Page 87 of A Sea of Secrets
“Shh,” Noah and I said in unison.
“There’s Kendra and Lou,” he tried again, still relatively loudly. “Dick’s with them. Look at him go! A majestic swordfish, ploughing down his enemies. They’re near the lake.”
“Right where I was in the first place,” I groaned. “This is hectic.”
“I can’t find her,” Ace hissed as he raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve looked at all of them, she’s not here.”
It was the first time I’d ever seen or heard him panic. That woman had really gotten under his skin. But what was new? We were all hooked on her.
“She has to be somewhere,” I snapped. “Rewind it or something.”
“Guys,” Noah said, his voice commanding yet soft. “I found her.”
We rushed to him, all of us leaning over the screen. He was way ahead of us, having scoured through past footage on his device to land on an image of Fallon. I watched her in admiration as she tore apart a building to crush her opponent—one I recognised instantly. Maybe I was an asshole, but I couldn’t remember the girl’s name. Chrissy? Cassie? All I knew was that it started with a ‘C’. Shame washed through me. I’d slept with that girl, but I couldn’t remember her name. As soon as Angel had come into my life, every other girl just became a blur. Now she was dead.
As we watched the screen, I knew what was coming. Still, my entire body froze as soldiers made their way onto the scene. About a dozen surrounded her. She’d put up a fight, but it wasn’tenough. My stomach flipped as the leader laid his dirty hand on her.
“That fucking cocksucker,” Ace swore. “If he touches her, I—”
“Quiet,” Noah barked.
Thankfully, the guy must have thought better, because he snatched his hand back shortly after. A tousle followed, and the last thing I saw before someone cut the footage was Fallon being knocked out by the butt of a soldier’s gun, her head lolling uselessly as they dragged her away.
We looked at each other, a little shocked. It had to be Victrus and his men, it just had to. Which meant Victrus hadn’t come to kill his surviving daughter. He’d come to kidnap her.
Iwatched,frozenwiththe guys on either side of me as an unconscious Fallon was taken by two soldiers dressed in all black, no markings or anything showing their affiliations. My mind whirled as reality hit me, like a hard slap in the face.
No, not again. This wasn’t happening.
Someone I cared about was not being taken under my watch again.
I grabbed the nearest thing within reach, smashing it into the screen and shattering the image before me over and over again. A fire burned within me, desperate to ignite this unjust world and turn it to ash.
“It has to be Victrus and we’re not letting him take her,” Kayden said, firmly grabbing my wrist. Blood trickled from my cut-up hand, over Kayden’s fingers, and down my arm. Ireleased whatever I’d been holding, letting it fall to the desk with a clang. “That’s not how this is going to go down.”
“Teleport to her.” My words were a cold order. “Take us all to her.”
“I can’t,” he replied, frowning down at me.
I felt shitty for causing the helpless look on his face—I’d demanded something we knew he couldn’t do. Fallon was a fair distance from here, and there was no way he’d be capable of transporting us all such a long way.
“I’ve already used so much power tonight. Teleporting takes a great deal of energy. If I fuck it up, we could all get badly hurt. But that’s not going to stop us. There’s no way her father is going to get away with this. Teleporting is not the only weapon in our arsenal.”
The rage quietened in my chest at his words, and I nodded, slipping my wrist from him. “You’re right.”
“Too fucking right he is,” Ace agreed, opening the door to the control room and adjusting his hold on his pulse gun. “Now, move your asses, we have a princess to rescue.”
Zane handed me a guard’s uniform from the hook on the wall and I realised I was still naked and covered in blood. I quickly threw the slacks and shirt on, not bothering with shoes, and used strips of the jacket to wrap my hand. I should have registered that it hurt, but right now, all I felt was anger and a chilling fear at the possibility of losing Fallon. I grabbed my knife tightly around the hilt, ready to find our girl.
We ran through the hallway, stepping over the bodies of dead security guards and other staff. Blood stained the floors, the signs of a struggle evident in the marks on the walls and the broken doors hanging off their hinges. There was not a single sign of a living person anywhere.
In the short time we were in the control room, the outside had become much worse. The House of Ascension was a war zone.
Soldiers marched through the grounds, shooting at Potentials and anyone else standing in their way. Some channelled their powers to fight magic, the ground tearing up as it was used as a weapon against an attacker. Water torrents flew through the air, hitting their mark with loud crashes and dropping those that stood in their way, whilst fire ripped through trees and burned those unlucky enough to stand in its path.
The House Jupiter soldiers were not here to take hostages; they were eliminating anyone who got in their way. It was wrong. Everything that was happening was against all that Terrulia stood for, yet none of it surprised me.
The last few months had prepared me for this. It had been only a matter of time before Victrus Auger made his desire for even more power known. He wouldn’t have sat in the shadows much longer. His ego wouldn’t allow it. I should have predicted the trials would never occur fairly. It was foolish to believe otherwise and we were now paying for that mistake.
