Page 85 of Fearsome Dream


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At the end of the hall, two doors stand wide open. One leads into the cavernous space of the gym, the other into a smaller but still sizable room where the guardians sometimes set up a swimming pool like a massive aquarium to test our skills in water.

Andreas is standing in the second doorway. He catches my gaze with a questioning look.

“The guardians Rollick’s people are leading this way should be here in about ten minutes,” I say. “The rogues will be right behind them.”

He offers me a tight smile. “We’d better get into position then.”

He hesitates and then steps forward to slide his fingers along my jaw. If there’s a hint of desperation in the avidness of his kiss and the quiver of emotion that passes through our bond, I’m not going to comment on it. I’m pretty desperate to get us through the next hour myself.

When he eases back, Dominic and Griffin have emerged from the room behind him. Dom tugs me to him for a kiss so ardent I could lose myself in it, both his arms and his tentacles holding me close.

Griffin only brushes his lips briefly against mine, but the fleeting moment seems even sweeter that way. Then he hugs me tight with a waft of love that feels as if it flows right from his heart into mine.

“We’ve got this,” he says. “We’ll handle our part. Don’t spend any energy worrying about us. I’ll see you when it’s over.”

My throat constricts. “Yeah.”

Andreas touches me one more time, to cast invisibility over me with a tingle of his talent. “I’ve already done Jake and Zee. They’re in position.”

I summon all the bravado I can. “Let’s do this.”

After Drey has worked his power on Sorsha as well, the three guys head back into the smaller room. They’ll be the ones taking care of any of the shadowbloods who seem to have enough moral compass left that they might be saved.

I can’t see the phoenix now, but she keeps her grip on my shoulder as we head into the gymnasium. The immense space feels hauntingly empty.

The few bits of goodness we found here—the sofa where we tucked ourselves together to watch a movie or TV show on our occasional breaks, the table where we ate lunch and snacks in companionable conversation—the guardians must have taken with them when they abandoned ship. All that’s left are the pillars along the edges of the rooms and a few odds and ends like dusty exercise mats.

We’ve added our own touch too. Over the past day, we’ve assembled a structure at the far end of the room that looks reasonably weapon-ish. It’s taller than me and twice as long as that, all metal and glass and various controls fused together.

It doesn’tdoanything, but it looks intimidating to me even though I know that it’s really a heap of junk. Hopefully it’ll be convincing enough to the shadowbloods that they’ll take it seriously.

I lead Sorsha over to a pillar where we’ve left a few crates for extra shelter. As she settles into her place, bracing her arms against the boxes, I cross the room to the matching setup on the opposite side.

I have a clear view of the doorway at my left and the supposed weapon at my right. I’ve also got a phone waiting for me, tucked away between two of the crates, that’s connected to the hasty camera system we set up in place of the devices the guardians removed.

The phone’s screen is divided into quarters, each with its own view: the front gate, the ground floor hallway, and two different angles of the hall outside the gymnasium to cover the whole area. The rogues will probably check the higher floors first, but there’s nothing there that’ll interest them for long.

My heart thuds between my ribs. I rest one hand on the cool surface of the pillar and remind myself to breathe.

I’m only on my third breath when the first video stream shows the vans pulling up outside. A squad of guardians—fourteen, I count as they emerge—pour out of their vehicles and stalk up to the gate.

We’ve left it unlocked. We want them coming inside.

After testing it tentatively, one of them nudges it open. They stride onto the parking lot.

A few get back in the vans to drive the vehicles right into the compound. Others head for the entrance.

Good. It’ll be more convincing if the rogues find at least a few of them inside the building rather than all hanging out in the yard.

In a few clusters of three, the guardians head inside. On the second feed, I watch them scanning the hall and poking their heads through doorways.

They’re all holding weapons—large rifles they keep tucked under one arm at the ready. Those aren’t going to be any match for the shadowbloods’ powers.

They never really respected what we can do.

As they’re about to find out in brutal clarity. A couple of the guardians are just yanking at the fused door to the stairwell when I spot the first signs of movement in the forest beyond the fence.

My back goes rigid. I peer at the tiny rectangle on the phone’s screen until I’m sure I see a brief flash of hair amid the underbrush.

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