Chapter 16

Azlan

The journey is nota comfortable one. Stone wasn't exaggerating. The car is a rust bucket, a rust bucket that hardly fits my large frame. I am crammed into the seat, folded in half with my knees scraping the underside of my chin, feeling every bump and crater in the road. Every so often I glance in the rearview mirror to be met with my friend's unamused expression.

It doesn't help that the girl is a really shit driver. Not that she seems to notice her own limitations, oblivious to our winces and sucked-in breaths, and politely declining every offer I make to take over behind the wheel.

Halfway there I decide I need something to distract me from the near misses and my increased agitation about both Rhi and Ellie. I flip on the radio and scroll through the stations. I'm met with a hissing noise at every frequency.

"They're all down," I say. "All the stations."

However, finally we hit on one lone station, one I bet is situated somewhere as far away from the border and Los Magicos as you can get. It plays old country songs and when one comes on that I remember my mom singing, I sit back and close my eyes, hoping it might calm me the shit down.

Towards the end of the song, however, when the guitars are fading, the song cuts dead and a loud voice blares across the frequency instead.

I snap open my eyes.

"Citizens of the Republic. Yesterday at twenty-one hundred hours forces from the West invaded our lands and attempted to topple our government. They were fortunately thwarted, although not without the loss of lives and some destruction to our great capital." I sit forward in my seat. It isn't the chancellor speaking. No, it's my goddamn uncle. "No doubt we were betrayed by traitors within our midst, citizens who aided and abetted our enemies. As such, a state of emergency has been declared, and the council has chosen to install me, Christopher Kennedy, as temporary Lord Protector of our nation. I will not rest until our enemies – the weeds that grow hidden among us – have been hunted down, tugged out by their roots and utterly destroyed. Rest assured, no such attack will ever be allowed to happen again. You will find me a ruthless tyrant when it comes to our enemies and a fair and just ruler to all those faithful to our republic."

I sniff. Fair? Just? He'll hunt down every dissident, every opponent he can and obliterate them. There will be no fairness, no peace. There will only be tyranny and fear.

"It doesn't make any sense," Stone says in irritation. "Who the fuck led the attack and why the fuck did they back off?"

I shake my head. I don't know. Since the fall of the Black Prince two decades ago, the forces in the West have been split and fractious. Different leaders have risen, fighting amongst themselves. No one has wielded enough power to lead an attack like the one last night. If they really did …

"Maybe this has nothing to do with the West after all," I say, "maybe this was a coup."

"Moreau insists forces attacked from over the border."

I shrug. "My uncle could have planned it to look that way."

"Do you think they'll reinstate the cell network?" Winnie asks unsurely. "I really need to check that Trent and my family are okay."

I snort again and Winnie peers at me with distress.

"I'm sure they will," Stone says, obviously wanting to placate our driver. But he knows it benefits my uncle to keep communications down. He'll want everyone scurrying around like headless chickens in the dark. Makes it easier to swoop down and pluck off his enemies one by one.

We're all quiet for the next hour. The scenery beyond the window is one blurred line of color as we hurtle along at unrecognizable speeds, but I catch glimpses: houses, forests, the mountains in the distance. The fighting didn't reach this far. In fact, out here, you could believe that last night didn't happen at all, that nothing has changed.

Another half hour passes, the sun sinking behind the horizon and the car beginning to slow.

"We're here?" I ask Winnie. We're deep in the wastelands now. The authorities' grip here has always been weakest, the gangs ruling in effect. Lowsky's compound lies in the heart of the forest in front of us. It's not somewhere I've ever ventured before.

"I've taken us to the point you instructed."

"Right," I say, "Stone and I are going to go on foot from here. You need to keep yourself and this car hidden until we return with Rhi."

"Foot?" Winnie says.

"We don't know who's out there. Lowsky's men may be out patrolling. Fuck, there may even be soldiers from the West or my uncle's men. We'll be less conspicuous this way."

"You're not going without me," Winnie says, already unclipping her seat belt.

"Miss Wence," Stone says, leaning forward in his seat. "You need to guard this car. We may need it as our getaway vehicle."

"I'm coming with you," she says, ignoring her professor.

