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  Deacon’s grip on my hand slackened, but I tightened mine. There was nothing to hide.

  Finn looked good. He looked fresh and in control. He’d cut his hair short, so his face looked harder and more commanding, but whereas a few weeks ago my heart would have leapt at the sight of him, today there was only a warm regard. I was over him, and from the look on his face, he was experiencing something similar. His gaze dropped to my hand, the one laced with Deacon’s, and he blinked in surprise, but then his face broke into a smile.

  “It’s good to see you, Echo,” he said.

  “You too.”

  “You look … good.”

  “Thanks. So do you. The haircut suits you.”

  Deacon released me. “I’ll go check on the food.”

  He didn’t need to check on anything, Lyrian and Micha would have it under control, but this was his way of giving me space.

  “Thank you.”

  He left, and I returned my attention to Finn. “How are things?”

  “You and Deacon?”

  We spoke at the same time and then fell into awkward laughter.

  “A lot has happened.” I shrugged. “I’ve changed.”

  “I know,” Finn said. “So have I.”

  A lance of nostalgia shot through me. Nostalgia for the simpler times, before the run, before the responsibility. “How are your mates?”

  He nodded slowly. “They’re … good. It’s good.”

  The word good was getting an awful lot of use today. “I’m glad it worked out.”

  “Thank you.” His eyes narrowed. “I wanted to see you, make sure you were okay and smooth things over. We never actually—”

  “It’s fine. Me and you weren’t meant to be together, not in the way we’d imagined, but I think we can be friends.”

  He smiled. “I’d like that.” His expression grew serious. “It’s in the spirit of friendship that I came here actually.”

  “Oh?”

  “I just had a visit from Greta. She asked me to step into my father’s shoes on the council. She asked for my support.”

  His words knocked the breath from me. The Sanguinata bitch was not going to give up. “Did you give it to her?”

  “Pfft, I don’t trust her. She reeks of subterfuge. But I need to know what she’s talking about. Tell me, what the hell is going on?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  “Not details, just something about the guardian stirring up the hornet’s nest and how our survival was at risk. Echo, what did you do?”

  That bitch, Greta. “Sit down. I’ll fill you in.”

  Twenty minutes later, Finn was just as incensed as me. “She needs to be stopped.”

  “We have to keep this on the down low. Once we have the orgometal, we can go public and form a proper plan of attack.”

  “It won’t be easy,” Finn said. “Genesis will be heavily guarded.”

  “Then we’ll need plenty of help.”

  “You know you can count on me and my pack.”

  “Thank you, Finn.”

  He stood, towering over me. “I always knew you’d be an amazing guardian, but you’re also becoming an amazing woman.”

  His words elicited the warm fuzzies. “You made the right call, Finn. You were born to lead.”

  He sighed, and his eyes darkened as they roved over me. “Do you regret it? Us?”

  Before I’d fallen for him, he’d been my friend and my confidant. That was why I’d been so mad at him. Why I’d been so fucking hurt, but now … ”No. Not one moment.”

  He drew me into his arms and rested his chin on my head. “Be safe out there, Echo. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  By the time dinner was over, my mind was whirring with all the possible outcomes of our mission. Even if we found the orgometal, so much could go wrong. What if we failed? What if the humans panicked once we told them the truth? What if Greta and the Sanguinata rebelled? What if, what if, what if?

  Bry’s chatter helped to soothe my nerves a little. Verona was right, sending him back to school had been the right move for him. He was more animated than he’d been all week. He even finished his meal, and when I tucked him into bed, he fell asleep almost instantly. Having his old routine back and seeing his friends had been just what he needed to take the edge off his grief.

  I was tired too, but my mind just wouldn’t shut down with all the internal chatter.

  Lyrian was on patrol tonight and wouldn’t be back for another few hours. Micha was already in my bed, naked except for his boxers. I climbed in beside him and snuggled close.

  “Did you enjoy dinner?” Micha ran his fingers through my hair, trailing kisses down the column of my neck.

