Forty two total missing.

The number was growing every couple of hours as other outposts across the realm were checked.

Ten confirmed dead.

Three whole teams unaccounted for.

The news the first night was impossible to swallow. After leaving the meeting and sneaking back to the medical wing we waited for hours only to get an announcement that the lockdown would continue into the night and likely most of the next day.

They were right.

It took almost an entire forty eight hours for the entire Hub to be searched, cleared, and then counted. We got little tidbits of info throughout the day and night by messengers, but most of it was old within another hour or so.

Things were getting tense, even just in our little medical wing of seclusion. I could sense it in everyone else. They were worried. Likely, out in the rest of The Hub, feelings were the same.

After the first forty hours of lockdown without new incident we were all released to our rooms. I hadn't wanted to leave Tawny and Mags, but they were in a safe spot and I needed to get out and find out what was happening. Yael and Bob took Raven to his new room, both of them jealous he didn't have to have a roommate since everyone else was already paired up and Noah and I went our way to our floor.

The whole place had been a ghost town. Not a soul was moving around like the usual bustle of Newbs and teams here and there. It was weird and I hadn't liked it at all. The only thing that made it worse was when meal times came. We had to eat in our rooms, food delivered to us like we were all prisoners. That night in the bathroom had been the first time I'd heard what I'd been beginning to fear.

"I want to go home." A girl whispered to her friend at the sinks. "I don't like this."

"Me either." Her friend agreed. "Did you hear someone is trying to kill us from the inside? That's not what I signed up for. I want to go back to my own realm too."

That had been the first time, but it wasn't the last.

Over the next two days I overheard more and more conversations of similar nature. No one wanted to stay around here when things were like this, and understandably, people were afraid for their own lives. I was worried too, and maybe if I had a nice home and family to go back to I'd be feeling the same, but instead I was afraid for this realm.

"It's not good." Noah says, scribbling in her notebook. That had become her catchphrase lately. "Every day it's getting worse and that's only what they're telling us. Imagine what all they aren't sharing with the open public."

I knew she was right, laying on my back on my bed just staring up at nothing. "This whole realm is in trouble." I agree.

"I know." She sighs, rolling onto her side on her bed to face me. "What they said about Faes and Shifters fighting for territory, and that about the vampires," she started. "I've been thinking, with all of us locked down like this, those situations are only going to get worse."

"Yeah, I understand why they called back the teams but at the same time it's bad because if those issues continue to escalate then they could grow to be problems too big for us to fix even if we were ever allowed to leave again."

"Which is why so many people are starting to talk..."

I bit into my bottom lip. "I've heard them too."

"Do you think the meeting tonight will do any good?" She asks.

We were finally going to try to get some kind of normalcy started back up around here. We couldn't all hide in our rooms forever anyway, so tonight would be the first half day back into schedules. Dinner, training, and then on to a meeting. They promised we'd cover all of the latest developments as well as discuss how to protect ourselves from being targeted.

I hated that word.

Targeted.

Like I was nothing more to Oliver than a target he picked out to kill.

"I hope it will." I say, sitting up and staring at the storybook I'd borrowed from Noah what feels like ages ago. I never finished it to find out if the princess got her prince in the end. I've decided those kind of thoughts aren't for me anyway. I'm here to do a job, and right now that job is in major jeopardy. "It's obvious now that Oliver wasn't working alone, and I've heard they suspect that some of those missing might be ones in on the plots, not victims, so we've just got to figure out what their game is. Why are they attacking their own people and what do they have to gain from doing so?"

Noah laughs under her breath and I raise an eyebrow. "It's just," she sits up and turns my way, letting her legs hang off her bed. "You don't sound anything like a peacemaker."

"I've been telling them that was a mistake from day one." I roll my eyes, palming my necklace. "I do like the blue, but it's not very me as far as meanings go."

"I wish we knew how to use them." She sighs, toying with hers, making it glow.

"I know." I nod. "It would have been helpful back in Hell and Utopia."

"I still think it's insane you've been to Hell." Noah says. "You hated it, didn't you?"

"Yes." I say too quickly. "I mean..."

"It's alright." She half smiles. "I know it can be a lot. It wasn't all bad for me though."

I get that. The Ring has a pretty nasty reputation and it was generally pretty bad, but it was still home and I still have a place in my heart for it regardless. "So you know Lucifer then?"

Noah's dark eyes widen. "I know of Lucifer, but I'd have never met him." She explains. "He's like, the baddest of the bad. My family and I didn't run in his circles. We were more low time whispers."

"He's not worth meeting." I tell her and she nearly jumps off the bed.

