Chapter 15

15

DEVA

“Seven more deaths last night.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised by the shit show that greeted us this morning, yet somehow the news had my eyes widening as I tried to control the surge of pure fury I felt at Phelan Nyx’s words.

Not just fury, but guilt.

I normally felt a misplaced sense of fucked up guilt for Astaroth’s actions, constantly wondering why I hadn’t been strong enough to stop him myself rather than running all those years ago. But now that I knew the truth and how we were connected, it was more intense than ever.

My gaze moved to the window that was coated in the morning downpour of rain as Alek’s hand tightened on my leg in a comforting squeeze. I knew he understood my dilemma more than anyone since people often blamed him for his father’s actions.

It didn’t help that I could feel the tension rolling through our group bond. None of my men were happy about how we’d been woken up this morning, especially Alek, whose arms I’d fallen asleep in on the couch. All of us had been getting some much-needed rest, only to be woken by a loud banging on the door by estate staff who informed us that Phelan and Circe needed to see us.

Now I understood the urgency, but I didn’t think it made my men feel any better about it. They didn’t like anyone disturbing us. We probably weren’t going to last very long in the dorms if we did go back to DIA, truth be told.

Although, I think the specific tension today was in part because of Lazaro’s parents and grandmother, who were sitting opposite us in Phelan’s office, the latter watching me with interest despite my attempts to ignore her.

“Unblessed?” Grim asked, shadows dancing along his fingers as he sat on my other side. Cage sat in front of me, relaxing his back against the sofa I sat on, while Oz stood near the window, listening but keeping his attention there rather than the rest of the group. I could feel Lazaro pacing behind us, and I knew that his aggressive restlessness was making his family stressed, but I couldn’t care less at the moment. The more Lazaro revealed about them, the less and less I liked them.

They weren’t the ‘bad’ guys, but they weren’t really the good guys either…especially if they had truly messed with his magic as badly as he implied.

“Five of them. The other two were young children whose abilities hadn’t yet revealed themselves.”

My brain halted completely on that as I snapped my head towards Phelan. “They killed children?”

“Eight and ten,” Circe confirmed.

I frowned, running a hand over my face and deciding to just ask the question on my mind even though it risked revealing how much I knew about Astaroth. Although it seemed they’d already caught onto that, even with the simple tale I’d spun about being one of the many children raised by him.

“Did Astaroth kill them, or was a different method used? I never knew him to kill children. Bring them into his ranks, sure, but kill…”

“It’s true,” Oz said. “When my parents were killed, I was spared and escaped with the help of a neighbor before Astaroth could collect me.”

My eyes widened, realizing that if he hadn’t escaped, Oz’s and my paths would have crossed far before they actually did. I was glad he never had to go through what I did, though.

“He may hate the unblessed, but he still would have experimented on their magic,” I added. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but if they died during one of his experiments, it was vastly different in his mind than a straight kill.”

“It wasn’t his normal style, so it’s completely possible it was one of his commanders,” Circe agreed, examining a piece of paper that laid on the main desk.

“Ozul,” I murmured softly, unable to stop myself. “He would have done that.”

“All the more reason to find him,” Cage sang as he looked up at me, a smile playing on his lips and bloodlust twinkling in his eyes. His father chuckled, and his mom shook her head but didn’t comment. I had a feeling she was used to it, and while his brothers weren’t here, I had to assume conversations of bloodshed were the norm between their family as a whole.

“Where were the deaths?” Lazaro’s mother asked, her voice calm and clinical as she worriedly stared while at her son trying to participate in the conversation.

“Outer villages, only a few miles north of Carmina. Closer than before,” Circe said. “It appears, and I don’t have confirmation on this…”

“That he is planning a full-scale attack on Carmina.” Phelan finished her sentence, his expression grim and filled with stress.

Shit.Inhaling, I resisted the urge to stand up as my fingers tapped anxiously on my lap. A voice I didn’t recognize spoke from the back of the room—Grim’s cousin, Lycidas, I believe. “Why the sudden escalation? Why now?”

