14. Javan

Javan

We were working on a plan. Yesterday, we quietly decided we couldn't sit around anymore. We'd been looking for answers and dragging our feet on the ground has now led to half the human population being killed. If I had to take a guess, Silence wasn't nearly done yet.

We were giving ourselves a week. One solid week to analyze what the fuck we'd seen over the last two attacks. Add that together to what we knew for certain about Silence. Then we were going to use Koa's software to feed us the best plans of attack with the highest probability of not only succeeding but surviving.

It wasn't just that we were outnumbered and out weaponized. They had at minimum 6,000 beasts that appeared indestructible. The weapons we could take guesses on because we'd acquired a lot from the last facility we'd hit with the Igarashis. But the beasts?

Rue had worked tirelessly for several days writing down anything she could think of concerning every single monster she saw on the screens. She watched those scenes over and over again. Those nights, we were sure to keep her close and wrapped in our arms because she shook with nightmares, though she tried not to acknowledge them when she woke up.

Calix set a large bowl of chips on the table, followed by half a dozen smaller bowls of different dips. I raised my eyebrows as I looked.

"Rue is making snacks. It's like Super Bowl Sunday around here," he said, chuckling.

I sighed. She was still stressed. Always so stressed.

He kissed my forehead and then leaned over with his arms awkwardly around me for several minutes. A sense of finality always hung in the air. Haunting our shadows. Taunting us that our days were numbered.

"Love you," he murmured.

I gripped his leg tightly. "Love you, too."

With another kiss to my head, Calix left the room and I stared at the chips. I wasn't alone long before my friends started to trickle in. They gathered around the table, each with something in their hand—a tablet or a laptop.

Hadley sighed. "I hate how I constantly feel sick to my stomach now."

"Sure you're not pregnant?" Yarak asked.

Hadley gave him a demure look.

"I'm just saying. You have eleven horny men. It's bound to happen at some point."

Hadley met my eyes and I laughed. No one could give you a more aggravated look without meaning to than Hadley Igarashi. It was cute. Honestly.

"All right," Maryn grumbled, pushing Akello a little further away from her. "Do you have to crowd all the time?"

"You smell good," Akello said. "Like flowers and burning brimstone. Is that a Valkyrie thing?"

"Yes," Maryn agreed, and I tilted my head curiously. I hadn't known that. "The flowers are this weird shampoo Ipy insists on buying, but the brimstone is a Valkyrie thing. "

"Oh," Akello said, clearly as surprised as I was. "Ah… good to know."

"I smell like brimstone," Yarak piped in. "Why don't you bury your nose in my hair?"

"No. You smell like you were caught on fire. That's entirely different," Akello said.

I snorted.

"Anyway," Hadley deadpanned, smirking. "Where were we?"

"Eat the dips," I suggested. "Rue is making snacks, so you best be hungry."

My four friends obediently leaned in and scooped a different dip with a chip. "And I think there isn't much left to discuss regarding the two attacks. We can continue to bounce ideas around as to what we think they're going to do next, but I maintain that I think we need to go to the source. We know the hybrids are remote controlled. If I had to take a guess, the beasts are working on some kind of signal as well. They're far too synchronized for any other explanation."

"We need to take out the source," Maryn agreed.

"Hear me out," Hadley said, reaching over to try a different dip. "Also, you all need to try this red one. I don't know what it is, but I could bathe in it." She shoved it toward Akello. "So without looking at Koa's software's plans, I think we need to identify when and where the next attacks are going to be."

"We don't have the manpower for that kind of frontal response," Maryn said.

Hadley shook her head. "No, I know. We need to know when, primarily. Because that way we know when all their foot soldiers are out."

"And attack at the heart when they're not surrounded," Yarak said, nodding.

"You're right. I want to bathe in this," Akello said, looking at the red dip as if it held a new galaxy in it. "Did she drug this?"

I laughed .

"I like that idea," Maryn agreed with a nod, bringing us back on topic. "Then we're in control of the beasts and hybrids. I'm positive Koa can control them once we hack into the mainframe." She looked at me.

I nodded. "We're not allowing him to do a damn thing until it's time to move. We can't afford it. But yes, when the time comes, we're going to unleash his monster and he'll be able to do what he needs to do."

"If he's unleashing his monster, then he can't be behind the controls," Maryn countered.

"You did see the black trail of death that led to our front door, right?" I asked.

She sighed. "Yes."

"You think it's wise to let him stress over his family, his friends—everyone he loves—being out and facing the belly of the beast when he's stuck on the other end of a radio when he's already so fucking close to losing his shit?"

"Not to mention, he's one of the very top apex predators we have," Akello added. "He, Ryker, and probably Tyrus could likely take out a facility each. On their own."

"We're not doing that," I said, frowning.

"I know. I'm saying that even though he's invaluable in the role he's always taken, we need him elsewhere. That's all."

"I agree," Hadley said. "Ideally, we need three more like them. I think… I think that regardless of the outcome, the facilities have to come down. They need to be buried. Silence needs to be ended."

