Smiling, Carys gave him an arch look. “My virtue is none of your business. And we’d rather not have you watching us, so we’re all learning to cope here.”
Her brother laughed. “Fair enough. We should be ready to roll out soon. The other warriors are wrapping up the sweep of the place now.” Frowning, Aric glanced to Rune. “I saw the fighting pit. We also located a medieval torture chamber that looks like it’s seen recent use. Some fucked up shit here, man. If Carys hadn’t ashed Riordan, I would’ve gladly done it myself.”
As he spoke, Chase, Lucan and Mathias entered the room.
“We took a look at the crates of UV weaponry and narcotics,” Chase said. “We’re collecting samples of everything to analyze and will try to trace them back to their manufacturers.”
Lucan glanced at Carys. “We can’t interrogate Riordan about Opus’s activities, but recovering this cache could be even more important. Lots of Breed lives will be saved by keeping this shit off the streets.”
Mathias nodded. “Unfortunately, there’s too much of it to haul away.”
“And we can’t leave it behind either,” Chase added. “The risk of any of this shit leaking out to the public is too big to chance.”
“What will you do?” Carys asked.
“Destroy it,” Lucan said. “We’ll take our samples, but I want the rest of it neutralized before we leave here. The UV cylinders, the drugs, all of it.”
“We also located a hidden room in back of the storage chamber,” Chase said. “Riordan’s got a workstation and a secured communications system in there. Gideon’s been unable to hack into it so far, so we’re packing it all up and taking it back to D.C. with us.”
Carys sat at full attention. “Fielding has one of those rooms too. I found it just before Ennis Riordan grabbed me.”
“Gideon doesn’t know about it?” Lucan asked.
She shook her head. “My connection to him broke off as soon as I entered the room. It had the same kind of equipment in it, and the room was hidden, just like Riordan’s.”
The three Order commanders exchanged a grave look.
“What is it?” Carys asked. “What’s wrong?”
Chase exhaled a sigh. “Fielding is dead. We got the word from Brynne as we were touching down in Dublin. He killed himself, just like Hayden Ivers, that human lawyer you led us to.”
Nathan and Rafe strode into the great hall at that same moment.
“We’re loading up the vehicles now,” Nathan announced. “Tegan and Hunter want you to know we can be ready to roll out within the hour.”
“Good,” Lucan said. He turned a glance on Rune. “Like we said, the cache downstairs is too dangerous to be left behind. We need to destroy it before we go. This was your home at one point, so if there’s anything you want to take away from here—”
Rune gave a firm shake of his head. “This was never a home, not to anyone. And I already have the only thing I need to take with me,” he said, drawing Carys further under his arm. “When I left Boston two nights ago, I promised myself I wouldn’t come back until my father was dead and this place was razed to the ground.”
Lucan held his gaze solemnly, then nodded. “Okay. That’s all I needed to know.”
~ ~ ~
Less than an hour later, Rune sat in the back of a UV-shielded vehicle with Carys. Chase occupied the seat facing them in the big SUV. Up front, Aric was behind the wheel with Nathan riding shotgun.
Theirs was the last car in the line of idling vehicles parked in the castle’s sunlit courtyard. The other warriors in their UV gear had just finished packing up what they needed to take back with them to headquarters and were preparing to depart for the Dublin airport.
Chase touched his earpiece and listened for moment. “All right, Lucan,” he murmured into his mic. “We’re rolling out.”
Rune drew Carys close as the fleet started moving. She glanced back, looking out the rear window as they left the courtyard and the castle. He felt her faint shudder. Through his blood bond to her, he felt her overwhelming relief as the place they’d narrowly survived fell farther and farther in their wake.
They’d come through fire together in that place.
They’d emerged stronger, inseparable. Invincible, as long as they had each other.
Rune had no need to look back. There was nothing to see there anymore.
His life lay ahead of him now. With Carys at his side.
As his mate.
A formality he intended to complete as soon as they arrived back in the States.
She pivoted back around and settled against him with a sigh. Rune stroked her cheek, then couldn’t resist lowering his head to kiss her. He didn’t even care that her father was sitting across from them.
When he glanced up, Chase’s blue eyes were locked on him. He held something in his hand. “Whenever you’re ready, son.”
Rune took the small remote detonator. As he stared at it, Carys looked up at him, her gaze filled with love and tenderness.
He held his future in his arms.
His past would never touch him again.
So, hell yeah. He was more than ready.
Rune pushed the button, then tossed the remote aside. As the percussion sounded in the distance behind them, he cupped Carys’s beautiful face in his palms and kissed her with all the love—and hope—he felt in his heart.
CHAPTER 42
When they arrived at the D.C. headquarters later that night, everyone was waiting to see them.
“Oh, my girl!” Tavia rushed to fold Carys into her tight embrace as soon as she entered the mansion.