Page 299 of Interion

Now he walked with his eyes fixed on his hands, watching the ten rings vibrate on his fingers.

“Are you handling the energy?” Aish asked beside him, pulling him from his chaotic thoughts.

“Yeah. The sinil is helping a lot, but I feel like I need to discharge soon.”

When Breno had arrived to lower the barrier, Immediate Kaori was waiting for him with ten sinil rings. It had been an improvisation to contain half the barrier in his body—without the rings, he never could have managed it. But he urgently needed to discharge into the king’s power vault; the energy was immense, and the sinil seemed unstable, crackling on his fingers. Zafira had been taken to the vault immediately, but Breno was still here, wondering if all that accumulated energy might be dangerous.

They’d also brought his younger brother to help, even if only to handle a small portion of the power. Breno felt proud watching the child act with such skill. When Breno had been dragged into this rescue mission, Dominic demanded to stay near the trucks with the support team. The little one was scared and said he wouldn’t leave until his brother came back. Breno had agreed—he was so exhausted that if someone told him the sky was pink, he’d just accept it as absolute truth.

“Soldiers!” Kaori shouted from somewhere in the forest. “Time’s up—hurry to the vehicles! Lamias were spotted at the border and they’re heading this way.”

Quickening his pace, Breno followed the stream of soldiers toward the road. He saw Kaori running past him and, for a moment, his eyes couldn’t help but follow her. Breno knew there was a gorgon Immediate in the army, and he’d been told she was an even worse executioner than Zion. But whoever told him all that had forgotten to mention how beautiful she was. He pushed the thought away, mentally cursing himself for such inappropriate thoughts in an emergency, but kept watching her anyway.

Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing, and he couldn’t understand how she managed so many things at once. Sometimes she’d step away to answer a call, and they’d hear her shouting orders. When she returned, she seemed even more on edge.

“Are you guys feeling this?” Breno asked as they ran back.

“Feeling what?” Aish asked, jumping over a fallen tree.

“I don’t know how to explain it. The air feels heavy—it’s making my skin prickle.”

The two narrowed their eyes at him.

“Maybe it’s scabies,” Hiro said, and Aish held back a smile.

Breno had no idea how they could still joke around after everything that had happened.

“Yeah, I must have caught it from you,” he grumbled, but kept scanning his surroundings, as if he could almost see a layer of energy pulsing through the forest. He blinked, trying to clear his vision—he couldn’t afford to get distracted.

They continued in silence—only Kaori kept talking on her phone. When they finally reached the last perimeter, where the tests had begun, the gorgon stopped beside him, tapping the screen of a large device clipped to her waist. Her phone rang again and she walked ahead while they trailed behind. She seemed worried, agitated. Breno was thinking about Kyller when he heard the woman say her name and tried to listen, but the soldiers shouting drowned out the second-in-command's voice. A few minutes later, Kaori came running back along the path they were following.

“Soldiers!” she shouted, breaking into a trot, her expression urgent. “We need to get out of here immediately! Return to the vehicles and move as fast as you can!”

“What's happening?” Breno asked, alarmed, but Kaori was already on another call.

They ran through the dense forest, slowed by trees and uneven ground. Halfway there, rain hammered down on them with violent force. They pushed past the soldiers, and once again Breno found himself exhausted and worried about what was happening. All he could think about was Dominic in the last vehicle, so he hurried toward it. Kaori followed, saying nothing, just answering calls and giving orders. Then the calls changed—from controlled and demanding to terrified. Kaori switched to speaker while they kept moving, and now Breno could hear the conversations.

“Second-in-command...” It was a woman's voice, trembling and breathless. “There's something in the forests. Something's attacking the soldiers...”

“What is it? Where are you?” Kaori shouted back. Hiro, Breno, and Aish exchanged worried glances.

“I don't know, but there are a lot of them—they look like chimeras, but they're not, I... Oh my God... No!” The call cut out and screams filled the line.

Soon another call came in, and they were all the same. Attacks—every squad was being attacked. As they ran along the muddy path, rain ricocheting off their military uniforms, Kaori stopped answering and called command central.

“Takeshi?” she shouted into the phone, and Breno immediately recognized the name—the man in charge of the Vinturian team. His mother always spoke highly of him when she returned from the forests. “Send an urgent message: tell all squads to return to the walls. We're being attacked.”

“All of them? There are five squads in the forest—should they all return?”

“Yes! Return to the walls and close the gates. It's a Drutes attack. You need to get out too. Have Serguei warn everyone in the forests—there's no time.”

The moment she said it, screams erupted on the other end. Breno went cold, gripped by a terror unlike anything he'd felt before.

“Takeshi?” Kaori shouted.

“Shit!” The man's voice was urgent, a crash reverberating through the line. “They're already here!”

The call crackled with interference, then shrieked and cut out.