“Are you, now?” he murmured. He looked to his side, just as Cassiel showed up, holding my mother by the back of her neck. My heart jumped in my throat, but quickly subsided. She seemed immune to the sunlight, to my relief. I remembered dad mentioning Ta’Zan’s pills and how he’d made them take one prior to going outside. This had to be why she was okay and not bursting into flames.
Mom lit up like a firefly at the sight of us, but quickly softened when she remembered where we were and what was about to happen. I could hear Ben’s pulse quickening.
“Stand your ground,” Nevis whispered, as if sensing that we were about to do something.
We weren’t, but I had quite the urge to just dash forward and slit Ta’Zan’s throat. Looking at my mom, however, I knew I couldn’t. She seemed okay, just like I’d last seen her before she and Dad took off for Strava. There was sadness in her eyes, and a painful grimace fluttered across her face whenever Cassiel squeezed her nape.
I recognized him from the Merinos attack. Elonora had specifically pointed him out—the traitor.
“The collars connect through small needles to the spine,” Amane murmured. “The way he’s holding her is painful.”
That explained the look on my mother’s face. She was calm, refusing to give anyone the impression that she was under any form of duress. I narrowed my eyes at Cassiel.
“You’re a colossal piece of trash, you know that?” I asked, albeit rhetorically.
Cassiel shrugged. “I serve my maker.”
“Obviously. It doesn’t make you less of a turd, though,” Elonora retorted.
“Enough,” Ta’Zan interjected. “We have a problem.”
Cassiel brought a slim blade up to my mother’s throat. She stilled. Ben and I froze. Hunter and Dmitri both growled behind us. Tensions were running high, and I worried we might get a… bumpy entrance. Ta’Zan was not an idiot, and Cassiel was as conniving as they came. Dread curdled my blood at the sight of that steel blade threatening to draw my mother’s blood.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s not enough of you,” Ta’Zan said, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “You must think I’m an idiot.”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ben replied, frowning.
“Now you’re insulting me,” Ta’Zan snapped. “I made my terms clear. Either you all surrender, or your mother dies. What part of that wasn’t clear?”
He knew about Serena and Draven. Of course he knows. He’s got Cassiel on his side, doesn’t he?
Cassiel pressed the blade against my mom’s throat. She hissed from the pain, as a droplet of blood trickled down and blossomed into an irregular red rose on the hem of her white, silken tunic.
“Don’t hurt her!” I shouted.
“You’ve got what you wanted,” Ben said. “You have us. You have your precious twins back. Raphael. Douma. What more do you want?”
Ta’Zan smirked as he first looked at Ben, then at Amal and Amane. “It’s good to have you two back,” he replied. “We will have words later. As for you, Douma, Raphael… Well, I’m deeply disappointed in you, but, like I said… I’m counting fewer outsiders than I was told there were.”
He sneered at me. It made my blood boil.
“I’m confused,” I said, trying to spare Draven’s crew. “I thought you wanted us to surrender. We’re all here.”
“No, you’re not,” Cassiel retorted. “Your swamp witch, your Druid, your fae prince, the Maras… Come on, Rose, don’t be foolish. I saw them all. I know who you’re hanging out with. And they’re not here.”
“Either they all come in, or she dies,” Ta’Zan added, nodding at my mother.
At least we’d tried. My mom gave me a weak smile. There was a lot we wanted to say to each other, but first we had to get this circus out of the way. Unfortunately, Draven and Serena’s group was doomed to come in with us. Our hopes thus rested on Araquiel’s shoulders.
Elonora
Sofia’s life was still on the line.
I would’ve given anything not to have to do what we were doing, but we had no other way. I was already mentally preparing myself to pay Cassiel back in kind for his duplicity and nauseating treachery—I’d syphoned enough energy from Nevis just in case I had that opportunity. Still, his aura was confusing. He was worried and angry, but most of it flared whenever he looked at Ta’Zan, as if he didn’t really want to be here, doing this. Nevertheless, he was doing it. He was complying with Ta’Zan’s orders. To me, that was unforgivable.
Branches broke somewhere to my right. The Perfects stiffened and pointed their weapons in that direction. Their auras flared yellow—they were afraid! They were afraid of us! They must’ve heard about our pulverizer weapons; otherwise, they wouldn’t have opted to carry their own, similar guns. They knew about the destruction we’d caused and the Perfects we’d killed. They understood that we were not to be messed with.
I found that somewhat flattering, given that they’d scared the daylights out of us in the beginning. Up until a week ago, they’d seemed indestructible to us.
Draven and Serena came out, accompanied by Avril, Heron, their wards, Bogdana, Lumi, Bijarki, and Taeral. They all had their hands up in a defensive pose. Ta’Zan grinned at the sight of them. Bogdana’s expression and her multicolored aura confused and alarmed me at the same time—specifically, the threads of gold intertwining with yellow, as if she both loved and feared him. From the moment I’d learned about her connection to Ta’Zan, I’d known she could either be a risk or the ultimate weapon against him.
She’d carried him in her womb, after all. He wasn’t her son, per se, but there was a link between them, something that couldn’t be broken. Whether that would be useful to us or not, we didn’t know yet, but this was definitely the right time to find out.
“There they are. The rest of your merry crew,” Ta’Zan exclaimed sarcastically.
“Can’t blame us for trying,” Draven replied dryly.
“What of the others?” Ta’Zan asked. “Your allies. My children. The filthy Draenir. Why haven’t they joined you?”
“They scattered as soon as your demand came through,” I said. “The Draenir are weak and outnumbered. They’re hoping to hold out in the woods, rather than come here to certain death. The same can be said about the Faulties. They were with us until we decided to surrender.”
Ta’Zan thought about it for a while, as if processing my explanation. He sighed. “Oh, well. I suppose my Perfect children will have to hunt them down one by one. It’s fine. They need the exercise, anyway.”
Bile rose up to my throat, my stomach turning itself inside out. I looked forward to breaking every single bone in his body, because I hated him with the fire of a thousand galaxies.
“All right, I suppose I’ll make do with you,” Ta’Zan then added. “Have the outsiders collared and taken to the diamond dome. Have Sofia join them as well. I suppose she’s suffered enough.”
