ravaged hearts

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE,

RAVAGED HEARTS | CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  IO'S SURE SHE'D established days ago that her father was not the smartest or fastest person. It made his lack of appearance slightly concerning. Unless Rhys and her squad along with the other one was having any luck, the man had simply vanished. He wouldn't have left, had he? Louis had set birds on the fortress whenever they weren't here themselves—they'd certainly have reported something.

  She glanced out the window. Louis was there, locked in a fight with a dark-skinned Falcon—was his name Stiaan Harmse? She thought it was, they hadn't run into each other before. He was handling himself fairly well so she didn't bother worrying.

  She'd sent her squad off a while ago, against her better judgement. This building was cleared. But where was her father? He wasn't a priority for anyone else—theirs was to subdue the Falcons, but she had another goal here.

  She wasn't about to let her father go free.

  Her grip tightened around her pistol. Where could he have gone, though? If Rhys' squad had found him in the other buildings he'd probably be in the courtyard right now, most likely one of the first subdued. But another glance through the windows showed that he wasn't there. She rushed back down to the first floor from the second she was on, trying to gather her wits.

  She'd checked all the rooms. But what if there were underground ways out? Would he be there instead?

  Neither Seo nor Voronin were in the courtyard either.

  Oh fuck. If they'd all snuck out together... those were the three that could not escape under any circumstances. Those three had to be imprisoned and taken care of.

  She began searching the first floor again. It was through the armoury, she finally realised. The hatch of the trapdoor was open. They must have gone down there in a rush.

  She didn't have time to waste. She jumped in.

-♡-

  HARMSE DROPPED LIKE a stone. He was fast, but he lacked raw muscle strength. Louis hadn't found it too difficult to overwhelm him. Momentarily Louis was left without an opponent, and he took the moment to survey the courtyard. Two agents of theirs on the ground. Three Falcons. Not the numbers he wanted, but they'd have to do for now. Without hesitation one Falcon—Louis recognised her as Giana Sloaw—charged towards him. Louis dodged her outstretched claws, hissing as one still left a red gash into his skin. Nothing too deep, but that would hurt and bleed.

  "Son of a bitch," she hissed, immediately swiping left in a wide arch at where he stood. Louis barely leapt out of the way and almost bumped into Vinicio De Paul, who was locked in his own heated battle against Lucien Sommer, a talented wiccai who could control water. He was out of luck today, then, because he only had very little liquid in his arsenal, probably only what was in the bottle he carried around. That was the only reason why Vinicio could take him on solo right now. Sommer at his full potential was, quite simply, terrifying.

   Any of the wiccai, in his own opinion, who could control the very elements of the earth were enormously powerful. The Iron Wolves had their own Notus, Dominic Lang, one of the current Captains of the Iron Wolves, who could control wind. That was scary.

  "Let's not insult my mother," he sniped back, dodging another swipe before slashing the knife he held towards her in a wide arch, forcing her backwards to gain himself some space. Giana Sloaw had excellent balance, that was one thing he knew. She was also fast. But her movement was exaggerated and more often than not, sloppy. He just had to wait for her to make one wrong move, and then he could grab onto that and easily defeat the woman.