Vinya cleared her throat and brushed back a long strand of crimson hair. “Well, I’m afraid not enough. The magical dome is some very complicated stuff. They must have a master witch or warlock inside charged with keeping it up all the time. Someone very powerful.”
The dean frowned. “I wonder who.”
Vinya nodded solemnly. “There’s more. They’ve upped their physical security as well. We’ve detected lots of heat signature prowling around.”
At this, Vinya reached over and tapped a screen on the table’s surface. A video played showing red and yellow moving around a grainy picture of what looked like the dome from above.
Charlie leaned over and whispered. “Those colors are showing the body heat of living beings, either human or… not.”
I nodded, understanding that the dozens of colored dots meant a lot of living beings roamed around in the dark, but were they mutants, like the two we saw tonight, or just regular guards? Or werewolf shifters? Or animals? My mind whirled.
“So they’re prepared for us,” the dean said with a sigh, leaning back in her chair. She looked tired and much older in the harsh lights that shone down from above. “Now, give me the good news.”
Tyler and Vinya exchanged a glance. “There’s not a lot of good news,” Vinya finally said.
The dean rubbed her forehead. “Then what? We have to do something. We can’t leave this be. We came here for a reason. Nearly a hundred souls are kept captive under that dome.” She jabbed her finger at the picture. “I refuse to leave without even trying.”
Her words calmed a kindling fire that had ignited in my gut. I couldn’t leave either. Even if things seemed impossible, I knew I would stay until my last breath, trying to rescue my poor cousin and Bael and all the innocent lives trapped here as I had been. I couldn’t leave until this place was destroyed or I no longer drew breath.
“I have an idea,” Tyler said, standing up and leaning forward to manipulate the table screen. He touched it a few times and a different image appeared, one of the island, but this time showing the entirety. My eyes traced the shoreline and landforms until stopping at the circle that represented the dome while Tyler slid his finger over to a small bay on the west side. “This is where the water supply intake pipe for the Habermanns’ facility is located. If we used magic, we could probably get in that way. I could lead a team underwater. We could shrink ourselves to fit through the grates and then grow to natural size once inside.”
Bridget made a noise and eyes turned to her. “I’m sorry, but haven’t you seen enough action movies to know that plan never works out? Shrink ourselves? We’d be chopped to bits or eaten by fish. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids illustrates my point perfectly. There are so many ways to die when you’re tiny.”
Tyler made a face, indicating he had not seen those movies and was a bit offended by her comments, but Bridget didn’t seem to notice. The bouncy redhead stood and placed both palms on the table in a dominating pose. “Vinya got us through the dome once, yes?”
Vinya nodded carefully. She’d stayed impartial through the briefing and struck me as someone who weighed all her options. “I got through the dome’s magic, but they were immediately alerted. You saw how fast the guards were on us.” She glanced at Tyler who agreed. “They would quickly overwhelm us like last time.”
“Last time, you didn’t take us.” Bridget gestured to her crew: Charlie, Disha, Rowan, and herself as if it were what humans called a no-brainer.
I knew this group had taken on some very bad characters back at the Academy. I was there when they fought Mystro Ponomarenko and won, but Charlie had nearly died and many people got hurt. Yes, her magical cuffs, her item, gave her great power, but she couldn’t stop bullets, could she? Honestly, I didn’t know. Though bullets seemed our last concern when Supernatural mutants came into play.
The dean put her hand on Bridget’s in a motherly way. “We are looking for ideas that would cause the least amount of casualties, Bridget. Those guards are being paid by the Habermanns to fight us. They don’t deserve to die.”
“Neither do the creatures they’ve mutated and forced to do their bidding,” I added. “They’re controlling my cousin, somehow. He barely knew me.”
The dean pointed in my direction as if agreeing, then addressed the group again. “What we need is a precision operation. One with a small team that can sneak inside the dome without detection to find out how they are controlling those they’ve manipulated, and who is the warlock behind the dome’s construction and maintenance. In and out. No deaths.”
Tyler took the dean’s idea and built on it. “We could attack the dome’s perimeter with a larger group, exchange some fire to create a distraction, and give the team time to slip through.”
“I should go. I can make myself invisible.” I turned on my power to demonstrate.
“I’ll go, too,” Charlie offered, shooting a sly smile my way as I rematerialized. “Tally and I have worked together before.”
Rowan grumbled in the back of his throat, but it seemed these two had dealt with similar situations before because, after Charlie shot him a look, he remained silent.
The dean glanced across the table at the silent witch standing beside the map, looking downcast and tired. “Vinya, are you up for it? You would need to create an opening in the dome and get the ladies out when the time came.”
Vinya nodded solemnly. “Whatever it takes.”
The dean took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “This is not without risk. Those… whatever they are… poor creatures will be waiting for us, as will the guards. And those who go inside the dome will risk being captured. The Habermanns are not forgiving people. They want to see us dead and will do whatever is in their power to make it so.” She glanced around the room. “Yet, I see all of you are willing. Once again, I find myself amazed and blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful young people.”
Her warm smile lit up the room for a brief moment, making me wish I’d gotten a full education at the Academy under her tutelage and not just a few months of solace. I owed my life to her, in more than one way, and perhaps, when this was over, I would owe her more.
She stood, hoisting herself up and grimacing a bit as if it pained her. “It is late. We are tired. Please, get some rest. We’ll reconvene in the morning.”
The group watched her go before getting up themselves. Charlie and Rowan got up together, linking arms, making me long for Vaughn’s embrace. I thought back to his words and my reply. I’d told him I loved him. What would that mean when he woke up? My mind ran over it again and again even though there were many more pressing issues for me to consider.
“Tally,” a female voice called.
When I looked back, Bridget, Disha, and Vinya stood in the hallway waiting for me. “You’re bunking with us.”
The females led me down the hall and into one of the sleeping quarters. The room was barely large enough to hold two bunk beds, but we were in a flying ship soaring above the clouds, so I didn’t expect much else. Besides, anything was better than sleeping on the ground. Vinya climbed into a lower bunk while Bridget and Disha took up the top and bottom of the other. I stood, a bit awkwardly, trying to figure out where I belonged.