What she was really saying was that no matter what, everything there needed to be destroyed. Even if it meant that we sacrificed some of our own in the process. Chills of dread raced over me, even as I nodded.

"Yes," Maryn agreed. "I hate that it's our solution, but you're right. We've known that all along."

"We'll put contingencies in place. The angels need to stay back and do as much damage control as possible without being injured themselves," Akello said. "They're defense more than offense."

"Maybe the witches, too," Yarak added. "The way you've countered a lot of magical injuries over the last several years has helped a lot."

"While I don't disagree with that, those were mostly against ORKA attacks," Akello pointed out.

"Actually," Hadley said, "no, that makes sense. Torin did some magic shit to bring Zylan back at the place we hit. I think they need to concentrate on defense, too."

Akello shrugged. "I don't have a preference one way or the other. We'll work wherever we're most valuable."

"Do you think pairing Pax and Ellis will create an apex like the three we have?" Hadley mused, frowning into the bowl that once held the red sauce. "I'm sorry I shared this with you all."

I laughed.

"Yes and no," Maryn said, answering her question. "Yes, especially if we add their banshee, too. They'd have as much destructive power, probably. But they don't have the final blow like Ryker or Koa, swallowing the entire thing into their black pits of hell."

"Is that the only end we can aim for?" I asked.

"Not necessarily," Yarak said. "I think we can eliminate everyone inside. Rescue those who need to be. Then send Ryker, Koa, and likely Tyrus in as the final death sentence. Burying the entire thing as if it didn't exist to begin with. I think the point is, we want everything they've ever been working with and for destroyed, so it can't be repeated."

Hadley nodded. "Yes. That."

"Then I think we can make that work," I said. "Our biggest challenge is going to be figuring out when the next day of destruction is scheduled for."

"I'd also be curious to know if the Day of Shambala is something specific, or just the end result. The day when Silence is the last one standing," Yarak mused .

"Could there really be a countdown for that, though?" I asked.

"Depends. If they have their attacks all planned out, I think they're arrogant enough to have already assumed their victory. So the day of their last attack would be the Day of Shambala," Maryn said.

"We were just assuming that there was a countdown to a specific event," I said, nodding. "But it makes sense that it's a whole series of events with a culminating victory. That's their day one, year one of this new golden age they're promising themselves."

A knock at the door had the five of us turning to look. Rue poked her head in. "I have more offerings."

"You're going to make us fat and we're not complaining," Yarak teased, waving her in.

"Also, I'd like the entire batch of this red sauce," Hadley said, holding up the empty bowl.

Rue grinned. "I can't give that to you. Koa and Calix already finished it."

"Ugh. Damn them getting special treatment because they're your husbands," Akello muttered.

Rue smiled. "I'll make you more next time." She carried in three covered trays and placed them on the table, removing the lid of each as she went around.

Not going to lie, my mouth salivated.

"What is this?" Yarak asked, leaning over and taking a deep breath. "Nothing I cook smells this heavenly."

Rue grinned. "They're just snacks I used to have growing up. Kind of a comfort food, you know?"

She stopped at my side, and I wrapped my arm around her waist. For a minute, she stood there and watched as everyone took several sample servings from each tray. Their ‘mmm'ing was almost pornographic.

"Damn," Akello groaned. "I'm going to leave here like eight pounds heavier. I can feel it. "

Rue kissed the top of my head. "I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'll let you get back to work. Sorry to interrupt."

"You can interrupt any time," Hadley promised. "With or without food offerings, though we will never say no to your food offerings."

"Noted," Rue said.

I didn't take a lot of the snacks because Rue was always cooking, and I got to enjoy the fruits of her labor often. So I'd let them enjoy this for now. For several minutes, we were quiet as we ate. Their moans of happy tastebuds rarely died down.

"I'm going to need some cooking lessons," Maryn said. "Is she offering classes?"

Grinning, I shrugged. "No idea."

"Okay, break time over," Hadley declared.

"Hard-ass," Yarak muttered, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his stomach.

"What are the loose ends we're forgetting?" Hadley asked.

"Fact is, there's always going to be something we forget," Maryn said. "The quicker we decide on a plan of action, then we can spend the next few days coming up with every single contingency we can imagine and prepare for it."

"Then we take this to… the board…?" Hadley asked, raising a brow. "Like, who is the deciding body here?"

Akello laughed. "I think we all are as a group. It's our lives we're putting on the line. We get to decide together how we do it."

"I like this idea," Maryn said. "Determining when they're at their weakest—which is definitely when all their disposable, infallible muscle is away—and striking then."

"If we could close down the doors between the worlds upon our attack, it could buy us invaluable minutes cutting off their ability to call their weapons back for defense," Yarak suggested.

"Ohh," Maryn said. "You have some good ideas in that fiery brain, after all."

Yarak narrowed his eyes. He raised his hand and kissed his palm before blowing it across the table. A fiery heart raced for Maryn. She slapped it away with a metal cuff that glistened upon impact, sending the fire toward Akello, who magicked it out.

"If you set my house on fire, I'm feeding you to Koa," I deadpanned, and Yarak just huffed.