That was a damn good question, and I didn’t have an answer.

“Probably the same reason he’s searching for Deva,” Lazaro’s father said easily. My throat thickened, wondering if he was about to take my secrets and fucking lay them out for everyone to see. Lazaro rested a comforting hand on my shoulder, wordlessly conveying that he didn’t think his father planned to take that route.

“And what is that?” Cage’s father asked.

“In his mind, and who knows the reasoning, it’s time to finally make a move, and he believes he’s built an army worthy of that. Alek and Deva, two powerful witches who he believes belong within the ranks of his soldiers, are off academy grounds. He’s probably ordering attacks to draw them out and then finally move forward with his plan,” Hellebore said with a shrug. “Or it happens to be chance.”

Except it wasn’t chance. He was right. Astaroth was doing this to draw us out—specifically to draw me out.

“Which means that he will eventually work his way here,” Phelan concluded.

Which meant I would absolutely not be here. I wouldn’t bring that on them.

I would give Astaroth this—the bastard knew me well. He knew that rumors of his attacks would reach me and push me to go to him, rather than force him to come all the way here. Especially because the further he came into the city, the worse the deaths would become.

My men would both hate that explanation and understand it.

“Our scouts are back. I’d like to have an intel meeting in a few hours. If you’re okay with it, Deva, I would love to get as much information about his headquarters as possible. If he does plan to attack Carmina, we can simultaneously have others go to his fortress and attack while most of his forces are deployed.”

“Sure,” I murmured.

“Good, good.” Cage’s father stood and offered him a smile. “Your other brothers are arriving today—maybe they will join us.”

Cage groaned and put his head back, my hands moving through his hair as I began to formulate a plan. Luckily, Grim seemed ahead of me. “We’re going back to my suite for a bit—it’s far too fucking early for us to talk strategy without even having coffee.”

The need to leave the room was hardly about the coffee, but all of us stood and played along. As we exited the room, I looked back at Lazaro’s grandmother, who was watching me with understanding. I didn’t know how, but I had a feeling she understood exactly where my head was going, and she clearly didn’t plan on saying a word. I didn’t know how to feel about that.

As we walked the stone corridors, I went to speak, but Grim squeezed my hand and shook his head. It wasn’t until we were in his suite that he broke the silence, his gaze on me.

“I’m assuming we’re going to the outer villages, little jaguar?”

I hesitated, not wanting to come off as hasty. “I think it may be smart to handle this in the outer villages where there are less people. I know he’s doing this to draw me out, and I don’t want your families caught in the crosshairs, especially until we know exactly why he’s doing this. This isn’t as simple as him deciding now is a good time—there’s something larger at play here.”

Alek sat down on the couch, his elbows on his knees. “If they reach Carmina, it will be a bloodbath. People like Ozul and my father don’t care about anything but their body count, even when it comes to children.”

“That is disgusting,” I spat. “Astaroth is a fucking monster, but in his head—his very fucked up head—he has a code he follows. But you’re right that Ozul doesn’t have a code. None of his commanders do.”

Oz wrapped an arm around me and kissed my shoulder before admitting, “I realize now if I hadn’t escaped, starlight, we would have met sooner. I heard them talking about bringing me back there.”

I tilted my head up and looked him straight in the eye so he’d see my sincerity. “I’m glad you never came to him. He would have experimented on you, Oz. To the point that you would’ve either died, or…I don’t know. The experiments on unblessed were always failures in his mind.”

He nodded in understanding before kissing the shell of my ear. “Would have been worth it to be near to you.”

“I’m surprised your parents didn’t say shit,” Cage said to Lazaro.

“They wouldn’t.” Lazaro shook his head. “They’re part of the Society, but my family harbors secrets better than anyone I fucking know.”

“Well let’s hope when we leave they can keep it, because I have a feeling your grandmother knows we plan to leave,” I said, Lazaro nodding in agreement after a moment of thought.

