Chapter 423: Chapter 423

Lanie Being able to glimpse what Stella had been able to see about the High Council should have been more comforting, but knowing their plans made me so angry I had to get up and pace around the room.

Only when I paused to look at my mates’ startled expressions did I realize that I’d been buzzing around the room like a bee. I consciously slowed myself. I hadn’t even broken a sweat this time.

Xander punched a fist into his opposite palm. “We’ll be ready for them!”

Stella shook her head. “Sorry, Daddy, but no. The High Council has way too many soldiers at their command. More even than you’ve ever known of.

They’ve spent their time these past months recruiting.

There aren’t enough people in Brightsky who are combat trained.”

Mason shook his head. “We were trying to work on that.”

“No time for it now,” Xander said.

“There won’t be enough capable staff to fight and protect those not capable of fighting,” Stella explained.

“Everyone in this place has some kind of talent,” I said. “You’re telling me that with all the different types of supernaturals in Brightsky, we can’t protect ourselves?”

Xander also got up to pace, his steps measured and heavy as he walked. His expression had tightened and gone dark, and I could practically see his thoughts whirling, even if I couldn’t hear them. If he wasn’t my mate, the look on his face would have terrified me.

The High Council had no idea who they were messing with, and a fierce pride rose in my chest.

“Most of the people who live here in the enclave have never had to even think about fighting or defending themselves. They’ve been safe here for so long,”

Stella said. “In his own way, Malachi has been as detrimental to the enclave as the High Council was in determining that they’d keep the truth about the Great Wars and the world at large hidden away from all of you. By reassuring them over and over that they had no reason to fear, Malachi has made it almost impossible for any of them to fight.”

“What about a spell? The witches here should be able to come up with some kind of protection, right?

Can’t we use that, somehow?” Mason suggested.

Zane didn’t pace. He sat back on the couch with his hands gripping his knees.

A sense of unease drifted to me through the mind link. Not the new one Stella had created, and not the mate bond, but through my private connection with him. When Zane thought of witches, he was afraid.

I wasn’t sure he was even aware of that fear, but when he imagined the use of spells, even in Brightsky’s defense, he flashed back to Rhiannon and being forced to succumb to the workings of her magic. He also remembered using magic to help me get inside the hybrid testing facility, and, even further back, the spell that had taken our memories, making me Katie. A spell had also hidden my hybrid self from me.

“Magic isn’t always bad, love, “I thought to him.

I understood why he thought it was, but I had to believe it could also be used for good.

Zane looked at me with wide eyes. We shared a silent communication, unshared by anyone else. I tried to send him as much comfort as I could, but I could tell that he was still unsettled by the idea that we might have to rely on witches.

“I don’t trust witches,” Xander said to his brother.

Mason’s expression got grim. “At this point, I’m not sure we have a choice.”

“Magic can only do so much,” Stella declared but with a tone of respect for her fathers. “It can protect, yes, but for a complex of this size, any protection spell will be limited. In order to cast bigger spells, there’d need to be a much greater advance warning, and even then, you’d have to have so many spellcasters working together. Not every witch is even capable of that level of strength. That’s why the spiders have become such an integral part of the enclave. They’ve had generations to adapt and grow.

They’ve entwined themselves into the very fabric of the enclave. Their magic is so inherent in the structure and workings of Brightsky that nothing can truly replace them.”

“We have to save them,” I said fiercely, my heart breaking at the thought of all those small lives destroyed I hadn’t even known about them until a short time before, but the idea that the High Council could simply wipe them out…I shuddered and fell silent.

Tears p rickled in my eyes, mingled anger and sorrow life All I wanted was to live a peaceful life, and the High Council was making that impossible.

e, and the High Council was making that impossible.

“We have to save everyone,” I added before anyone else could speak.

Stella stepped closer to me. “And we will, Mother. As soon as you leave.”