Page 128 of Forged Bonds

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We’d told Grey we would meet him in an industrial area of town, near one of my old killing and body disposal locations. It was wide open, which would be to our benefit. Amabella and Sky needed to be certain they were casting the illusion over all the guards Grey had brought with him.

And he’d brought a fucking army.

Fifty men surrounded the building we’d said we would be portalling into. The man wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

At least that meant he would do the predictable thing and only bring a few men inside with him, so as not to scare us right back into the portal.

“Are you prepared for this?” I asked Ama.

We were perched on a rooftop, observing. Ama sighed. “There’s a lot of them. It’s a good thing Sky is lending me power, or I wouldn’t be able to cast a net that wide.”

“How long will you be able to hold them?”

“Half an hour, max. After that, some of them will begin to get suspicious. As soon as suspicion is introduced, an illusion becomes a thousand times more challenging to maintain. They fail in the face of scrutiny.”

I nodded along with her explanation. Emmett was quiet beside us, his hand touching my back. Nolan and Oswald were speaking in hushed voices a ways away.

Thirty minutes to do something I’d never done before. Something that was considered extremely powerful, dangerous, and difficult magic. Plus, we had to get him back to where we’d taken him from before the illusion dropped, or it would all be for nothing. If anyone found out Grey had been kidnapped by me, he wouldn’t be allowed the kind of access we needed to have.

The gravity of the situation set in again, the visions of a simple life with house husband Caspian vanishing into thin air.

“We’ve got this,” Emmett murmured.

Comfort from him was unexpected. Not because he was being negative, or anything, but he wasn’t like Oswald, instructing me to picture false realities. He was a realist and worrywart.

“We do,” I agreed, trying to pretend I believed it.

“You’ll manage,” Amabella said. “May tells me you were an extremely powerful mage when you were younger, and now that you’re mated you get stronger every time I see you.”

Knowing she’d noticed my increasing strength was good. I’d worried it might be my own cockiness coming through and making me believe I was stronger when I wasn’t.

She checked her watch. “It’s time.”

I took a deep breath.

The next thirty minutes would make or break everything.

Don’t panic.

Our plan to snag Grey was simple yet could go wrong in so many ways. We were going to portal in where we’d said we would. Amabella would cast her illusion magic over all the guards, so none would have any idea about what was going on inside the warehouse. Our small team would take out the small group of men Grey had inside with him, and I would use my magic to wipe their memories of everything after the portal appeared.

That, at least, was something I’d done twenty plus times before.

Grey would come with us, back through the portal to this rooftop, where he would be held down by my mates and I would get to work invading his mind and fiddling with his memories until I was an ally, and Kylan an enemy.

Removing my wand from my waist belt, I drew the runes in the air and the portal came into existence in front of me. I glanced around at everyone. Sky was on a rooftop opposite us so he could help Ama aim her magic accurately.

She nodded at me. Nolan and Oswald stepped closer to the portal, and Em pressed a chaste kiss to my cheek.

One more deep breath.

“Let’s do it.”

Amabella cast her magic, words flowing from her lips rapidly. A haze spread over the area, lulling the guards into a false sense of security. Any noise from their equipment or telepathy they heard from the people inside would go unnoticed.

Nolan went through the portal first, followed closely by Oswald and Emmett, and then me.

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