“We may have issues getting out of here without being seen or caught—there are a lot of fuckers around right now.” Grim walked out of the closet—I hadn’t even realized he’d disappeared into it—and dropped three leather backpacks on the ground. “Let’s keep our supplies light and leave through the balcony and over the walls of the estate. Sooner rather than later.”

Nibbling my lip, I tried to restrain the urge to offer that they stay.

“Don’t ask,” Oz warned. “No one is staying, and if you leave without us⁠—”

“I would actually lose my fucking mind.” Lazaro immediately snapped his gaze over to me, completely serious. Cage, of course, chuckled at his reaction. Alek was already standing to pack, unfazed, and Grim was offering me an amused look, clearly wondering if I was going to argue the point.

I blew out an exhale. “Fine—I won’t say it. I won’t freakin’ say it.”

“Good.” Oz squeezed my waist once more before disappearing.

“Wait.” I looked around. “What about our familiars?”

Grim’s face softened. “Here at the estate we have a large space for all the familiars. They are well taken care of and kept safe there, even now. We can bring them if that’d make you more comfortable, but when I checked on them late last night, they seemed to be doing well.”

“Leave them,” I agreed, relieved at that notion. “I don’t need Astaroth realizing they exist.” He would have zero issue using a familiar against me.

I felt extremely secure in the knowledge that she would be safe here. No matter how much she would aid my magic—which I was learning was a fair amount, especially if I felt drained during battle—it wasn’t worth the risk to her safety.

As I went towards the bathroom, I grabbed a few personal items, putting them in one of the nearby backpacks before adding clothes. I didn’t know how much I would need or how long we would be gone, but I made sure to pack interchangeable items before going into the closet to quickly change. This morning I’d pulled on a simple t-shirt and jeans, but knowing we were going to be walking through Carmina, I went with a different tactic.

We would naturally stand out because of my men—there was no way to hide the aura of power and wealth that surrounded them—but the same wasn’t necessarily true for me. Putting on an old pair of ripped jeans, the bottoms frayed and black color worn, I added a long-sleeve shirt and an oversized black sweater with a newer pair of dark boots. Tugging on a black leather jacket, I braided my hair back and pulled up my hood, feeling far more comfortable than I had in a lot of what I’d worn at DIA so far. Somehow I knew that reverting back to hiding in the shadows would always feel that way.

Coming out of the closet, I nearly slammed right into Alek, his hands darting out to catch me as he looked over me with interest. “I haven’t seen you dressed like this before.”

“I have,” Oz mused as he folded something into a bag.

“If we’re walking around Carmina, I figure it may be better to wear something not as nice,” I pointed out. Alek offered me a confused brow raise, Oz chuckling under his breath. Considering the man had just laid out a pair of jeans and a hoodie to change into, I knew I didn’t need to explain to him.

“Do I need to change?” Alek motioned to what he was wearing, looking baffled. My gaze darted over his dark expensive jacket, jeans, and boots as I nibbled my lip in thought.

“No.” I shook my head. “You should be totally fine in that.”

The other three weren’t even trying. Cage, Grim, and Lazaro all dressed how they normally would and looked extremely wealthy despite the label-less clothes. Or hell maybe because of it…but I didn’t want to bring that up to them or make them feel out of place. Partly because it would make me feel out of place—it had in the past whenever someone commented on how I was dressed. I already had a feeling that being on the streets of Carmina was going to be surprising to them, and there was no need to add to the discomfort they’d probably be feeling.

“Nearly ready?” Grim asked.

Nodding, I walked into the bathroom and checked myself in the mirror one last time. I looked far different than when I wore this outfit last. Hell of a lot better than how I had looked even when we first arrived at the estate, my cheeks flushed and eyes well rested. Last night I slept really well and was completely dreamless, which was good…because I had a feeling that what we were about to face was going to require every ounce of our energy and attention.