Chapter 67 The Siege

Chapter 67 The Siege
The snow kept falling through the night, soft and relentless, covering the tracks we'd made and the traps we'd set, and I sat by the front window with my rod across my knees, watching the street through the gap in the curtain while Dorian sat beside me with his shoulder pressed against mine. Hours passed in silence, just the wind and the creak of the old building settling around us, and then the lights went out all at once, plunging the room into darkness.

Jenna's voice came from somewhere to my left, sharp and controlled. "They cut the power lines."

Kael's boots scraped against the floor as he moved into position. "Everyone stay still and quiet."

I heard Mira's breath catch and Zoe's low murmur, and then Vance's whispered incantation as the grimoire began to glow with that familiar blue light. The front door exploded inward before anyone could react, splintering into pieces that rained down around us, and I hit the floor before I knew what I was doing, rolling to the side while Dorian grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the overturned couch. "Stay down and don't move."

Figures poured through the broken door, fast and silent with their eyes glowing in the dim light from Vance's grimoire, a dozen of them at least, maybe more, all of them focused on us. Jenna threw a salt canister into the middle of the room, and the white powder exploded on impact, sending the first wave staggering back with their skin blistering and smoking. Kael lunged forward with his knife in his good hand while his cast stayed braced against his chest, his blade finding throats and chests with practiced precision.

Mira and Zoe moved together, back to back, Zoe swinging an iron rod while Mira channeled whatever was left of Raze's residue, black smoke curling from her palms and wrapping around the nearest vampire's throat. I pushed up from behind the couch and swung my rod at the next attacker, catching him across the jaw hard enough to send him stumbling back into another vampire, both of them going down in a tangle of limbs.

Dorian was at my side with his rod a blur of motion. "They're not stopping, they just keep coming."

He was right about that, for every vampire we dropped, two more seemed to take their place, relentless and silent except for the wet sounds of their bodies hitting the floor. Vance shouted from the corner where he'd pressed himself against the wall. "They're being controlled, there's a master somewhere nearby directing them."

I ducked under a grasping hand and drove my elbow into a vampire's face. "Find them, Vance, find whoever is doing this."

Mira called out from across the room, her voice strained. "I can feel him, he's in the street, right outside."

Zoe grabbed her arm before she could move. "Don't you dare go out there alone, Mira."

Mira pulled free and kept moving toward the shattered door. "I won't be alone, you're all right behind me."

She was already through the gap before I could stop her, so I shoved a vampire aside and followed her into the snow. The street was dark and the snow was falling thick and fast, and Mira was already in the middle of it with her hands raised and black smoke curling around her fingers. A man stood at the end of the block, tall and still with his face hidden under the hood of a dark coat.

Mira didn't stop walking toward him. "You're the one who's been hunting us all this time."

He didn't move, just let her approach and let her get close enough to touch, and then he spoke with a voice I recognized, low and familiar. "I'm the one who's been protecting you."

Mira stopped cold. "Cassandra?"

The man lowered his hood, and it was Cassandra, her white hair dark with melted snow, her face lined with exhaustion. "I had to get you out of there before it was too late."

I stepped forward with my rod still raised. "What the hell is going on, Cassandra?"

She looked at me with tired eyes. "The council sent those vampires to kill all of you, but I couldn't let them do it." She glanced at Mira. "I thought if I could get you out of the building, I could get you somewhere safe."

Kael appeared behind me with his knife still in his hand. "You could have just told us what was happening instead of setting up a scene."

Cassandra shook her head slowly. "They were already inside the building by the time I found out, I had to act fast and get you out."

I lowered my rod and let out a breath. "Where do we go now?"

She looked past me at the hostel with its front door hanging broken and its windows dark. "I know a place we can hide."

We ran through the snow, following Cassandra into the dark and leaving the hostel behind, and the snow continued to fall covering our tracks and covering everything. I looked back once at the building, then kept running.

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The safe house was a basement apartment in an old building downtown, damp and cramped but warm, and we crowded inside with snow melting on our clothes and our breath coming in ragged gasps. Cassandra closed the door behind us and locked it. "We have a few hours before they track us here."

Jenna was already checking the windows. "How did you know they were coming for us?"

Cassandra leaned against the wall with her face pale. "Because I was the one who told them you were at the hostel in the first place."

The room went silent, and I felt the air shift as everyone's attention snapped to her. I grabbed her arm and shoved her against the wall. "Say that again."

She didn't fight me. "I was a Warden, I had to play both sides to survive. I told the council where you were so I could warn you and get you out." She held my gaze. "I knew you'd survive, Arya, I counted on it."

I released her arm and stepped back. "You risked all of our lives."

"I risked myself to save all of you." She rubbed her arm where I'd grabbed it. "It's not over, the council is determined to destroy you because they see you as a threat to their control."

Dorian moved to stand beside me. "Then we fight back and take the fight to them."

Kael nodded from his spot by the door. "We stop running and we make them pay."

I looked at Cassandra. "You know where they're meeting next?"

She nodded once. "I know the location of the next council gathering, and it's in three days."

"Then we stop them." I looked around at the faces in the room, at the people who had followed me through hell and back. "We stop them for good this time."

Mira spoke from the corner, her voice quiet but steady. "And then what happens after that?"

I met her eyes. "And then we figure out who we want to be."

The room was quiet, but it wasn't a heavy silence anymore, it felt like the beginning of something new. We had survived another night, and now we had to survive the rest.