Fletcher slowly sat beside me, hand laying idly on my back. “I do too.”
Through the blur of my tears, I looked up at him and sniffed. “This is perfect. Thank you.”
He offered a sullen grin. “I didn’t want to push you to come earlier. I knew you’d ask when you were ready.”
I propped myself up on my arm, looking up at his towering stature. “So why’d you bring me now?”
He sighed and retracted his hand. “Because it’s all I have to prove how devoted and loyal I am to you, aside from my words.”
I sat up, head buried in my hands. “I’m really sorry, Fletcher.”
His jaw tensed as if there was something more in his mind that an apology couldn’t fix. “I know you are.”
I reached out to hold his hand.
He grabbed it and helped me to my feet. “I also wanted to tell you that I figured out how to deactivate the cage’s magic.”
“You have?”
He nodded. “And I broke the magic on all of them last night. All we have to do now is teleport in and get them out.”
I perked up, hands covering my mouth with more tears welling between my lids, but tears of happiness. “You what?”
“Yeah. I’m—uh, sorry I did it without you guys. I had an opportunity and I took it.”
I shook my head. “How?”
“When I left last night, I took a blank tile with me and practiced at the facility. Deactivating them took a lot longer than I had anticipated, so I couldn’t get anyone out.”
Tears spilled over my cheeks as I reached over and flung my arms around his neck. “Thank you so much.”
Slowly, his arms came around my torso, head buried in the crook of my neck. “We’re almost done, Ripley. We just have to act fast.”
I kissed his shoulder. “Then we go tonight.”
He released me and tucked an errant strand of long, golden hair behind my ear that had fallen out of my braid. “One in the morning is the quietest.”
I smiled wide. “Then one in the morning it is.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Aldris, Rosaanne, Graff, Mirin, Fletcher, and I gathered at Aldris’s place around nine that night with a certain type of morose cheer in our voices. Happy that the Cidris would be gone tonight and all the Elizians would be safe. But anxious about pulling it off.
A beat of jealousy shot through me when I saw Rosaanne and Fletcher smile at each other and give a side hug. Fletcher’s eyes darted to me afterward.
I love you, princess.
Breathescaped me in a sigh of quick release as he came to me and guided me upstairs to the bed. After situating myself under the blankets, he delicately stuck me with two needles so I could do one final blood draw for everyone.
“You okay?” His tone was dark and grim.
I nodded. “Just want all this over with so we can focus on us.”
His hand came to my cheek, whispered a, “Me too,” then made his way back downstairs.
I listened to him drawing the layout of the Cidris Facility on Aldris’s table with magic. There were four sections of the facility that we had to hit. Fifty women on the east wing. Fifty men on the west. North, beyond the sleeping quarters, was the nursery where dozens of parents and newborns stayed. And lastly, was the cage of drabes that needed to be released if we had time.
