Page 83 of Runaway Mate

“We’re in another Resistance camp,” Reese said, confirming my barely-there suspicions about this place’s familiar feeling. “They’re apparently not limited to just America.”

Oh, good,I said to Sariel, somewhat dimly.Hopefully, we don’t attract doom to this one, too.

He remained silent in agreement.

We were easily checked into a room with little fuss, as the Leader of the New Resistance had apparently been expecting us. How and why, we weren’t sure, and neither were our friends or the manager.

The room we got reminded me wildly of the one back in the other Resistance camp; a bit barebones but cozy and homey. We were provided a stack of clothes to change into by the residential building’s manager, and I wasted no time throwing my old clothes into a stack and jumping in the shower. I relished all the soap and shampoo alike as it washed away over twenty-four hours worth of dirt, sweat, and other grime.

We’d been on the run for only a night, a day, and some change, yet it felt like a week since I’d had a proper rest, meal, or anything. The hot water helped to banish some of the uglier tiredness from me, replacing it with sleepiness.

After sluggishly toweling myself off, I dressed in the pajamas they provided me, exited the bathroom, then collapsed onto the bed.

Half-asleep, I noted what a shame it was that I couldn’t stay awake long enough to see Sariel’s bare chest again shortly before I drifted into sleep.

I woke up when it was almost afternoon again. Sariel had barely gotten up before me; he was in the middle of changing out of his own sleepwear and into a pair of slacks and a shirt that stretched nicely across his muscles.

Ididend up getting to appreciate his bare chest, after all.

Johnny was the one to come fetch us. Unlike in the fae kingdom, he was pierced up again, his tattoos on full display. He began to explain how they’d come to be in a Resistance camp as we walked.

Mere hours after they’d been stranded in Tokyo by Barimuz, they were located by the Resistance’s Leader. Oddly enough, he’d specifically asked after Sariel and I, and while he’d seemed disappointed that we weren’t there, he’d also seemed confident that we would show up eventually.

We asked Johnny what he looked like and what his name was. He shrugged and said that it was hard to describe him; the Leader was a muscley guy with tan skin, a buzz-cut, and aviators. There seemingly wasn’t anything that unique about him, but he did give off an odd air that screamed power. He also hadn’t given them any name; he was just the Leader.

Do you know anyone like that?I asked Sariel.

A douche with big muscles and aviator glasses? Not personally, no.

Well, don’t call him a douche to his face. It looks like he saved our friends’ lives.

Back to the story, Johnny said that the Leader had led them through a fae portal, which had spat them out in some spot in Poland where a bunch of incognito vans had been waiting for them. They’d been given a free ride to this camp, and the rest was history.

That had been kind of them. Suspiciously kind. Our experience with the fae had probably given me some trust issues—I had to wonder what this Leader wanted from us in exchange for our protection since he seemed to have been expecting us.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be our firstborn this time.

In the cafeteria, we were presented with a plate full of food that might as well have been cooked by Gordon Ramsey himself for how it made my mouth water. It was just some stew and a roll, yet I wolfed it down like I hadn’t eaten in a week—thatwas how sick I was of rainwater and protein bars.

While we ate, the others explained a terrifying development that had happened in the world: The Upper Council had more or less declared war on the fae, and, therefore Europe itself.

Sariel guessed that this had come from Azazel’s meddling. Since he knew that Sariel and I were in the Free Kingdom, he must have manipulated the rest of the Council into breaking the peace with the fae in order to capture us. They were even starting to mobilize their auxiliary branches off in Asia and Africa, which I hadn’t even known existed until now. The Council’s fingers dug deep across the world.

As further explained, that wasn’t far off from the truth. The Council was apparently so threatened by hybrids they demanded that the fae hand over any especially powerful ones to them so that they could be destroyed. We, of course, landed in that category.

It was all the better that we hadn’t actually taken the fae monarchs at their word and given them an heir for them to kill and that we weren’t in their custody—for the sake of not going into war, they would’ve surely handed us over by now, and we’d all be dead.

I knew the Council was batshit crazy, but I didn’t expect that they would be crazy enough to essentially start a war over us,I said to Sariel.

Azazel was always the craziest of them all. I didn’t think that they would be crazy enough to listen to him, either.

“The reason it’s so empty outside is that the Leader advised all the camps to make themselves scarce outdoors and not attract too much attention,” Reese explained, leaning on her elbows. “The more wedon’tlook like a bunch of misfits, the more fighting that’ll pass over us. There are kids and families here, just like the other complex.”

“The good news is that the fae have no idea where you are and probably think you’re dead. Or at least not in Europe anymore,” Neo said. “I’m sure Commander Grel told them all about how we were all abducted by a demon, of all things. Not even the fae can mess with Heaven and Hell’s affairs.”

After all of that, I was quiet. This was a lot to take in.

“This is fucked,” Sariel commented dryly. “So, what are we all supposed to do in this camp now that we have a formal invitation? Fight for their cause in this war?”

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