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Perry’s phone buzzed, and she glanced at the screen. Her brows knitted.
“What is it?”
She opened up her phone and read aloud, “ ‘Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar killed the Archangels Micah and Sandriel this spring.’ There’s … there’s video footage of Bryce …”
Ithan’s heart began racing. He was too late. Bryce was already making her move.
“I need to go,” he said. “I have to help her however I can.”
Perry rose from her seat in the booth. “Good luck, Ithan. I … I really hope I see you again.”
He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, her cinnamon-and-strawberry scent washing over him. Just as it always had—like she hadn’t taken the antidote. He set aside his curiosity about it again. “I hope I see you again, too,” he said against her hair, and pulled back.
Her eyes shone with tears. “Please be careful.”
He adjusted the straps on his backpack. “Get to the Blue Court, Perry.”
* * *
“I’m in the imperial network,” Declan announced a couple hours later.
Hunt finished arming himself with the few weapons he’d taken from what Fury Axtar had managed to bring in that helicopter: two handguns and a long knife. It wasn’t much, but Axtar had chosen the weapons well. They were all solid, reliable pieces.
“Those mech-suits are no fucking joke.” Dec shuddered. “But I’m ready to go when you guys are.”
Hunt checked the gun holstered at his thigh. The clip was loaded. Reloads sat in his back pocket. He could have used the comfort of his Umbra Mortis suit with its twin swords nestled in the sheaths down its back. But two handguns, a knife in his boot, and his lightning would have to do. He would have to do.
Just Hunt. He could live with that.
He ran an eye over Bryce. The hilt of the Starsword rose above her ponytail, and Truth-Teller had been strapped on one thigh. She had a handgun on the other, only one clip for a reload.
Hel had brought its armies, but they fought with power and fangs and teeth and brute strength.
“Right,” Bryce said, “we all clear on the plan?”
“Which one?” Ruhn muttered. “You have, like, seven.”
“Better to over-prepare,” Bryce trilled. “Plan’s simple: keep the Asteri distracted by unleashing Hel and the Fallen … while Athalar and I sneak into the palace and destroy that firstlight core.”
“Don’t forget,” Hunt cut in wryly, “rescue Lidia’s sons, destroy Pollux, get close enough to the Asteri to eliminate them from the planet …” He ticked off the items on his fingers.
“Yeah, yeah,” Bryce said, waving a hand. She winked at Lidia, flashing a grin that Hunt knew was designed to put the Hind at ease. “You ready to beat the shit out of these assholes?”
Lidia’s chin lifted. She had a knife at her side and a handgun. That was it.
It was laughable that they were heading into the fucking Asteri’s palace armed so lightly, but it didn’t bear dwelling upon. They didn’t have a choice.
“The moment we leave this truck, we have two minutes until the street cameras alert the Asteri’s techs that we’re in the city if they identify us,” Lidia said.
“Which is why it’s my job,” Declan said from his station in the back of the van, “to keep those cameras away from you guys.”
“And my job,” Flynn said from the driver’s seat, “to keep us moving around the city to avoid detection.”
“As soon as I message you,” Ruhn said, “be ready for a pickup.”
“We did this once before, remember?” Flynn said to Ruhn. “Meeting up with Lidia once she’d sprung you and Athalar was a trial run for the big show.”
“I don’t care what you have to do,” Lidia said to Flynn, to Dec, “or who you have to leave behind. But you get my sons out of this city and to the coast.” She met their stare and added, “Please.”
