Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

IZZY

B ishop is frozen in the doorway, so I can't see what he's looking at. I push lightly on his back to get him to move. My touch seems to break through whatever's going on in his mind. He turns back to me. "You don't need to see this, Izzy."

I raise my brows at him. "You don't get to decide that, St. James. I'm not yours right now. I'm just another mage on a mission with you." No one outside of my family and my mates should be listening in right now, but I'm careful not to say mate just in case anyone is.

While I get that he wants to protect me, I'm sick of everyone thinking I'm fragile. I don't need or want to be protected. All I want is to be respected as an equal.

He chuckles humorlessly. "You never stop being mine, sweetheart." Bishop scrubs a hand over his face before blowing out a breath. "Fine. Have a look. I don't think this is what we came for, though."

After Bishop steps farther inside the room, I'm able to get a good look at what he didn't want me to see. I gasp.

The room is more like a small warehouse than a room, complete with a concrete floor, bare rafters, and no windows. It's probably around a hundred feet long and fifty feet wide. The part that stops me in my tracks are the cages lining the walls of the huge space. There have to be hundreds of cages filled with unconscious people.

All of the people are dressed in only hospital gowns. Their minimal clothing highlights the bruising, cuts, and dried blood covering them from head to toe. I'm not even sure some of them are still alive, with the amount of blood in their cages.

"What the fuck is this?" I whisper to no one in particular. Though the eyeball earlier wasn't close to the worst thing I've seen on missions, this definitely is.

I wander closer to the cage directly to my left. I'm not sure whether it's a good or bad thing that I can see the faint rise and fall of the woman's chest. It would probably be a kinder fate to be dead, honestly. Along with the cuts and bruises, she also has a broken arm, that's twisted the wrong way, and shattered fingers.

I clench my hands into fists, so I don't reach in there and heal her. Whoever is doing this to them would probably notice if her arm and fingers miraculously healed. That'd just mean more pain for her in the long run.

"I don't know, Izzy. Jesus fucking Christ. I knew the council was bad, but this is a whole other level of fucked up."

Bishop can fucking say that again.

"We have to leave them behind, don't we?" My voice is barely audible, but both Levi and Bishop hear it.

"Yeah, we do." Bishop stares at me like he's worried I'm going to lose control.

He's not wrong to be concerned. Pure fury at the council burns like acid through my veins as I take in yet another reminder of their corruption and depravity.

Losing control won't help anything, though. It'd be satisfying to storm into the council chambers and take out as many of them as I can. But that won't help these people or affect real change on the council.

Squeezing my eyes tightly for a moment, I try to gather myself. But the anger burning brightly in my chest isn't soothed. I open my eyes in defeat and slowly walk down the length of the left side.

As I walk, I memorize the faces of everyone I pass. I burn them into my memory, so they aren't forgotten. We may have to leave them, but I won't forget them. I vow to get them out as soon as I can.

On my walk through, I also realize why Bishop doesn't think this is what we're looking for. Most of the people in the cages aren't young mages. There are some kids in the cages, but I'm not sure they're even mages. Some of the people in the cages are too bulky, too pale, or have too pointed of ears to be mages.

How in the hell did they collect other races to experiment on?

When I reach the end of this side, I walk along the back wall and down the opposite side, doing the exact same thing. After I complete my walk through, I spend who knows how long staring sightlessly at the boy in the last cage.

"Say the word, and I'll get all of them out. Fuck the consequences. Just tell me what you need me to do." I turn around to see Levi standing right behind me. He's staring down at me with concern shining in his crimson eyes. I've only seen his eyes completely red a few times before, so this horror show must be fucking with his head too.

"We can't." My voice breaks. "Saving all of them means we won't ever figure out what's going on here or with the mage development program. We can't afford to tip them off right now."

Levi clenches his jaw before pulling me into a hard hug. He squeezes me tight, and I inhale his smoky scent. "What can I do to help?"

"I don't know," I mumble into his dress-shirt-covered chest. "I just want whoever's doing this to pay." What I'm not saying is that I want to kill whoever it is. Painfully. I want them to feel every ounce of agony they've caused others.

"They will, little raven. Trust me, even death won't offer an escape. I swear it." He sounds absolutely convinced of that, even though there's no way to know what happens to people after they die.

I pull back to look at him. "You can't promise that."

"I can, and I will."

"How?"

Levi blows out a breath and shakes his head.

After staring at him for a moment, I realize he's not going to answer right now. With a nod, I step out of Levi's embrace. I need to get out of this room before I do something we'll regret. Stalking past a concerned Bishop, I make my way back to the unassuming white hallway. "You got all of that, Aiden?"

"Yeah." When even Aiden doesn't crack a joke, you know things are really messed up.

