Page 46 of Cerulean Truth (Sapere #1)

TWENTY-TWO

JAMES

After spending twenty minutes in the Assembly room, it felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of there. Matthew and Nino were still dancing, and I'd already completed my obligatory dance with Justine. She was a talented dancer, and I enjoyed our time together, but my mind wasn't fully in it.

I couldn't help but wonder why Emma wasn't in the room with the rest of us. Now that I thought about it, it had been quite a while since I last saw her. Our last interaction must have been at least half an hour ago.

Deciding to go find her, I started to wade through the crowded room. I hadn’t seen her leave and there was no other exit. She had to be here somewhere. I stepped outside, taking deep breaths to clear my mind, and scanned the area for any sign of her.

After a few minutes of searching and walking several rounds around the venue, worry began to creep in.

My attention was drawn to the garden up ahead.

Maybe she had gone there for some quiet, or perhaps she was with someone else.

The thought of the latter made me quicken my pace, but once I entered the garden, I found it deserted. My brow furrowed.

Where the fuck is she?

I continued to explore the garden, calling out for her a couple of times, but there was no response. As I was about to return inside, I noticed something glimmering in the grass. I picked it up. An earring. Unmistakably Emma's earring, shimmering.

I searched the area more thoroughly while a growing sense of anxiety gnawed at my chest.

That’s when I noticed several different footprints in the grass, torn leaves, and branches on the ground from the plants surrounding the garden, and—my breath caught at the sight of them—something looking like drops of blood against the back of the bench.

A sense of dread hit me like a wrecking ball: these were signs of a struggle. It was subtle but unmistakable. Emma had been here and she had been struggling with someone.

As an Offensive I learned to kick into higher gear whenever I was confronted with danger. Emma being the one in danger sent me into a gear I didn’t even know existed.

Within seconds, I had pulled Maurice out of the Assembly and dragged into the garden. I thrusted the earring into his palm, pointing at all the evidence of the struggle, and demanded an explanation he clearly didn’t have.

“This is not good, James. We must find her at once.”

Yeah, no shit.

“Maurice, her vanishing on the same night the Resistants breach our protections? It can’t be a coincidence..." I was practically gasping, grappling with my racing thoughts. Fuck, I was loathing Maurice for not putting a tracker on those fuckers immediately.

Maurice nodded grimly. “We must act quickly. Thank the gods you proposed to bubble in the Collective,” Maurice mumbled under his breath, examining the surroundings.

“The Offensives are searching for the Resistants as we speak, and I’ll alert Maria they must hurry.

Meanwhile you and I will look for Emma. We’re bound to find either quickly. ”

He sensed my rising panic and recognized I needed to be in control.

“You’re First Offensive, how do you want to proceed?” he asked.

Almost forty minutes since I last saw her—I knew we had no time to waste. Every second counted.

"If they dared to take her from here, they must have been brazen enough to approach the entire international community..." Maurice shook his head in disbelief. "Damn it, how do we even begin to find her?"

"We can't track their energy, but maybe.

.. maybe we can track Emma's..." My voice was laced with uncertainty as I cautiously floated the idea.

There was no concrete evidence that we could track her within the sphere, but with time slipping away and no other viable plan in sight, we had to try something.

Maurice blinked, a flicker of doubt crossing his face. "You think..." His words trailed off. "Just because she's untraceable in the Human World doesn't guarantee we'll be able to track her here," he mused.

"You got a better idea?" I snarled, losing my patience. Maurice's eyes widened, taken aback by my sharp tone.

He shook his head briskly.

“Fuck. Maria bubbled in Cyclos. We can’t portal out of here,” I grunted.

“You forget Maria and I have formed the True Bond. She created the bubble, she can still translate, so can I.”

Right. Forgot about that.

Maurice wasted no time. With a swift motion, he opened a portal, pulling us both through it in an instant.

A second later, we materialized at the Videmus building—a massive structure accessible only to Council members.

Its security wasn't rooted in the presence of armed guards, but rather in its design: a labyrinth of over a thousand empty rooms. Without knowledge of the layout, navigation was impossible.

