Grace ignored the frightened eyes of the children and women and turned to look at the dragons. “We need to get them out of here before the angels arrive.”
Aaron locked eyes with her. “What? What do you mean?”
“I’m requesting sanctuary in your world for them,” Grace clarified. “We need to join forces to transport them out of here.”
“We found the materials to make bombs. They were behind the attacks on our world,” Kaye protested. “Tell him, Aaron.”
Aaron nodded. “It’s true. Before you arrived, we found explosives in an adjacent room of the corridor we traveled.”
“The explosives can be used to break through the rock and form the rooms,” Grace said. “They have no way to leave this place. There’s no portal. The only reason the angels know where they are is because they were the ones leaving them here. This is a prison. The angels keep them here so they don’t threaten the ideologies we are fed every day.”
“That’s blasphemy,” Andrea accused. “You’re my best friend. I understand that you don’t like your family very much, but speaking those things about the angels, that’s blasphemy. We all know they keep us safe and protect the portals.”
“Portals can be created by powerful wizards. A portal might be made when they need it,” Lori claimed.
“Someone taught them how to use angelic runes. Someone a lot more powerful than me, who knew what they were doing,” Grace reminded her friends.
“Then why do you believe they are prisoners here?” Noah asked.
“I just know,” Grace replied. “Trust me.”
He nodded. Turning around, he ordered the hunters, “Gather them. We need to get out of here and protect the children and women.”
“Will you grant them asylum?” Grace asked Aaron.
“Your uncle won’t be happy about this,” Aaron reminded her.
“They have no power over you. I’ll deal with the consequences once I return home. I just need your help to transport everybody to your planet. I’m not strong enough on my own.”
Aaron exchanged a look with his friends before saying, “We’ll help you.”
It took a few moments until they gathered everybody in a smaller chamber, but once the wizards understood that they were going to leave and escape from the angels, they complied and calmed down the ones who were still frightened.
Grace and the dragon princes surrounded the group. Creating a magic circle, they summoned their powers and teleported everybody out of the mountain and into the Mist Sanctum Night Bloom Academy.
The sunlight received Grace and the others with a warm embrace. Opening her eyes, she smiled at the beautiful garden where they had appeared. But they didn’t have the time to enjoy the view.
“We have work to do,” Grace said, looking at Aaron. “I have an idea.”
“Another idea?” he asked with a smile.
“We have a way to conceal what we’ve done,” she said. “I’ll need you to return with me.”
Aaron arched an eyebrow. “Where?”
“Back to the hell planet. We need to destroy the mountain before the angels understand that we evacuated everybody.”
“You want them to believe everybody is dead and that we were able to teleport our teammates to safety?”
She nodded. “They want us to think these people are the bombers. We can use the explosives to increase the blast. Once the mountain caves, they won’t bother to look for survivors. It was their plan all along. They wanted to destroy the evidence of ever being a prison on that planet.”
“We have tracking devices. By now, they know we aren’t on the planet,” Aaron reminded her.
“There was a lot of interference. Communication was limited. I’m sure that they won’t mistrust your excuse.”
“What do we do with the prisoners?” Ewan asked.
“They aren’t our prisoners but our guests,” Aaron replied. “Find the headmaster and tell him what’s going on. Give our guests food, water, and shelter. I’ll be back once I convince the angels that the wizards decided to die instead of surrendering.”
Grace looked at Noah and whispered, “I’ll be back soon.”
He nodded and didn’t try to persuade her to give up on her plan. “Just be safe.”
Aaron and Grace summoned their powers and disappeared.