She could have tracked us down. Either she’s dead, they captured her, or there’s a much bigger problem that she’s dealing with.”
“None of those options sound good.”
“Exactly. And I want to know what’s happening. I can’t stay hunkered down eating coconuts and relying on false hope.”
Worry tightened in my gut. “So what do we do?”
“We scout. You and me. You for obvious reasons and me to protect you and make sure you come back in one piece.”
I bit my lip. “The others won’t like it.”
“They don’t have to like it.”
Vaughn’s stern guard manner was back. In a lot of ways, it had never left him, though the tenderness had crept back, especially with me. He was right though, a big group would attract attention. I could glamour myself and fly, which made me the perfect spy. I wondered about Vaughn’s safety until he said, “I think Ronnie can do a cloaking spell. I heard him working on it last night after the coconuts. He made one disappear.”
“A cloaking spell? Like the one Gina did for me?”
Vaughn nodded. “If Ronnie can cloak me, or even just help me blend in, we’ll be set.”
“What can Ronnie do?” The boy walked up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Dirt clung to one side of his overgrown hair. “I heard you talking about me.”
“Just the man I need.” Vaughn clapped him on the shoulder. “Now, let’s put that new cloaking spell to work.”
In an hour, we were ready to go. I had glamoured myself invisible while Vaughn waited on the sand, partially cloaked. He could still be seen, but only the faint outlines. If one knew where to look, there he was, but, for our mission, he’d be hard to spot. It wasn’t perfect, but it had to be good enough.
“You only have an hour,” Ronnie said. “Maybe less. Sorry. I did my best.”
Vaughn held his arm out, examining. “It’s great, man. Perfect. But let me shift to see if it holds.”
As he undressed, not wanting to ruin his last pair of clothes, everyone in the group turned away except for my aunt. She stood, staring with her arms across her chest.
“Kiana, turn around.” I waved at her, forgetting she couldn’t see me.
“What? Is nakedness something to be ashamed of? I’m not ashamed. I’ll disrobe right now.”
Sinasre put a hand on her arm to stop her. She scowled, but once again complied, perhaps getting used to the idea that she was no longer in charge. Shocking. Truly.
“I still don’t understand why I can’t go,” Bael said. “I can help. They won’t be able to control me any longer.”
I smiled at him. “I’m sure you can help, but we need you here with Sinasre to protect them.”
Bael glowered. Sinasre wasn’t too happy either, but at least he knew he had to keep an eye on his mother. Becca seemed happy to be at Ronnie’s side, drinking more Oreo coconuts, so at least we had that.
“We need to go.” I glanced at Vaughn. Standing naked in the dawn light, he was glorious, but I couldn’t think about that now.
He shook himself out and shifted into his wolf form. The spell held. I could barely see the large wolf on the beach.
Together, we took off, him running and me flying. It felt exhilarating to soar in the warm morning breeze above the man I loved. That was until we left the beach and climbed up the grassy hill.
That was when we saw them.
Dozens of creatures stood in straight rows, so many I thought it was a trick of the light. To get a better view, I flew higher, but the angle only added to my growing unease.
There were dozens of mutated Supers standing in the field. They were all shapes and sizes, some on four legs, some on two. Many had horns and wings. Many had fearsome claws and teeth. All were aberrations of their former selves. I didn’t know how I could tell, but I just could. These were the prisoners they’d kept for so long, weeding out the weak and keeping the strong.
This was the Habermanns’ master plan all along, an army of the most fearsome creatures ever created.
And at the head was Karen.
She stood on a large platform with one of those metal devices on her head. As I watched, she moved her arm left and the army of creatures turned and took six steps left. She moved her arm right, and they went right.
An army at her disposal, willing and able to do