I wake two hours before dawn to the sound of rustling around me as my Bonded get up and get ready for the day ahead of us.
Everyone, including Gabe and Atlas, is already awake. When North sees me sit up, he comes to kneel at my side, already dressed in his Tac gear.
“There’s been a change of plans. We’ve made the call to go in first, as a small group. Kieran is going to transport us, and we have a very specific target. We tried to let you sleep in as long as we could, but we need to leave in the next five minutes.”
I nod, a little confused as I struggle to my feet, but I’m quick to start pulling on my own uniform and weapons as quietly as I can. The plan had sounded solid yesterday. We were going to go in in the early hours of the morning in sets, each team having a different area of the camp to clear out. It was the best chance at getting prisoners out alive and for the big hitters to be taken out.
Something must have happened for this to change.
I feel both exhausted and like I’m buzzing with energy, ready to make the big moves that my Bonded have strategized for today without question. We’re all ready for this to be over with.
Gryphon catches my hand and gives it a squeeze as I move past him, his eyes darting across my weapons as though he’s double checking that I have everything. He’s not doing it as an insult or because he thinks I truly might have forgotten something, more that it’s a habit of his to take care of me no matter what else is going on around us.
He gives me a nod of approval as though he’s satisfied with the job I’ve done, and then as a group, we all step out of the tent together, our feet as silent as we can make them. Kieran is already waiting out there, dressed and ready for the mission. I check the sky, but there’s no sign of the sun’s arrival yet, and the air around us still feels very nocturnal.
Gryphon does a bunch of hand gestures to Kieran, which the Transporter nods at, their own form of silent communication. Luckily, I don’t need to know it to be able to speak to my Bonded, because they might as well be waving at each other for all I can understand.
Our aim here is to weaken their defenses in our first wave. We’ve already taken out their strongest Transporter, so if we can take out a few key players now and have the rest of our offensive groups move in shortly after, they won’t have time to bring in any Top Tier Gifted to save themselves, North says, and I nod along. So do Gabe and Atlas, so I guess they’re learning all of this now too.
Is there anyone in particular that I’m aiming for or that I need to know about, or am I just going after power?
North takes a deep breath and glances at Nox, who is calling all of his shadow creatures back into himself so that they can travel with us without interruption. I double check that Azrael is still hanging out behind my ear, and he’s tucked there securely.
Nox sent one of his creatures out this morning for recon. Davies has already left the camp, but he left behind his Bonded, Lydia, in his stead. Killing her takes out one of the big powers of the camp, and it will also weaken Davies. That’s your target, Bonded.
I swallow roughly and nod again. I’m not sure that I have enough power to take that woman out, but the last time I’d faced her myself, I was Unbonded and fighting with the god that lives inside of me. Now, I have all five of my men and peace within myself, complete acceptance at what I’m capable of.
Hopefully it’s enough.
While Gryphon and Kieran finish their hand gestures, Nox glances over at me and then speaks directly to me, blocking everyone else out.
I want to try something. Are you open to that?
I try to stop myself from reacting so that no one else knows that we’re talking in case this is something personal. It’s the only reason I can think of that he’d block everyone out of hearing it.
Of course. What do you need from me?
He glances around at each of the men we’re standing with, slow and critical as he judges them all, but it’s not going to give away the conversation we’re having inside of my head.
He always looks at them like that.
Open up your mind to me. Let me in.
Easier said than done.
I have to let down the wall of my mind just for Nox, and I’m still a novice at keeping the walls up in the first place. I feel him reach out to me and press against the wall himself, sitting there at the edge of my mind and coaxing it down himself so gently that I almost struggle to believe that it is him doing it and not Gryphon or North.
I know that the rest of my Bonded Group has realized that there’s something going on between Nox and I with how still we have both gone, but North covers for us with Kieran to buy us some more time.
It takes me another minute or so, but eventually I’m able to let him in my head. It feels crowded with both myself, my bond, and Nox in the space, but it only takes him a heartbeat to do what it was he came to do. Clearly, he’s had time to practice or at least figure out the mechanics of it.
He opens his mind to mine, and I instantly have the entire plan laid out for me as sure as if I were the one sitting in on the meetings with North and Gryphon instead of Nox himself. I’m not sure if this is an after effect of the soul-bonding or if this is possible for me to do with any member of our Bonded Group, but as he slips back out of my mind, I feel immensely grateful and a lot more grounded in my knowledge of the situation now.
He’s not going to leave my side.
None of them are.
I open my eyes back up and look at North, nodding my head slowly, and that’s all he needs to see before he’s clapping Kieran on the shoulder quietly. And just like that, we’re moving.
We have two hours until the next teams are going to arrive, two short hours to get in there stealthily and locate Lydia, taking her out and opening the floodgates of the Resistance’s wrath.
I swallow roughly and check in with my bond one last time before I take Kieran’s arm.
