Page 10 of Between Imminent Fates

“TheCitizenswill launch an attack against us in April during the Lyrid meteor shower.”

“That gives us two months, Key,” Zeke interjected, aghast.

“I realize that, but informing you earlier was impossible. As I’ve stated, it would’ve compromised the integrity of our success. Our future, as it currently stands, isn’t fixed. If we fail in any of the tasks leading up to the day of their attack in April, we lose.”

“And what about their attack?”

“Nothing is fixed. Multiple scenarios could play out at any given point, and I’ve drawn a strategy for each of them. They’re named with a single designator. Throughout the next several months, you’ll have to memorize each of them.”

A heavy sigh from Riaz as he rubbed his eyes. “And here I thought we were going to have a pleasant evening.”

The round of stiff laughter that followed succeeded in loosening the tension. Relaxing slightly in her seat, Key’s shoulders dropped as the faces of those present softened.

“And we all play a part, Key?” Toni asked. “Each of us here in this room can help?”

Key nodded, genuinely pleased.

Zeke wasn’t appeased. “And what if the strategy you’ve outlined is flawed? We still have no say?”

“No.” As resolutely as she could manage, Key shoved the urge to snarl at him down her throat. “I’ve had twelve centuries to prepare. Unless you’ve somehow developed the gift of foresight, Ezekiel, you won’t be able to improve them.”

Ava continued the train of thought. “And you’ve foreseen all outlets? What about suggesting alternative paths?”

“I’ve foreseen every situation. Every scenario.”

“Isaiah and Nina could decimate any army,” Nero suggested. “What if we allow them to utilize the abilities they’ve been gifted? Have you foreseen that?”

As her sovereign’s suggestion fell heavily on the shoulders of those in the room, Key dropped her gaze to the floor. Whispers of that future echoed in her ears, brittle and bitter. She allowed the despair to show on her face as she revealed the truth of what’d come if they allowed that to happen.

“If we encourage Isaiah and Nina to embrace the darker side of their nature, we lose them to it.” Key’s voice was almost a whisper. “Neither will ever return to sanity after they claim the mercenaries’ lives. With it, they slay halfournumber before we’re able to contain them. When we attempt to bring them back to reason, they take another third of us. We cannot follow that path, sovereign; it ends only in destruction. Both theirs, and ours.”

Horror cast Nina and Isaiah in shadows, and their mates were equally alarmed. The attention of the room flicked almost ruefully toward the Raeths born of destruction, just as quickly looking away.

“Then we won’t follow that path.” Rukia squeezed Isaiah’s hand. “We follow your strategies, and we get out of this alive.”

If there was one thing Key admired, it was the water Elemental’s tenacity.

“I promise you: if we work together, we’ll defeat this enemy,” Key assured them. “Each of you will play your part. All of you will be assigned a task—or several. But first, before we depart, I need to hear it from your own mouth. And Remmus?”

He perked. “Yes?”

Key’s icy stare had him frowning. “You will listen to every person in here as they agree to this plan. And you will inform me if they lie.”

Chapter Four

Jax

Jax loathed this assignmentwith every fiber of his being. All day, he had worked toward an end goal he morally disagreed with. With each form he filed, his gut twisted tighter, and the cries of the wolves on the other side of the door made him physically ill. No one deserved that type of treatment.

Instead of succumbing to desperation, he had begun planning. With every keystroke, his mind whirled with strategies meant to dismantle the operation.

When Barlowe had asked for a volunteer to run the patrol, he’d immediately offered. If he was going to turn this place inside out, he would need to understand every angle—and be familiar with every square foot—of the base that wasn’t classified in any handbook.

It hadn’t taken long to jog the border, but it’d poured every second he was outside. Within minutes, his fatigues had been soaked, and his boots were saturated. A chill had worked its way into his bones.

Only the need to blow the whistle on the operation kept him from asking to be reassigned. He had reached out to his former general and asked for an audience, but knowing how the Army worked, it would be a decade before he heard back—if at all.

Jax had discreetly begun searching for a way to anonymously expose the horrors in this facility, but doing so without immunity would lead to jail time, traitor status, or a very public scandal. Perhaps all of the above.

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