This time around, we decided to change things up a little, taking advantage of the funeral. After our previous incursion into the Palisade, odds were that the Exiled Maras would be extra vigilant and would be wearing their red lenses. Going invisible wasn’t our best way in.

Instead, we secured some funeral capes and masks from Aymon. We’d stayed close to the funeral procession, but we were at the back, as far away from the Lords, the daemons, and even Hansa and Jax as possible. Once we came back up, we split away from the crowd and casually made our way toward the sixth level, black velvet hoods and porcelain masks still on.

Zane was the only one who made use of the invisibility spell, and for good reason, too. I could only imagine the anger and anguish in his heart at the sight of his brothers and evil father. He stayed out of sight, but close, and joined us outside the Palisade.

The townspeople were slowly going back to their homes and businesses. It was an eerie picture to watch unfold, as they all wore the same funeral garb. I caught faint ripples of air here and there. Our teammates and allies were close by. However, their main focus was providing backup to Hansa, Jax, Caia, and Blaze. We had to make do with our ensemble, but I was certain we’d pull it off.

Zane went ahead, as planned, and snuck into the building to prepare our access into the basement. That included diverting or disabling any Correction Officer that might wonder what we were doing down there.

Caspian, Heron, Avril, and I entered the spacious lobby area, then casually passed by the reception desk and headed for the secluded corridor. I led the team as we moved slowly, flowing with the rest of the Maras and Imen on the ground floor. We occasionally stopped and pretended to talk, while I kept an eye on the nearby corridor.

I got a glimpse of a CO being dragged out of sight by an invisible force—Zane. He killed every Mara in our path and discreetly shoved them inside vacant rooms and closets. He was fast and effective. I was impressed, though it didn’t come as a surprise. I’d already seen what he could do, but I couldn’t really get enough of it.

“Okay, coast is clear,” I muttered, then walked toward the corridor, with the others right behind me.

We all came to a sudden halt when two Correction Officers emerged from a chamber to our right. They both seemed relaxed and amused, sipping blood from crystal chalices.

“I tell you, they were—” one of them said, stopping when he spotted us. He smiled. “How was the funeral?”

Dammit. Now I have to play along.

I shrugged. “Sad,” I replied.

We had no choice but to talk our way out, before we could sneak through the corridor, which was literally just a few feet away. I briefly glanced around, noticing only a handful of Imen servants in the chamber. We were in a relatively quiet part of the ground floor, as most of the guests were buzzing around the reception area, along with the private quarters on the other side of the grand staircase.

“At least they did a joint funeral,” the other CO said. “Imagine going through the same ordeal twice.”

The first CO chuckled. The rest of us mirrored their demeanor.

“You weren’t too fond of Amalia and Vincent, huh?” Heron asked from behind me.

“Amalia was a freakin’ psycho!” the first CO replied. “I can’t even count the times I’ve had to clean up her messes. That wench had a thing for draining the blood out of Imen children. It was disturbing.”

“I mean, at least we drink from the adults,” the other CO added. “We let the kids be kids, you know?”

I found that infuriating. Letting Imen children grow up into this nightmare, to then snuff the life out of them for pleasure. It was equally deplorable.

“Yeah, the kids need to grow before we can drink them dry, right?” I replied dryly. I instantly felt Avril discreetly nudging me.

The COs didn’t catch my sarcastic tone, though. Instead, they laughed lightly and nodded. As if any of this was funny. My hand was itching for my sword.

“As for Vincent… Just no,” the first CO said, while the other chortled, scratching the back of his head. “He was simply useless and pathetic. The upside is he’s no longer here to order us around.”

“Let’s just say the city hasn’t suffered too great a loss,” the second CO said, and nodded at me. “You can take those masks off, though. This is a pleasure house. No one cares how hard you grieve.”

I chuckled softly, moving to leave them behind. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” I said. “We need to get a room and change altogether.”

The first officer caught my arm, frowning. “What have you got to hide?” he asked. Then he grinned. “Are you that ugly? Let me see—”

He tried to grab my mask, but Zane had already snuck up on him. Zane stabbed his neck with a poisoned arrow, then disabled the other CO. Before they even hit the floor, we caught them, held them up as they lost consciousness, and followed Zane into the nearest room, farther down the narrow corridor.

We stashed them inside a closet, then made our way to the secret door at the end of the hallway.

“Thanks,” Heron muttered.

Zane gave him a brief nod, then opened the secret door and rushed down the basement stairs. We went after him and stopped at the bottom. We all put our red lenses on underneath our masks, just in case there were any invisible fiends around. Wearing our hoods and masks was going to get us deeper into the underground level.

“Hold on,” Zane whispered. He went ahead, checking the walls and ceiling for hidden traps. He passed his fingers over a small hole in the ceiling. “Aha.” He grumbled, using his claws to disable it. It was a misting device, from the looks of it. It would’ve revealed any creature using the invisibility spell.

We followed him through another hallway, where he broke two other traps—one devised to deploy water mist, and the other meant to trap an intruder between two sheets of charmed, unbreakable glass. We’d learned some lessons from our previous visit, for sure.

We had one more corner to turn before we’d see Lumi’s room straight ahead. It was as far as the cloaks were going to get us. From what I’d spotted along the way, only uniformed COs had access to these parts of the basement. We dropped our cloaks and masks, then ingested invisibility paste. Less than a minute later, we’d all vanished.

I peeked around the corner, spotting the two daemon guards and two COs posted outside Lumi’s room. Harper was also in there, according to Aymon. Two birds, one stone.

“Okay, same deal as last time,” I whispered. “We split up.”

“Heron, Zane,” Caspian replied, “can you two draw the guards out on both sides, so we can enter directly through the front?”

Both Heron and Zane nodded. “Yeah, the layout works,” Heron muttered. “They’ll have to chase us around the perimeter from both ends of that corridor, while you three go in perpendicularly.”

That said, Heron and Zane darted off in opposite directions, while Caspian, Avril, and I waited around the corner, quietly watching Lumi’s door. About twenty seconds later, two distinct noises drew the guards’ attention. They all frowned, then looked at each other, briefly nodded, and went after the noise sources. A daemon and CO took the left, while a CO took the right. They left a daemon behind, but one was three times easier than all four of them put together.

I shot through the corridor at high speed. He spotted the air ripples, but it was too late. I rammed into his stomach before he had a chance to react. The impact was strong enough to throw him against the door and knock the air out of his lungs.

“Duck!” Caspian said behind me.

I instantly dropped to the floor, and Caspian cut the daemon’s head off. I unlocked the door using a skeleton key that Laughlan had crafted for this mission, and then Caspian dragged the daemon inside, while Avril brought his head in with a disgusted expression.

“Ew, ew, ew!” She groaned, then tossed the daemon head into the corner.

I closed the door behind us and stayed close to it, listening to the noise coming from outside. Just as Aymon had said, both Lumi and Harper were in the room. Its walls had swamp witch symbols scrawled all over them, as did Lumi’s and Harper’s cuffs and restraints.

Lumi was gagged and frozen, watching us with wide, strangely white eyes. She could see me without a red garnet lens, despite my invisibility spell. She was beautiful but… different. Her hair was a bright orange, tamed into a luscious bun. She’d been stuffed into a black, conservative dress, which contrasted with the tattoos on her neck, cheeks, and temples.

Harper smirked, catching the air ripples and instantly figuring out what was going on. Caspian rushed to get her out. I tossed him the key and gave Harper a wink as soon as he put a red lens over her eye.

“Your escape service has arrived,” I said, wearing a devious smirk.