“Yes. They’re in a royal vault here in Ilamanthe, protected by Elven guards. I made sure I didn’t lose them,” Ez said.
My shoulders sagged. I was more than grateful the Warden hadn’t gotten his hands on the Divinity Keys we had, because it’d taken a lot of sacrifice to obtain them. “What happened next?”
“We just kept driving until we hit land. By the time we pulled onto a beach, your dad was waiting for us,” Opal informed me.
“My dad?” I tilted my head curiously.
“Our parents are here.Everyone’sparents are here, actually,” Ez stated. “We’ve got a bit of bad news… Kinpago and Octavia Falls were taken by the Warden.”
“What?” Marcus asked, and my stomach twisted.
“They couldn’t hold up. The Warden was going to destroy both cities if we didn’t let him have them, so they decided abandoning the towns was the best way to preserve what was left,” Alistair said. “The priestesses and the chieftains got everyone out they could. The elementals and witches that survived are currently living here, in Ilamanthe.”
Then Alistair scoffed, and he mumbled under his breath, “Or at least, everyone who isn’t atraitoris here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Some elementals and witches surrendered to the Warden and joined The Mission when the cities fell. They didn’t see apoint in continuing to resist,” Ez clarified. “As far as our side, we don’t have many strongholds left.Hok’evaleis safe, but we don’t know for how long.”
“Where did the Warden take all these prisoners of war?” I questioned. “If Kinpago and Octavia Falls have fallen, those supernaturals that didn’t get a chance to flee had to be taken somewhere.”
Eddie gave a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, we believe they’ve been taken to the same camp the Warden had attempted to move me to. From the intel we’ve gathered, we know it is even larger, and more dangerous. The Main Facility is somewhere in the contiguous United States. It has many more Elves in captivity, and it is also where the Warden holds his prisoners of war. There are all kinds of supernaturals being kept in that camp, some even of the Warden’s own race, angels who didn’t support his cause.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Charlie demanded. “Let’s go there right now to destroy it and liberate the prisoners.”
“I wish we could, but it is very well hidden. We’ve been trying to find it for some time, but have so far been unsuccessful. It is a highly concealed secret of the Warden’s, and until we locate where it might be, a rescue mission is impossible,” Eddie said.
“I’m betting the Main Facility has to be near California. Darke Island is off the western coast of the United States,” I said.
“Six hundred miles off the coast,” Kallie objected.
“Yes, but it’s still easier to transport people across the open ocean rather than thousands of miles across land where they might be spotted, and we know the Warden used Darke Island as his base for years,” I said. “He’s probably been building this camp for a while, waiting for the right time to use it against his enemies. The West Facility was just a holding center on the island he could use until the Main Facility was finished.”
“What about the witches? Connecticut is a long ways away from the west coast. If the Main Facility is on the other side of the country, you must’ve found clues as to how the captured witches were being transported,” Marcus asked.
“Unfortunately, we did not,” Eddie replied. “The Warden must be using some type of magic we aren’t aware of or don’t have access to in order to transport all these prisoners from one side of the nation to the other.”
“Why couldn’t the Warden just conjure portals, and move people that way?” Charlie questioned. “They’re harder to trace.”
“Moving a lot of people through portals is hard. It’s not easy magic, especially not across hundreds of miles,” Kallie said. “Only the best supernaturals can pull it off, and the Warden doesn’t have any Elves helping him.”
“That we know of,” Charlie mused. “He could be forcing prisoners to do his bidding.”
“You would need many,manyportals to transport that number of prisoners,” Eddie explained. “Even if it was possible, which it could be, it’s unclear as to how he could create so many portals without leaving supernatural traces that we could follow. But from what we can guess, the facility must be somewhere near the west coast, just as Ava predicted.”
“That still doesn’t narrow it down,” Marcus grumbled. “The western United States is huge. There’s massive sprawls of open desert that go on forever, without a soul in sight. The Warden could pick a million places to put this camp. It’s like locating a needle in a haystack.”
“We’ll find it,” Kallie said firmly. “And once we do, the soldiers who are torturing those poor people are going to beg for mercy.”
“Which we aren’t going to give them,” Charlie added coldly, and Oberi gave a growl. I whole-heartedly agreed.
“I just don’t know how the Elves managed to find somewhere so efficient to hide,” Kallie said. “This area is perfect to hold the city of Ilamanthe. How’d they locate such a well-concealed area after Forevermore was sieged?”
“Your family, actually,” Ivy stated. “Turns out that King Ethan and Queen Emmaline were the ones who found the island after Forevermore fell, and they helped the Elves build a city here with illusion magic. They’ve been busy doing that in secret while your brother and his mate have been running Malovia.”
“If Kazim has ascended the throne, why are Ethan and Emma still referred to as king and queen?” Marcus asked.
“My parents aren’t reigning monarchs anymore, but they still retain their titles,” Kallie explained, before turning back to Eddie. “How are things in Malovia?”
