by Rachel Jonas
Without thinking I took quick steps toward him. The moment my fist was in midair, the sound of Tristan’s voice stopped me.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk … it’s always violence with you dragons,” he teased. “Especially the hybrids.”
“What have you done with them?” I demanded without thinking.
His gaze shifted from one of his bound wrists to the other. “What have I done with them? You mean from this grotto, without my magic? Not a great deal, I assure you.”
Then what was he talking about?
“How soon you forget that I’m not working alone,” he reminded me, as if I wasn’t aware.
My vision darkened around the edges, and all I could think about was beating an answer out of him.
His eyes flickered down to my fists when I balled them tight.
“Choose wisely,” he crooned. “You could waste valuable time here, pummeling me into a paste. Or … you could go help the little ankle-biters you’ve grown so fond of,” he chuckled. “Choice is yours.”
Breath left me so quickly I became dizzy, torn between ending him like I should have weeks ago, and going to help the kids.
“Tell me where they are,” I growled. My wolf was not pleased with my decision to leave Tristan as he was for now. There was a more pressing issue at hand, whether she agreed or not.
He glanced at the ceiling teasingly, as if he hadn’t decided he should share. “Mmm … my guess is they’re well past the northern border by now.”
Tension spread across my brow.
“The north … that’s …”
The delight that filled his expression said it all. In fact, it was the reason I’d started taking steps backward toward the falls before he even answered.
I needed help, reinforcements. Only, everyone I thought capable of joining me was far too important. I couldn’t put any of them in the kind of danger I knew would await me once I crossed over.
It wasn’t just the Darkness I worried about getting to them. It was me in the Darkness I was concerned about as well.
No matter the angle from which I looked at my present circumstances, there was only one viable solution I could live with.
I had to go alone.
Chapter Fifteen
Rayen
A sharp, unexpected pain in the center of my forehead had been the reason for the shattered glass at my feet. I could withstand almost anything, but this had nearly been enough to bring me to my knees.
My first thought—once I was finally able to form one—was that something was wrong with me, that Kai’s attempt at ridding me of what Noelle believed to be traces of the Darkness hadn’t worked. But then, I felt it. Something like my soul being tugged north.
‘Omegas, get to the ridge. Code Red.’
There was suddenly pounding in my chest to match what lingered in my head. All because Ty had just declared that the Firekeepers were in a state of emergency.
I wondered if maybe this had been the cause of the headache.
I believed this for only a moment before realizing the assumption had been completely wrong. Somehow, I knew it had more to do with the second jolt I felt from the north.
‘On it,’ Ori replied, not asking further questions, because that was the procedure. When one of us called for Code Red, you just head straight to the ridge ASAP.
Panic set in quickly, remembering I had no clue where Noelle had run off to, and that was on me. I should have asked more questions, should have overridden her stubbornness and left with her.
Pacing, I cursed to myself, unsure of what to do. When a third, more urgent draw in that direction had me pulling on my shoes, it was clear a decision had been made.
‘Guys. Fill me in on Ty’s info when you get there. There’s something I need to take care of.’
I knew that sounded super shady, considering the fact that whatever Ty had called us together for was likely extremely important.
‘What? Are you insane?’ I could hear Paulo’s frustration when he asked.
‘Trust me. If I could meet you guys, I would. Just make up something believable when you get to Ty,’ I added.
‘Are you … feeling okay?’ Kai’s discrete question was one only he and I would understand the full meaning of, seeing as how the others had yet to be filled in.
‘Yeah, I’m cool. I just … it’s Noelle,’ I finally admitted with a sigh. ‘She took off to handle something, and I was trying to give her space, and—’
‘Give her space?” The angry question had come from Ori. Apparently, he wasn’t doing so well with this whole pretending-he-doesn’t-care act. In fact, I could practically imagine the livid scowl on his face.
‘Guess that explains the headache,’ Paulo added distractedly, confirming that I hadn’t been the only one who felt it.
‘She’s not a prisoner here, Ori,’ I reminded him.
‘And she isn’t treated like one. She understands we only want to keep her safe,’ he confessed, letting his true feelings show through once again.
If he could have teleported into the bungalow right that second, I was pretty sure he’d swing a punch at me.
‘Go find her,’ he grumbled. ‘And say something the second you do.’
I didn’t respond to his order, because I was already out the door and in the air, heading toward where some internal compass was pulling me. There was no explanation for how I knew it was leading me to her, but I did.
Ten minutes or so had passed when Kai patched me into his thoughts, allowing me to eavesdrop on the conversation with Ty while I flew toward some unknown destination. I’d know once I reached it.
‘Thanks for getting here so quickly,’ our Firekeeper brother began. ‘We have a big problem on our hands. Although, I’m unsure what we can possibly do to change it.’
I hated how grim he sounded. If there was one thing we all knew and respected about Ty, it was his positivity. Didn’t much matter what the issue was, he never lost hope. However, the tone I heard was anything but hopeful.
‘What is it?” Ori spoke up, seeming to hold his composure, despite there obviously being cause for concern.
