None of us could do anything. Taeral and Bijarki tried to go after her, but Xavier and Draven were quick to get to them and pull them back before their collars could do any damage.
“Stand back,” Derek said to them. “He won’t hurt her.”
“How do you know?” Taeral asked, surprisingly concerned about Bogdana. He didn’t strike me as the caring type, which made his reaction all the more curious.
“She’s his mother,” Derek said, as the double doors closed after Ta’Zan and Bogdana. “No matter what he portrays himself as, that’s the one bond he cannot lie to himself about.”
“She’s not his biological mother, though,” Bijarki replied, raising an eyebrow.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s the closest thing he’ll ever have to a mother,” Derek said. “I’m truly sorry I had to do that, but I couldn’t think of anything else to get him inside and myself back to you. Faulties are operating on the southwest side. He nearly spotted the scuffle. He’ll find out about it soon enough. I just needed to buy those people a bit more time.”
“It’s starting, then,” Sofia said lowly. “We’re closer to our escape. But what about Bogdana? We can’t just leave her with Ta’Zan, can we?”
She grimaced from the pain, her collar burning and clearly bothering her.
“We don’t have much of a choice. She’ll be okay,” Derek replied. “Amal and Amane were right. Douma, too. Ta’Zan isn’t himself anymore. He’s clearly distraught and losing focus. We’re building a mass memory wiper under his nose. We’ve infiltrated his colosseum, and we’re planting bombs all over it. Down here, we’re getting ready to break out of the joint. His Perfects have low morale, and with Bogdana present, he’s… well, he’s vulnerable.”
“And he didn’t even know it!” Lucas exclaimed. “Dammit, it’s brilliant. Devious and brilliant.”
On top of that, if Ta’Zan had been trying to listen in on us, the scrambler on Rose had certainly done its part, since we were so close to busting out of here without detection.
“The timing is perfect,” Corrine cut in. “We need to get the bilocation spell going now. Once we evacuate, we’ll give Araquiel the go-ahead to detonate the charges.”
Derek nodded enthusiastically, then looked at Taeral. “We’ll get Bogdana back. First, we need to get everyone out and the fae in. The Hermessi must be activated in order to destroy Ta’Zan and rein in the Perfects and Arch-Perfects.”
A loud thump made my spine tingle. It was a familiar sound, and it was never good.
“Kale!” Hunter roared from the other side of the hall. “Kale, no!”
I spotted him dashing through the crowd. He slid down on his knees and stopped right next to Kailani. She’d passed out, but…
“Oh, no,” I mumbled, dread crippling my senses.
Corrine, Ibrahim, and Lumi were quick to get to her and Hunter. Kailani’s eyes were wide open and glowing white. I could hear that eerie hum in the back of my head, and the vibrations in the pit of my stomach.
Kailani had just gone into Word-mode, with no way of telling when she’d wake up again. Without her, we couldn’t do the bilocation spell. Without her, we were screwed.
Elonora
“Come on, Kale, don’t do this now,” Hunter said as he held her in his arms.
Kailani’s body was limp, and her glowing eyes sent shivers down my spine. This was the worst possible time for her to go into Word-mode. With Faulties pestering the Perfects outside and Araquiel’s group sneaking around on the inside, we had to make our way out before the whole place blew up.
The explosions weren’t going to obliterate the colosseum, per se, but they were going to deliver enough structural damage to make at least parts of it come down—enough to draw focus away from the incoming fae shuttle. Most importantly, we couldn’t be here when that happened. First, we didn’t know whether the dome would be impacted by the explosion. Not everyone here was a vampire capable of surviving a collapse, and there weren’t enough witches between us to help with the healing process. Second, we needed each and every one of us in the aftermath, for an offensive alongside the super-charged fae and the Hermessi.
“Kale… Honey, wake up,” Corrine murmured, touching her granddaughter’s face. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and glassy. “She’s so cold.”
“You can’t wake her up,” Lumi warned us. “She’s communing with the Word again, and any disturbance might trigger a deadly pulse.”
Derek looked around, then set his attention on Lucas, Vivienne, and Xavier. “Tell everyone to be ready to drop to the floor, if there’s a chance of this happening,” he said. “Don’t shout it; don’t make any sudden moves. Make sure there’s no commotion for the guards to notice.”
“We have no choice but to wait it out,” Lumi added.
Ibrahim cursed under his breath. “What the hell does this communion mean? What is she doing like this? How will she snap out of it?”
“I can’t answer these questions,” Lumi replied. She bit her lower lip. “I’m truly sorry. The laws of the Word reign supreme, regardless of the circumstances.”
I rubbed my face with my palms, taking deep breaths in order to cool my nerves. Time was running out, and no amount of magic could save Kailani from where she was now. Nevis took my hand in his, demanding my attention.
“She never stays under for too long,” he said. “Let’s see what Araquiel’s status is, first. We can’t do the bilocation spell, anyway.”
Jovi snapped his fingers. “Hold on. The detonator is wireless, right?”
“Yes. But they need to be within a certain range,” Dmitri replied. “As in, they can’t leave the colosseum. That’ll be too far.”
Rose pressed the call button on her earpiece. “Araquiel. Are you there?”
We all looked at each other. The seconds flowed by. He had to be knee-deep in his task if he couldn’t answer straightaway.
“Yes,” he eventually replied.
“What’s your status?” Rose asked.
“We’ll be a while,” he said. “There’s a lot of commotion on multiple levels. Perfect guards are being mobilized and running around. Nathaniel and his group are blending in quite well. No one’s asked them what they’re doing or what unit they’re with. I’m close behind them, dodging thermal scanners. But some of the designated bomb points are busy with Perfects. It’s not easy to get them in there.”
“That’s fine. Don’t rush into it.” Rose sighed. “We’ve hit a little snag with the bilocation spell, anyway. We want to do this nice and proper.”
“I take it Herakles and his Faulties are doing a fine job of distracting the Perfects, then,” Ridan muttered, slightly amused.
