12


    **Deacon''s POV**


    Luke has been radio silent for almost an hour now, but it feels more like a week. I know he is physically okay, I''ve felt a few spikes of fear and anger through the bond, but there has been no pain from him. Mostly there''s just a steady hum of anxious tensioning from him.


    Josie has been a wreck since they left, so Axel and Theo have taken her home to spend some time with the kids, her mum and Freya. Mason and I are taking the first shift at the military headquarters. Until Luke returns, we need at least one of us here at all times to raise the rm if he contacts us for backup.


    "Anything interesting in there?" Mason asks, gesturing to the Spark bond Journal spread out on the table in front. of me as hees to sit beside me. He hands me a bottle of water and a packaged sandwich he''s brought from the


    canteen.


    "Interesting, yes, but I can''t make sense of who is who within each bond group. I have found entries from a group of six, which has to be us, but apart from Josie being Amara, I can''t distinguish who the others are," I exin.


    "What were the names? Maybe one will make me feel something." Mason smirks and I know he doesn''t believe his own words, but I humour him anyway.


    "Caius, Nero, Tristan, Lucius and Orion," I grin as he frowns at the names.


    "Jeez. How long ago was their journal entry? Some of those names sound ancient," he asks with a scoff.


    "This is the most recent entry from this group. It was almost five hundred years ago."


    "Wow, so either we weren''t needed for all that time, or we have been cycling through as unbonded or a smaller group that didn''t trigger the spark bond," Mace breathes.


    "Yes, or we couldn''t find the journalst time," I shrug.


    "Did Cornelius add to the journal?" he asks.


    "Yes, it''s the most recent entry. What Robert said about them having shbacks seems to be true. Which just makes me wonder why we haven''t had any shbacks."


    "Maybe there''s nothing important we need to remember. What did Cornelius'' group have shbacks about?"


    "I''m not sure, I haven''t read that far yet," I say, flicking through the pages that Cornelius has written to see if anything jumps out at me.


    "We are in. They have separated us for questioning, but they put a sack over my head and I have been ported somewhere. I have no idea where yet. As soon as anything changes I''ll let you know, but so far I think they believe what I''m telling them," Luke says into the mind link, before closing down the connection, a clear indication he doesn''t want us chatting in his head at the moment.


    I feel a pulse of relief and then a flood of love from Josie. Hearing that Luke is okay has put her at ease a little. Hopefully he will update us againter with more good news.


    "Do you think yourpulsion will hold on Robert?" Mace asks.


    is equal


    "Honestly, I have no idea without knowing exactly how powerful their mind maniptor is. If he or she, to me, or stronger, then they have a good chance of breaking through," I admit. It''s not often I have to question if my gift is strong enough. I am the most gifted inpulsion on record, but that doesn''t mean I''m the most gifted out of all Greys. I have fallen victim topulsion once before. That experience humbled me.


    "Fuck! How can we go in to extract them if we don''t know where they are?" Mason curses, only just realising the problem with what Luke had said.


    "We can''t, Luke can port out though if he has to. It just mens he might have to leave Robert behind. Which I doubt he will do, and I very much doubt he will return to unless he finds Harper, no matter what they do to him," 1 adnit, finally speaking my concerns about Luke out loud.


    Luke is the kind of guy that would sacrifice himself before he will admit defeat. He''d rather die trying thane back here without Harper to regroup. He had proved this once already when he ported to the human realm to get to Josie after he knew the chances of surviving it were almost zero.


    "You''re probably right. Besides, they might have a shield to stop him porting out anyway," Mason says, rubbing the back of his neck.


    "I don''t think they have a shield. If they did, then surely they''d have been using it


    to stop us porting in on their location. Unless they have multiple locations and only one shield, and we just happened to find the unshielded group."


    "There''s just so much we don''t know. I feel like we never get answers, only more questions when ites to this group," Mace sighs, his frustration evident in his tone.


    "I know, but we are not giving up, no matter how many blows we take or how many unanswered questions we have. If this doesn''t work, we will find another way. We won''t ever stop until we have Harper home and every one of these rogues is dead or incarcerated."


    "Harper is a strong girl, and she is so smart. She won''t let them twist her mind. If we don''t find her, she will find us as soon as she is able. I bet she already has them convinced she is on their side," he says with a small smile filled with pride.


    "I have zero doubts in her. We raised her right. I wouldn''t be at all surprised if she led them all to the prison herself. They chose the wrong kid this time," I nod and smile as I conjure up images of Harper doing just that.


    "Let''s see if we can find something useful in this journal whilst we wait. I at least want to make sure my previous name wasn''t Caius," he snorts, moving closer to look at the journal with me.


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