put all his strength into the attempt. The power of it crackles across my tongue like smoky chipotle.
As the sorcerers fall into disarray, the hunters march toward us. Whips lash through the air.
A few of them are holding those strange guns I noticed before—one fires at Raze before I have a chance to yelp a warning.
Raze dodges to the side, but he pulls Hail with him, and that slows him down. A projectile splats into his shoulder like a glittering paintball.
Whatever’s in the stuff, it’s obviously not friendly to shadowkind. Raze roars, a burst of essence puffing up from the spot the noxious paintball hit him.
It looks as if the substance is eating right into his flesh. Pain blares through our bond.
My throat constricts, but I have to do whatever I can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
“I’ll try to help him!” Gracie calls to me, and sprints over to where Raze is crouched.
Girding myself, I swish my hands through the air. More light pours out of them. Our enemies stumble in momentary blindness.
With a battle cry, Sorrel charges into the hunters’ midst in centaur form. Her well-muscled haunches heave one and another aside before their weapons can do more than graze her.
Flames leap up around the military force, penning them in. I spot Sorsha coming to stand on the top of the base’s wall, her phoenix wings flickering like streaks of fire from her back.
She isn’t incinerating our opponents, though, only caging them. She’s trying to keep the peace, like I asked.
Colonel Hueber’s face has reddened for reasons I don’t think have anything to do with the fiery heat. As if he’s annoyed that Sorsha now appears to outrank him, he hefts himself onto the hood of one of the SUVs so he can bellow at all of us from a little higher up than before.
“This is an act of war! You’ll all stand down, or we’ll bomb the bunch of you to smithereens too!”
I thought that was already the plan, not a new development. He’s threatening us with what he was going to do anyway? I’m shaking in my boots.
Not that I’m wearing boots. Mary-janes go much better with my dress.
A tremor of supernatural energy passes through the air, and any hairs on my body that weren’t already standing up get with the program fast. Is Rollick about to make an appearance—and make good on his offer to simply level this base and all the humans in it?
Before I can worry much about that, an unexpectedly familiar figure strides out of the base’s nearest building.
The sunlight gleams off Major Yin’s short black hair. He lifts his chin and folds his arms over his chest, staring at his boss from across the distance.
I had no idea the major was even here. Was he leading the bombing mission, even though he seemed like he might be open to hearing our side?
Or maybe he just wanted to stay close to the operation so he’d have more of a say.
“We need to stand down,” he shouts to the colonel, sounding not at all pleased with his superior officer.
“I’ve witnessed the entire confrontation.
The shadowkind are telling the truth. They’ve avoided doing any major harm.
No lives lost, even though it’s clear these beings could easily have slaughtered us.
We need to hear them out in good faith.”
“Good faith?” Hueber lets out a strangled-sounding guffaw. “They’ve frozen the base and set it on fire.”
“Only to stop us from going through with the bombing,” Yin says.
“They’re pulling their punches. If it matters that much to them to avoid hurting us even when we’re trying to destroy part of their world, I think we should assume they’re telling the truth about the bombs too.
They’re trying to prevent us from hurting ourselves. ”
The colonel waves a meaty hand through the air in a dismissive gesture. “You’ve been brainwashed, Major. Get the fuck out of my sight and consider yourself relieved of duty.”
Yin’s jaw flexes with tension, but he stands his ground. “No, sir. I believe you’re the one who’s violated your duty to the American people. We swore to defend our nation with—”
“Yes,” Hueber interrupts in a caustic tone. “We swore to defend them, and you’re siding with the monsters who want to tear us apart. Now scram before I skip straight from court-marshalling you to telling my men to open fire.”
A pang of protest shoots through me—but Major Yin must have been prepared for the colonel’s reaction. Resignation tightens his expression and prickles through his emotions.
“I tried to give you a chance to do the right thing. Another chance, after you’ve thrown away the opportunities the shadowkind already gave you.”
“What the fuck are you—”
“I’m relieving you of duty,” Yin says, and gestures toward Raze, whose shoulder is still trickling essence but who’s managed to scrape the worst of the paintball stuff off with Gracie’s help.
Understanding gleams in my mate’s eyes. He fixes his gaze on the colonel.
Hueber is still blustering. “Now look here—”
He never gets to finish his last threat. His eyes roll upward, and the rest of him sags down.
A couple of the nearby soldiers scramble to catch the colonel before he can slide right off the hood of the vehicle. The hunters glance between him and Major Yin, shifting on their feet uneasily behind the lines of dancing flames that still hem them in.
One of them points at Hueber. “We took our orders from him.”
Yin draws his slim frame up straighter. He doesn’t cut as imposing a figure as his—former?
—boss, but he exudes plenty of authority all the same.
“The colonel isn’t giving any more orders today.
I’m the highest ranking officer currently conscious on this base.
Stand down and leave these beings alone.
” His gaze flicks to Sorsha. “And maybe our shadowkind helpers could simmer down too?”
Sorsha shrugs. Her flaming wings and the barriers of fire waver away at the same moment.