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He nodded, shooting a glance at Clara before returning his focus to me. “You’re welcome. I—well, to be honest, I feel like I did too little, too late. If I’d been willing to speak up earlier, maybe we could’ve had more time to prepare.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “But it doesn’t really matter now. There are a million ways this could’ve gone differently, and a million little choices I could regret. But at least we’re here. We’re gonna make a stand. That’s what the Custodians are all about, right?”
“Yes.” He smiled, and I saw respect in his gaze. “It is.”
“Good. Then I’ll see you on the other side.”
I stuck out my hand, and he took it. Then I nodded to Clara and returned to my men. Hannah was standing nearby them too. She’d pulled her blond hair back into a tight ponytail and was wearing black fight wear that’d been provided by the Custodians. She looked like a fucking badass, honestly, with her face set in a stoic mask.
As I rejoined them, settling into the pocket of space between the four men, Jayce leaned over and whispered into my ear, “Look who showed up.”
I turned my gaze in the direction he jerked his chin, and my mouth dropped open slightly.
Toland.
He was surrounded by several other school staff and administrators, including Cassandra, Charles, and Professor Beedle. Other professors gathered behind him, along with a bunch of students from FU.
“Holy fuck,” I murmured in amazement. “They’re letting them fight.”
I was shocked. Despite the massive increase of fallen activity on earth, the Custodians had always seemed reluctant to trust any students of FU who hadn’t fully completed their training—as if we might snap and turn evil at any moment.
“Maybe they realized they need every warm body they can get on our side. Just because they haven’t passed their stupid fucking exams doesn’t mean they’re not qualified to fight. Doesn’t mean they don’t want to,” Kai said, and I glanced at the toffee-skinned man, warmth surging in my chest.
I cast my gaze over the group of students. It wasn’t the entire population of the school by a long shot, but I was guessing that the others would transport to the Barringer Crater directly from Mönkh Saridag.
Toland caught me staring at their small group and gave me a single nod.
I had caused him more headaches than I could count during my time at his school, up to and including my banishment to the underworld. But the expression on his face as he met my gaze across the large room wasn’t annoyance or even resignation.
Instead, it was something like… pride.
Respect.
Nodding back, I shifted a little on my feet. Truth be told, I was more comfortable playing my usual role of “royal pain in Toland’s ass.” At least I knew where I stood then. And there was a lot less pressure.
The countdown clock on the wall ticked down to zero, and a buzzing noise rang through the compound.
“All right, everyone.” Price came to stand directly in front of the countdown timer, her voice magically amplified to ring out over the packed room. “We’ve reached zero hour. According to our calculations and the intel we’ve received from those in the underworld, Gavriel’s army will be breaching the barrier between earth and the underworld sometime in the next hour. I’m sorry we can’t pinpoint it any more narrowly than that, but we need to work with what we have.”
She swept her gaze over all of us, her expression steely and determined. She was dressed in fight wear too, something that made me respect her a little bit more. There were plenty of things I was planning on sticking in the suggestion box here if I could ever find one, but despite my beefs with how the Custodians ran their organization, it made me glad to see that their leader was planning to fight alongside her troops.
Unlike Gavriel, who wouldn’t enter the fray until he was all but assured of victory.
In fact, we were counting on that.
“We will be sending people through in waves,” Price continued. “The element of surprise may be the best advantage we have on our side, so it is imperative that we allow Gavriel’s army and his generals to believe that their plan is working perfectly—that they’ve caught us flatfooted and that we’re scrambling to muster up a proper defense. We are monitoring the Barringer Crater, and as soon as the first wave of his army comes through, we will begin dispatching you in your assigned groups.”
Her expression softened just slightly, and she straightened her spine.
“Fight hard. Fight well. We get one shot at this, and humanity is counting on us.”
Instead of the war cry that might follow a speech like that in the movies, a low murmur spread through the room like a ripple as everyone repeated her words back to her.
Fight hard. Fight well.
My heart thudded hard in my chest, each heavy beat almost painful. Price stepped away from her place at the front of the room, and for several long moments, an almost complete silence reigned.
I felt antsy and agitated, so on-edge that I could practically feel myself vibrating, torn between wishing Gavriel’s army would just hurry up and get here already and hoping against hope that maybe we’d been wrong all along. That maybe they wouldn’t come.
