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He grimaced. “Yeah, yeah. All right.”
We all linked arms again for what I hoped would be the last time in a long time—all this portal travel was making me feel like I’d left bits and pieces of myself behind, as if my body was missing essential atoms or something.
“Where’s the headquarters located?” Jayce asked.
“Utah,” Hannah, Kai, and I all said simultaneously.
His nose wrinkled. “Aw, ma—”
And then we were hurtling through space.
When the portal spat us out a moment later, I blinked at the almost alien-looking landscape all around us. We’d just taken a tour to some of the most bizarre places on earth, but I was still pretty sure this took top billing in weirdness.
We were about two hours outside of Salt Lake City, in a desolate part of the state. If we’d had to drive here, it would’ve been a massive pain in the ass, but the whole point for an organization like the Custodians was to be essentially unreachable—for humans, anyway. They didn’t want the human population to have any idea what their organization was up to, and it wasn’t like they recruited from the local community college. They recruited directly from Fallen University.
The large building squatted stoically on the hard-packed earth in front of us, its hard edges and cement walls looking completely out of place in the natural landscape. We’d ported in about twenty yards from the entrance, and I didn’t even hesitate. As soon as we blipped into existence, I started marching toward the door with a quick, determined stride.
My five companions kept pace with me, forming a phalanx around me. I could feel tension pouring out of them in waves, a mixture of worry and righteous anger.
There was a very good chance we wouldn’t even get to make our case before we were banished again—best case—or killed outright—definitely worst case. But at this point, I was practically beyond caring about that. These stupid fuckers had banished us when we hadn’t even done anything wrong, and now they were going to walk right into an ambush and die themselves if they didn’t listen. I wanted to shake them so hard their brains reset like those old Etch-a-Sketches.
Before we even reached the door, it burst open. Ten Custodians spilled out, moving down the short set of stairs and fanning out quickly to encircle us. A second later, two more people emerged from the entrance, although they didn’t even bother walking down the stairs. All around us, I saw people powering up various magical spells and weapons, and my heart pounded so hard I could barely hear over the rush of blood in my ears.
Jayce had told me I was a good leader. I really fucking hoped I didn’t repay him for the compliment and the faith in me by getting him killed. I’d never fucking forgive myself.
Licking my suddenly dry lips, I raised my hands in the air in the universal gesture of “don’t shoot.”
“We’re not here to fight!” I called, my voice carrying over the short expanse of space that separated us from the figures near the door. “We came to tell you something. Trust me, it’s something you’re gonna want to fucking hear. Unless you were hoping to send all your members into a death trap anyway.”
The two people standing outside the door were a man and a woman. I finally realized that I recognized the man from our little sentencing hearing at FU. It was Clipboard. I didn’t know the woman, but she had the same sort of air of authority about her as the old guy did, making me think she was at least as high up in this organization as he was, if not higher.
She confirmed my suspicion when she was the one to speak, taking two steps down the stairs as she did. “We’ve been expecting you, Piper Lawless. You and your little team of rogue fallen. Ever since our agents returned to headquarters this morning with a story of a rather interesting encounter they had in Toronto. One of our number died, and one was gravely injured.”
“We didn’t do that,” I insisted firmly. “We were being
chased by a pack of Gavriel’s minions when they stopped us. We helped your agents take out that threat while trying not to be killed by them—if we hadn’t had to keep our guards up like that, maybe we would’ve been able to help more. Ask that blonde chick with the lightning hands. She was there. She knows.”
“Oh, we’ve already heard plenty from Clara,” the older woman shot back, and from the tone of her voice, I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing at all.
“Then ask him!” I said desperately, pointing to the newcomer who’d just emerged from the building behind the two Custodian leaders. Magic crackled in the air around us, and I felt like we were balancing on a tightrope. One wrong move, one too-sudden movement, could send us plummeting to our deaths.
The Custodian woman turned her head slightly to watch as Dru blinked down at us, a look of surprise overtaking his features. He must’ve heard about the fight in Canada this morning, but maybe he hadn’t expected us to be dumb enough to show up here.
Ha. Think again, buddy. I’m way dumber than you give me credit for.
“What is she talking about, Mr. Gaede?” the woman asked.
I saw his lips twitch and his eyelids flicker, and I could practically hear the gears grinding in his brain as he tried to figure out what to say.
Before he could answer, I raised my voice, addressing my words to him and him alone.
“Dru. Gavriel’s planning something. It’s big. It’s deadly. It’s a dirty fucking cheat, and if you guys don’t listen to us, there will be no Custodians this time next week. There won’t be a hell of a lot left of earth, for that matter.” His gaze snapped to me, his expression sharpening with surprise, and I practically bored a hole into him with my eyes as I added, “I know what I’m talking about. You know I do.”
I stopped speaking, and silence fell.
Tension hung in the air like a fucking rain cloud over our heads, and I honestly expected to get drenched any second—only instead of rain, it would be a shower of blood.
My lungs seemed incapable of sucking in oxygen as I stood poised, ready to fight tooth and nail to protect the people I loved.
