“Syn, answer him,” Zahruk demanded.
I turned my eyes to Ryder and nodded. I couldn’t speak; I was fighting against the pain that came with knowing Ryder would walk away from me soon. I had known, eventually, that the peace we had found would be shattered. I’d known this would end, but I hadn’t expected it to be anytime soon. The thought of being without him made a weird tightening sensation form in my throat, and stomach.
“So, what do we have to do?” I asked him quietly.
“Zahruk will explain the operation. You will need black clothes, and make sure they are tight,” Ryder said looking up the stairs to where Dristan had poked his head from the curtain at the top, back to where I stood awkwardly on the stairs. “You getting this?” he asked pointedly. I nodded again and watched as his hands balled into tight fists at his sides.
We walked into a room that had a model set up, along with a blueprint of a building. Ryder’s men stood silently by the wall, with the exception of Ristan and Z, who were now explaining the plan for tonight.
“Okay,” Zahruk said. “This is the point of entry.” He pointed to the section of the blueprints that showed the room of a building. “Our intel says it is heavily guarded, but I think we can work around them. We enter through here,” he continued, pointing things out to me carefully. “The window will only have a few sensors which we can easily disarm before entry. Inside, there are alarms that we won’t be able to shut off; those are the first issue we need to deal with when we are inside. We should be able to get in and out during the shift changes; with the right timing we should miss the guards. This,” he pointed to a group of squares on the map, “is where the scepter will be secured. Inside the case are more sensors that will need to be dealt with and not triggered. If they go off, the bars on the ceiling and the doors will seal shut immediately. There are dummy cases set up; basically the entire room is full of traps and tricks that were designed to keep the relics from getting back to the Fae. Ryder will be with us to point out which one is the right one, and which ones are the fakes.”
“What does it do?” I asked, lifting my eyes to Z’s, and then Ryder’s.
“It is a very powerful scepter that was stolen many centuries ago by a group, thinking it was a way to control the Fae and gain power as well as immortality, but they never figured out how to unlock its powers. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway; it only comes to life in the right hands. Our time is running out, and we know that once we start retrieving the relics, they will immediately move the other relics, and this will force us to start the search over again. We now have people in place to prevent this from happening when we strike tonight,” Ryder relayed before he turned and started toward the door. I watched his wide back as he left the room, leaving me alone with Ristan and his men.
Twenty minutes later, I was dressed in a snug leather jumpsuit that I had materialized myself, that was similar to the jumpsuits I had worn on jobs for the Guild. I’d dug through the remains of the items they had saved from my house, and almost squealed with happiness when I found my mission pack. Next to the OPI collection, it was one of the items I’d mourned the most, since it was a gift from Alden when I’d graduated. It came with a silver belt that had a few secret items in it that a girl just couldn’t live without.
I shoved my feet into the soft soled knee high boots and pulled my hair up into a tight ponytail, and headed back up to the club’s VIP lounge. I smiled as I took in the faces that registered from shock to humor at my outfit. They could laugh all they wanted; this type of outfit had saved my ass a hundred different times. It also fit the description of what Ryder had said to wear. Oh sure, with a lot more concentration and work I could have created the black, Guild-issued fatigue’s, but leather was so much more fun.
I felt better the moment I caught the look on Ryder's face, until he shook his head with a wicked smile on his full mouth and anticipation dancing in his eyes. “I didn’t say that tight.”
“You said tight. Besides, this kind of outfit has saved my ass more times than you have, Fairy.”
He rubbed his hand down his face, and closed the distance, holding out his hand. I looked at it, and back up to him. “So, what is the real job? I know how you guys work, and I need to know what’s really going on.”