Page 3 of Scarlet Wars
“Caden!”
“I’m coming!” I shouted back at the impatient asshole, before I translated a shot of caffeine into my hands, hoping it’d hit fast enough to deal with whatever crap waited on the other side.
I threw the door open and couldn’t help my tone dripping with irritation. “What is it?”
Sean stood there, one brow raised with that all-too-knowing smirk plastered on his face. “Sorry, did I interrupt another wistful dream about Emma?”
I flipped him off while I grabbed my clothes from the floor and tried to ignore the heat rising in my face.
“I still don’t get it,” my fucker of a best friend said as he leaned against the doorframe. “It’s been almost a month since she left, and ye’ve been even less charmin’ than usual. Why don’t ye just admit ye miss her and portal out to Cyclos? Go see her.”
"She’s busy patching things up with James," I snapped, yanking my shirt over my head. "You really think I want to go and fucking watch that?"
Sean winced, clearly not expecting the unfiltered anger in my words. "Ah, I didn’t mean it like that."
I sighed, walked over to him, and grabbed his shoulder in a halfhearted attempt at reassurance. "I know," I muttered. "It’snot on you. I’m the idiot who fell in love with a woman whose heart was already spoken for. Not much we can do about it now."
Sean shifted his weight before he spoke. "I’m sorry, man. I hate to see ye go through this.”
I nodded, his words settling over me like a bloody curse. The last thing I needed was to dwell on Emma right now. "So, what’s with all the pounding on my door?"
Sean’s face grew serious, and a rather familiar tension crept into the air between us. "Rocco received some news from one of our operatives in the US. And judging how much he’s spiraling, it’s not good.”
Sittingaround the table with my team, I had to admit, Sean was right. It wasn’t good. And that was a big fucking understatement.
"You're telling me not only has the US closed all state borders, but they’ve actually found a maga or magus willingandpowerful enough to bubble in the entire country?" My disbelief rang more than clear through the question.
We’d known the US had shut its national borders after the Great Exposure, but now locking down the individual states and bubbling the whole thing in? That wasinsane.
Rocco nodded, and though he was better known for bad jokes than hard truths, he was wearing none of his usual levity. "Yeah. I got a call from one of Crown’s Offensives stationed in California, through a human phoneline. Magic’s out for everyone in the whole continent."
Margaux—recruited only last week to replace Enya—flicked her raven hair out of her face. "What the hell does it even mean?"
"It means," Rocco replied, "no magi in the States can translate. They're all stuck, and they have been for the last eight days."
"No portals? No Nexus?" Margaux demanded, a note of panic in her tone.
Rocco shook his head, the weight of it all heavy in the room. "No communication possible. And if magi in Cyclos haven’t stocked up on water or food, they might run out of those as well."
I stared at Sean, my pulse pounding. "Emma?"
He shook his head once, a solemn confirmation of my worst fear.
My fists clenched under the table, tension coiling through every muscle. "How long since you last heard from her?"
My brother swallowed hard, and when he spoke, it was barely above a whisper. "Two weeks."
"Fuck!" I exploded, while I shot up from my chair. "We need to get them out. Now."
"How?” Jessica—our newest member, brought in to fill Kate’s position—asked quietly. “We can’t portal in or out of Cyclos."
"Then get me a fucking airplane!"
Sean's gaze hardened. "How are you going to get through the Layers without translation?"
"I’ll figure it out when I’m there."
"Caden, no," he said, standing up to face me. "Ye’ll be stuck, just like them. At least over here, ye still have yer powers."