Is there anything I need to know before we head out?
It’s quiet for a moment and then it answers me. The plan is to lure Davies here and we’re not coming back without his head. If he leaves the camp, we follow him. Keep the Transporter with us.
I swallow and send that message through to North, but he just nods at me and then gestures to Kieran that we’re finally ready to move out.
I take a deep breath and then we pop out of existence as one.
We transport directly into the shielded area of the Resistance camp.
The moment our feet touch the ground, Gryphon’s eyes flash to white as he manipulates the minds of the guards around us. I feel a mixture of relief and disappointment that his eyes stay the same white color they’ve always been even as he stretches his abilities the farthest they’ve ever gone.
My question as to why he’s going to take hold of their minds instead of one of us just killing them all doesn’t have the chance to fully form in my mind before the answer is there, thanks to Nox’s impromptu information dump.
We don’t want anyone finding corpses and raising the alarm.
We have a two hour head start to work our way through the camp and find Lydia. We need to use that to our advantage, because she’s not the type of Gifted we’re used to facing.
Only Davies is stronger than she is.
I had always thought that the camp that I was in was the biggest, but as we look around at the lines of tents, this feels as though it’s a city of its own. The tents are all worn-looking, aged and settled into place with the length of time that the camp has been here. I can tell just by looking who sleeps in each of them without even reaching for my Gift.
The further towards the center of the camp you look, the better maintained the tents are. The Resistance don’t care about equality or keeping everyone safe and secure, there’s a very clear division between the grunt workers and those who hold power. While North might’ve made sure we had a house to ourselves in the Sanctuary, there’s no difference in the standard of living between us or any other family there.
No matter what anyone tries to say about the Dravens, I know who the real monsters of the world are.
Kieran has dropped us off at the safest point to enter without being detected, but it means that we have to cross the entire length of the camp to get to Silas Davies’ tent, where his Bonded is waiting for his return. I trust North and Gryphon to make the right call here. If they’ve decided that walking through is what we should do, then I’m going to be stretching my legs here without question.
Gryphon holds the minds of the guards around us, carefully wiping out their memories and replacing them so that they don’t notice a gap in their day, until we can dispose of them properly. As soon as we’re able to take out Lydia, we’ll be back here to mop up the rest of the enemy.
We all start to move together as one, Gryphon palming one of his guns as Atlas moves a little closer to me, rolling his shoulders back as he stares around at the camp to see if there’s any danger we might have missed. Gabe flanks my other side, his arms flexing a little as he tries to hold back his dragon. Now that it’s come out to protect me on missions, it’s almost impossible to contain. Nox lets a few of his shadow creatures out to walk with us, but North only lets out August, careful to make sure that our group doesn’t become more visible than it needs to be.
Thankfully, Gryphon can cast his Gift out and sense the minds of people as they approach, shutting them all down before they can become a problem for us.
We make good time as we pick our way through the tents. It’s early enough in the morning, or late enough at night, depending on how you look at it, that there aren’t many people wandering around outside. There isn’t so much for Gryphon to do other than to monitor people.
I don’t make him do that on his own though.
My eyes shift to black as I call on my power, casting out my Gift to get a read on the Resistance fighters and the amount of power we’re going to be fighting against.
There’s a lot of bodies around us.
A lot of power as well, enough that the first trickle of fear works its way down my spine, chilling my blood as it goes. My bond might’ve healed up from the soul-bonding, but we didn’t really get a warmup or the chance to figure out if it was back to full Soul-Rending power.
What if it can’t?
What if it just… refuses again?
I want to vomit at the thought, so instead, I focus on gathering information for my Bonded. I do what I can to forget about what I can’t control for now. I find the prisoners tent and try not to focus too long on the terrible condition the people there are in. I can’t help them if I lose my shit about it now. I can be angry about it later.
Most of them are longtime prisoners, already shells of themselves. The fact that there are children among them has my stomach clenching all over again. There’s no amount of therapy that will erase their traumas. Nox is living proof of that.
The kitchen tent is lively as the workers prepare breakfast for hundreds of people. I filter that information through to North and the others so we know about the potential problem there. A couple of the workers are pretty strong as well, strong enough that my bond is interested in their souls.
They could be good fuel if I need it to deal with Lydia.
The smell of the camp is familiar to me, something that always elicits a response in my body, usually in the form of a cold sweat across my forehead and clammy hands. I feel a little sick at the prospect of running into any familiar faces, but Atlas reaches over to squeeze my hand, his eyes narrowed as he looks around at the space.
I’m glad that he’s not going to have to run into any members of his family here today. He doesn’t deserve any more trauma. His sister being locked up in the cells back at the Sanctuary works in our favor right now, in more ways than one. I’m not sure how his bond would react to the sight of her here, but I’m sure if we ran into her third and final so-called “Bonded”, Atlas would not hesitate in taking the man out.
