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All but one of the black SUVs had left when the warehouse shutters rolled up. Dacien and Virelle climbed in, along with the last two guards, while Kara drove Iyoni and me.

None of us spoke as we traveled, each wrapped in our own thoughts.

I was glad the wait had come to an end and we were now on the move, but dreaded what we were going to find. People would die tonight, and I couldn’t bear the thought of it being either of my girls.

“If the worst happens, you two get yourselves out,” I said into the heavy silence.

Kara shifted in her seat, her eyes on the rearview mirror, as a silent communication passed between her and Iyoni.

“We’ll all get through this,” she said.

I gave a dry laugh. “That, I very much doubt. I’m serious. If—when—this goes south, I want both of you to prioritize getting yourselves safe.”

“While you do what?” Iyoni asked. “Sacrifice yourself to take Moreau out, in a noble gesture for the betterment of New Providence?”

I winced. That had pretty much been along the lines I was thinking; I would’ve just preferred she summed it up without the scathing tone. She’d obviously spent too long around Kara.

“If Moreau isn’t dead by the end of the night, you know he’s going to come after us. But he’s shown some interest in me, and said he doesn’t want me dead. It might just let me get close to him.”

“Think that’ll last when you attack him?” Kara asked, pulling onto I-195 behind her parent’s SUV.

“Not for a moment. But I have that stupidly powerful blast thing I can do.”

“Which you can’t control, goes wrong half the time, and leaves you as weak as a lamb until you pass out,” Iyoni pointed out helpfully.

“Doesn’t matter if he’s dead,” I muttered. “You’re not being very supportive.”

“That’s because you’re being an idiot, Master ,” Kara said. “We’ll have no more of this self-sacrifice talk, or I’ll turn this car around right now.”

I hadn’t heard her use that tone in a while, and glared at her in exasperation.

“He’s going to have a full team there. You know that, don’t you?

Whatever Virelle said about arrogance and overconfidence, Moreau isn’t an idiot.

He’ll have more than enough people to subdue Dacien, and that’s without him getting his own hands dirty. ”

“I think you’re underestimating my parents’ power,” she said.

I shook my head. “Unfortunately, I’m not. I know exactly how powerful they are. And Moreau. And you two.”

They both stared at me. For long enough that I had to point at the windscreen and remind Kara to turn her eyes back to the road.

“How could you possibly know that?” Iyoni asked.

I shrugged. “I’ve always been able to sense supes.”

“It’s true,” Kara said. “He detected them back at Halloween, while we were trying to get across campus. At the time, I wondered about it, but then … with all that happened, it kinda slipped my mind.”

Iyoni leaned forward between our seats. “I’ve never heard of anyone with that power. It’s incredible.”

“Neither have I,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t do too much, other than let me know how powerful someone is.”

“Makes sense for an Aetherborn,” Iyoni mused. “It lets you know how powerful someone is before you bond them.”

I hadn’t considered that. It was a fair point, and maybe explained why my magic had chosen Kara, as the most powerful supe in the bar.

“So how powerful are they?” Kara asked. “And us too, come to that.”

“Er … I’ve always seen it as a bell curve, but basically, Moreau is more powerful than Dacien, by enough of a margin to be a concern.

The only supe I’ve met that tops him is Archon Elaris.

If we say Moreau is a ten, Dacien’s an eight.

Virelle’s a nine, you’re an eight Iyoni, Kara’s a seven-and-a-half now, and since bonding you both, I’m a three.

But that’s a horrible oversimplification. ”

“Mom is more powerful than my father?” Kara nodded to herself. “That figures. But with the two of them together, they’re more powerful than Moreau, right?”

“Remember it’s a bell curve. That one-point difference could be enough for Moreau to balance both of them.” I shrugged. “I don’t really know.”

“You’re only a three?” Iyoni asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It does if you consider I was a one before all this started,” I said.

“This is raw power, right?” Kara asked, pulling a swift overtake on a family sedan that had moved between us and Dacien’s SUV. “I mean, not only is Iyoni more powerful than me, but she has decades of combat training too.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “That certainly makes a difference.” I turned and gave Iyoni a smile. “You’re scary.”

“Only if you’re a bad guy. Otherwise I’m a pussy cat.”

I hesitated, my gut twisting. “Does that include me now? With all that’s been going on, I’m hardly whiter-than-white, am I?” Killing Turner still bothered me, even though I’d do it again if it meant keeping Kara safe. Now I was setting out to kill Moreau, too.

“Why are we here again?” Iyoni asked, her tone sarcastic.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, we’re keeping Kara safe from a man who threatened to kill her just to make a point.