  “Mmmm.”

  “Did you enjoy Lyrian?” His fingers walked down my abdomen and slipped into the waistband of my sleep shorts.

  My pulse picked up, and my mouth was suddenly incapable of formulating any other words but the blunt truth. “Yes.”

  He slid a finger into me. “How much?” He began to circle my clit.

  “Oh, I … I …”

  “I can’t hear you?” There was a smile in his voice. He leaned in. “Open the door, Echo?”

  “What?” My eyes snapped open. “Micha. No.”

  His gaze was heated. “Do it. Trust me, we can make you feel so fucking good.”

  My pulse was galloping now as the idea took hold. Have them both? Let them both have me? It made me want to bury my head in the crook of his shoulder in embarrassment and open my legs wider at the same time.

  Lyrian was an insistent pressure in my mind, ready and waiting.

  Micha slid two fingers into me, his thumb keeping up the motion on the sensitized nub. “You’re wound so tight. This will help. Open the door.”

  “You … you discussed this?”

  “Echo.” He kissed me hard on the mouth. “Let us give you this.”

  I opened the door.

  Lyrian flooded my consciousness.

  Hush, Lyrian said. Just enjoy.

  And then sensation took over thought—Lyrian between my thighs, Micha claiming my mouth, his hands on my breasts, kneading and tugging at my nipples. My breath coming fast and shallow. Oh, God. Oh, God. I was going to—

  Micha flipped me onto my back, and in my mind, Lyrian moved his mouth to my breasts, and even though they were now pressed to the mattress, the sensation of his tongue was a real, delicious pressure.

  No talking, they’d said. Just enjoy it. Micha angled my hips and spread my thighs with his before entering me slow and deep. He drove into me while Lyrian devoured my mouth and sucked on every inch of my flesh.

  I came so hard the world blacked out for a moment, and then Micha was rocking me, holding me from behind as he came inside me. Lyrian’s hands traced delicious patterns across my skin, and then the door between us closed softly.

  I curled into Micha while my heart rate slowly returned to resting pace. I’d had sex three times today. Three and I could have happily gone a fourth round. I was insatiable and filled with a new kind of power. The nerves, the doubt, and the fear were gone, replaced by Lyrian’s and Micha’s stoic determination.

  Micha nuzzled my ear. “Feel better?”

  “Yes.” I wrapped my arms around him. “But I wonder how Lyrian’s doing … He was on patrol, remember?”

  Micha lifted his head and locked eyes with me, and then we both burst into laughter.

  Chapter 9

  Today was the day. We had two hours before our rendezvous with Wilomena. I tugged on my trousers and buttoned them up. The air behind me moved.

  Hunter.

  “Going somewhere?” Hunter asked from behind me.

  “Oh, nowhere special, just off to find a warded government lab, that’s all.”

  “And what do you expect to find?”

  “Orgometal.”

  There was a beat of silence. “Genesis is made of orgometal.”

  I tugged on my boots. “That’s right. He is.”

  “
You intend to use it against him somehow.”

  “Bingo.” I gathered my hair and pulled it back into a low ponytail. It was getting too long. I’d have to get it cut soon.

  “What if Genesis’s drones are still out there?” Hunter said. “What if they follow you here?”

  “They won’t, and if they do, we’ll run a detour.”

  He sounded worried, but then I guess being free for him also meant being vulnerable. He was a soul without a host, and he was the perfect snack for Genesis.

  “You’re safe here, Hunter.” I reached for him, brushing my hand across his shadowy cheek. “Genesis can’t find us while the heart is still working. The wards make us invisible to him. He can’t find us. He won’t find you.”

  Hunter’s eyes narrowed, and then he closed them and melted into my touch. “You’d protect me?”

  There was a genuine break in his voice, a vulnerability that tore at my heart. Where was the sarcasm? “Of course, I would. I … I care about you.”

  He opened his mercury eyes and fixed them on me. “You think a creature like me deserves to live?”

  What was he talking about?” Of course, I do. Hunter, what is this about?”