Without waiting for the boys, I angrily stride toward the next door. Testing the handle, I find that it's unlocked. When I go to push it open, Bishop is there to block me. "Fucking stop, Isabel. I get that you're angry. I am too. But being reckless and getting yourself hurt or worse won't fucking help them. You need to get it together, or you're done here."

If I were calmer, I'd recognize that all Bishop is trying to do is help. But right now, he's a convenient target for my anger. All the heartbreak and rage and helplessness come out at him.

My rage burns so hot that it turns into icy cold fury. Instead of yelling, I stare at him with the freezing anger in my eyes. My voice comes out detached. "We both know I'd win in a power fight, St. James. Try to bench me and see what fucking happens."

Bishop's eyes blaze with barely controlled anger at my defiance. He opens his mouth to lay into me when Levi beats him to it. "Little raven, I'm always on your side. But I have to agree with the mage on this. Rushing into situations when you're blinded by anger isn't smart. While you'd win on pure power alone against the mage, we both know you're not a match for the two of us together."

Levi's words pierce through my rage-induced fog and arrow straight to my heart. I can't keep the hurt out of my voice when I ask, "You'd choose him over me?"

"No. I'll always choose you, little raven. Even if it means going against what you want. Don't make me stop you. Please." Levi's eyes are back to pitch black, but the red rings around his pupils are bigger than usual. His eyes silently plead with me to calm down.

While Bishop's anger just eggs me on, Levi's quiet resignation starts to break through my rioting emotions. Sighing, I close my eyes and try to ground myself. Breathing through the anger helps it recede enough that I can think somewhat clearly.

We don't have limitless time. Every time Bishop stops me at doors, we waste what little time we do have. I need to calm the fuck down and go with the plan we agreed on. My anger isn't more important than finding out what's happening to the young mages.

Blowing out a breath, I gesture for Bishop to open the door. "Any time now, St. James. We have shit to do," I snark. I'm still unreasonably pissed at him and unable to say something that isn't snappy.

"We're fucking talking about this when we get home, Isabel. This isn't fucking over." With his warning delivered, Bishop strides into the room without a single backward glance.

While I'm pissed off on the outside, I'm hurting on the inside. Bishop is never angry with me and never raises his voice at me. In the past month and a half, he's yelled at me more than the other fifteen years I've known him combined. I feel like I'm losing my best friend, and I don't know what to do about it.

A few tears trail down my cheeks, and I wipe them away before anyone can see them. This is not the time to break down. Pulling on all of the internal strength I have, I shove my heartache into the furthest corner of my mind.

I look up and see Levi waiting in the hallway, concern lining his handsome face.

"I'm fine." I try to blank my face, so he won't see that I'm lying.

Levi's lips twitch up in a small, sad smile. "You're not a very good liar, little raven."

"So I've been told. We don't have time for me to be anything other than fine, demon boy," I tell him quietly. "Can we just do what we need to do now and talk later?"

He searches my face for a moment. Eventually, he nods. "We can. After you, little raven."

I walk ahead of him into the room Bishop disappeared into. Unlike the house of horrors we were just in, this room is pretty standard fare for a lab. Tables, beakers, microscopes, and other lab equipment are all we find in the smallish space.

The other rooms we check in this white-tiled hallway are much the same. I'm beginning to think we aren't going to find anything about the mage development council when the hallway dead-ends at a steel door. It has locks upon locks upon more locks. Someone really doesn't want people stumbling on whatever is behind this door.

"Can you unlock it, Aiden?" I ask. "There's like eleven billion fucking locks on this thing."

"Can I? You wound me, Izzy, always doubting my skills. Of course, I fucking can. Just gimme a minute or two." I studiously avoid looking at Bishop as we wait silently for a few minutes. "Alrighty, the door's unlocked."

"Thanks, bro," I respond.

I let Bishop go first. He opens the door to a dark set of stairs. There's a bit of light coming from the bottom of the creepy staircase, but it's only just enough to see by. The three of us carefully pick our way down the winding stone steps.

When we reach the bottom, we're in another hallway. The walls, ceiling, and floors are rough gray stone, very unlike the sterility of the wing above us.

We can't go anywhere else other than directly forward, so we head toward the faint light. It's farther away than it looks. After walking for five or so minutes, we reach a large cavern. It looks like some sort of natural cave formation, with its rough gray walls and domed ceiling. It's empty, save for what looks like a hospital setup. There's a gurney, lines going from the person lying on the bed, and monitoring equipment that's beeping.

The guy on the gurney is in rough shape. He's bleeding from cuts all over his body, and his clothes are torn and bloody. His curly blond hair lays limply across his forehead, and his breathing is shallow.

I hesitantly walk closer to the guy. My heart stops when I see a face I never thought I'd see again. "Daniel?"