│Bait taken.

│Run.

"What the actual fuck, Grey?" Elira took the words out of my mouth.

'This can't be real,' I thought, hoping I had just misread the note, that the red thing on my hands wasn't blood - the lieutenant's blood, at least.

'This isn't how it was supposed to go!'

The moment the mind mages were about to take the bait, I was to be pulled to safety, no harm coming my way. Instead, he now wanted me to fend for myself, with Rayden and her Master Guards nowhere in sight.

'How could I have been so stupid?'

However, before I could go any further in my self-flagellation, Alley moved in my hands, wiggling out of my grasp.

»Run, Lady,« she mewed and disappeared into the thickening gloom of the streets.

"Fuck my tits! That almost gave me a heart attack..." Vara breathed out in relief. "I thought it was a fucking thrall."

"And if it was - what were you thinking, Grey?" Elira hissed at me, not happy at all with the way I had put myself between her spear and the cat. Understandably, her job was to protect the citizens, including me. Unfortunately, there was no time for explanation.

"W-we need to get out of here," I whispered at first, my brain trying to make sense of things. 'How did it come to this?' In the last few days, despite my paranoia growing stronger, I foolishly hoped that I had found my place here, my peace, and my way forward. Hell, just a little while ago, I found out there was a way to live with my array without being a slave. But now it all threatened to be taken from me again. "We have to leave!"

"Not that I disagree with you, but calm down your tits. We have this," Vara assured me, her voice unusually firm. If it weren't for my ears and my ability to pick up the intent behind the words, I might even have found it reassuring. However, her uneasiness, and even fear, were unmistakable to me.

"We have this," the guardswoman repeated. "Right, El?"

"Glad to see you remember at least some of the training," Elira growled, one eye on the street, the other on me. "Is that blood on your face, Grey? The cat's?"

"No. The cat was fine," I breathed, racking my brain for what to do. Part of me wanted to tuck my tail between my legs and just run, the other part wanted to stay with the guardswomen. There was more strength in the pack. "I know this must sound strange, but please, we have to get out of here. We have to go to the barracks."

"What aren't you telling us, Grey?" Elira growled, her voice a mix of emotions: worry, anger, fear - her mind sharp, nevertheless.

"I-I'll tell you everything, but please believe me - we need to get to the barracks. NOW."

"You… if my brother… fine. But you better hope nothing happens to Elias."

"Hey, El," Vara raised her voice, motioning for me to follow her, which I did without hesitation. My only complaint? We walked too slowly.

'We should be running.'

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"Yeah?"

"I'm not against calling it in."

'Call it in? Shit! Fuck me! How could I have been so stupid?' The communication tool they used to receive orders! "Yes, do it. NO! Wait! Actually, no. Let's just go." If sending a message meant stopping to actually write it on a piece of paper, roll it up and put it in a magic tool, we were better off just running.

"Misuse of the Distress Cry is heavily punished," Elira reminded Vara, ignoring me, as if reading the rules. If I had to guess, that was her way of keeping her cool.

"Right now, I couldn't give two shits about that. Besides, you have to admit that this whole situation is..."

"Yeah, I know. All right, all right, I'm calling it in."

'No! No, no, no… we have to run!' However, before I could put my panicked thoughts into a voice, not mine stopped the blue-eyed guardswoman from using the tool.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Elira."

That booming, raw male voice sent shivers down my spine and stopped us all in our tracks. The power behind it was incredible, making all my hair stand on end, my inner beast growl, and my instincts screaming at me to run. Judging by the reactions of the two guardswomen as they both assumed fighting stances, spears pointed at the source of the voice, they weren't much better off. Unlike me, however, they had training and weaves with the appropriate number of engraved glyphs to fall back on - furthermore, unlike me, they now stood clad in the armor which, in a heartbeat that had replaced their uniforms. All I could do was bare my teeth as the air before us rippled and a burly man stepped out into the street just as the magic lamps lit up.

"Illusion..." I hissed, remembering the bastard from the back alley who got away. This was definitely not him, though.

[Master Fire Mage: ₪₪ sigils]

"Did you learn new tricks, Harcon?"

"Good to see you, too, Vara. I do, however, wish it were under different circumstances," he said, his expression hardening as he held out his hand, little flames dancing on his fingertips. "Don't, Elira. Give me the ring before someone gets hurt. You too, Vara."

'They knew each other? A ring? What ring? What the fuck was going on?'

Instead of getting answers, the blast of a small explosion hit my ears, followed by Elira's scream. Not letting go of her spear, the guardswoman pressed her right hand to her body, bleeding.

"What the fuck did you do, you bastard?"

"I did warn you, didn't I? Now, Vara, the ring. Or if you want to lose your fingers, be my guest and send the signal, but I assure you no one will hear it" the man said casually, holding out his hand for the ring. Vara didn't heed his words, though, and rightly so. If he was so adamant about the ring, assuming one alerting the other city guards, it meant that the "signal" jamming or whatever they were doing wasn't something they could do indefinitely.

"Look, you two. It took a lot of convincing to be able to talk to you two like this. So do me a favor, and fucking listen before someone gets hurt - more than that," he added with a glance at the bleeding Elira. Then his eyes fell on me. "This is just about the girl. So, if you lower your weapons, you have my word that nothing will happen to you."

"You want me to put down my spear? Have you grown a tit? Take a step and..."

"Elira, you've always been the more reasonable of the two of you. This doesn't have to go any further. All you have to do is listen to me. Actually, if you had followed your orders in the first place..."

"What did you do to Elias?!" the blue-eyed guardswoman barked, the pain of her injury forgotten, replaced by anger and worry.

"Nothing. Nothing, really."

"You expect me to believe that?" Elira snarled, teeth clenched, spear aimed at the mage. "Elias would never work with someone like you."

"Yeah," the man nodded, smiling with a mixture of amusement, sadness and envy to himself under his breath. "You Hakhes have always been upright. Perhaps, a bit too upright - for better or worse."

"What did you do to him? Talk! Did you… if he's..." Elira growled, her voice filled with pain, breaking at the thought that her brother might be dead.

"No, he shouldn't be - though maybe wishing he was. Look, like I said, it's just about the girl. If you just..."

"Enough of this bullshit!" another voice cut through the unnatural silence of the streets. Though higher in the pitch, it belonged to a man as well as a mage appearing out of thin air and with him, half a dozen thugs all around us, blocking all three streets at the intersection of where we stood. "You had your chance, Harcon. Now it's time to do it the old-fashioned way. You lot, show them their place."