Page 17

Chapter seventeen

Astria Zielle

My eyes popped open, and I only found one man walking around the cave.

“Good morning!” The man waved when he realized I was watching him. “I’m Jonathan Nowak, third in command. Are you hungry?”

I shook my head.

“If you change your mind, the spread is set up on that table. Doesn’t taste the best, but it fills you up.” He carried on doing one thing or another.

“Where is Dirus?” As I said that, my hand landed on a note from said man.

“Morales went to check out a signal that was partially blocked by the hills. I haven’t gotten a hold of him in a couple hours, so I guess the walkies are either out of range or also blocked. Don’t fret, darlin’, he’ll be back soon,” Jonathan said, not realizing I was reading the note that confirmed his words.

Jonathan radiated warm familiar magic that felt like a dog trying to cuddle up to keep me warm. Whatever magic the wolves possessed was comfortable. But to my back, a chill trickled down my spine like a promise of death and dread.

If that warm magic came from all the wolves like I suspected, it was no wonder they masked the icky magic oozing from the south. Now that there was only one wolf, everything was painfully obvious.

“There is something outside.” Before anything else could leave my mouth, his gun was unholstered, and he stalked toward the door. “I don’t think it’s in immediate proximity.”

I jumped up to follow.

“Please stay here, my lady.” His friendly demeanor changed into that of a predator on the hunt.

I still followed. Once we were outside, his eyes scanned the forest. I pointed over toward where I knew an old military post was about a mile away. It hadn’t been manned for three generations before my time, but it was the only thing in that direction.

“Magic. A lot of it. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

“It wasn’t there last night?” A frown twisted his handsome face.

“I didn’t realize it last night, but all the wolves were smothering the area. I don’t think I could see past the field of everyone’s aura,” I said. “I noticed now, because the magic was a stark contrast to you.”

He clicked a device mounted on his shoulder. “Morales?”

His mouth twisted deeper as seconds ticked by without a response. He took a subtle step between me and the direction I’d pointed out, putting his back to me.

“Wallace?” A soft growl built in his chest. “Okay, here’s the plan, my lady–”

“I’ll go check it out.” I went around him and toward the source.

“Please don’t.” The man whined. For whatever reason, it struck me as funny that he was whimpering like a puppy.

He grabbed my arm, and I whirled on my heel. He dropped his hand like I burned him. I stared at him until I was sure he wouldn’t try to grab me again, then carried on.

“Morales?” His voice was a lot more desperate this time. “My lady, please return to safety with your child.”

I ignored him and kept walking.

“I’m one man. I can only protect one of you if you are separated.”

“So protect her.”

“Morales.” he growled into his device again.

“I hear you, Nowak,” Dirus finally answered.

But I kept walking, letting the voices fade to the background. The magic was like a homing beacon of death, and it was easy to follow the invisible trail. The only real challenge was that the forest was dense, because no one really went this way.

Until I came up on the post. The broken fencing had been replaced with high fences lined with stars. Star magic.

The once training yard was filled with strange people that didn’t look right.

I crouched in the bushes when I heard the boots of soldiers moving around. The people in the fence snarled like wild animals. Their skin was ash gray, and I was able to see through their flesh in some places. Their clothes had seen better days and were just dirty tatters of what the garments once were.

A lot of them were gnawing on the fencing, their broken and jagged teeth made tiny dents in the magic coating the metal. A crazy thought rattled through me that the moment that magic gave out, nothing would hold them in.

“They’re chewing on this shit again!” a soldier said, using a cattle prod on a creature. But they didn’t react. “I’ve used everything in my fucking arsenal, Zielle. This isn’t working.”

“Something’s had them worked up since yesterday.”

Their solid pale eyes would glow gold whenever they bit into the fencing, and a little more life would fill them.

My heart pounded in my chest. They were eating celestial magic, and they’d been upset since yesterday. My best guess was when my collar came off.

I noticed that more and more were moving in my direction, getting more vicious.

Because they can sense you. Move, stupid bitch.

Nikolai came around, and I carefully crept back. Making sure not to brush anything that would give away my position. He watched them for a moment, then smirked. “Astria.”

That tone. I swallowed the whimper. Last time he used that tone, he broke my hand.

“I know you’re out there. I demand you reveal yourself.” He followed me into the forest. He was uncomfortably close. One wrong move and he’d see me. “Bitch, don’t make me have to deal with you the hard way.”

If he caught me without my collar, he’d kill me instantly. He was the one who demanded it never be taken off of me.

“Answer me, bitch.”

I backed into legs, and I would have screamed if the soothing warm aura didn’t wash over me like a security blanket. I smothered my fear in my hands.