‘I was just informed that two of the orphans were taken into custody late last night. Apparently, even with Chief being M.I.A. as of late, he’s still handling official tribal business,’ Ty added, taking a deep breath before saying more. ‘He held the lottery in secret, chose two this time instead of one, and both candidates were residents of the orphanage.’
‘Don’t use that term, his term,’ Kai practically spat. ‘They aren’t candidates, they’re children. Calling them otherwise doesn’t change the fact that the man I once called Father is a monster.’
My heart sank hearing the news, trying to wrap my head around what had just been dropped on us like a bomb, leveling so much of our lives in one devastating blow. Those kids were important to our hive. We loved them like our own, so now to hear that two had been taken as a sacrifice …
‘Who?’ Ori demanded to know, his voice booming even in my thoughts. ‘I need names.’
I hadn’t been sure why that mattered, but what had me equally confused was why I still felt the pull in the center of my chest, leading me further, although I was now landing at a bold barrier of fire. The one my brothers and I worked night and day to keep lit on Spirit’s authority.
I’d reached the northern hemisphere.
My shoulders rose and fell as I slowly approached the wall of smoke, embers, and searing flames that stretched impossibly high into the trees. I couldn’t conceive what this meant, being urged to go further, until I passed through the wall.
It meant that … she must’ve …
‘Malu and Sydney,’ Ty finally revealed, causing my heart to fall even faster than before. ‘He had them escorted into the north early this morning. Quickly,’ he added, “to ensure that we wouldn’t hear about it in time to put a stop to this. Chief wanted to make sure no one went after them,’ he concluded, but … I had a very different thought on that.
‘Or … h
e chose those two to make sure someone followed them in,’ I jumped in, letting the others know I was present in mind while absent in body.
I paced—sweating and on the verge of tears. Pride was a nonfactor as I kept my eyes trained on the flames, in the direction I sensed our Queen had gone.
‘What are you saying?’ Ori was already on edge, but more so as I gave vague info on what I believed we were now facing.
‘Noelle went in,’ I was barely able to say. ‘Somehow, she must’ve gotten word about Malu and Sydney before we did, and she’s gone into the northern hemisphere.’
It had only taken one visit to the orphanage for Noelle to fall as deeply in love with those kids as the rest of us already had. It wasn’t even hard to fathom how she’d done something like this without thinking. That was just how big her heart was. I was nearly certain she knew what a risk this was, how dangerous it was, which accounted for why she hadn’t said a word to the rest of us. It was no secret that the thought of an Omega getting hurt was more than she could handle. However, what she seemed to forget, was that we were just as profoundly entangled.
Love didn’t even begin to describe how deep our feelings for her ran.
‘We’re on our way.’ Ori didn’t ask for landmarks. He’d find me, because he felt her, too.
I only had to wear a path in the grass for five minutes before my hive brothers and Ty all landed, each staring into the flames with the same sense of disbelief I already carried. None of us had ever crossed over, because we’d all seen what could happen to those who did. For all we knew, our abilities—shifting, flight, and inner-hive communication—wouldn’t even work when we crossed over.
When … not if.
Ori breathed deeply and I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes. As our alpha, he’d been tasked with making the tough calls, tasked with giving uplifting speeches before we dove straight into untold danger, like we were about to do.
“This is what she meant,” he began with a sigh. “The warning from Chief’s witch—Maisy. She said one of theirs would cost two of our own, but I never thought…”
His voice trailed off when his head lowered. I wasn’t sure what that meant, or who Maisy was, but Ori seemed certain Malu and Sydney’s disappearance had been part of some scheme.
He met our gazes again and shoved aside whatever thoughts and emotions had nearly overcome him a moment ago. Instead, a look of determination had replaced them.
“Once we’re in, we stick together. There’s no telling what the Darkness is capable of when we’re no longer under Spirit’s protection. My guess is, it’s been waiting for this day, waiting for the opportunity when one of its greatest adversaries did the unthinkable and stepped foot within its territory. And now … we’re practically hand-delivering ourselves over to it.”
A quiet moment filled with tension and anxiety passed between us all.
Ori looked to Ty. “You can’t follow us in, brother,” he informed him, causing Ty’s brow to tense with confusion.
“There’s safety in numbers,” Ty protested.
“Couldn’t agree with you more, but this isn’t your fight.” Although the words left Ori’s mouth, I was almost positive Ty disagreed. “You have a family to consider, and we can’t guarantee any of us will be able to get back once we’ve crossed over. Don’t do that to Nayeli, the kids.”
Ori’s statement ended there, but there was more he hadn’t said. He knew what it was like to be a kid whose father didn’t return home. It wasn’t a surprise that he turned down extra help to save others from having to endure that pain.
Ty’s hand came down hard on Ori’s shoulder, and the gesture conveyed the limitless respect he held for our alpha.
“We’ll hold things down out here until you get back,” were Ty’s parting words. “Because you will come back.”
A faint, reassuring smile brought minimal comfort, and then he quickly took flight before he’d have a chance to change his mind.
Another deep breath left Ori, and then he faced us again.
“Don’t be naïve in thinking we couldn’t die on this mission,” he began, the gravity in his tone matching his expression when his gaze lowered to the ground. “I’m not sure about you, but … Noelle’s worth it. Worth whatever this costs us.”
