Violet covers her mouth, fear in her eyes. “Zion hated my mother. If he has her…”
“We will get Lillian back,” Darius says tightly.
The healer returns to check on Lydia. My mate looks around the room at the rest of us.
“I think we should move this into my office now,” he says.
We file out together. When we reach Lucas’s office, he immediately heads to a map on the wall. Darius follows him. Violet stands next to me with her arms crossed against her stomach.
“They must be taking her to the compound.” Lucas’s finger taps the map. “It’s the closest Covenant base to here.”
“Then that’s where we go,” Violet says.
“Violet.”
“Don’t.” She doesn’t look at her mate. “Don’t even start.”
Darius lets out a breath through his nose. A knock interrupts us before he can argue with her.
Hennessy is at the threshold with two of his lieutenants behind him. Lucas waves them in as he keeps talking.
“They have hours on us. The compound is forty miles west, give or take. By the time we mobilize, we will be looking at a fortified location with an additional contingent inside.”
“So, we don’t go through the front door,” Darius says.
“No.”
“I’ll have my men in the air before sunrise.” Darius is already pulling his phone from his pocket. “Two transports. Two hundred fifty soldiers each. They can be at your airfield by eight.”
“Good.”
“They’ll make a big noise on the southern face of that compound. Coordinated, loud, aggressive. They’ll draw the bulk of the inside force out. While they do that, a smaller team goes through the north wall. Am I remembering correctly that the squadron’s reconnaissance saw a service entrance on that side?”
“You are.”
“That team finds Lillian. Gets her out. We extract through the trees north. Meet our transports two miles up the ridge.”
“I’m going,” Violet says.
“Violet—”
“I am going, Darius.”
They stare at each other. She lifts her chin.
“This is my mother. I am a hybrid. I have powers I have not even tried to use yet because I’ve never had to. If anyone in that compound can read magic, I can. You are not leaving me out of the room she’s being held in.”
Darius looks at Lucas. Lucas looks back, expressionless.
“It’s your call,” Lucas tells him quietly. “She’s your mate.”
Darius shakes his head in defeat. “Fine.”
A small sound at the doorway has us all turning toward it.
Lydia is there. She has changed into loose, dark pants, a shirt she must have buttoned with her one good hand. Her injured shoulder is in a sling, and her face is still the color of old paper. She is holding herself upright by the doorframe, but her chin is set.
“I want to be part of this team.”
