by Camille Rae
“Shh,” Lachlan shushed, reaching for me.
“Stop doing that thing,” I cried, reeling back from him and nearly falling over.
“I’m sorry,” Lachlan said, his eyebrows knitting together.
Loel rose, stepping past Lachlan, and kneeled in front of me. He held my shoulders and looked into my eyes. I thought for a moment he’d explain what was happening, but then Lachlan’s fingertips were on my temple and darkness came over me.
When I awoke, my head wasn’t throbbing like it had been when Loel had knocked me out. Instead, I felt well rested. It was near dusk, as far as I could tell. I heard murmurs and closed my eyes as soon as I heard a conversation going on.
“This could change everything,” Cash’s voice was low.
“What’s Theo going to do once he finds out we stumbled upon her?” Lachlan said, laughing.
“We don’t know that,” Silas said harshly.
“Do you think that Theo sent us to scout up here in order to find her?” Loel whispered, his tone very serious.
“No, he told us that there was Blue movement up here. He’d have told us if it was something this serious?” Silas answered.
“Looks just like her,” Lachlan said, snorting.
“When was the last time you saw the Queen up close?” Loel said, his tone sharp.
“Same as you, three years ago. But I’d never forget that face,” Lachlan said, a little quieter.
They thought I had something to do with the Queen?!
“She’s awake,” Cash said, and I felt someone push their toe against my ribs.
I opened my eyes, trying my best to appear like I hadn’t just been eavesdropping.
The crickets in the trees sounded familiar, and it reminded me of camping with Jude, the peaceful serenity of nature as we lay in our tent.
The memory of Ian made my chest ache. I had the melancholy thought that first, I had lost my parents, and now I had lost Jude. I lost everyone I loved. My chest tightened.
I noticed Lachlan glance over to me with a worried expression on his face. I sat up, stretching, not making eye contact with anyone. I stood, and started to walk off for privacy’s sake.
“Where are you going?” Loel said, standing to follow.
“I’m just going to use the restroom,” I said politely.
“The what?” Loel looked at me like I had spoken an entirely new language.
“I’m going to go ….” I gestured blindly, not coming up with a polite way to mime I’m about to pee my pants. “You know.” I rolled my eyes. When he started to take a step towards me, I put out my hands. “Alone.”
“I can’t trust you not to run away,” he said, furrowing his brow.
“What, you want to come hold my hand while I lean against a tree?” I’m sure I looked less than welcoming at that invitation.
“No,” he said. He looked at war with himself. Suddenly, it looked as though he had an idea. He reached for my day pack and took out a hank of my climbing rope. It was one of the longer, heavier bundles of rope, and he reached to me.
He tied it around my waist, his hands brushing against my body and causing some very inappropriate zings of electricity. He leaned in close to me, knotting the rope tightly with his expert hands.
Cool your jets, Caia, I scolded myself.
He took a step back.
I rolled my eyes, muttering about being on a leash, and walked about fifty feet into the forest.
I found a tree to lean on and as I was fidgeting with my leggings, a flash of light caught my eye.
The white doe from the day before was standing in front of me.
Chapter 5
Caia
It seemed as though she was staring right at me. I took a step toward her and the rope tugged around my waist.
I quickly untied it — he had only tied a fairly simple figure eight knot. I looped it around the tree and walked toward the doe.
She took a step forward, glancing over her shoulder as if to ask me to follow her.
I did, and we walked into the dark.
A sense of peacefulness had come over me.
We didn’t walk far before we came to a small wooden hut. Was she giving me a way to escape?
She paused at the door, looking inside, then looked back at me.
Guessing that she wanted me to go in first, I did. The hut was a small shack of sorts. A hunter’s hut, perhaps? It had the musty smell of being closed for a long time.
I turned back to the door to find that the doe was gone.
In her place was a middle-aged woman, stepping into the doorway. Even in the dim twilight I could see she was glowing, her dress and hair bright white in the moonlight.
The white doe was a woman?
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.
Her eyes settled on mine and I saw that they were unrealistically brilliant and gray, shining in the low light.
“Hello Caia,” she said, tipping her head in a bow.
I was stunned into silence. How did she know my name? I took a step back and bumped into the wall of the small hut.
“Who are you?” I asked, feeling stupid to follow a magic doe into a dark hut. Nothing spelled “About to get murdered” quite like a dark hut.
“My name is Flora,” she said slowly, waiting for a moment, as if that would make sense to me.
I pressed back into the wall.
“It has been so long, child. Twenty-six years,” she said to me, smiling in a way that I imagined she thought looked kind, but I was still afraid.
Twenty-six years? I was only twenty-seven. I tilted my head. “What’s… who are you?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Never mind that, child. I wanted to give you a present. A welcome home gift,” she said, holding out her hand. She held a beautiful yellow citrine ring in her hand.
I rarely wore jewelry. My beat up, calloused hands were strong, but not feminine and pretty. I held my hands at my sides, unsure of what to do.
