Page 13 of Fate of the Fallen

I did, however, know the name of the stones they lugged in next. They were large, so large the soldiers could only carry one at a time. Their dark blue color and iridescent outer layer made them easy to classify—Biremede stones.

They were used by witches for a number of spells, which made it hard to narrow down what Sebastian had in mind, but it was worth notating. Maybe Hilda would have answers.

We stared on as more clear barrels were hauled inside. Only three this time, but the liquid inside wasn’t silver. It was red.

“Blood,” Ivan sighed.

“Think it’s for the witches?” Kyle asked. “We’re not sure how many he has and without the lycan blood, they’ll die, right?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make sense,” Richie chimed in. “The soldiers are likely providing the witches with more than enough to live off of.”

“Being honest,” Ben added, “noneof this looks right.”

I couldn’t have agreed more.

Dallas crouched a bit lower. “Yeah, something’s definitely off,” he grumbled.

“And am I the only one who thought there’d be more of them?” Kyle asked, prompting several others to agree, including me. Things were far too quiet. It didn’t seem like we’d been given bad info, but maybe our timing was off.

“They’re clearly up to something, but there’s no way Sebastian’s here.” Richie’s tone mirrored the concern in his expression as he scanned the same scene we all did.

“What could they be planning to do with all these materials?” Ethan asked, seeming to speak for each of his brothers.

They may have been the most confused of all. I was certain they expected to see Sebastian behaving as irrationally as he had in the past. However, they missed the many centuries he spent honing his resources, training his army to behave like a hive, functioning with one mind.

A killing machine.

Ivan breathed a deep, frustrated sigh. “Should we come back in a day or two? Would we see more?”

I stared on as I thought, eventually responding.

“No. The more often we come back, the more likely we are to get caught. Already, as it stands, if they scan these woods soon after we’re gone, they’ll still pick up on our scent. Coming back a second time would only mean they’d be ready for us,” I replied.

Richie nodded when our thoughts aligned. “So, our only option is to get the evidence we can now,” he suggested.

Usually, he seemed to be one of the more levelheaded alphas I’d come across. However, when I turned to see why he’d gone quiet, there was a look behind his eyes that let me know something in him might be changing, might be growing tired of always taking the high road.

This, too, we had in common.

“We need to get in there,” he blurted. “I counted about twenty or so lycans. We’re eleven strong—three lycans, six hybrids, and two dragons.” He paused to glance at all of us, before adding, “I think we can take them.”

“Take them?” The question came from Ben, wearing a look of disbelief following his brother’s statement. “For what purpose, exactly?”

Richie didn’t hesitate to explain himself, staring his brother in the eyes.

“We didn’t come here just to report back that we have no idea where the Sovereign is, that we saw a few soldiers carrying in a strange liquid we can’t identify, barrels of blood for a purpose we’re unsure of, for an attack going down who-knows-when.”

There was no missing his exasperated tone. I’d been right about him. Hewastired of our side, thegoodside, always coming up short. It was time we got a win.

“I’m with him,” I stepped up, knowing everyone might not agree, but I was certain there would be at least six who did.

“We’re with you.” Declan spoke for himself and the rest of his brothers. This thought was only confirmed when they stood as well, abandoning the position where we once hid out of sight.

Richie gave a nod and the other three stood—those of our group who weren’t nearly as sure as the rest of us.

“Then, I guess we’re doing this,” Dallas groaned, his heavy, Southern drawl elongating the syllables. The sound of which made his disdain for this leg of our plan abundantly clear.

Richie sprang right into action once everyone was on board. “Good, so half of us will come in from the east, the other half from the west. We’ll surround the building and close in on them. Once we have eyes on the soldiers, we take them out one by one, as silently as possible to avoid making ourselves anymore obvious than we need to.”