Chapter Eleven.

Cam adjusted the woggle around the neckerchief he was wearing, before fiddling with the beige scout uniform he was wearing. He gave it one more once-over to make sure it looked okay, then grabbed the handle of the wagon containing two large coolers and a few dozen boxes of cookies.

He paused for a moment, then held up his phone and used its camera function to check his hair. They used temporary dye to make it dark brown, and he didn't like it. Even though he'd spent years using dirt and mud to make his hair darker, now that he had it clean most of the time, he preferred its natural color.

Shaking his head, he turned off the app, slipped the phone into his pocket, then began walking towards the security warehouse. The two guards standing out front gave him curious looks as he approached.

"Want to buy some cookies?" Cam asked. "We're raising money to help a puppy rescue center that had a fire."

"It isn't safe in this area," one of the guards reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wallet. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard from some friends that there was a security place out here," Cam answered. "It's waaaay out here, though. You guys probably don't get much out here. Do you guys have to bring your own food? It doesn't seem like a food truck would come out here."

"Yeah, we do," the guard chuckled. "How much for the cookies?"

"There are a dozen in a box," Cam answered. "We're selling them for five dollars a box. We have sugar cookies, sugar cookies shaped like puppies and decorated with royal icing, and oatmeal raisin cookies."

"No chocolate chip?" The other guard asked.

"No," Cam blushed. "Someone ate all the chocolate chips before we started working after school yesterday. They, uh, they're making the chocolate chip ones while I'm out."

He hadn't meant to eat all of the chocolate chips. There was a six-pound bag of them, and it was just sitting there, tempting him. He promised himself one or two, and before he knew it, the entire bag was gone.

"Can we have some of the puppy-shaped ones?" The guard pulled out a five-dollar bill.

"Sure," Cam grabbed one off the stack and handed it to the guard, taking the money and placing it into a metal box resting in the wagon. "Thanks! Do you think I could go inside and try to sell some?"

"We'll need to check with our superiors," the guard nodded as he handed the box to his fellow guard. "Before we do, do you mind if I check everything? It'll save us a step."

"Sure," Cam said. "Just cookies, the money box, and ice cream. Oh, right! We're doing ice cream, too. It's a dollar a scoop. I have bowls and plastic spoons in one of the coolers."

"What flavors?" The guard asked as Cam helped him move the boxes to open the coolers.

"Erm, chocolate," Cam answered. "Someone let me get the ice cream. I, uh, forgot to get the other flavors. I was supposed to get vanilla and strawberry, too. We can't get more of it until we sell a bit of what we've got, though. We blew through the budget we were given."

"Alright," the guard chuckled.

He finished checking things, then radioed in about the scout looking to sell cookies and ice cream to raise money for a dog shelter as Cam rearranged everything on his cart. A few minutes later, another guard came out to escort Cam through the building, buying a box of the oatmeal raisin cookies and two scoops of the ice cream.

Twenty minutes later, Cam had a box stuffed with money and only a few boxes of cookies left, most of the ice cream purchased as well. He'd only seen guards so far, plus a few regular workers like the computer guys. He couldn't remember the term for them, though the voices said they were I.T. or tech support.

One voice called them computer geeks.

Cam knew he'd only been shown around half of the warehouse, and was hoping the rest of it was where he'd find answers. Everything looked like what he imagined a security headquarters would look like.

"And here we are," the guard slid his badge through a door's lock, before punching in a series of numbers, then pressed his thumb to it. "The most secure portion of our headquarters here. The boss is back here and said she'd like to buy some cookies, too."

This is it, Cam thought to himself. This is where they attempt to kidnap me, and they'll deny they ever bought any cookies or ice cream from me if someone comes looking. At least, that's their plan. But not mine.

Cam followed the guard through the door, the wagon needing an extra tug to pass over the lip running over the floor in the doorframe. There were only a couple of rooms there, sectioned off from the larger space they had entered.

He could see a few slaves already collared up in the cells, most of them youth, though a few younger adults were among them. His gaze traveled over to the lounge, which consisted of a kitchen, a table, a couch, and a T.V. with a complete entertainment center, where a few guards were playing a game.

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The young mage's eyes fixed on a woman typing away at a computer near the lounge, and his eyes widened. Blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a perfect complexion.

"Auntie Tabby!" Cam exclaimed and took off before the guard could grab him, and the woman jumped, looking over just in time to find Cam running towards her. "Hiiii!"

He tackled her into a hug as the guards stared, befuddled.

"Ambrosius?" She asked, and he grinned up at her. "What are you doing here?"

The last time she had seen him was briefly after the fight at the Battle of the Fae Forest, when he had declared himself off-limits. The only time she had seen him.

"Looking for you!" Cam exclaimed. "I had to sneak my way in, though! I got a lot of money from your guards."

Tabitha chuckled as she ruffled her nephew's hair.

"I thought you didn't like our family?"

"Oh, please," Cam rolled his eyes. "I had lots of time to think about it. It was my mom who abandoned me, right? Not the rest of you, though, right? And then I heard you were here, and decided to come visit you and see if we could hang out and talk! I wanna hear all about the family!"

"Why is your hair brown?"

