Page 43 of Iridian

“They are artificial eggs, yes, as the eggshell preserves harvested souls the best way,” said Flora, a murderous look in her eyes. She looked completely feral, though her hair was pulled up neatly in a bun over her head and her red leather suit fit her perfectly. It was her eyes that seemed even more fiery under sunlight. “I imagine he’s been making the vessels for a long time now.”

“The Devil helped,” said Taland from my side. “Word in the Tomb was that he put anybody who crossed him in an egg eventually. I thought it was just an expression.”

Goddess, they were sick. Not the first time I heard of it—that woman whose case Cassie was working on had taken the souls of twenty familiars for herself, but Hill and the Devil had done it to people. They’d actually sucked the energy out ofpeople.And they hadn’t used it on themselves like that woman had to keep herself young. No—they’d put them inside fuckingeggshells.

“He needed more,” I said, my voice small. “In the Regah chamber, the Devil said that Hill needed more soul vessels.”

“Well, it seems he got them,” Radock said with a flinch. “We can still stop him. It should take him a long time to complete the transfer of those vessels to the skeletons. We can get to him fast.”

“Eight of us,” Helen said, looking at him. “I believe eight will suffice to begin with.”

“Agreed,” said Radock.

“I’m going. I need to see that prick die,” Aurelia said.

“Me, too,” said Zachary.

“And me,” said Flora.

“I have no trouble staying behind,” said Natasha, and it had surprised me that she even came all the way here. At her age, it was a miracle she could walk straight. She had to be well into her eighties.

“Very well. Flora, Ferid and I from our side,” Helen said to Radock, then turned to me. “You, too, Rosabel.”

“I am not on your side,” I said, and I knew I shouldn’t have bothered because now wasnotthe time, but I couldn’t help myself.

She wasn’t offended in the least, though.

“Regardless, you have the bracelet. We will need it in the fight,” said Radock. “And I imagine Taland won’t stay behind, so”—he looked at Helen again—“the three of us, and the Mergenbachs. My brothers will be on standby.”

“Not fair,” Kaid said, at the same time Seth cheered, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

“We will be watching,” George said when Helen handed him her tablet.

“Madeline will, too. She will guide the soldiers through the cameras we have on our persons,” Helen said, and I flinched. “There is no way that he can win this. The odds are in our favor.”

Except…something told me that that wasn’t going to matter much. It was Hill we were talking about. A man who’d fooled both sides for decades, had pitted them against each other, had planned and plotted to his heart’s desire from a position of power.

“We might be walking into a trap, too,” said Taland before they all spread out to go prepare. “We should take that into account.”

“He knows we’re here, and there’s a good chance that he saw it coming, true,” Radock said. “But even if he prepared a trap, he won’t win. He’s not only outnumbered, but neither he nor Alejandro have more power than we do right now.”

I wanted to believe him. I did. “What if he has a bracelet?Anotherbracelet,” I asked because I had felt exactly how much power that thing had, how much magic it could unleash at once, and in the hands of someone like Hill…

“Well, then I suppose it’s luckyyou’rehere,” said Helen, then turned around and walked away with her head high together with Natasha and George.

There it was, that word again—lucky.Goddess, I hated it so much.

It didn’t matter now, though. Hill was just a couple miles away from us, and we weren’t leaving here without a fight. He wouldn’t surrender, and we weren’t going to just let him summon the dead army—that he’d even found them was horrifying enough. All those skeletons…

“Go ahead and spell your clothes, prepare. We go in in ten,” Radock said when we walked back to the SUV they’d been driving. The wide road that led here was blocked by IDD soldiers and their vans, and no civilian was going to be able to drive by here anytime soon, for which I was thankful. Open fields and forests and mountains on either side of the road, so nobody else would have to pay the price of Hill’s greed, at least. If everything went right, the world would never have to even know this happened.

“I think we should all go in, brother,” Kaid said, which earned him a slap on the shoulder from Seth.

“No, you stay out here. Keep an eye on them.”

“You don’t trust them?” Kaid asked.

Zachary snorted. “This is still the Council, the reason why Selem was created in the first place.” He looked behind him as if to make sure that none of them were close, but they weren’t. They’d gone to their own vehicles, the standard mission vans of the IDD farther up the road.

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