Page 92 of Iridian

Imagine whatfivepeople with that kind of power could do, and then add countless soldiers and state of the art weapons and protection wards and shields and gadgets…

Yes, the soldiers of the Delaetus Army were going to have a lot on their hands. And we couldn’t really control what happened when we got there, but what we could do was calculate our risks and prepare in order to give ourselves the best chance we could.

That evening, while the others planned and plotted and made a list of all wards and shields and spells to use when we first got to the chambers on Saturday, I decided to go to bed a bit earlier because I could hardly keep my eyes open. My head was killing me as well from lack of sleep the previous nights.

I had plenty of time for a nap, I thought, when I lay down and the two soldiers who came with me stopped just outside the doorway on other side to keep watch. I thought about the ocean, of calming, foamy waves and a bright blue sky with no cloud insight. Of an empty beach with just me and Taland on it, nobody else.

It worked. I must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing I knew was that I heard my name being called.

My eyes popped open right away, but my ears took a moment to adjust to the sounds around me, to understand what was actually happening. Someone was right outside the doorway, calling for me to wake up, waving his hands around to get my attention.

Seth.

I sat up, heart in my throat already.

“They won’t let me through!” Seth was saying, pointing at the guards. “Just tell them to let me through! I’m not going to fucking hurt you, for fuck’s sake—I’m your master’sbrother!” he ended up shouting at the face of the soldier on the left.

I jumped off the bed and I went to Seth, completely disoriented still, pushing him back to give the soldiers a bit of space.

“What happened? What happened, Seth?!”

My words were slurred together, my voice thick, and I thought I knew exactly what he was going to say—The Council is here; they’re right outside the door!

Except… “Come upstairs,now,” was what Seth actually said, and cursing under his breath as he gave the soldiers another look of pure rage, he turned around and started running down the narrow corridor that ended with the stairway.

“Seth!”I called because I needed to know why he’d come down here to wake me up like this, but he didn’t stop. And I had no choice but to go back and put my boots on, then run behind him like crazy, while the two soldiers ran after me.

A million thoughts, each new one more terrifying than the last, rushed through my mind. I thought they’d found us—which wouldn’t have been difficult to do considering we weren’t tryingto hide. The Council knew where we were all along, and the only reason they hadn’t come to us was because they knew we would go to them and they wanted to fight us on their territory—which was smart of them.

But something must have changed because they were here. They must have come to terms with fighting inourterritory now because probably over a thousand soldiers were outside, waiting for us, and I couldn’t get to the top of those fucking stairs fast enough!

Eventually, though, I did.

Eventually, I made it down the hallway and to the main room where we usually hung out to plan, and I found everyone there still, hunched over the large table where the map and all those plans and lists were. Taland heard me coming in, and he started walking toward me, his eyes—though white—alarmed. He reached out his hand for me and I nearly fell on my face because I always seemed to want to justlet gowhen he was near me. But thank the goddess, I didn’t.

“What happened? Seth woke me up—are they here?!” I asked breathlessly, but Taland shook his head.

“No, baby. They’re not. But you need to see this.” He kissed my forehead and led me to the table where there was a phone in the middle, right over the map where we’d drawn our potential plans of action.

The screen was on and it was showing something—a picture.

At first, I didn’t realize what the hell it was, but the more I looked at it, and the more I leaned in to see…

The scream caught in my throat. This time, my legs did weaken, and if I hadn’t been holding onto the edge of the table, I’d have fallen to the ground.

The picture on the screen was of Cassie, tied to a chair with her head to the side, motionless, bleeding, bruised.

Cassieall alone in a dark room with a strong bright light falling on her body so we could see her face and know it was her.

“She was captured this morning,” Aurelia said, her voice deep, dark, strained, like she, too, was trying to hold back tears.

“They sent us this ten minutes ago,” said Radock.

“She sent us intel about the number of soldiers they have lying in wait at their building. They must have caught her as she sent the message out,” Taland told me.

White noise in my ears. “Is she…”

“She’s alive,” he said because I couldn’t even say that word, couldn’t focus long enough to keep my eyes from blinking to see if her chest was rising and falling.

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