He’s a threat. Not to us. Not to me, or Layla, or Auric. But tothem.
Which explained the hurried assault outside.
The banging against that invisible barrier—Layla’s energy shield. The one created by her and Ketos.
Or just her.
I couldn’t say.
But it was shattering now. I could feel it pulsating, the powers outside growing with each passing second.They’re close. It’s time. We need to act now.
And I hoped like hell Ketos was fucking awake.
I reevaluated Kyril, Gaia, and Auric again, searching for more signs of injuries, any weaknesses that would need to be taken into account.
Gaia smiled at me as if she knew exactly what I was concerned about.
“I was brought down here in the middle of the night,” she informed me. “I woke up unharmed in this cell, but I had no idea what had happened.” She nodded at Kyril. “Kyril was here, and that calmed me. But I knew that the Nora were going to make a move based on the conversation Auric had with Ketos.”
I raised a brow at that.
“Ketos likes to think he can throw off our guards, but his arrogance can be his downfall at times,” she explained. “I had another guard already stationed at his favorite hiding spot. It’s often how I keep tabs on the boy.”
I nearly smirked.
But we were out of time.
The walls were trembling with warning.
I had to make a decision. Quickly.
And I went with my instincts.
They’re telling the truth.
And if they’re not, I’ll kill them.
But everything they’d said had made sense. The plane. Being knocked out by the elixir—something I hadn’t even realized. I would swear I’d stayed awake throughout the flight.
However, I’d been so hungry afterward. It’d felt as though I hadn’t eaten in days.
With all the other mirages in place around here, it didn’t feel like too big of a stretch for me to assume that they’d done something to manipulate my memories of the plane, too.
This is all Sayir’s tech, I thought.It’s just like the reformatory, only worse.
Either he’d orchestrated all this for his brother, playing the long game to bring us to this moment, or there was another layer to this whole game.
A layer whereby Sefid was manipulating his brother all along.
A strategic play that I would need to thoroughly consider later.
Making my decision, I sliced my wing through the brackets on the door of Gaia’s cell first. Then I flew in a circle and did the same to Kyril and Clyde’s door.
The doors from the Reformatory would have held against my wings. Perhaps whoever had built this dungeon should have taken some tips from the Reformer.
I made my way down the corridor, releasing the other Noir. I didn’t know them, but I sensed their allegiance to Gaia.
And maybe I wanted a challenge, too.