  The shadowy lines of his face shifted, as if he was torn, as if there was something he wanted to share with me. “I’m tired, Echo. I’m tired of simply surviving, of being half a man. Of being incomplete.”

  “You want a host?”

  His smile was small and intimate. “I want to be seen.”

  “I see you.”

  He stepped closer, so his shadowy form was mere inches from me. “Do you? Do you really see me, Echo?”

  “Yes.”

  He leaned in, so his breath was warm on my cheek. “I want to feel.” His fingers grazed my cheek, sending a shiver through me.

  “Once we stop Genesis, you’ll be free to do it all.”

  His smile was wry. “Have you ever wondered what he must feel?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Hunter shrugged. “Being trapped here all these years, there’s been plenty of time to dwell on it all. On the nature of the threat. On its motivations and desires.”

  He was overthinking things now. “It’s a machine. It has no desires.”

  “You think survival isn’t a desire?”

  He had a point. “He kills people.”

  “And humanity hasn’t?”

  “I get it. This has been no life for you, but it won’t always be this way. I promise you, I won’t rest until I stop Genesis once and for all.”

  There was a knock on my door. “You ready to go?” Micha called out.

  “Yeah, coming.”

  Hunter backed up with a smile. “Be safe.” And then he slipped through the wall and was gone.

  We rode in the truck, Deacon, Lyrian, Micha, Emory, and me. The skies were a danger zone right now; heck it was dangerous just being out here, but it had to be done. Around us, the decimated city passed by, crumbling buildings, debris, dust, and an air of abandonment that tore at my heart. Soon, we’d end this and rebuild our world.

  Beside me, Emory expertly steered the truck past the obstructions of rusted metal machines scattered on the road from the time before. And then we hit a stretch of road called a highway. The pillars of the bridge were visible in the distance, and the sky rose up, blue and white like a picture-perfect backdrop.

  Micha leaned forward between the front seats. “There they are.”

  I followed his gaze to see a huge shadow slip out of the cloud cover and descend toward the ground like a bullet. Another shadow followed close behind. The road chose that moment to dip, and we lost sight of the bridge for a moment, but in the next breath, we were rising, and the bridge was revealed in all its glory.

  Once upon a time, it had spanned the divide between Arcana City and Draconi territory, but now it was a shattered monument of the time before. There was no way across the chasm unless you were planning to fly or swim.

  Two figures were visible waiting patiently on our side of the bridge—Wilomena and her Draconi prince lover, Valance, Lyrian’s father. Emory brought the truck to a smooth halt, and the two figures strode toward us. Wilomena had her hair pulled back off her heart-shaped face, and her clothes were combat ready with enough pockets to carry a mini arsenal, and dagger hilts protruded from the holster strapped to her waist. Valance, in contrast, was cool and casual in a black shirt and gray combat pants. Like his partner, he had daggers at his waist.

  The truck door opened with a rattle to admit them.

  “It’s going to be a squeeze,” Deacon warned them.

  Lyrian and Micha moved closer to the front of the truck, and then Wilomena and Valance got in. The door slid shut, and Emory started the engine.

  “Head east,” Wilomena said. “Toward the old football stadium.”

  Emory turned the truck, and we drove back up the hill. “The lab’s by the stadium?” he asked.

  “No, beyond it.”

  Emory frowned. “There’s nothing beyond the stadium but wilderness.”

  “That’s what the wards want you to believe, and that’s all we’ll see until Echo brings the wards down.”

  No pressure then? “If I can bring the wards down. I have no idea how to do that.”

  Emory glanced at me with a small smile. “You have the ability, Echo. We just need to tap into it. We’ll figure it out once we get there.”

  Silence descended in the vehicle, and Emory steered the truck toward our destination. Certain areas we passed looked so well preserved it was easy to imagine that they would burst with life at any moment. They were like still pictures of the time before, and they made my heart ache with longing. A swing set, a school, a water fountain, and then we were moving out of the town and heading toward the outskirts. Thirty minutes later, we passed what had once been a football stadium. The signs were rusted and covered in grime, and the car park was filled with dead vehicles.

