“It’s okay,” Sydney said gently, coming to rest a hand on my arm. “I feel useless too, but they’re the experts. And once they get her out, we’ll be among the first to see her.”
“I know,” I said. I slipped an arm around her. “Patience just isn’t always one of my better traits.”
As I was speaking, Sydney’s gaze wandered to something behind me, and I turned to look. It was her father and Zoe, entering the command center. They too froze for a moment, and then Zoe took a few steps forward, her face breaking into a smile, until a sharp rebuke from her father drew her up short.
“Zoe,” he barked.
“My own sister can’t come see me, Dad?” Sydney asked. “Afraid I’ll taint her?”
He flushed. “I heard you cut some kind of deal with Stanton. It wouldn’t have happened if I were in charge.”
“How are you, Zoe?” Sydney asked, directing her attention to the youngest Sage sister. “You okay?”
Zoe cast an uncertain look at her father and then gave a slow nod. “Yeah. You?”
“Come along,” ordered their father. “Let’s see how this operation is progressing.”
Zoe gave Sydney one last glance and then reluctantly followed Jared Sage to where some Alchemists were monitoring communications from the team raiding the Warriors’ compound. Sydney broke from me and went after them. “I want an update too,” she said. But when she reached the group huddled around the two people in charge of communications, Sydney waited until her father was distracted, asking someone a question. She touched Zoe’s sleeve and gently drew her back a few steps toward us.
“I never thanked you for not reporting me, back in the Ozarks,” said Sydney softly.
Zoe shook her head but kept an anxious eye on their dad. “It’s the least I could do. Sydney, if I’d had any idea what you had to go through there, I never would’ve turned you in. I thought they were going to help you. Honestly.” Tears brimmed in her eyes.
“How do you know what happened there?” I asked. Last I knew, the full details of what detainees in re-education endured wasn’t widely known.
Zoe didn’t answer right away, and from the uneasy way she regarded me, it was clear she hadn’t quite come to terms with a vampire brother-in-law. “Carly told me,” she said at last. “She heard it from some guy who helped you out. I think she’s dating him?”
Sydney and I exchanged surprised looks. “Marcus?” we asked in unison.
“Yeah,” said Zoe. “I think that’s his name.”
“That sly dog,” I muttered. It had been apparent when he and Carly met that he had a crush on Sydney’s older sister, but I’d had no idea he’d pursued her.
“I’m glad you’re talking to Carly,” said Sydney. “Do you ever talk to Mom?”
Zoe shook her head. “No. I wish I could, but Dad won’t let me. And he made sure the terms of the divorce were pretty absolute.”
There was a misery in her voice that both Sydney and I picked up on. “Do you want out?” Sydney asked urgently. “Do you want to be free of them?”
“Not yet,” said Zoe. Seeing Sydney’s skeptical look, she continued: “No, I’m serious. That’s not fear talking. I still believe in the cause . . . but I’m not always happy about some of the methods. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up. I want to keep learning and working with them . . . and then, who knows?” Her face fell a little. “I wouldn’t mind seeing Mom again, though.”
“Zoe!” thundered Jared. He’d just noticed her talking to us. “Get over here and—”
“I’m getting a report in,” exclaimed the Alchemist on communication. She was sitting beside a guardian who was sharing the monitoring duty. They were both in headphones, with laptops in front of them, and he gave a nod of agreement. “Both teams are in—but there are apparently mines on the property.”
Sydney clenched my hand, and a terrible silence descended on all of us as we waited for more. Alicia’s face came to mind, taunting that we’d never get through to Jill.
“Mines have been bypassed,” the guardian said several minutes later. We all exhaled in relief, only to tense up once more. “They’re engaging the enemy combatants now.”
Even with the headphones’ dampening, I could hear the crackle of urgent dispatches from those raiding the compound, as well as what sounded like gunshots. Sydney leaned against me again, one of her hands resting on the little wooden cross necklace I’d painted for her long ago. Minutes felt like hours, and through it all, I just kept thinking, I should be there, I should be there.
Why? sneered Aunt Tatiana. What good would you be without spirit? Your wife wouldn’t let you use it there, remember?
A grin suddenly broke over the guardian’s face as he listened to the latest message. “They’re in. The upper levels of the compound have been seized. All combatants detained.” He paused as more information came in. “No casualties on our side.” In a surprising moment of solidarity, he and the Alchemist high-fived, but I couldn’t share their joy, not yet.
“Do they have Jill?” I demanded. “Do they have the princess yet?”
The guardian shook his head. “They’re going for her now. She’s being held in the basement, but they did some heat sensing, and there’s only one person there. All evidence points to a Moroi of her size.”
I drew Sydney to me in a crushing embrace, burying my face against her hair. “It’s over. It’s finally over.” I wasn’t one for tears, but I felt them coming to my eyes at the thought I’d soon be reunited with Jill.
“I— Yes. What’s that?”
I turned to the Alchemist in headphones and realized he was talking to someone on the other end, not to us. A frown creased his features, and then he looked up at us. “Someone wants to speak to you, Mrs. Ivashkov.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sydney’s father glare at the name.
“Me?” Sydney asked, accepting the headphones handed over to her. She put them on and sat on the chair, joining a conversation we could only hear half of. “What do you mean? I see . . . are there any markings? Any objects? Okay . . . no, you could be right. Just wait . . . I’ll come. Yes.”
She stood up and took the headphones off. “What’s going on?” I asked.