Hunt (Academy of Unpredictable Magic Book 5)
Page 20
Holy shit.
The interior of the holding facility is in total chaos.
Chapter 27
I blink. What the fuck is going on here?
Everyone is yelling and talking over each other. There’s arguing, multiple people on their cell phones either typing or pressing them to their ear, and a constant barrage of I can’t get anything through! I can’t reach anyone!
Professors and a few Circuit officers are trying to calm everybody, but it’s clear that’s a lost cause. Everyone’s absolutely losing their minds.
“What the hell happened?” I ask. I try to grab someone, anyone, looking for an explanation. There’s nobody in the crowd that I recognize well enough to pin down and ask for information. I can’t find Hardwick, Kendal, or anybody else.
Aurora. I have to find Aurora. I have to know what the hell is going on here. Nobody seems hurt, but everyone’s in a panic.
Was Agustin here? Is he still here? Is he holding our families hostage or something?
Oh, God, if he’s gotten to Maddy…
I stride forward, grabbing someone and yanking them out of the way, not even caring who it is. I’ve had a long fucking day, okay, and I need answers now.
Dmitri’s next to me, shoulder-checking people out of the way like it’s a hockey game, and behind me, I hear Cam yell, “Oh, sure, just dive into the crazy mob! I’ll be right behind you, no problem!”
A few people go stiff and move out of our way, and I realize Asher’s influencing them—but he’s still exhausted, and he just woke up, so he’s not managing much right now.
I’m in the middle of the crowd and spinning in a circle, glancing around wildly. I still can’t see anyone who can explain what’s going on—goddammit, goddammit.
Cam’s a few feet behind me, Asher’s over to my right, Dmitri’s next to me. Roman’s still at the front entrance, looking like he’s way too old for this shit.
I raise my hand high over my head, waving so that he can find me.
Roman opens his mouth as if to yell, then shakes his head. Then he just… strides forward, glaring straight ahead, like if people don’t move out of his fucking way he will crush their skulls without a second thought.
The crowd immediately parts like it’s the Red fucking Sea.
Okay, that was kind of hot.
The darkly intimidating man reaches us and keeps walking, forcing the rest of us to hurry after him to catch up as he exits the room.
When we reach the hallway, it’s a little better. People are clumped up in groups arguing, and a few are whispering quietly to one another. Everyone looks upset and on edge. Some people are crying.
I look around for someone, anyone, who looks like they know what they’re doing. Shouldn’t there be more Circuit officers around than this? I saw a few back in the chaos of the main entry hall, but there are none in here, and that’s far less than there were when we were last at the facility.
What happened? Did everyone leave? Did they abandon us? But if so, why? Unpredictables are supposedly super dangerous—they wouldn’t just up and leave us here for no reason. Did Agustin tell them to go? Force them to? I thought his mind control powers were limited to a few people at a time; that’s why he wanted Asher’s power so badly.
But what if Agustin did somehow convince them to leave us, as a part of his plan? To leave all the Unpredictables here, unprotected, so he could wipe us all out?
Fuck. Did we walk into a trap?
“Roman? Miss Sinclair?”
I turn at the sound of a familiar, slightly twangy voice.
It’s Brodie.
“Oh, thank fuck.” Cam throws his hands up. “I was thinking we’d have to be in charge, and no offense, but working for the Circuit isn’t exactly my dream job.”
Brodie rushes up to us, his clothes rumpled and his eyes wide. “Thank God you guys are here. It’s been nuts. Insanity.”
“Yeah, trust me, we noticed,” Cam says, right as Dmitri says, sarcastically, “No, really? We had no idea.”
The two guys give each other looks that say seriously?
For the record, shit like that is definitely why I date both of them.
“What happened?” Roman asks, not in the mood to make jokes. “Where are all the officials?”
Brodie swallows. “Yeah. That’s—that’s the thing. Um. Come with me.”
He leads us down the hall a short distance and through the door that leads to the infirmary wing.
I won’t lie—I gasp as I enter and I see what’s inside.
All of the beds are filled—with Circuit officials.
They’re just… lying there. It’s like they’re dead, except…
“Are they in some kind of stasis?” Roman asks.
Asher’s brow furrows and then clears. “Something like that. They’re alive,” he confirms. “But I can’t reach them. It’s like they’re frozen.”
Brodie nods. “That’s the conclusion I came to as well.”
“When did this happen?”
“An hour ago, give or take a bit?” Brodie shrugs. His eyes look a little wild and unfocused. “I wasn’t looking at the clock. Was a bit too busy trying to deal with all the people dropping to the floor around me, you know? It was like they were puppets with their strings cut—they all just went down in heaps. Tamlin and I, and the other professors, we got them in here. We don’t know what else we’re supposed to do.” He shakes his head, shoving his fingers through his hair. “This isn’t like anything we’ve seen before. It’s not a coma, not even a magically induced one. It’s like they’re not even human. Like they’re just frozen, lifelike objects. Suspended in time or something.”
Jesus Christ.
I walk over to one of the beds and stare at the official lying on it. It’s true, I can’t see her breathing. There’s no fluttering in her eyelids, like when people dream.
When I was in my coma, I wasn’t conscious of anything going on around me. I honestly don’t even remember dreaming. I just remember waking up and being aware that I’d slept for a long time, and then just feeling really groggy. But the guys tell me that I did in fact dream, or at least they guessed as much judging by the way my face would twitch and my eyelids would flutter now and then. At first it would make them excited, thinking I was waking up, but eventually they realized those little things were just false alarms.
But this is nothing like that.
The official’s skin is a little waxy. Her chest doesn’t move. It’s like I’m looking at a picture of a person on film instead of an actual person—that’s how perfectly frozen she looks. As if, somehow, Agustin has managed to freeze her in time, keeping her in a single moment, sleeping in a skin-tight cocoon.
It’s terrifying to realize that he has such far-reaching power. That he was able to do this without killing himself.
How did he get everyone in stasis like this? And why some people and not others?
“Lines are down,” Brodie explains to Roman. “Or they’re clogged. Our networks anyway. Everyone’s trying to get ahold of relatives, you know, trying to see if their loved ones are all right. With communication down, it’s hard to get information and figure out exactly what happened, but from what we can tell…” His shoulders slump. “Eighty-five percent of the government is crippled.”
I whip around to face him properly. “What?!”
“Including the High Circuit,” Brodie says. “It’s… it’s just us.”
My heart pounds, slamming against my ribs so hard it actually hurts.
The government is down. Incapacitated. All the way to the top. Agustin’s made a public attack against all of magical society, and we’re already losing.
It’s just us.
The Unpredictables in this facility.
The few Unpredictables like Brodie within the Circuit.
Me and my men, exhausted and beat-up as we are.
It’s just us.
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Ruined by Blood
The Last Shifter
Wolf Hunted
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Academy of Unpredictable Magic
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Threat
Hunt
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Magic Swap
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