is faster, though, pulling another purple vial from his belt and hurling it at the wall beside the Hunters. The smoke engulfs them, and the men fall in heaps on the ground.
“Let me know when the air is clear,” Cal says, checking his device to make sure no one else is sneaking up on us.
I send a gust of air down the hall, moving the potion away from the door. “We’re good.”
Cal doesn’t waste a second. He hurries into the security room. I watch, useless, as he takes over the feeds, spreading the relevant ones across several screens.
Lexie and Coral are in the lab, mostly visible now, destroying what little of the drug the Hunters have started to re-create.
In the siege at the front of the building, Elementals are making a lot of noise and flash but not hurting anyone. Hunters and scientists are being dropped into unconsciousness so they can’t escape before we deploy the memory potion.
And then Cal’s real work begins, disconnecting the feeds and erasing all previous footage. He plugs in a thumb drive and downloads all personnel files to sift through later. I watch anxiously as he works, aware of the witches risking their lives to be our distraction.
How much longer, hacker bro? Alice’s voice crackles through the comms, and I flinch at the sound.
“Almost there,” Cal says. He glances at the far-right screen, where the other Casters are exiting the lab. “We need an extraction outside security. Lexie? Coral?”
Coral looks up into the security camera and gives us a thumbs-up. On our way.
By the time the other witches make it to our floor, Cal is nearly finished. “Take them out with the others,” he says. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” I say as the girls grab hold of the guards. “I’m not leaving you alone in here, Cal.”
Lexie shifts her grip on a Hunter’s legs. “See you on the other side.”
And then they’re gone, taking the unconscious men with them.
I pace the small room, ready to be out of here. Ready to initiate the final phase of my plan. “What’s left?” I ask when Cal is still typing away minutes later.
“Just doing a final sweep of the building to make sure there’s no one inside.” He types the entire time he speaks, his fingers flying over the keys as the main screen flips through each camera in the building. Empty room after empty room after—
“Wait. Go back.” I step closer and peer at the screen. Cal tabs back, and two figures slip around a corner. “Where is that?”
The security door beeps as the locks disengage. The door swings open.
And Benton’s parents raise their guns.
31
MRS. HALL ENTERS THE room first, heels clicking against the polished stone floor. “What have you done with my son?” She trains her weapon at my heart.
Her husband follows her inside, his expression contorted with rage. The same rage that flashed across his features before he burned Archer. Before he struck the son they now claim to worry about.
I fall back a step as they approach, Lexie’s potion completely worn off now, and force my chin up. “Benton is where he belongs.”
Mrs. Hall closes the distance between us and presses the barrel of the gun under my chin. “If you hurt so much as a hair on his head—”
“What do you care?” I wince when she jabs the gun harder against my neck. “You let his father beat the shit out of him. He’s better off where he is.”
Pain ignites across my temple. Bright lights explode in my vision, and I stumble. Cal catches me by the elbow and slips something cold and metallic into my hand. Mr. Hall grabs Cal and pulls him away, separating us.
“Hands up, both of you.” He shoves Cal into one of the desk chairs. “Undo whatever you did. Now.”
“I can’t type if my hands are in the—”
Benton’s dad hits Cal before he can finish, and Cal spits blood at the older man’s feet before glaring up at him. There’s this moment of tension before Cal flicks his gaze to me. I swear I see him nod before he turns around and starts typing into the computer.
“You heard him,” Mrs. Hall says, tearing her attention away from the computer screens. “Hands. Up.”
“Whatever you say.” I raise my hands and adjust the metal contraption in my palm, sliding my thumb down the striking mechanism. A tiny flame emerges from the lighter, and though it still makes me shudder, I grab hold of my magic