  “Drive around the stadium,” Wilomena instructed from the back of the van.

  Emory obliged, skirting the building and hitting a dirt track that led us onto an expanse of wilderness.

  “There’s a dip coming up,” Wilomena warned. “Stop here.”

  Emory brought the truck to a stop, and the engine died. We piled out onto the grass. Emory grabbed two radios and handed one to Wilomena and held on to the other before we began wading through the weeds toward the lip of the rise.

  There was nothing but brush and woodland at the bottom of the rise.

  “Can you feel the ward?” Wilomena asked me.

  Feel it? All eyes were on me now, waiting for me to work some magic. My stomach quivered. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be feeling.”

  It was Valance who replied. “A change in the atmosphere. A crackle or a fizz. Noir always said it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention.”

  So, I had to try and feel the difference in the air? Okay … Nothing. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the atmosphere and reached out with my senses. There was nothing. No tingle, no fizz, no hair standing on end.

  I turned to the others. “I’m not getting anything. Are you sure this was where it was?”

  “I'm sure,” Wilomena replied.

  Maybe if I went down the rise a little … Leaving the others behind, I walked a few steps down the hill. Nothing. Maybe a few steps more? I was halfway down when the hair on my body prickled to life.

  “I feel it.” I looked back up the incline over my shoulder to see Lyrian and Micha heading toward me. Deacon and Emory hung back.

  “What now?”

  “I don’t know,” Micha said. “Can you connect with it?”

  There was no denying the tugging sensation inside me, as if the arcana in my blood was drawn to whatever invisible ward was blocking our view of the lab. But what did I need to do with that sensation? This had to be a gut instinct thing, a let-your-body-guide-you moment. Taking a deep breath, I emptied my mind, and my feet took me forward. The air around me was suddenly c
harged with energy that skipped and skimmed over my skin with a pleasant buzz. It was a veil, it was a blanket, and it was made entirely of arcana, but there was more to it than that—glyphs and symbols that I didn’t understand were woven into the fabric of this barrier. It was a specific code that needed to be modified to allow a breach. Luckily, code was my forte. I needed to tear a hole in it large enough to slip through. The glyphs ran through my mind over and over until the pattern was obvious and the code clicked. Reaching out, I channeled power into my hands and began to rearrange the symbols. They began to glow and then, with a soft hiss, the veil parted.

  “Motherfucker,” Micha said.

  “I knew you could do it,” Lyrian added.

  Heart fluttering, I stared at the vista beneath us. A huge one-story building was sprawled out below us. Dark and dead-looking and surrounded by wasteland.

  “One floor?” Emory asked.

  Wilomena let out a humorless laugh. “Nope. Try about seven. They just happen to be underground.”

  The others joined us beyond the ward.

  “How do we do this?” Deacon asked. “I’m not a fan of splitting up. Splitting up

  gets people killed.”

  “I doubt anyone or anything alive is still down there,” Valance said.

  I looked to Wilomena. “You’ve been here before, what do you say?”

  “Two groups,” she said. “We take a floor at a time, and we search until we find what we’re looking for. We use the radios to stay in touch.”

  She didn’t sound concerned, but I’d caught the flash of doubt on her face when Valance mentioned that it was unlikely that anything was alive down there.

  “What could be down there?”

  Wilomena’s eyes narrowed. “Honestly, Echo, I have no idea, but we need to be vigilant and not take any risks. This place was used for a lot of covert shit, and I have no idea if the prisoners ever got out.”

  “You mean test subjects,” Lyrian said.

  Wilomena’s smile was small and cold. “Test subjects, victims, prisoners. Call them what you want. The Arcana government didn’t give a shit. They did what they had to in order to get the results they wanted. It’s what got us into this mess in the first place.” She straightened. “Echo, Micha, and Lyrian, you’re with me. Valance, Emory, and Deacon, you guys stick together.”