"Wait!" She holds up a hand. "Raven...that's why he sounded familiar. He's...Holy Hellena, he's Lucifer's son?" I nod. "He's like evil demon royalty."

"But he's not evil."

"That's what I heard." She nods. "But I..."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's nothing." She tries to play it off but I don't let her, leaning in with a look. "Fine, it's nothing bad on him, he just...I know he was forced to do a lot of things. The rumors were always that Lucifer's son wasn't like Lucifer, but that he'd always tried to make him be more like him."

"Well then I'm even more glad that he left." I say. "Lucifer nearly killed him when I was there."

"I can't believe he didn't tell me." Noah shrugs.

I pick at the buttons on my shirt and sigh. "He may not have wanted anyone to know, especially not if he's notorious to demons, so let's not mention it to anyone else."

"Of course," She agrees. "But I wonder..."

"What?"

"What's going on between you and him?" She asks coolly.

My face warms a little, but I don't look away. "What's going on with you and Brynlynn?" I ask, fluttering my eyelashes innocently. Noah's face stills and the tips of her ears turn pink.

"Fine." She says, turning back to her notebook. "Don't tell me then."

"I won't." I say, but not because I don't want to talk about him. I haven't even seen him in days and I wouldn't know what to say anyway. I feel close to him, but I'm close to Yael too. But then thinking of Yael and Raven in the same category it makes it obvious they don't go together. I don't know what I feel about Raven, but I do know I feel something for him that I don't feel for Yael. I just don't know what that is yet.

"We'll see them both tonight at dinner." She mumbles.

"I'm happy for you, you know?" I tell her. "You and Bryn are really cute together."

"Did she really flash a group of patrolmen to distract them?"

"Yes." I laugh, remembering.

Noah smiles lightly. "Yeah, I might love her."

I open my mouth to respond, but the all clear whistle blows and we both bolt off of our beds, more than ready to be the hell out of this room for at least a little while. It's clear we aren't the only ones either as all the other girls come flying out of their rooms and filling the halls around us. We all take the stairs down, boys filling in with us as we pass their floor and then as one big loud group we move in a herd towards our first outing in days.

"Smells so good." Noah sighs beside me.

"Anything hot smells good now after all those cold sandwiches." I point out before I get lifted clear off the ground.

"Newboo." Maxum says behind me, easily walking with me in a bear hug where my feet drag the floor. "I hope you're better at defense tonight at training." He says, putting me back on my feet. "That was too easy."

"Well, I guess I need to run more drills on how to fend off vicious hug attacks." I swat his arm and wave at Opall behind him. "Long time no see."

"I'm sure all you Newbs have been going stir crazy."

"I'm tempted to skip dinner and go straight to training." I admit. "My whole body is stiff."

"If I didn't think we'd get in trouble I'd do it too." She laughs.

We jump in line together, Yael and Bob cutting in with us after a few minutes. The tables are full of people and everyone is talking so loud but I'm on edge. Despite how ready I was to be out again, I'm also nervous about it. Not knowing the reasoning behind these inside rebel plots is scary. Being a target is even more scary.

I cut and chewed the food manually, watching and listening as I did it without tasting a thing. The minutes go by slowly, but then Raven walks in, Serge at his side. My mind refocuses on him, watching as Serge leads him through the line, likely showing him how everything works, and then he points us out, patting him on the shoulder.

Raven walks over to us and I slide down to make him room. "Hey," He says, sitting down, his arm brushing mine.

"Hey," I reply. "How's it going?"

"Been bored out of my mind and that's saying something since I'm used to hiding in a lava pit alone." He shrugs one shoulder, popping a bite of bread into his mouth.

"I'd say so." I nod awkwardly. "What were you and Serge talking about?"

"He wants me to try training with you and the other special teams tonight."

I raise my brows. "Wow, really?"

"Yeah." He nods. "Why? Is that bad?"

"No," I shake my head. "That's...good. It's good."

I look up and Noah is watching us, only making me feel more like a loser.

Conversation carries without me as my unease sets back in, even with Raven here. Again I wish I could get a hit of his demon powers to ease my mind, but finally it's time for training. The place I know I'll be more comfortable and be able to work out all of the tension and stress in me.

Raven tags along with me and Maxum and Serge gets us to work immediately.

Breaking out into partners it finally hits me.

I don't have a partner to spar with anymore.

Because Reda is dead.

Someone killed her.

I stare down at the mat, thinking of all the times she's slammed me into it.

I turn back to where Serge is standing in the middle of the room, his back to the door, ready to ask him what he wants me to do, but that's when I see them.

All dressed in black, six people burst through the doors and flashes of light and noise follow in the chaos that ensues.

"Everyone down!" Is the last thing I can make out before the lights go out.