Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The impact of my hooves hitting the roof’s concrete jarred through my body and my teeth slammed shut so hard that one of my molars chipped, but I ignored that, spitting it out and looking up to where I could see the stars—because all of Sylas’s smoke and the plastic scent of exploded C4 was clearing.

Was the Nightmare okay? And his baby?

And what had happened with Nex and Sarah?

“Sylas?” I shouted, immediately concerned.

He coagulated in front of me, baby-sling and all. “After you made your move, they departed.”

And the antenna was still in one piece, so—“Ace!” Sarah shrieked, coming through the open roof door. “Are you all right? We lost contact with you?—”

I was already running for her, crunching through drone rubble and scanning the ground for unexploded ordinance.

“Back inside!” I demanded, picking her up like she weighed nothing. “Sorry—it’s just not safe?—”

“You’re alive!” she squeaked as I squeezed all the air out of her. “What happened?”

“He hurled a dish like a discus, taking the largest drone out of the sky,” Sylas intoned from beside me.

“And without it around, I managed to override their security systems, and send the rest of them home and armed,” Nex said, from…I didn’t know where.

“You’re not supposed to be free range, Nex.”

“Hmm,” he said, mimicking thought quite effectively. “I suspect a lot of things have happened tonight that we shouldn’t tell our superiors.”

“You’re not wrong there,” I muttered. “But—as for now.”

“We’re safe,” Sylas said, putting a gentle hand against the sling he carried, making Lucian coo.

“You all know what that means then, right?” I asked everyone surrounding. “It’s time to get our stories straight.”

Sylas swore up and down he’d have the lobby cleaned before the actual cleaning people came and had a heart attack—and he had a confession for me before he left to manage it, pulling me aside as Sarah and Nex discussed the best ways to decontaminate the roof. “There is a slight chance that I, as the humans say, ‘owe you one’.”

“Nonsense. I only did what any other MSA agent would do up there,” I said, assuming he meant my moment of heroism on the antenna, when I was left exposed.

“Hmm? No, not that—I mean, of course you would’ve,” he said. “But no, I mean more in relation to you never telling my wife that Lucian and I were here.”

It was hard not to burst out laughing. “Serena told me to tell you to ask her for permission! And I did!”

Sylas made a disgruntled sound. “Well, we were hungry, and this time of year is strange, isn’t it? All good feelings and cheer? I find myself disliking it.”

I reached out and clapped his shadowy shoulder, careful not to fall through him. “Me too, man,” I said, before catching sight of Sarah. “I mean, up until about four and a half days ago. But don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Good,” the Nightmare said. Then he opened up a portal to another place and disappeared, as Sarah returned to my side, beaming.

“Well?” I asked her.

“It worked—or rather, it’s working—multiple news outlets are reporting on the list now!”

“Worldwide,” Nex added.

“And here I thought you all were discussing plastique removal,” I teased. “But really, Sarah—that’s amazing!” I said, feeling stupid, until she threw herself into my arms and agreed.

“It is! It really is!” she said, as I lifted her up and spun her.