the only person I could trust was already in the car with me.
“Kaliya, answer me, or I’ll consider you compromised and send in someone to find you,” he finally snapped.
“There was a breakout,” I finally answered. “A breach on a massive scale. Both cell blocks were breached, and doors were opened. Tarak was killed, and Korey was the new Alpha by default when I got out. Eliphas was injured,” I explained, leaving a lot out for my own reasons. “I’ve already put Phoenix on a Code Black because their safety is priority.”
“Let me make some calls…” He sounded nearly as shocked as I had been the moment the wall was breached. “Good call on initiating Code Black. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Raphael was with me…because Cassius was called to the fae lands only a few days ago…” That filled me with dread. Once I got home, I planned on walking myself through the timeline, just to make sure I wasn’t insane. I didn’t feel insane. I knew I was in for a fight. The breakout didn’t kill me, but that didn’t mean the cleanup wouldn’t.
“There’ve been some challenges between the clan leaders. Leadership was called back due to the internal politics of the matter. There’s also going to be a wedding and however many funerals they need by the end of it.”
“How do you know?” I demanded, my hands shaking. Did I trust the father as much as the son? I needed to call Hisao. Having someone I could trust on the Tribunal would be a boon when I had no idea who else I could turn to. The problem was, asking Hisao could offend him and offending that werecat was probably worse than offending his father.
“I’m Hasan, leader of the werecats,” he answered enigmatically. It was answer enough. He had sources, and he wasn’t going to make me privy to them. “Get home, go on lockdown with your city. If this is the scope you make it seem, there won’t be much you can do to stop them all in Phoenix. I’ll make a plan of attack with the rest of the Tribunal. It’ll probably be a global effort.”
“I can tell you who wasn’t able to get out,” I finally offered. “I killed one of the werewolf twins in the northern cell block. You’ll need Korey to verify which one. Raphael and Dunter tangled. Raphael won. He’s dead, right?” I directed that last one at my new survival partner.
“Yes.” Raphael kept it short and sweet, all I needed.
“And we killed Erline before getting out. She tried to hunt us down,” I finished. “Injured Levi, but he tried to take us out with a tornado before we made it off the prison’s territory and through the security barriers. He’s definitely an active player in whatever the hall is going on.”
“And everyone else in the northern cell block is unaccounted for?” If I was Hasan, I would also be sounding a little shaky hearing this for the first time, so I didn’t hold it against him.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Get home, lock down, protect yourself. Hopefully, most won’t stay and cause trouble in Phoenix. If they try to go to ground, well, we’ve caught them once, we can catch them again.”
“Do you really think I should hide?” Part of me wanted to do my job, even knowing this was too big to do on my own. There was no way I would be able to catch all of them and survive to tell the tale. There were other Executioners and Investigators out there who could help. Part of me wanted to hide. A very small, smart part of me knew this was bigger than I could manage, and I shouldn’t try to do it all.
“Yes. Now, I’m going to let you go. I’ll send word when I’ve briefed the Tribunal and we’ve contacted the Wardens. Any updates I get, you’ll get.”
He hung up on me. I wasn’t annoyed by that.
“What now?” Raphael asked softly as we watched the sun go down and leave us driving in the dark.
“We hide and weather the storm,” I answered. “Raphael—”
“You think this had something to do with us,” he finished for me. “So do I.”
“I’m glad we’re both paranoid enough to get to the same conclusion. If Cassius gets back to us, we tell him nothing, is that clear?”
“You don’t trust him?” That confused my partner more than I wanted. I had hoped he would understand.