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Elder
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I SHARED A look with Selix as his phone vibrated with urgency.
We’re screwed.
Two options.
Either the Chinmoku had slaughtered my crew and were calling to brag or Jolfer had somehow managed to get everyone to safety and was calling with a status update.
Either way, I had to answer.
Selix passed me the phone while I shoved Pim’s dress at him. He tossed it onto the side table, completely forgotten.
Releasing my hold on Pim, I traded the piece of paper for the phone and punched the accept button. My stomach knotted as I barked, “Yes?”
An eon of silence where my ears throbbed for good news but convinced they’d only receive bad.
“Prest, it’s Jolfer.”
Thank Christ.
Anxiety washed over me as my shoulders slouched and tensed at the same time. “Are you safe? What’s going on?”
“Yes. We were hostilely boarded about thirty minutes ago. Luckily, the motion sensors picked up their arrival, giving everyone plenty of time to get to the safe room.”
“That’s good news.” I paced away from Q’s watchful eye, heading toward the library. “Where are you calling from? There’s no reception in that bunker.”
“I—eh, I got stuck. I tried to bypass your office. You left your laptop out. I didn’t want them having access to whatever important documents you might have on there. But I was cut off.”
“Fuck, man. Who cares about the laptop? Every business account is encrypted. They can’t steal shit.” I didn’t tell him they weren’t there to rob the place but to kill anyone they could to teach me a lesson. “Get to the safe room. Now.”
“No can do.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “They’re searching each level. I can’t understand them as they’re speaking Japanese, but I did overhear the word Mercer and Blois. That’s why I had to call you. Isn’t that where you are?”
I wanted to hurl the phone across the room and punch every book in this godforsaken library. “For fuck’s sake, they hacked my browser history.”
I groaned at the ceiling. Christ, I’d been so careless. When Jolfer passed on the radio call after we’d searched tirelessly for where Pim might’ve been taken—giving me a name and an address—I’d looked up Mercer, learned enough to know I hated him, then rushed out of there too fast to shut down the web history.
I hadn’t erased the search.
I hadn’t used a ghost mode to hide my online movements.
They had Mercer’s name.
They had his location.
Motherfucking hell.
Rushing from the library, I hobbled on my sprained ankle, breathing far too heavy for my broken ribs enjoyment.
My shoulder had a hole in it; my elbow didn’t work probably. I still had bumps and bruises and stitches. But none of that mattered now. Q didn’t matter. What he’d done didn’t matter.
The only thing that did was Pim was once again in danger.
Because of me.
And not only had I put her life at risk but I’d also put the entire Mercer household in the Chinmoku’s crosshairs. Once again, I’d put a family in the path of death.
I’d been selfish and idiotic and sloppy.
My body had better heal itself in the next ten minutes because if I couldn’t fight—if I fought as bad as I had when I’d tried to murder Mercer—then we were in huge fucking trouble.
If the Chinmoku came here, then only one outcome was possible. No opportunity of losing. No attempt at a truce. I’d have to win. I’d have to kill all of them.
And I’ll fail.
My heart filled with sharp rocks as I glanced at Pim. Her face tight, her fingers looped together as if granting false comfort that everything would be all right.
Goddammit, I can’t fail.
I couldn’t because if I did...she’d die.
They’ll all die.
And it would be my fucking fault just like my brother and father.
I can’t...I can’t go through that again.
A plan unfurled in my head, bright as lightning and deafening as thunder. All this time, I thought I had a choice on how this fight would end. I thought I would be the victor, when really, I’d condemned myself the moment I fell in love.
There was only one outcome, and I couldn’t outrun it anymore.
My mother was right.
Jolfer whispered, cutting through my destroying conclusion. “Prest, they’re leaving. Someone is shouting. I’m hidden in a laundry chute, and there’s some sort of chant. They’re getting amped up.”
I knew that chant.
I knew the incantation before battle.
“Laugh at our prey’s pleas, feast on our defeated cries, no one survives while the Chinmoku thrives.”
That part of my life had been brief, but fuck, it’d imprinted itself onto my soul in more ways than one.
“Thanks for the warning, Jolfer.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Stay safe.”
Hanging up, I cast my eyes over the people standing in the foyer. The Mercers who I didn’t know, didn’t trust, didn’t like, but were now my priority. My responsibility. My burden.
I couldn’t look at Pim.
I couldn’t let her see the resolution in my eyes or the goodbye I was about to utter.
Clenching my fists, I braced for yet another war, already knowing how it would end. “They’re coming.”
