Harlen had removed his goggles and left them hanging from his neck. “There must be hot springs down here somewhere.”
Justin shrugged. “There’s a few in the Northwest Territories, it wouldn’t surprise me.” He tossed me a water bottle, but the contents were still mostly frozen. I took a couple sips of the water that was liquid enough to drink and handed it back, but he ignored me otherwise.
“How much further, boss?” Harlen asked curiously. “Should we keep going or set up camp at some point?”
“We keep going,” Justin said harshly. “We’re close, I can feel it.”
I closed my eyes and desperately tried to open my magical senses that would allow me to feel whatever it was that Justin was sensing. I thought I felt a tiny prickle of something, but it could have been my imagination because I wanted it so badly. I knew it was probably futile, but while we were standing still, I wanted to use the time to keep trying to break through the iron collar. I refused to give up hope entirely.
Chapter 22
James
“Let’s go,” I snarled over my shoulder as I gripped Anna’s pendant in my hand. My heart had almost stopped beating when I felt the magic inside and the rhythm of her heartbeat start to fade. It was almost imperceptible now, but I could feel the faintest glimmer of something still present in the stone. I had to believe that meant that she was still alive, the alternative would leave me a broken man.
Caleb had used all of his resources to follow Justin’s trail from council headquarters and to the airport. From there, we had found that Justin didn’t have anyone smart enough on his team to be able to block the tracking mechanism on the plane he had chartered. Fake flight plans could be filed, but most companies liked to keep track of the massively expensive planes they rented out by the flight hour.
Once we had realized Justin was going to the North with Anna, it hadn’t taken a genius to figure out that Justin was headed to release the dark fae. As the guardian of the prison, and someone who had been battling the influence of the dark fae, Ingrid had been able to give us a general location. Because the prison seal was weakening, she’d told us that we’d be able to sense the large amount of magic struggling to get out into this world once we got close enough.
Trevor and his crew trudged behind me as we lugged our equipment to where Cody was waiting on the private jet we had chartered along with Ingrid. It would have been ideal to also take the three teams that had just returned from the Middle East as they had recent combat experience and would be an asset to the mission, but they couldn’t be trusted. It was unclear if those guys were loyal to Blaze or to Austin. And until we could discern that, they wouldn’t be involved in priority missions for the pack.
A year ago, I would have never considered leaving Austin with the pack in disarray and a potential mutiny on his hands. But Anna’s fading heartbeat had taken the decision out of my hands. She would always come first. The pack and all of its problems would still be here when I returned with Anna.
The twin’s jeep squealed up on the tarmac and I groaned. I knew they’d never agree to stay behind while I went after Anna, but I needed to scare them a little to make them behave and not act like a couple of loose cannons. They were good marines, but like any marine, had the uncanny ability to find trouble or destroy something when left to their own devices. But they were also two of the most loyal men I’d ever met. Plus, they had good battle instincts and combat experience that I could use to my advantage.
“Yo!” Jason called as he and his brother strode up to us with large duffle bags thrown over their shoulders.
“I thought I told you shitheads you were staying behind?” I asked gruffly.
Jason gave me a tentative smile, but Mason got a dark look in his eyes. “Yeah… but we figured you’d have come to your senses by now.”
I eyed them both for another moment to make them sweat. “Can you follow my orders without question?”
“Yes,” they both answered without hesitation.
“We might be fuckups sometimes,” Jason told me. “But not when it’s Anna’s life on the line.”
“We’ll do whatever it takes to get her back safe,” Mason said quietly with an intensity that I had to grudgingly admire.
I gave them both a sharp nod. “Get on the fucking plane, wheels up in twenty.”
Mason gave me a grin that was darker than I was used to seeing from him, but Jason gave me a mock salute.
Jason was the first on the plane and I sighed when I heard his voice. “Heard you motherfuckers need some help fucking shit up?”
It was going to be a long trip.
Another SUV pulled up and I frowned when I realized who was inside. We had agreed that it would be best for Austin and Cody to remain here to regain control over our pack and defend our territory while Caleb ran ops from our pack house.
Austin strode up to me while the other two went to the trunk to gather up their bags. “The pack is going to have to manage without us while we’re gone,” Austin told me as he gripped my arm. “I can’t sit back and let someone else fight my brother while my mate is in danger.”
“The council?” I asked. Things had quickly gone out of control once everyone realized Anna was gone. The cell door had been melted open, but I knew the work of a blow torch when I saw it. But panic had set in at the council headquarters at the news of a soul-sucking fae that had blown apart a prison cell. Everyone had scattered, thinking they were going to be Anna’s next victim, and they were rallying now for a witch hunt.
“Fuck the council,” Austin said angrily. “I’ve played their game and catered to their whims for too long. Let them come for us.”
“And Blaze?” If we had the weight of our entire pack behind us, the council wouldn’t be able to touch us. But if we were fractured and fighting among ourselves we were vulnerable to attack.
Austin hesitated. “He thinks he did the right thing, and while I’ll never trust him to get anywhere near Anna, I know he has the pack’s safety foremost in his mind. The guys are safe with him for now.”