"Miss Wence, you are not. Let's not beat about the bush. This is going to be dangerous and you have no combat experience."

"No combat experience?" Winnie huffs. "What was I doing then when the academy was attacked?" Stone goes to answer her question, but she cuts right through him. "Plus you said yourself, I'm a good magical."

"You are," Stone says. "You're also important to Rhi and seeing as we've already managed to mislay two of her fated mates today, we're not losing you too."

"Which is why I should come with you."

"No," I say firmly. "You're staying with the car."

"And what the hell am I meant to do if you don't come back?"

"If we're not back by daybreak, you get the hell out of here."

"And go where? Those men at the academy tried to arrest me."

"Back to your family."

She looks at me, a hard look a mere scrap of girl like her has no right to make, and then throws that same hard stare Stone's way.

"Fine," she says, "but I don't like it. And if you need me to come rescue you–"

I snort. Her rescue us? Less than likely.

Winnie points a finger at me. "Then you send up a flare. The colors of the academy crest."

I have no intention of doing that. Stone's right. We have a duty to keep this girl safe and we've already risked her well-being bringing her this far. Still, I nod my head, just to avoid an argument.

"Find somewhere to hide the car," I say, tugging on the door handle and climbing out of the vehicle.

I wait for Stone to join me and then we head off, leaving the road and plunging into the trees.

"You know where you're going?" Stone says.

I close my eyes, take a deep inhale searching for scents on the wind, hunting for traces of magic. I catch a hint of both. Southeast.

"This way," I tell him and he follows me through the woodland.

The trail grows stronger the further we travel, and twice we're forced to lay down low among the dead leaves to avoid passing patrols catching sight of us.

It's Lowsky's men. No soldiers here. But something is wrong. I can tell by their skittish behavior, by the unease I smell in their scents.

Have they heard that Lowsky's dead? Is that what's bothering them?

Or, if they were working with the forces in the West, as we suspect, do they fear retribution now the invasion has failed? Are they alarmed, like the rest of us, at my uncle's sudden rise to power? The chancellor was ruthless with no time or patience for the gangs but he was a mere pussycat compared to my uncle.

From a distance we follow three gang men as they trample through the forest, muttering to each other in concerned voices and soon we see the high fences of the compound in the distance.

From what I can make out, it's not as well-fortified as I'd expected, a few gang members lolling around the entrance and a few circling the perimeter.

"This doesn't seem right," I muse.

"What doesn't?" Stone asks, crouching beside me.

"Why are there so few of them? Why aren't they properly organized?"

"I'm telling you, Az, Lowsky is dead. Their leader has gone. They probably don't know what the hell to do."

I rub at my chin, watching the men. They look unsettled.

"How about Rhi?" Stone asks. "Can you feel her? Can you feel her close by?"

I shift my focus away from the men and their scents, and focus in on that feeling in my gut, my bond. I can feel her more than I could and can feel her mixture of emotions, turbulent as always. I wish I was more adept at reading them. I wish I could tell if she was hurt, afraid, in danger. But maybe women have always been a damn mystery to me, and maybe, despite our bond, despite fate's intentions, I understand Rhianna even less than most.

I don't say any of this to my friend. Instead I say, "She feels closer."

"Yes," he says, screwing up his face. "But close enough? Shouldn't we be able to feel her more if she were this close? Maybe she isn't here after all."

"Stone," I say in frustration. "This is the only lead we have. Fuck, you're right, she might not be here. But I'm going to find out for sure. And you can come with me or not."

"Is that your plan?" a voice says from behind me and I nearly jump a mile out of my skin as Winnie crouches down in the undergrowth with us.

"I told you to stay with the car," I growl.

"And I decided that was dumb and that if we're rescuing Rhi, then I'm helping."

My worn patience finally breaks and I snap up to standing and stroll through the thinning trees towards the gates.

Phoenix mutters another long string of expletives and jogs to catch up with me, Winnie right behind him.

"So I assume we're going through the front door," he mutters.

"I've never been one to sneak in the back," I say, "it isn't my style."

He shakes his head at me, this time muttering that I'm an idiot.

Yeah, I probably am. Walking straight into the lion's den is probably damn foolish. But I'm going to do it anyway.