Chapter 19

Aidan

He could feel a headache building. Each day felt longer than the last, and he’d only woken up four hours ago. Aidan knew it was partly because he didn’t get enough rest. Except for the weekly dinners, he often didn’t return to his quarters until very late. Once he did, he needed several hours ofspending time with his mate before he could finally relax and fall asleep. Today’s news didn’t help matters.

He stared at the weathered tome on his desk in disbelief. “Tell me where it was again?”

Kade cleared his throat. “Ahem, under the mattress of my bed.”

“It never occurred for you to look there or at least change your sheets now and then, so you might notice it?” Aidan asked, rubbing his temples.

“Of course, I change my sheets, but it was never there before.”

He took a deep, calming breath. “What made you look this time?”

“I slept terribly last night,” he said, features drawn enough that it was believable. “There was a large lump, and it drove me crazy for hours until I finally decided to look.”

Aidan gestured at the ancient and worn book. “Very well. Now you have it, but what has it told you so far?”

“To be honest, it’s in several languages, most of which I don’t know. I will need time to translate it all, but I found a few pages in our native tongue.” He reached forward and opened the tome to a marked page. “This one in particular is most concerning.”

There was a drawing of a strange face, or perhaps a mask? Aidan read the passage below it and tensed. It was a warning about toxic magical gases the Kandoran formulated to target humans, infecting anyone who breathed it. It wouldn’t work on dragons or slayers due to genetic differences, but everyone else would be susceptible. The sketch showed the type ofprotective device to use.

"What are we supposed to do? It’s not like we have time to make enough of these strange masks for our human forces or the supplies.” Aidan clenched his fists. “And this picture hardly provides a blueprint for their construction.”

Kade’s artistic skills were average at best, as shown in his childlike sketch.

His uncle shrugged. “I’m only showing you what I found. I still don’t remember drafting the page or any further details.”

Bailey entered the office. She took one look at him and furrowed her brows in concern. “What’s wrong?”

Aidan gestured for her to come to him and enveloped her in his arms. He breathed deeply of her scent, which somehow made his headache more bearable.“Kade found his book.”

“That’s great news,” she said, pulling back a few inches to gaze up at him. “So why do you look so stressed?”

“He still has to translate most of it, but a few pages were somewhat…decipherable.” Aidan pointed toward the tome. “As you can see.”

She turned in his arms to look where it sat open on his desk.

“Why is there a military gas mask drawn on there?” she asked after studying it. Most likely, she could read a few of the words, but she wasn’t fluent in the language yet.

“Kade says we’re going to need them.” Aidan went on to explain the rest of what the page said. “I don’t see how we can manufacture these to work properly, much less in time.”

She drummed her fingers on his desk. “Tinker should have some, but I’m willing to bet there are still a bunch at Ft. Sill since that was a training base and had active duty units. I can’t imagine why anyone would have bothered to loot them. Until now, chemical warfare has been the least of our concerns since dragons returned.”

“So these exist already?” he asked, relief filling him. That would make things considerably more manageable than trying to assemble them without proper directions.

She nodded. “Yes. There should be loads of them at all the military bases and maybe some at police and fire stations, but are we sure they’d work against magical gases?”

“The page says the binding ingredients in the gases won’t be able to get through the filter, and without that, the magic can’t work,” Kade replied.

Bailey’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you find the book?”

Aidan grunted. “Under his bed.”

“Seriously?”

“In my defense, I do not think it was there before last night,” Kade said, shrugging. “Books of magic tend to have minds of their own and do as they please.”

Bailey rubbed at her temples, as if she were starting to develop a headache as well.His uncle tended to have that effect on people. There were times such as now that Aidan understood why his father had confined his uncle to the library for centuries.

“I miss when the laws of nature and physics worked properly,” she sighed.

He gave her a commiserating look.

“I know Tinker is in our territory,” Kade said, returning their attention to him. “But where is…Ft. Sill?”

Bailey drew a deep breath. “Uh, it’s in Kandoran territory, but not too close to the shield. Miles and Justin are familiar with military bases, so they could point out the likely mask locations for us to look.”

Every time they sent people into that land, things went wrong.Aidan’s headache took a turn for the worse as he mulled over whether the expedition was worth it.

“Will there be enough for all our human forces?” Kade asked.

Bailey shrugged. “Between the two military bases and the police and fire stations, it should be enough for all our human fighters in Oklahoma since the current count is a little over twelve hundred, including volunteers in the north. The coalition began heading this way two days ago, but they shouldn’t be too far yet.”

Her brows drew together. “When they check in next, I’ll suggest stopping by Ft. Campbell and any other bases along the way to grab masks for their people. The Faegud can tell their humans to grab their own since there are plenty of bases in Texas, and the same goes for the Vataran in Kansas.”

Aidan’s mind raced. “I’ll send messengers to the north and south to inform our allies so their humans can begin obtaining masks.”

He’d have to pull a couple of shifters from their duties to fly to the Shadowan and Vataran territories. If Bailey was correct, they should have enough for the humans in Northern Oklahoma, but they’d still need to coordinate with their contact to receive them. As for the Kansas area, a human leader was working with the dragons now, so that person could hopefullyacquire masks.

“The sooner everyone gets them, the better,” Bailey said, glancing at the tome page again. “We need to have them stored for easy accessibility before the Kandoran arrive, and I’d say we should get plenty of extras in case we need them. Going to Ft. Sill would be our best bet.”

He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you going that far inside enemy territory again.”

She rose on her toes to kiss his cheek. “I know, but I have nothing better to do now anyway. I’m not scheduled to train at the dome for another four days, and I don’t have the skills or magic to help with any projects around the fortress.”

He did occasionally have her assist with moving supplies, but other than that, she was right that there wasn’t much she could do at the moment. It still worried him to let her go into enemy territory after what happened last time.

“We’ll see what the others think and decide.”

“Okay,” she said with a shrug. “But I think it’s best if the team who is going to get them leaves early tomorrow.”

A knock sounded on the office door. Aidan reluctantly pulled away from Bailey as Kade moved to open it. Two elders’ council members stepped inside, giving him a nod of respect before taking their seats in the sitting area.

Lorcan entered the room, surprising Aidan. “What are you doing here?”

“The Kandoran attacked the Ghastanan yesterday. More than a thousand of them have fled to our border since early this morning, and more keep coming. They’ve lost much of their northern and western lands.”

It was as if Aidan’s headache knew of the trouble he’d encounter today and got an early start.

“Are they still attacking?” he asked.

Lorcan shook his head. “The ones who arrived directly before I came here said the Kandoran stopped their advance for now.”

Kade’s face was grim. “That was the last sign.” He flipped through the tome until he reached another page. “According to this, we have ten days until the war begins. Hmm. Actually, make that nine since they began their assault yesterday.”

“We still haven’t received instructions on the orb,” Aidan argued.

“Let us hope we do before they attack.”