“I hope you aren’t talking to me,” Dirus spoke up.

Relief wrapped me up nice and tight.

“Sorry. I’m looking for my wife. Not you.”

“You speak to your wife like that?” Judgment laced Dirus’s voice.

Nikolai chuckled in that way he did right before he punched me in the face, and I clenched Dirus’s pant leg in warning.

“Go ahead. I’m not your wife. I’ll put a fucking hole in your body.” The growl rumbling deep in his chest terrified and excited me. I liked that in an assbackward way he was protecting me. Not that it made any sense.

Leaves ruffled as Nikolai stomped off, and Dirus grabbed me by my pits and hauled me up like I weighed nothing, keeping me in front of him to block me from sight.

“Someone made them fencing out of celestial magic, and I didn’t do it.” I barely breathed. “I haven’t had access to my magic in years.”

“I know,” he snarled, and I jumped out of my skin. “It’s not you. We need to move.”

“What are those things?” What ate magic like that? I’d never heard of such a creature.

“Their trump card.”

He threaded his hands through mine and went into a run. I struggled to keep up with his long legs, but even though I didn’t know what a trump card was, I knew we were in danger.

Howling filled the air and made goosebumps crawl down my arms. “They’ve released their dogs.”

How many times had these things hunted me down when I tried to run away in the beginning? “They know my scent.”

“Let them come.” He morphed into a giant black wolf and shoved me down in time for one of these dogs to leap at me. I rolled over and put up a gold shield behind him as he grabbed the first dog by the neck and shook until he wasn’t moving anymore.

I created golden energy that shaped itself into arrows and let the shield down, killing it and another coming up behind it. Dirus lurched behind me, protecting my back as I guarded his.

Two tried to pincer him in, but with a wave of my arms, my magic shot both of them in the throats. He leaped at another coming up behind us until there were no more.

I counted them out. “That’s all of them.”

“These mutts usually aren’t violent. They are familiars.”

“They are my father’s.” As an animal witch, it didn’t take much for him to control all manner of beast. “He starves them.”

He grabbed my hand in a tight hold, as if he was afraid someone would rip me out of his grasp, and a low growl rumbled in his throat again.

“Extract the little celestial. The area is not safe,” he said into the device the wolves seemed to communicate with. “If her father or anyone else comes at you, kill them.”

“Heard,” a voice answered on the other side.

He sniffed the air and adjusted our path. I didn’t bother confirming that we were going the right way. Seemed like he knew exactly where we were headed.

When we finally broke through the trees, there was a line of his men with guns pointed at us. I came to a screeching stop, but Dirus yanked me forward. “These are our men. Don’t you dare stop.”

“Sorry, my lady. Just protecting your back.” Nowak smiled, but still kept his stern eyes on the forest.

Boots followed and surrounded us, and for once, it wasn’t the cause of my panic. My eyes scanned the area, and there was something glaringly missing; half the men and my baby. “Where’s Kylie?”

“Wallace and a team are moving her to the plane.”

“I know where another plane is. Tell them to go.”

He stopped and jerked his eyes to me. “You’re giving me permission to allow my men to leave with your daughter?”

“They have no intention of letting me leave. I can have peace knowing she escaped.”

He breathed heavily.

“Please.”

“I’ve done countless extractions out of war zones. And I’ve never lost my charge.”

“And I have failed to escape from these people countless times. I know them. Getting me out will be almost impossible, but she is getting out if it kills me.”

“Your death isn’t an option.” A snarl ripped out of his chest.

“Yes it is,” I disagreed. “For her, it is. She is the only one out of the two of us that matters.”

He glared at me. “That simply isn’t true.”

“Yes.” My voice broke. “It is.”

He shook his body like he was bottling an unknown rage and scoffed at me. “You don’t understand. We will protect her with every ounce of our ability, but there are other dangers out there. She will need protection that only you can give her once we get out of here.”

“Please.” I got on my knees. Whatever was happening, she couldn’t be a part of it. “I’ll do anything. I’ll give you anything. Please!”

Anything was worth her not walking in my footsteps here.

Jonathan and Lucero stepped toward me and whimpered. Jonathan lifted a hand as if to touch me, but he didn’t.

“You will never kneel before a man and beg again,” Dirus snarled. “It will be done.” He grabbed the communication device. “Is the plane prepped?”

“Yep, boss.”

I grabbed the thing from him. “Kadeem?”

“Yeah?” Confusion laced his deep voice.

“Get my daughter out of here. And protect her at all costs. Don’t wait for us.”

There was a long pause. “Yes, my lady.” Gunfire exploded in the background. “We’ll leave as soon as we’re clear.”