Chapter Sixteen
Mirelle POV
"What? Are we finally starting a war with the Hunter Association?" a voice says lazily from the back seat.
I don't respond.
"I wonder what finally tipped the bucket," another voice chimes in, more amused than alarmed.
There's the distinct sound of someone being hit.
"Ow!"
"Can we start a war with just us four? I'm sure we're just here to vandalize and disappear anonymously. Hence the four identical cars—to confuse them when we escape."
I'm surrounded by idiots.
I open the car door and step out into the cool London night. It's 1:50 AM, according to my watch. Almost time.
The plan is simple: extract Raina Langston, her two siblings, and their mother from her uncle's home. Her idea, not mine.
I stretch my limbs, cracking my knuckles one by one. Then I slide the white, faceless mask over my head. It's reinforced with anti-camera and anti-tracking enchantments. Otherworlder tech—not from my world, but the dwarves and elves? Brilliant minds.
Behind me, the other three faceless figures adjust their hoods. Jason. Jamie. And Adrian.
The Alden chaos division.
"Get ready," I say quietly.
From my coat, I retrieve one of Niall's favorites—a compact smoke bomb with hallucinogenic properties that are... extreme. And by extreme, I mean I once ended up convinced my own shadow was trying to murder me.
Thanks, Uncle Felix.
I pull the pin and toss it toward the towering steel gates of the Hunter Association president's estate. The cloud that forms is almost invisible, but the drug diffuses instantly, washing over the security perimeter like fog.
The house is massive. Cold. The kind of sterile architectural flex that screams, "I overcompensate with gray concrete and glass." Pretentious as hell.
That's when I see her.
Raina.
She emerges quietly from the side path, flanked by two younger figures—her siblings—and a woman I assume is her mother.
"Jason. Go crazy," I say calmly.
The man doesn't hesitate. He opens his trunk, lifts a covered tarp—and beneath it is a mana-powered cannon.
Because of course it is.
"We need to split," I mutter.
I move to intercept Raina and open the backseat door. She hesitates for only a second before ushering her family inside. No words. No drama. Just urgency.
I slide into the driver's seat of our six-seater and slam the door.
Then comes the first explosion.
Shockwaves ripple through the street. I don't even flinch. You should see him in dungeons.
I start the car, wheels spinning as I pull out from the temporary parking space directly across the estate—an empty office lot.
No one expected an attack tonight or ever.
Another explosion.
The glass on the building across the street shudders. A car alarm howls.
I can feel the vibrations through the floorboards.
"Nothing too destructive," I mutter, more to myself than anyone.
"The house is in the center of bloody London."
But then again... no one expected someone would be bold—or foolish—enough to stage a kidnapping from the home of one of the most powerful men on Earth.
Oh well.
I slam the gear into drive, and we vanish into the chaos.
--
Smoke clings to the streets behind us, swirling in the rearview mirror like fog off a battlefield. I take one sharp turn, then another, navigating by instinct. We memorized the route like a heist team. Ten turns. Six choke points. Three safe zones.
The car is silent save for the hum of the engine and the nervous breathing behind me.
I don't look back, but I feel her. Raina. She hasn't spoken a word since she climbed in. Neither have the siblings. The smallest one is clinging to the older girl.
"We're twenty minutes out," Adrian's voice comes through a comm in my ear.
"Jason's lagging. Think he wants to blow one more thing up."
"Tell him to restrain himself," I mutter.
"You know how he gets," Jamie's voice joins in.
"If he doesn't blow something up, he'll sulk for days."
"He can sulk," I say flatly.
"We're not making a scene just to satisfy his chaos craving."
I take a breath and finally glance into the rearview mirror.
Raina's looking at me.
Not panicked. Not angry. Just watching.
I wonder what she sees.