The same man who had no compunction about blowing up innocent lives—even if he didn’t, Marlow was convinced he could.

The same man who has now recruited some of the most evil supes ever to have existed.

Killing him isn’t white, Xan, but it’s sure as hell a long way from black. ”

“Also, if we don’t agree with you, we’ll let you know,” Kara said.

“Hundred percent,” Iyoni added.

“Which brings us back full circle. You’re not doing this self-sacrifice thing.”

“Hundred percent,” Iyoni said again, firmer this time.

I clenched my jaw. “I could order you both to stay in the car.”

“Try it.” Kara glared at me. “I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do.”

“I probably do,” Iyoni said thoughtfully. “But I always assumed you’d save the orders for kinky stuff.”

It was safer to ignore that comment right in this moment. But at some point, she and I needed to have a conversation.

Kara gestured over her shoulder with her thumb toward Iyoni. “If you leave her behind, our chances nosedive, and you know it. How about instead we finish this the way we started it: together.”

“I have a question,” Iyoni said. “You said you were a three since bonding us. But are you still a three when you’re pulling from both bonds at once?”

“No, I’m—”

Kara cut in. “Exactly! Leave her in the car, you’re crippling yourself. You’ll never get to Moreau without going full Aetherborn.”

“You’re ganging up on me,” I muttered.

“Damn right we are, Master,” Kara said, not sounding in the least bit sorry.

I sighed. “Fine. But if either of you die tonight, I’m going to be pissed .”

“So how powerful are you with both of us near?”

“Well … when I had my shields up in the warehouse yesterday, I was about Iyoni’s level.”

“So with you drawing from us, we collectively score in the twenties,” Kara said. “Moreau’s just a ten.”

“Except bell curve,” I reminded her. “Individual power matters more than raw numbers. It’s not how many guards he has if they’re all ‘fives’, but the high-powered supes we have to watch for.”

“That’s true,” Iyoni agreed. “One person with particularly strong magic can tip the balance.”

I grimaced. “It’s why he went after SPAR’s maximum-security inmates.”

“You’re saying they’ll be there, aren’t you?” Kara asked, tone flat.

I shrugged. “It’s only been twenty-four hours.

Here’s hoping he hasn’t had time to woo them all to his side, but …

yes, in short. It’s a risk, if not a likelihood.

Still, Moreau alone is the biggest threat.

He’s one of the strongest supes I’ve encountered.

He may be able to obliterate any of us by blinking too hard. ”

“That may be an exaggeration,” Iyoni said.

“It better be,” Kara added.

“You get the point,” I said. “The message is don’t underestimate him. If you see an opportunity to take him out, don’t hesitate.”

“We’ll know soon enough,” Kara said, exiting the interstate. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

I glanced at the car’s clock: 8:17 PM. “We made good time. Hold up, your folks are pulling off.”

We followed Dacien into the carpark of a diner at the end of Boyd Avenue, pulling up next to the other black SUVs. It looked like a funeral convoy had stopped for a burger, except the other vehicles were all empty.

Virelle got out, and Kara dropped her window. “The guards need a few minutes to get into position,” she said, leaning on the door. We’ll wait until half past, then drive down.”

“Is there going to be an issue if they see me go full Aetherborn?” I asked her. Or, in other words, was she going to kill them afterwards? I didn’t want more deaths on my conscience.

“No. I’ve taken oaths of secrecy from them. They won’t breathe a word of what happens tonight.”

She walked back to Dacien’s SUV, and Kara closed her window.

I clenched my jaw, gripping the edge of my seat hard enough for my knuckles to turn white. “Did your mother just basically imply she didn’t need to kill those guards last night?”

“I don’t know,” Kara said, looking as grim as I felt. “Maybe the secrecy oath doesn’t work in arrears?”

“No offense, Kara, but she may be a bit psychotic,” Iyoni said.

“You’re telling me,” Kara muttered.

I shook my head with a huff, watching Virelle walk away, trying to persuade myself that those guards’ deaths were on her, not on me. They’d died just because I was an Aetherborn, but Virelle had killed them.

It still made me sick.

But I needed to focus on the upcoming fight—on what I could affect, not what I couldn’t.

I closed my eyes, steadying my breathing and feeling for the bonds that tethered me to Iyoni and Kara.

One white, one black, both vibrant with my magic.

They were both a comfort—not only in their existence, but what they represented.

My two loyal girls, both of whom had chosen me not because of the bonds, but despite them.

Was I strong enough to keep them safe with what lay ahead?