Page 22 of Replaced Mate

Marilyn blew out a breath, looking exhausted. “It’ll be fine. We just need to get them talking.”

“Don’t you have a spell or something for this?”

Wards surrounded the building they’re keeping our prisoners in. When we walked up to it, the two men sitting outside were playing some kind of card game, barely glancing up at us as we approached.

Sariel had been fuming when Auren insisted I needed to follow through on this. It had undone all the progress they’d made, but I hadn’t really had time to worry about the state of their relationship. Marilyn hadn’t been shocked by the turn of events, but I could admit I had hoped at least a tiny bit that he would have let me off the hook.

I wasn’t ready—shaking in my boots, more or less.

Marilyn took the lead and stepped through the threshold of the house. The two guards didn’t seem all that interested in any of it, simply shutting the door behind us when we were standing in the living room.

“I wish,” she answered. “The only one I know involves mind-mapping them, and that usually leaves them as husks, which is kind of counter-productive to what we’re trying to do here.”

She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I felt my stomach revolt at the thought.

The house was small but cozy. Honestly, there were worse cells to be locked in; I eyed the tiny kitchen in the corner enviously for a moment.

“Auren said they’re in the basement.”

Oh.Well.

I followed her towards the little door off the hallway, shuddering as we stepped down the dark stairs.

This was more what I’d been expecting. The spell locking them down here was so potent I could feel it sliding against my skin as we descended into a dimly lit room.

Both Captains were waiting for us, looking pale and haggard. I tried not to wonder about the others that had been lined up before Auren Ambrose like sacrificial lambs.

“It would have been smarter to split us up,” Captain Velez bit out, scowling. “We’re not giving you anything as long as we can support each other.”

Aster elbowed her comrade, glaring as the other woman rolled her eyes.

“We could have, but it seemed unnecessarily cruel, considering what happened yesterday,” Marilyn drawled.

I shuddered, remembering the sound of the two men’s necks snapping. I didn’t know who they were or if that was something they could have recovered from, but I wasn’t keen on finding out, either. Zuzanna had seemed just a bit too enthusiastic about it all for my tastes, and while I’d known, in theory, that we were going to war and people were going to die, it was… unnerving to see it done likethat.

My wolf could feel the two Paras’ attention shift to me, probably assuming I would be the weakest link. It was unfortunate for them that I had gotten to talk to Rebecca this morning with the help of Zuzanna because the fact my family had been driven into hiding amidst all the bullshit Azazel had started was enough to keep me firmly planted on Team Resistance, murder or no.

Besides, they would have killed me, given half a chance.

“How did you find us?” I asked, and they were predictably quiet. It made my eyes sting, and I tried to will them to cooperate with nothing but a long stare.

It didn’t work.

Marilyn sighed. “Don’t make us torture you.”

Her appeal was met with stone faces.

“This is your only chance to get out of this alive. You know that, right? We’re the only people that care what happens to you here—help us help you.”

This was the worst ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine I had ever seen, and part of me was cringing.

“No.”

I groaned at Aster's refusal, rubbing my hands over my face. “Seriously? Why?”

“Because you’re the bad guys?”

“We’re the bad guys?Youattackedus!” I argued with Velez, who gave me a look that let me know just how stupid she thought I was.

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