To translate and consult the LiaPrism—the object responsible for tracking every energy signature in the Human World and hopefully, Emma’s in the sphere—in the wrong room, meant certain death. Except for Stephen, who was the only person ever to have remote access, as needed for his travels.

Fortunately, I'd spent more time inside this building than anyone else.

As First Offensive, I'd logged countless tracking missions, making these surroundings as familiar to me as my own backyard.

However, the thought of tracking someone inside the sphere shook me to my core.

It was just…wrong. Even if it was for the right reasons. Fuck it.

I shot a look at Maurice, his face was a mirror of my own mix of grit and nerves. We both knew this was a shot in the dark—what we were about to try was practically impossible. But with Emma on the line, we had no choice but to dive in.

Charging into the building, my footsteps were pounding with purpose and resolve. The place was cloaked in darkness, a twisted maze of empty rooms stretching out ahead. Maurice was hot on my heels, his gaze snapping around, every creak and shadow setting him on edge as we pushed forward.

Finally, we arrived at the designated room. Without hesitation, I pushed open the door with such force, we almost tumbled into the barely lit room with walls so white, they were near clinical. Exactly like any other room.

Without a word, I stepped inside, my heart hammering in my chest as I instantly focused all my thoughts on the LiaPrism. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, willing the prism to reveal itself. Maurice watched intently, his breath held in anticipation as he waited for me to make contact.

A faint shimmer of light appeared in the air before us, slowly morphing into the LiaPrism.

Its crystalline surface emitted a subtle, otherworldly radiance, illuminating the room with a soft cerulean glow, mirroring my energy.

I approached the crystal resolutely, my hands steady as I reached out to touch it.

As soon as my fingertips made contact with it, a surge of energy pulsed through me, pulling me into a swirling vortex of translation. That was it. Now all I had to do was focus my thoughts on Emma and hope she had projected something containing her energy signature.

With a sharp intake of breath, I honed in on all my energy, willing the LiaPrism to reveal her location within the sphere. The prism responded with a soft hum, its light flickering and pulsating as it scoured for the elusive energy signature I so desperately sought.

"Her life was in danger; she must've projected something," I muttered more to myself than to Maurice.

Minutes passed like hours as Maurice and I waited agitatedly, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

My anxiety was through the roof by the time the prism finally flared to life, generating a holographic image of Emma's location within the sphere.

My eyes widened in disbelief as I took in the scene before me, my mind racing.

Her translation is fucking traceable inside the sphere…

"Holy shit… We can actually track her translation within the sphere," Maurice whispered, awe and realization dawning in his eyes.

I shot him an incredulous look, my focus squarely on the imminent danger.

"Which isn't the point right now," he hurriedly added, recognizing the gravity of the situation.

Without a moment's hesitation, Maurice created a portal and had us both jumping through to Emma’s location.

A split second later, we found ourselves smack in the middle of a dense forest. The surroundings were pitch black, making it challenging to discern any figures.

However, a subtle sound caught my attention, prompting me to gesture to Maurice with a hushed finger pressed against my lips, signaling the need for absolute silence.

He acknowledged my order with a silent nod.

With cautious but firm steps, we approached the source of the noise.

"Make sure you don't kill her," a voice echoed through the shadows, causing me to clench my jaw.

"I won't, but how much do we need?" another voice responded, the conversation betraying their intent.

"I don't know, it has been almost ten minutes; let's go for fifteen just to be sure."

Their voices grew nearer. They were almost in our line of sight.

Taking two more measured steps, I found myself face to face with the most horrifying scene imaginable, costing me every ounce of willpower not to unleash death and destruction on everyone on sight.

Emma— my Emma —was helplessly pinned to a tree, unconscious, a bag hanging from her arm, her life force draining through a tube.

They were tapping her fucking blood. The realization slammed into me like a sledgehammer, igniting an overwhelming thirst for vengeance that consumed every fiber of my being.

"What. The. Actual. Fuck." The words escaped my lips in a low, seething whisper as fury ignited within me.