Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(29)
“They must’ve been the first of Jonah’s,” Mage said. “They’ve evolved. They’re his soldiers now.”
Soldiers. So Jonah has been preparing for war since day one. From the corner of my eye, I saw a fledgling leap on another one, kicking and punching and raking eyes as they fought over the delivered blood.
In the far corner, one of Jonah’s “soldiers” rallied a group of fledglings. They seemed more interested in getting back to their blood but as his lips moved, saying something I could not hear, their focus changed. The fledglings shifted excitedly on their feet, flocking toward the soldier.
He pushed open a door and waved them through. I counted as they passed, until the door closed. “He just released forty fledglings.”
“Smaller groups move fast and scatter farther,” Mage explained. “If Jonah was trying to keep us from discovering this, having us run all around the city would certainly help.”
“Why bother with all the bags, though?” Fiona whispered, her pretty face stark. “There’s a city to feed from out there.”
“He’s building their strength and their dependency on blood. When the bags stop coming, they’ll get really restless. I’m sure that’s when Jonah plans on unleashing them.” Black eyes full of warning shifted to me. “It’ll be near impossible to staunch this horde if they get out.”
“But why would he want to do this?” Fiona pressed. “He knows what will happen to our world. He lived it!”
Mage’s head shake was almost indecipherable. “Mutants tend to lose their grip on rational thought. Perhaps it’s as simple as that.”
“Or maybe someone has convinced him that it’s a good idea,” Mortimer suggested, hitting too close to my own thoughts. Viggo. A silver-tongued, revenge-riddled psychopath who probably convinced Jonah that this was his best way of distracting Mage. Viggo didn’t care about the repercussions. He wanted war.
Enough to form allegiances with a creature he despised more than anything else in the world.
“We need to get rid of them. Now.” Mage’s tone was uncompromising.
“I agree, but how? How do we do that without letting the ones in the tunnels escape?” I was powerful—some would argue the most powerful witch in existence—and yet even I knew my limitations. To ignite this entire space in one shot would sap me, allowing them a chance to run. Or attack.
As I pondered the “how,” Lilly was on her phone again. Rushed words were exchanged and she hung up. “She made it to the next station construction site.” Blue eyes flashed to me. “It’s full of fledglings too.” I closed my eyes, another wave of despair crashing over my shoulders. How had this happened so fast?
“Look! They’re already rounding up another group to release.” My eyes opened in time to see that Mortimer was right, another soldier snapping his fingers, kicking the fledglings to get them up.
“Can you close this entire station off?” Mage asked.
“That won’t kill them,” Bishop argued.
“No, but it may buy us some time,” she countered. “The next station is within a minute’s running distance. We take this one down, burn them, and then go and do the same thing there before they know what’s happening. There, there, there.” She pointed out all the access points, all the ways this plan could fail if not done correctly.
Failure was beginning to feel like the only path out, and yet Mage had such confidence in my ability, I couldn’t help but want to try. If we could win here, this could soon be over.
I plucked at the helices floating within my body, each one powerful enough to cause destruction, all of them combined capable of devastation. “All of you, be ready to run. Lilly—tell Kait to get the hell out of there. Now.” A worry hit me. “Has anyone heard from Amelie?”
Head shakes answered. I had to believe for her sake—and Julian’s—that she was nowhere near this. “Can someone get hold of Caden? Maybe he’s waiting at the rendezvous point with her and—”
“They’ve seen us,” Mortimer hissed. My gaze snapped down to catch the soldier’s eyes locked on me, a wicked grin on his face. A shout of, “She’s here!” erupted from his mouth.
Without thinking, I incinerated him where he stood.
The other soldiers were quick to zero in on me and the sight of fire broke many of the fledglings’ feeding daze, their eyes widening with the threat.
I’d run out of time. “Get behind me!” I yelled as I unleashed a powerful torrent of magic, targeting one entrance after another. They came down like dominoes, steel beams stumbling, chunks of concrete breaking off. There was nothing stopping the fledglings from tossing the boulders off to the side, but Mage was right—this could buy us some much-needed time.
I stalled as three sizeable chunks of concrete rained down, crushing several in the crowd where they sat. I watched the ceiling with trepidation, wary that my onslaught might be too much for the structure.
That momentary lapse gave the soldiers time to scale the stairs. I found myself facing off against five large men. Normally I wouldn’t care, but I couldn’t fight them and finish closing off this place.
Luckily, I didn’t have to. Five forms jetted out from behind me, having ignored my demands that they stay back. They quickly dispatched the attackers so I could return to the task at hand.