Flora reached for my hand. She slipped the ring on my wedding ring finger, and I flinched. That felt a bit intimate. Still, the tension in the air warned me against disrupting the woman. Raw energy seemed to flow off of her in waves.
“Wh-what is this?” I stuttered, turning my hand to admire the ring.
She closed her eyes and murmured something, reaching out to touch the stone on my hand.
I felt a jolt of electricity flow through my chest and watched a pulse of yellow light fly out from the ring in all directions. It cut through my body, then out through the walls of the hut, swirling up around us like a sandstorm before disappearing into the air above our heads.
“Caia?” I heard Loel calling me in a hushed whisper-yell. “Caia?” His voice was frantic.
Four shadows moved over the doorway of the hut.
Loel took up most of the doorway, but behind him I could see Lachlan and Silas, with Cash near them in a defensive crouch. Mika growled from somewhere in the trees.
“Hello, my dears,” she said. The men seemed to know her. So, they were going to give me to some magical deer lady from the woods. How normal.
None of the men spoke and none of them would meet her eye. I couldn’t tell if they were afraid of her or showing respect. Perhaps both?
Flora stepped up to Loel and touched his jaw. He nodded. Lachlan and Silas both nodded, as well. Even Cash gave a curt head tilt, who I hadn't seen look agreeable all day.
“Protect her at all costs,” she said, and they each whispered their agreement.
I felt strange, overcome with an emotion I didn’t quite know.
Helpless. I squeezed my fingernails into my palms, willing myself to calm.
“My dear, I will see you soon,” she said, and then without warning, she walked off past them into the trees. I watched after her, speechless.
“Caia,” Loel said, wrapping his hand around my upper arm. I realized I had begun to shake uncontrollably.
He held onto me tightly, but didn’t hurt me.
“Who was that?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“The most powerful seer in Laeris,” Silas whispered, shaking his head. “The Royal Seer.”
“Seer? Like a witch?” I raised my eyebrows.
The men exchanged a look before pulling me out of the hut and deeper into the trees. I noticed we paused at the edge of a lake. Loel held my hand and Silas’ fingertips guided my shoulder. Each of the men was closed in tight to me, as though I now had four personal bodyguards instead of captors. Protect her at all costs. I shivered.
“Flora is powerful, with the gift of sight,” Silas explained in a quiet whisper, standing in front of me.
I looked at the men and noticed they were all closer, crowding my space. Only, I realized I didn’t mind it. It made me feel safe to have them near me.
I wasn’t afraid of them any more.
I glanced over at Lachlan to see if he had some part of my change of heart, but he wasn’t touching me.
In the darkness, my senses were heightened. I could hear each man breathing quietly and I could see energy surrounding them in a soft glow.
“You walked off,” Loel said quietly, looking down at me.
“I followed her,” I said.
He grabbed my wrist, his face hardening into one of sternness. “Don’t follow strange things here in Laeris, do you understand me?”
Cash gave a low growl and Loel let go of my wrist.
They were acting so strangely.
“Can we rest for a moment?” I asked, my voice tight, and I rubbed my hand over my eyes. I turned to part through my guards.
Loel stood stubbornly in my way.
“It’s not safe,” he whispered.
“I just need a minute,” I said, clenching my teeth and pushing past him.
I could feel the men behind me as I walked about a hundred feet down the edge of the lake, sticking close to the tree cover.
I turned to shoo them away, but the men were keeping a respectable distance.
I took off my shoes and socks, wading out into the cool water to climb across some large boulders that were sticking out of the edge of the lake. I sat on the edge of one, sticking my feet into the water, and sighed at the relief of the chill on my blistered feet.
I needed a moment and I needed about a hundred feet between me and those men, especially Loel.
What I had just seen, with the yellow light, had been unexplainable. Loel’s memories, Lachlan’s touch. There was no rationalizing this with what I could scientifically quantify.
It was magic. Maybe I truly was in a strange land, unlike my own. I had to accept that these men were telling me the truth, because what choice did I have?
I slowed my breathing and traced the ring on my finger. It was a Princess cut, definitely not something I would have picked out for myself, but it was beautiful.
I looked down at the ring, pulling at it on my finger. As pretty as it was, I felt unnerved wearing such a huge gem. I pulled and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge. I began to panic, pulling harder, but it was stuck.
I bent to stick my fingers in the water, reasoning that cool water might decrease the swelling in my hands and allow me to pull off the ring.
See? I could be rational in a crisis, I told myself.
I leaned way over to stick my hand into the water, submerging the ring, and heard a metallic hum, as though I had hit a metal triangle and the sound was reverberating back to me.
I pulled out my hand and the sound stopped.
As soon as the ring was submerged again, the sound returned.
My heart ached as I thought of Jude. Where was she? Was she being held captive like I was? All I knew is that the Queen’s Army had taken her, but who was I with? Some kind of group of rebels?
Was Jude locked in some kind of dungeon? Was she nearby, walking through the forest?
I had to find her. I had to make sure these men helped me find her.