“Assuming he doesn’t make any other boneheaded decisions because he doesn’t know the full story,” I grumbled. Blaze might have had good intentions, but that didn’t negate the fact that he fucked up and put Anna in harm’s way.
“Let’s hope,” Austin said with a sigh. “I’ll deal with him once we have Anna back.”
I nodded. The list of people that I trusted was short, but most of them were here with me now. There was no other group I would choose to have at my side while going to war.
.
Chapter 23
Anna
A bead of sweat slid slowly down my forehead, but I brushed it aside before it could fall into my eye. The other guys had taken off their winter outerwear and stored it in their packs, but if I took off my parka, I’d either have to leave it behind or carry it awkwardly in my arms as I walked. I had to satisfy myself by merely unzipping it and hope I wouldn’t pass out from heat exhaustion.
Earlier, we’d passed by the first of the hot springs that had bubbled to the surface in the cave. The stench of sulfur had been almost overwhelming, but I told myself it was better than freezing to death. Justin had ordered us to keep walking, but I wasn’t the only one at the point of exhaustion. I caught all of the guys giving Justin dirty looks when he wasn’t looking. Justin seemed to only get more energized as we approached our goal and he was constantly hounding everyone else to hurry.
As I was the slowest, Harlen had suggested leaving me behind, but his suggestion had set Justin off in an angry outburst that had worried me. Just what did he have planned for me? If he were going to sacrifice me or something else just as bad, I hoped he would have to take off this stupid collar first. Then we would see who would be sacrificed.
The cave we were walking through suddenly opened up into a huge cavern and I looked around in wonder. The small amount of light that we had illuminated stalactites and stalagmites that glimmered. If I wasn’t sure that Justin was marching me here to try to ki
ll me, I would have truly admired the view.
In the center of the cavern there was a large, inky black pool that gave me a very bad feeling. I stayed as far from it as I could while still remaining in the small circle of light that was created with the lanterns. Justin ordered the guys to place the lanterns in a circle around the pool and I had to inch forward a little to avoid being left in the dark alone.
While Justin was otherwise occupied, I again took the opportunity to try and break through the collar. I slid my hands along the inside of it, and my heart was buoyed with hope when I felt a small crack underneath my fingertips. When I had first awoken to find it around my neck, it had felt smooth like it had been welded around my neck. Maybe what I was doing was having a small effect? I closed my eyes and doubled my efforts, blocking out the sound of Justin’s voice as he shouted orders at the others.
My breath came quicker when I felt the smallest flicker of magic within me. My concentration was broken as Harlen grabbed my arm to drag me closer to the dark pool. “Put her there,” Justin ordered as he pointed to a spot at the head of the pool. I didn’t fight it as Harlen roughly maneuvered me to where Justin had indicated, because I wanted to conserve all of my energy. My best bet was going to be breaking through the iron collar to get to my magic.
Justin pulled out a purple stone that started to glow as he spoke to it, but I was too far from him to make out the words. The mystery was solved a few minutes later when a gateway opened, and two men stepped through. Well, two male fae stepped through.
One of him waved his hand and the cave was illuminated in light. I blinked at the sudden brightness as my eyes adjusted, only to widen further as I saw who it was that had just joined us. Shika stood there with his arms crossed and the light glinting off of his dark skin. And beside him was one of Drake’s brothers – Fallon.
He met my eyes and a smile slid across his face.
“Don’t you have a throne to fight over?” I asked him derisively.
He chuckled. “That’s what I’m here for. I’m sure my dear mother will agree to stay and wreak havoc on this world while I take Winter for myself.”
I paled. This was not good.
“I see you’re collared like the bitch you are,” he mocked me as he strode closer. “How does it feel to be powerless before the next King of Winter?”
I never thought I’d ever say this, but I was actually glad when Justin pushed past me to face off with Fallon. “That wasn’t the agreement we made.”
The prince shrugged, but then smiled when he looked into the madness reflected in Justin’s eyes. “I doubt you have long to worry about it. Shall we get started?”
Justin cocked his head as he appeared to listen to the voices in his head. If we were at the gate to the prison then they must be very loud. I wondered just how in control of his own actions he was.
“What are we doing here, exactly?” I asked in an effort to buy myself some time to figure out how the fuck I was going to get myself out of this mess.
Drake’s brother smiled at me. “You’re going to help us free my mother, the other dark fae, and her army of phantoms. Her prison was created by both Summer and Winter magic together, so I need both to open it. And you are just the perfect halfling to give it to me.”
“Your mother’s in a puddle?” I asked in an attempt to irritate him.
His brow wrinkled, so I succeeded. “No, you stupid mongrel. That’s merely a gateway to the void she was sentenced to. It’s a pocket between the worlds.”
“How could she survive?” I asked. “Don’t the fae need a connection to their respective world to survive?”
Drake’s brother laughed. “The Morrigan isn’t a fae. She’s a goddess of war and death. She doesn’t need anything to survive – she simply is.”
