Queen of Death

Chapter 31

Hunter

The explosion sends us all flying backwards. I'm bracing myself mid air for an impact that never comes. One second there's a loud, thunderous explosion, with dust and debris immediately surrounding me, and then next there is peace and the smell of fresh air.

The green of the grove meets my eyes as I look around to regain my sense of balance. My wolf alerts me to Solana's absence, which is confirmed when Griffin starts swearing under his breath next to me.

"Sol is still back there. She slipped out of my grip at the last moment." Griffin shoves his hands into his hair.

"I can lead us back," I tell him, trying to calm my wolf and keep him from tearing through. Griffin puts a hand on my shoulder and I concentrate on the hallway in the basement of the facility. He pulls us through the void and a moment later we're back in the facility. The place is flooded from the water from the sprinklers, and I can hear voices over the blaring alarm.

Cautiously, Griffin and I approach the source of the voices. We're prepared to face an attack but rather than stumbling upon enemies, we find ourselves in front of Ace, Dean, and Rhys.

"How did you get here so fast? Where's Sol?" The hallway is a minefield of debris. I'm so focused on my path that I don't see what's at the end of it until I'm only a few feet away from Ace.

I'm trying to hold my wolf in and my emotions back, because I need to be calm and clear headed if I'm going to make sense of what happened and where Sol could be. But my composure snaps when I notice Solana laying limply in Ace's arms. I lunge at them, closing the last few feet of distance between us, and fall to my knees beside Ace.

"Where's Solana?" Ace snaps at me. My eyes shift between him and her while I attempt to assess if this is some kind of joke. Maybe he hit his head in the blast.

She's in your fucking arms, I think to myself. I may not not have said the words out loud, or even through mindlink, but I know by the look on Ace's face that he knows what I was thinking anyway.

"Mags!" Ro's and Varian's voices echo from behind us through the corridor.

"Over here," Rhys calls back to his dads.

I smooth the hair away from Sol's face. The more I look at her the more details I find wrong. Her ears are missing the diamonds Ace gave her, her lips are too thin, and there's a dimple in her chin that doesn't belong to her.

The alphas run around the corner and come barreling towards us. Ace immediately hands who I thought was Sol over to Varian who then hands her over to Xander.

"Bring her home. Get Ember to look over her." Rohanor says to Xander while I battle against all the signs that are pointing to the fact that that's not Sol, but rather her mom, Queen Magnolia.

There's something else I'm missing, something isn't quite adding up. Like I'm living in an alternate universe. How did Ace and the others get here so fast? How was Mags hit by the blast when she was nowhere near us? Where the hell is Sol?

"Why didn't you tell me Sol swapped places with her mother?" Ace asks Dean with a withering glare.

"I thought that was Sol! She said she was blocking us out so I didn't think twice when I couldn't read her or sense her. Plus the scent blockers they had on..." he trails off at the end. Shame paints an angry rash on his neck.

"Can someone please explain what the fuck is going on?" I'm so pissed that I involuntarily summon five different knives, the last of which being Sol's favorite.

"They swapped places," Ace says angrily.

"I already knew that, she told me before we teleported that she and her mom switched." I can't keep my exasperation out of my tone.

Rhys punches a hole in the nearest wall that's not destroyed and Dean lets out a frustrated growl. "Well they didn't tell us. We thought it was Sol who was with us, so now where the hell is she?"

"She should be right here where Ace found Mags! We opened the door and a bomb went off. Griffin teleported us out but Sol slipped his grip. I lead us right back here and instead of finding Sol I find you all."

"We've got a problem," Tate appears behind us out of nowhere causing Ro and Varian to flinch in surprise. Me and the guys are used to Tate popping up like a ghost but the alphas and my dad don't have the immunity we've developed. "This just came through on the facility's system."

Tate hands Ace a tablet with a photo already cued up on the screen. It's a picture of Bunny, Alec's mom, the woman who always treated Ace like her own. She's cuffed to a chair and is sporting two black eyes and a split lip.

"This came with the photo," Tate swipes the screen to show us a note that reads "Death Wish" along with some coordinates.

"Do we know who sent this or where these coordinates lead?" Ace asks, flipping back to the photo of his step-mother.

"It's from Alec —"

"That son of a bitch," Ace swears lowly to himself.

"Senior," Tate finishes the end of his sentence.

"As in your dad, Alec Sr.?" Dean asks Ace but it's a rhetorical question. "As in the same dad that's been dead for fifteen years?"

"Unless he faked his death and has found some way to prolong the inevitable." Eli says.

"He'd have to have some really powerful friends in really dark places," I think out loud.

"Or in high places," Ace muses. "If it's his name on the facility that means we can now connect him to the Elders. If anyone has knowledge of or access to that kind of magic it would be them."

"That was his price. A dead man running the largest traffic ring in the country in exchange for immortality." Tate takes back the tablet and starts searching for something.

Something nags at the base of my skull. "Why would he continue working for the Elders if he got what he wanted?"

"Because he didn't," Varian chimes in. "Only the most powerful Queens could grant true immortality. Like how Mags granted it to you and your parents, or how Sol gave it to Eli. Not even the Elders have that kind of power."

"They're most likely drip feeding him, giving him enough to extend his life but not immortalize him." Ro says. "Because he hasn't given them what they want yet."

"Not 'them'...'her'." Tate flips the tablet back around and hands it to Ace. "Those are coordinates to the Elder's Council headquarters. He's baiting us there and I guarantee you that Elena will be the one waiting for us."

"First we need to find Sol," I remind the group.

Tate's expression hardens. "Don't you get it? Elena already has her."

"Just like her fucking mother," Ro seethes fire under his breath. "She went rogue. Sol switched places with Mags so she could get Griffin to teleport you guys to the council."

Ace's aura washes over us. His anger weighs heavily on us, so heavily in fact that even Dean and Tate are struggling not to whimper. "Burn this place to the Gods damn ground then get me a fucking map." He barks at everyone. Sol's fathers puff out their chests unappreciative about being given orders like they aren't alphas themselves. Other than a few snarls and growls, the alphas say nothing else.

"We'll take care of things here," Xander is back from dropping off Sol's mom and he puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Go get your queen, but be fucking careful. The elders are usually appointed by what they can bring to the council – wealth, power, gifts. Elena will be sure to use one or more of those assets to kill you."

"Noted." I respond dryly then move to stand by Ace so we can get the hell out of here and find Sol.