I glanced over my shoulder to steal a look at the men who were with me on the shore. In the moonlight, I could see Loel was sitting down, his elbows on his knees as he watched out over the lake. Silas was beside him, flipping through a book, as much as I could see. Cash stood near the trees, pacing, and Lachlan was sprawled out on the pebbly beach.
I dipped my hand into the water again, swirling around the icy cold water. As my breathing calmed and I tuned out the night sounds of the forest around me, I could hear music.
I sat up straight and looked around, but heard only the tinny sound of my ring underwater.
I dipped my hand below the surface again and experimented by holding my ring outside of the water.
Nothing.
My ring was… making music?
I held my hand back under the water and waited, trying to make out the melody. It was unlike anything I had heard before.
It was complex and full, like a grand orchestra was underneath the water with me.
It reminded me of the time when my parents took me to see the orchestra in our small city. Although I had only been around seven or eight, I had been mesmerized and begged them to let me get violin lessons.
They never did and I forgot about the entire thing in a matter of weeks.
I stared at the ring in the moonlight.
It was the same feeling I had when I was a child. Everything inside of me felt whole with the melody, as though it was my own pulse, my own breath.
I shoved the thought down.
No.
I didn’t want any part of that. I didn’t need protecting. I didn’t need to be there.
Something about the ring and the melody made me feel like my time was more permanent in Laeris, which was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t need anything from this place.
I just needed to find Jude and get the fuck out of Laeris, with its magical rings and shapeshifting deer and not-wolves and Loel.
Chapter 6
Caia
I climbed off the rock and hurriedly picked my way across the rocks back to the guys.
“What’s wrong?” Loel asked as he noticed my quick approach.
“Get it off,” I said, frantically holding it out to Silas.
Silas peered down at the ring. “Is that… the Golden Heart?” He asked, his eyebrows raising. He looked like he had just found treasure.
“I don’t know. Flora gave it to me and then this light thing happened and now it makes music…” I said, feeling like I sounded crazy.
“I can’t take it off, then,” he said, his voice sounding a bit strangled.
“Please,” I begged. “Please tell me what’s going on. Why would the Royal Seer seek me out?” I begged, pulling as hard I could on the ring until my knuckles were sore.
I heard a sigh behind me, and then a hand on my back. I turned my head to see Loel standing behind me.
“You really can’t wait until we get to Nos? It’s not safe to give you answers out here,” he said, looking pained.
“Well, how far is Nos?” I asked, looking around where we were and realizing I was still wrapped in a blanket.
“We can get back there tomorrow if we make good time,” Silas said, squinting into the distance.
“Alright, so say we get to Nos and meet this Theo guy. What happens then?” I said flatly, and we started walking in silence, the moon up high in the sky.
“He’ll know,” Lachlan said.
“He’ll know what?” I asked.
There were a few moments pause before Loel sighed and said, “Who you are. Why you’re here.”
“Who do you think I am?” I asked.
All of the men shifted uneasily around me but said nothing.
“Caia, if you come without a fight to Nos where Theo is, as soon as you can leave, I will help you find your friend,” Loel said, and Lachlan nodded beside him.
“Me too, Caia,” Silas voiced.
Cash made a noise akin to Mmphmm.
“Why? Why would you help me?” I asked.
Lachlan shifted, looking to Loel for a long moment. I could tell by their cha
nging expressions that they were communicating in some way.
“Because whatever spell Flora did, it made you one of our pack,” Silas said quickly, not looking at Loel.
Loel looked as though he’d explode with frustration.
“Your pack?” I nearly laughed. “What does that mean? Is that like a cute way of saying your club or fraternity or what?”
Lachlan exhaled, then turned, pulling his shirt and bow over his head.
Before I could say anything in surprise, he crouched down, then ran off into the woods in a sprint.
What the fuck?
“Goddammit,” Loel muttered.
A wolf came sprinting out of the woods towards us, and I instinctively lunged back.
The wolf stopped and stared up at me. He was huge, double the size of any wolf I had seen in real life. He was even bigger than Mika. His fur was bright white, almost silver in the moonlight.
“What is with the wolves?” I asked, looking from Loel to Silas.
They exchanged a look.
The wolf nudged my hand with his snout and I pulled it back in surprise, staring down at him.
Wait…
Lachlan?
“You’re… werewolves?” I asked, nearly speechless?
“Whoa, whoa, not werewolves. That isn’t a nice word. We’re shifters,” Loel explained. I felt as though I had just used a slur word to describe them.
“Shifters,” I repeated, looking from the wolf to Loel to Silas to Cash.
Silas opened his mouth as if he wanted to explain more, but Loel stopped him with a look.
“We’ll just let that sink in for a moment,” Loel said. “Come on, we need to be on the move.”
I had no idea what to say.
Wolf shifters.
I was now in a pack of wolf shifters.
I blinked, my mind racing a million miles a minute.
We walked silently for a few hundred feet as I tried to piece together the last two days. Surely there had to be a reasonable explanation, like I was on drugs. Shrooms? Could acid make this feel so real? Perhaps I was in a coma.
Lachlan silently jogged beside us, silent on the ground. I watched the muscles of his shoulders undulate beneath his coat.