My eyebrows rose. I was running out of time to find a way to stop this. Fallon didn’t wait for me to respond, he shoved me towards the glistening pool of darkness in front of us. My fear spiked as I fell face-first toward what I knew would be the death of me. I was shocked when I stumbled onto the darkness instead of sinking into it. I tentatively touched it with my hands and the surface was smooth like glass. I could feel something on the other side that was calling to me and a strange desire to reach through to the other side. I quickly scrambled away from the glass surface and back onto the rocky cavern floor.
“Stay,” Fallon ordered as if I were a dog.
Rage flooded through me, but I stayed where I was for now. I needed a few moments to keep working through the collar and he would be more likely to ignore me if he thought I was cowed. I closed my eyes and tuned out everything around me – pouring everything I had into breaking the collar. I thought I was going to give myself an aneurysm, but the next time that I ran my fingers along the collar I found that the fissure had widened so that only a small part of the collar was still connected. Hope soared through me and when I reached inside for my magic, I could feel it just beyond my reach.
“What’s this?” Fallon asked with a snarl as he grabbed me by the hair.
I attempted to shove him off me, but he held me still with magic. He reached out with his other hand to examine the collar and hissed when he found the fissure. “This isn’t a pure iron collar,” he accused Justin.
Justin didn’t answer but looked over at Harlen. Harlen shrugged. “The guy I ordered it from said an iron alloy would be stronger, so-”
“Idiot,” Fallon growled.
I decided this was my moment to throw everything I had at the last of the collar that was blocking me from accessing my magic. With a final crack, the collar shattered around me and I was finally free. I hurriedly pulled magic from every source around me that I could find, but Fallon and Shika were quick to shield themselves from me. Justin, or whatever was inside Justin, wasn’t as quick and I was able to pull a little from him.
But the few seconds I needed to draw in enough magic to fight Shika and Fallon cost me the battle. Fallon snapped a barrier around me that cut me off from Justin and everyone else around me, while Shika reinforced Fallon’s magic that physically held me in place, making it impossible to move.
However, I didn’t need my body to use my magic. I attacked both Fallon and Shika with fire, but it didn’t make it through the bubble that they had trapped me in. I focused my efforts on using one of the stalactites outside of my bubble to attack them next, but to my horror, the barrier that they had created blocked me from using my magic to do anything outside of that tiny bubble.
I narrowed my eyes at Fallon as he watched me with sharp eyes, trying to anticipate my next move. I wasn’t an ancient fae warrior, I was closer to a child when it came to magical expertise, but I was a quick learner. Theorizing that if I couldn’t reach out, then they couldn’t reach in, I broke Fallon’s magic that was holding me still and sat up straight.
“The barrier will take her some time to work through,” Fallon murmured to Shika. “Keep an eye on her.”
Shika nodded but didn’t otherwise respond. We held each other’s eyes for a couple moments before I decided I was wasting time staring him down. Fallon knew I’d be able to break through this eventually, so I’d better get started immediately.
My eyes flew open in shock when I saw Fallon reach for one of Justin’s wolves with his magic and shove him down on the dark glass surface before slashing his throat open. Blood spurted and shot everywhere in the first moment when everyone was frozen in shock. The other wolves looked at Justin as if questioning what they should do, but Justin’s eyes were glazed over as if he was lost completely to the voices inside of him.
I had to give these wolves credit, because instead of turning tail and running, they immediately attacked. Their intention may have been to try and overwhelm the fae with their greater numbers, but they weren’t equipped for a magical fight. One by one, bodies dropped on the surface of the gateway into the void as blood spread across the surface.
I frantically scrambled to break through the barrier that was blocking me from the slaughter,
but this was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Anything that I sent at it, merely reflected back to me. I couldn’t get any purchase to rip through it, and I couldn’t find a way to unravel it.
Despair shot through me as the last of Justin’s wolves died. “Justin!” I screamed. “Wake up!” I knew I wouldn’t be able to count on him as an ally, but surely, he wouldn’t just stand there and allow himself to be slaughtered as well. I needed him to fight back and delay whatever Fallon had planned next so that I had a little more time to get out of this.
Fallon laughed at me as Justin stayed unresponsive. “I doubt there’s much left inside of his mind at this point. Better think of something else, little wolf.”
I growled at him, but he merely smirked as he pushed Justin onto the glass surface. With a slash of magic, Justin’s head slid off his body as both hit the glass with a thunk and spray of blood. The surface had now started to glow with an eerie light, and the pull of the dark was so much stronger. Tendrils of shadow curled out of the surface and the bodies started to sink down.
I swallowed in fear as I realized the hard glass surface was now closer to gelatinous than solid. This was so not good. The bodies slowly disappeared until only the inky black surface remained. Darkness was seeping out towards all of us, but Fallon’s bubble kept me trapped in place, unable to move away.
Whispers assaulted my mind and I could feel the vast abyss that lay beyond that gateway calling to me, only now it was more seductive than terrifying. I felt the overwhelming urge to fling myself into the darkness and lose myself inside of it.
Join us.
Come and find your peace.
You’ll live for all of eternity as a part of us.
A sharp stab of terror went through my mind when I realized that if I hadn’t been trapped here, I might have jumped. The fear now flooding through my body brought me back to reality and I looked towards Fallon in horror. Did he have any idea what he wanted to release out into the world?
Finding My Breaking Point Page 19