"I thought your guards might know me immediately," Cam blushed. "So I dyed it to avoid detection. I wanted to surprise you! It's a temporary dye, though, so it'll wash it super-easy! Do you want some cookies or ice cream? They're free for you, 'cause you're my auntie! I can call you 'auntie', right?"

His aunt was pleased that her nephew had decided to show interest in the family. A demigod as powerful as him on their side would be a major boon, especially with the Hound of the Line as his personal bodyguard and minion. If he'd decided to give up the street life and join the family, then she would do her best to make him happy.

"You may," Tabitha smiled. "Some cookies sound good to me."

"Sweet!" Cam hustled back to his wagon and stuck his tongue out at the guard, before pulling the wagon to the table in the lounge. "Come on, auntie!"

He watched as his aunt lifted a Thornton crest from the computer, wondering why she had it out instead of hidden. Then he gave a mental shrug before setting out the boxes and opening up the ice cream.

"Those are some interesting rings you have," Tabitha said as she opened a box of shaped cookies. "And some nice cookie designs."

"Thanks!" Cam said. "I drafted help from Eden. You know him, right? He's the guy I've been staying with."

"Yes," she smiled. "I do. I don't remember you wearing rings before, though."

"Oh, these?" He held up his right hand. On his little finger was a wooden ring with green and gold designs painted onto it, and on his thumb was a simple steel ring. "The steel ring just looks cool, but it's too big for my other fingers. The wooden ring opens a gate to the realm with the former Fae Forest. My dad made it for me after evicting everyone from it. It's my realm, now, and only those I let enter can! It's where I'm storing all of my magical items like the stuff I looted from the Fairy Lord."

Cam kept his aunt talking, delighted at finding one of the people behind the trafficking ring there. More guards showed up, snacking on his cookies or ice cream as he caught up with his aunt. They hadn't expected her to be there, so that was a big development for him.

Two hours after Cam arrived and started chatting with his aunt, he slipped his left hand into his pocket and felt for the smooth, cool stone item within it. He pushed a small amount of magic into it, and it immediately pulsed out a wave of magic.

The wave of magic stretched a hundred yards in every direction, triggering a specific spell, a delay to the sleeping potion baked into the cookies and mixed into the ice cream. Immediately, every guard, tech agent, and other worker in the warehouse passed out, including Tabitha.

Leaving only Cam and the slaves conscious.

"Wow," he stretched as he stood as he pulled his empty hand out. The stone carving was used up. "Callum really knows his stuff!"

He giggled, then opened up the two large coolers, emptying them completely. Cam closed the coolers, tapped on each in a certain pattern, then opened them again. The first one was filled with government-issue magical handcuffs.

Eden provided those. They would bind the magic of any magician they were clapped onto. He quickly got to work, using his demigod speed to cuff every guard in and around the warehouse, dragging them all inside and lining them up against one of the walls in the large space where the warehouse's true purpose was revealed.

He nearly ran out of cuffs before getting to his aunt. He used four cuffs on her, one on each wrist and ankle, to strap her to the chair she was sitting in. They were more powerful cuffs, also government-issue, used for stronger mages. Unlike the others, they didn't need to be clasped over both wrists or both ankles, only one and an inanimate object.

He debated using the other four Eden had supplied him on her, then decided it was probably overkill.

The second cooler was filled with cloaks of varying sizes, and Cam lifted it up and hauled it over to the cages with the prisoners, holding up the keys he'd looted from one of the guards who had been gaming.

There were fifteen prisoners, and Cam frowned at their collars. He made a mental note to give them to Callum to destroy once they were freed.

"Wait!" Cam said as several prisoners in the first cage came forward. "Almost forgot!"

He slipped off the wooden ring and turned away from the cages, holding the ring out as he poured magic into it. The ring began to shimmer, then expand in size, the bottom edge of it disappearing into the concrete floor as it stretched to ten feet in diameter, revealing a tundra beyond, an arctic breeze flowing through the gate and into the warehouse.

"So you have two options," Cam said as he turned back to the cage and unlocked it. "First one is to wait for DoSS to show up and let them sort you out and return you home. The second one is to grab a cloak and go into my forest, becoming my eternal minion. But don't go anywhere once you leave your cages, I have a key for your collars."

He unlocked the other four cages, then gathered the prisoners together, pulling a golden ball the size of a blueberry out of his pocket. It was etched with white and purple runes, and when he touched it to the collars, they unsealed, a line forming down the front and back, falling in two to the floor.

"Also, you aren't my slaves if you take up Option Two," Cam informed them. "You're my minions. I've got some angels on the other side of the gate who will help you, they've already started building some huts there."

He had to negotiate hard with his father to get the angels, too, though their real purpose was to protect Cam's loot. But since there wasn't much for them to do with Ulrima's wards up, Cam figured he could have them do other stuff, too.

"You're a Thornton," one of the mages, a twenty-year-old woman, gave Cam a suspicious look. "How can we trust you?"

"I have a universal key to the collars," Cam held up the little golden ball, before slipping it back into his pocket. "And a gate to another world. Please, if the Thorntons were my real family, this mess," he gestured to the fallen guards. "Would probably have never happened. So. Who wants to wait until I call DoSS and they arrive, and who wants to become my minions until their deaths?"