The three of us nodded, our conviction apparent.
Ori and Noelle’s rocky relationship of late should have made it strange hearing him say such things about her, but only to someone who didn’t know him. His devotion was unwavering, completely unconditional. Therefore, this charge made perfect sense to us all.
Confident steps carried Ori near the flames, and the three of us were right behind him, none hesitating as we walked toward almost certain death.
“Omegas,” he concluded, “I’ll see you on the other side.”
Chapter Sixteen
Noelle
Heat.
Darkness.
Terror so thick it had a life all its own.
For all I knew, Malu and Sydney weren’t anywhere near this godforsaken place, but whether Tristan’s words had been true or a lie, I was playing right into Chief Makana’s hand.
My surroundings were a combination of scorched earth, falling ash, and a sky so dark my path was only lit by the glowing embers that burst and crackled all around. I’d assessed my perception of this place correctly when the Darkness drew me here that day at the lagoon. I equated it to Hell, and this was exactly that.
Only, then, I had only been present in thought.
Today, I was here in reality.
The stench of this half of the island—ablaze and reeking of death and chaos—assaulted my senses. I wandered onto a path between two large palms and my steps halted. How this place had been burning for so many decades, and yet hadn’t been consumed, was hard to comprehend. Even a nearby sign was completely covered in flames, but yet the wooden structure hadn’t broken down.
I peered out toward the horizon, noting how a group of bungalows burned bright in the distance. It was hard to imagine they’d once been someone’s home, but this entire hemisphere was once full of life, adventure. The guys fought hard daily to ensure that no more of their beloved island met this same fate, and God knows I hoped they succeeded.
Even without me, should it come to that.
On cue, I felt a sudden spike of fear, and it came with the realization that my vision was severely limited, and it had nothing to do with the smoke and ash. It was my wolf. She wasn’t with me.
Actually … I couldn’t access any of my abilities. Crossing over had stripped them completely away.
A branch snapped loudly somewhere behind me and I turned, heart racing as I tried to no avail to see deeper into this dark forest. There was this dreadful feeling of being watched that I couldn’t shake, and I knew it had to be the Darkness.
It knew I’d come.
My steps were slow at first, but then my pace quickened until the soles of my shoes touched concrete. Somehow, I’d wandered onto a road, and further ahead the outline of small buildings traced in flames came into view.
I was tired and winded—feeling things that would have been kept at bay had my abilities been present. Frustration followed, noting that I had absolutely no clue where to find Malu or Sydney, and more so that I couldn’t even say for sure they were here.
I was on a wild goose chase, haunted by the fact that turning back wasn’t an option. On the off chance that those two were here, I might have been their only chance of making it out alive.
I’d heard of what happened to those who even got close to the northern hemisphere. As far as I knew, only Firekeepers could approach the border fire without being possessed by the one who dwelled here.
Yet, this smart girl wandered right in.
Super cool idea, Noelle.
A strange breeze wafted past. At first, I hadn’t noticed its peculiar sound. However, soon, I realized voices carried within it—eerie whispers that made the wind feel alive as it moved over me, as it lifted my hair into the
air.
I turned quickly, spinning to see who was there, but my vision was only met by the perpetual emptiness. I’d never felt more alone in my life, which was ironic, because I was positive I was anything but alone here. The Darkness was hawking my every step.
As sure as the day is long, I knew.
Hours passed. It didn’t take long to regret that I hadn’t left markers for myself. I came into this thinking my wolf’s sense of direction would guide me, not realizing I’d be stripped of her powers. Now, I was exhausted, thirsty, and feeling undeniably human. Even before my first transition, my magic had given me at least a small measure of confidence where survival was concerned. But now … I knew such confidence had only been an illusion.
Rapid breaths puffed from my nose as my head swiveled from left to right. The atmosphere had grown uncomfortably still, reminding me of the eye of a storm. Every step was taken with caution, and both fists stayed clenched at my sides. The area just up ahead seemed darker than everywhere else my eyes settled, and I considered bolting in the opposite direction. Only, I knew what was back there. Nothing.
No Malu.
No Sydney.
Now wasn’t the time to cower and run. I’d come too far for that.
I ached all over, in places I didn’t even know it was possible to ache. At this point, the only thing that kept me going was fear. Fear of what would happen if I gave up. Fear that this had all been for nothing. Fear of being too late to save the two little ones who’d launched this entire suicide mission.
Both, the heat and the long walk, had done a number on human-me. Sweating and panting, I carried on, but the onset of a blinding surge of exhaustion suddenly overwhelmed me. It came on so swiftly, so powerfully, I recognized it as being supernatural right away.
There was no choice but to stop. A large tree to my right had decidedly become the place I’d rest, completely against my will, but it couldn’t be helped. Lazily dropping down beside it, my body slumped against the scorched bark. Still out of breath, I felt utterly defeated. Like, I’d done all this for nothing, since I had no clue where I was even going, no idea why the Darkness sought to coax me to sleep. All I knew was I couldn’t keep my eyes open another second.
