“I remember that,” Adrian said with a confirming nod.
“It took us almost a week to find the worst of the violators and contain them,” I said.
“Where were they taken to when you’d contained them?” Ryder asked, and even I heard his jaw pop.
“Don’t know. It was above my pay grade. We took them to the river where they were placed in iron containment cells. My guess would be that they were taken to other Guilds so that students could train or so the higher ups could…” I paused and winced. “Experiment on them.”
“I bet,” he growled.
“Let’s just get to the part where you call me an ass, and I admit that I was a good little solider back then, and then we go see what’s going on,” I said as I faced him.
“You’re an ass,” he said.
“Yes, I was a good little solider, and did anything I could to help kill Fae, because—and stop me if you know this part—they killed my parents…or so I thought. Anything else you want? Do you need me to say sorry? Because you can hold your breath on that one,” I warned as I glared at him. Adrian looked uncomfortable beside me, because he was riding the same ‘good soldier’ horse I was.
His men laughed, and I caught hint of a smile on his lips before he dropped back into warrior mode. “We need to move. This is too many armed Fae to have in front of a Witches’ Guild and we will have company we don’t need sooner than we like if we don’t move now.”
“Agreed; so do your invisible thingy and let’s go,” I said in agreement.
“My invisible thingy, huh?” Ryder asked as he pulled me closer to him, and looked across the street. “Are you okay?” he asked, without waiting for me to answer him on his first question.
“I’m not going to lie; seeing it like this is sad. Not knowing what we’ll find in there is even scarier. I don’t want to even think they won’t be alive, but if they were captured…it might be easier on them to have died,” I whispered.
“What they did to you…” Ryder hissed.
“I don’t want to think about that right now. Let’s just stay on point here, please,” I whispered. We hadn’t discussed what had happened to me during my stint with Faolán and the Mages, and I wasn’t ready to. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to speak of what Faolán did to me and what he wanted to do before Dyson stopped him. Now definitely wasn’t the time to talk it out.
“You guys want lead?” Aodhan asked as he walked beside us, and Zahruk took flank on the other side of Ryder.
“You have to ask?” Ryder asked.
I turned to smile reassuringly at Aodhan, and caught sight of a blue strand of hair peeking from beneath his armor.
“Just figured I’d ask,” he said as he continued to walk beside us.
We approached the stairs that led into the Guild, and Z stopped us. “Do you feel that?” he asked.
“I feel nothing,” I admitted.
“No wards,” Ryder announced as he chanced a step forward. “Nothing,” he continued.