“Draven?” I call, straightening my shoulders. “How are your brothers and sisters doing with a cure for the mind control?”
“Not great. It’s been slow and now that we know it’s H… the queen.” Draven winces when Kira elbows him in the gut.
“We do not invoke bitchface either,” I warn, pointing at him.
“Noted, though I didn’t need a broken rib for a punishment,” he says.
“Now that you know it’s the queen…” Raven waves her hand for him to continue.
“We can understand more about why they’re not waking up, but we aren’t any closer to making that happen. We can’t get alock on the mind control until they are awake. It’s like a circle of death.”
“Maybe that’s something Hermes can help with once he’s got his full power back,” I say, relieved that’s one less imminent threat to deal with.
“I’m not so sure I should have my siblings stop their testing.” Draven scratches the back of his neck.
“Why? What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.
“We’ve been given a two-week window, but I don’t think the mind-controlled students have that long. They will deteriorate in that state without food or water.”
“Fuck, why didn’t I think of that sooner? I guess we need to take a trip to the healers’ office,” I say.
“What do we need from the healers?” Raven asks.
“I’m sure they have something that can sustain them in this state, right?” I ask, scanning my friends’ faces.
“We already asked the healers and they are searching for something but so far there is nothing to their knowledge that can sustain them magically and we’re afraid to use the human methods that they could abuse if woken up under the queen’s control again.” Draven shakes his head.
Any relief I felt before quickly evaporates with his words. He’s not wrong that the human medical equipment could be abused by Hera and any minions who try to control them. This isn’t fucking good.
“Okay then, we have even less time than we previously thought. No fucking pressure.”
“Nope, just got to save the world and everyone in it… again,” Raven grumbles.
“I’m taking a year’s vacation after all of this.” Jayden squeezes me tighter to him.
“That sounds amazing. I would love to travel the world and not have to slay monsters while doing it.” I lean back with my head on his chest.
“We gotta get through this war first, B. But yeah, I think we all deserve a vacation after this.”
Greyson grimaces. “I don’t think I’ll be afforded that luxury.”
“Why?” I ask. “Something to do with the packs?”
“Yeah, Tristan’s man. The one who was gods touched. He’s still missing. There are also rumblings of a group of rogues causing trouble within the supernatural world. I have a sinking suspicion that it’s him building an army.”
I straighten my spine. Fuck. This is bad. It’s a thousand percent our fault this happened.
“How did you find this out?” I ask.
“Grant got a message to me. I think he contacted Orpheus because a message was on my desk this morning.” Greyson clenches his hands into fists on the table.
“Why can’t it ever be good news. Just once I want it to be good news.”
“Could this be more of the breakdown in communication?” Jayden asks.
“Not with rogues. They’re practically feral and unpredictable. They usually don’t organize into packs. This is something the shifters haven’t seen before,” Greyson says.
“How soon are we talking with this threat?” I ask.