I find Lydia in the net that I cast out, sleeping in her tent.
She’s sleeping so peacefully, like a goddamned baby, and the fear and horror of the prisoners pops right back into my mind as my Gift takes in exactly how at ease the woman is right now. She’s in perfect health, not a scratch on her or a worry in that evil mind of hers.
I loathe her even more than before.
It’s a risk, but I call out to my bond to see if I can tear her soul out from this distance. It falls in line with North’s plan just enough that it’s worth giving it a go.
It doesn’t work, but it does wake her up.
I meet North’s eyes across the group, but he doesn’t look pissed off or disappointed in me, he just squares his shoulders and lets out more of his shadow creatures. They form into dozens of different animals. The snake makes an appearance again, coming over to curl around my legs before it disappears between the rows of tents now that the element of surprise is gone.
And it is gone.
It’s almost comical to monitor Lydia as she wakes up and tries to sound the alarm. Every person she attempts to speak to, Gryphon shuts down. We’re only a few hundred feet away from her tent when she finally bursts out of it wearing a gun holster thrown over a pair of silk pajamas. It looks utterly ridiculous in the middle of a war camp.
She’s an older woman, older than Davies even, and she has the sharp features that you would expect of such a cold-blooded person. She looks as though her vicious personality has carved out the angles of her face and shoulders.
Her hair is blonde, but you can see where parts of it have started to turn white. It’s not a power thing like mine, it’s just that she’s letting it age naturally instead of coloring it. Whether that’s a choice or just the result of living in a camp is anyone’s guess.
Her face is pulled into a sneer as she looks around at all of her incapacitated guards. We move forward and Gryphon’s arm rises with the gun in his hand. I think it is more of a comfort to him than an actual attempt to use a weapon against her.
As we approach her, the ground beneath our feet begins to tremble.
“Did you really think you were going to be able to come in here and kill me, little Soul Render?” she says. I refuse to react to her words or the cold tone of her voice.
I had only met this woman a few times during my stay in the camps, but that was enough for me to know that she is a sociopath, completely unable to empathize with anyone around her. All that this woman cares about is power and how to get her hands on more of it.
She would’ve killed me at fourteen and consumed my Gift whole, if she’d be able to, without question or remorse for the child she was murdering. I take a breath as I peruse her critically, taking in the tired lines of her body.
She looks unwell.
She looks as though something terrible has been happening within her Bonded Group, and I pray that Davies is looking the same way.
I stare at her for a second longer, waiting with a calculated pause as I let my Gift cast out once more. I can get a decent feel of her, thanks to years of having to read these people on the fly for my own survival. I can tell that she thinks that I’m hesitating because I don’t know what to do here.
I use that to my advantage.
She raises her hand, and North sends through our mind link, Don’t worry about it, Bonded. Focus on what you’re doing, and let us take care of her.
The ground around us begins to tremble again as she calls on her Gift, and I panic just a little. I can’t just let her take the first swing at us. My trust in my Bonded might be a hundred percent, but I also know what it feels like to lose one of them now, and I’m never going to feel that again.
Never.
I cast my Gift out as far as I can go, aware that my bond still has limitations, thanks to the soul-bonding. I’m careful to direct it towards the strongest Gifted that I can. I was helping Gryphon monitor the area, but I was absolutely taking note of who was clustered where in this place, mapping out a plan of where I could draw power from if, and when, I needed it.
Like right the hell now.
Lydia raises her hand again, and I watch as the ground in front of us begins to break open, fissures in the earth opening up and falling away.
I stumble a little, Atlas catching me and setting me back onto my feet. The air around Nox begins to thicken as he calls on the rest of his shadow creatures, ready to strike out to protect me and the rest of our Bonded Group, but I’m already two steps ahead.
Lydia raises her hand up one more time as though she’s calling the earth up to follow her, her mouth opening as she prepares to bury us all, to crush us under the weight of the earth and suffocate us, and I pull.
I pull my power and I pull the souls out of a hundred Gifted around the camps, all of the strongest powers that I could find. I’ve picked out the people who were most likely to be a danger to us or the TacTeams, and I pull their souls right out of their bodies and into my own being.
My skin burns as my bond consumes the feast I give it, my eyes shifting to black even as I hold on to control. My bond comes to the surface to be with me as I prepare myself for what I need to do.
Lydia’s eyebrows twitch for a second, the smallest moment of hesitation, and I strike, taking a hold of her soul once more. This time, when I pull, it comes loose. Her bond fights against mine, clawing at the edges as it’s forced out of her body, but I’m stronger than she is, even as weakened as I have been. With one final tug, it comes through, hurtling towards me as it crashes into my chest and down into the depths of my stomach.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to consume a soul like Lydia’s, but there’s no way that my bond would let such a feast go, and with a sickening crunch, her body hits the ground, dead before it lands.
All hell breaks loose in the camp around us.
