Page 119 of Vicious Princess
I know exactly what awaits at the very end of the alley on my right, behind the red door.
Before I can linger on the thought, Ezkai Gavriel rushes all of us into a nearby building through a narrow, barely-hanging-on-the-hinges door.
An abandoned house. Cobwebs, dust, and broken furniture—nothing but shadows of what once was.
We settle in the tight space.
I lean a hip on the dusty windowsill next to Roman. Ezkai Gavriel stands in front of a crumbling mantel that seemingly used to be beautiful once. His jaw is tight, eyes hard.
Ezkai Cassandra is the complete opposite of him. She leans her elbow against the dusty mantel and crosses one ankle over the other. A faint smile dances on her lips.
“The target location is across the street, at the end of the narrow alley,” Ezkai Gavriel says. “There’s a red door that’s theentrance to the illegal gambling parlor. There are two bouncers at the door at all times. Twenty-four-hour operation.”
There’s likely only one bouncer at the door. I don’t correct him. Then I’d have to explainhowI know. Explaining I’ve been here, with Daegel, when he’s missing from the mission due to mysterious professional reasons is…not a good idea to say the least.
“What’s our course of action, cadets?” Ezkai Gavriel folds his arms over his chest.
“Find the back door and storm it from both sides,” the giant says. “Kill everyone standing in our way.”
Ezkai Gavriel’s face says it all—he doesn’t bother hiding his disdain.
“Just like this strategy didn’t work in your assignment, it doesn’t work here either, Cadet Vesper. We’re vastly outnumbered. Anyone else have any other brilliant ideas to share?”
“Why can’t we get more Ezkai for a raid here?” Bloom asks. “We scout the area around to find all the weak spots and put our soldiers there so they can monitor the situation. We get more physical force, and when we have them surrounded, we can then attack. One Decarios can easily take on five regular fae, if not more. Twelve more heads may put us on more equal ground.”
I bet Bloom is aiming for the Executioner Unit. She’s definitely a force to be reckoned with.
I speak before I think. “Caligos have Decarios in their ranks, too.”
Silence.
Every head turns to me.
Ezkai Gavriel watches me, unreadable. Ezkai Cassandra’s eyes glitter, but she remains silent. Ezkai Xander steps forwards.
“Cadet Wildarrow is correct. Bold assumption that there are no Decarios inside. It’s one of the largest gambling parlors in thearea. There’s a lot of fae there and potentially dwarfs and maybe even humans,” Ezkai Xander says. “Besides, for this mission, only twelve Ezkai plus the cadets were authorized. Getting more Ezkai here is not an option.”
Bloom scoffs.
Roman crosses his arms. “Why’s that? Why only twelve trained Ezkai plus you four and a number of cadets are assigned for this mission? Surely you have better ways to test our abilities.”
Ezkai Gavriel exchanges a loaded glance with Ezkai Xander.
Ezkai August answers flatly: “The fewer the soldiers, the lower the risk of compromise.”
The silence that stretches is heavy.
“And the reason we bring cadets into such an important mission is that we get to kill two birds with one stone—we test your abilities and weed out any weaklings, while minimizing our chances of the mission being compromised,” Ezkai August adds.
Maybe Daegel isn’t here because of me and our relationship.
Maybe he was removed due to his family ties to Caligos.
My pulse spikes, my cheeks heating up. I flex my hands to release some of that tension building inside me.
“We’re outnumbered. We can’t win in a direct fight,” I say. “We need to find out who runs the place and take them out. Cut the head of the snake, and all that.”
Ezkai Gavriel nods. “How do you propose we do that?”
