Page 49 of Rising Reign (The Wolves of Crescent Creek #3)

WREN

The moment the words left Rhys’s lips, everyone erupted. Questions were hurled from one direction and then another, everyone talking over each other.

“Enough!” Kingston ordered. The tone was pure alpha, and everyone instantly quieted. “What did you see?”

Rhys’s throat worked as he swallowed. “I…it was just snapshots.” His brow furrowed. “I think it’s of two different times because I saw images of the dark mages and then Red River.”

“Did anything clue you into a day or time?” Clara asked, her enforcers filing in around her as if she were about to be attacked here and now.

Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly in pain as he struggled to remember what he’d seen.

I turned to Locke. “Do you have any of your headache herbs?”

He nodded, pulling a packet from his pocket and handing it to me .

I crossed to the table, poured the contents into an empty glass, and then filled it with water.

“I’m not sure what day,” Rhys mumbled. “But it was full daylight.”

“That helps,” Kingston said. “We’ll know when to be more on alert.”

Stirring the tonic, I handed it to Rhys. “Here. It helps with headaches.”

“Thank you,” Rhys said as he took the glass from me.

“It might look like the worst thing ever, but it doesn’t taste half bad,” I promised.

He gulped it down and then set the glass back on the table. The lines bracketing his mouth were already softening. “That does work.”

“Could you tell where the attack happened?” I asked.

Rhys’s lips pursed, but this time, it was because he was searching through his memories, not because he was in pain. “In the forest…here. I recognized a spot where the creek hits the wards on one side. And that huge boulder on the other.”

“Did you see us fighting them?” I pressed.

Rhys shook his head. “No. Just them coming onto pack territory.”

An alert, unlike anything I’d ever heard before, came from behind me. I whirled to find Locke fumbling with his phone and silencing the alarm. His fingers flew across the screen as his eyes went wide. “My power grid. It’s completely down.”

“How?” Kingston ground out. “Those lines run deep under our property.”

Locke shook his head, but his gaze stayed focused on his phone. “It has to be by magical means, not human ones.”

A pit formed in my stomach as dread bloomed. Magical means. It had to be the dark mages or Red River. The only question was, which one?

“What about the solar-powered cameras?” Brix demanded.

Locke’s head shot up, his brows pulling together. “I might be able to tap into their network from the satellite.” His fingers flew again and then stilled. “The mages. Northwest corner. They’re through the electric field and working on lowering the wards.”

Hera and I shared a look. We knew the wards were already struggling to stay up with all the animosity hitting them. It wouldn’t be long before they gave out altogether.

Kingston’s gaze swept the group. “We all know our roles and groupings.”

I swallowed hard as I reached for Ender’s hand. He squeezed my fingers in answer, saying everything we didn’t have time for.

“Clyde and Dina, you’re in the watch room. Locke will patch you into auxiliary power and the satellite for internet. You’re our eyes and ears.”

They instantly headed for the house and Locke’s lair.

“Ender and Franco, the sniper’s nest.”

They nodded, and Franco held out his fist to Ender. “Let’s lock and load.”

Ender tapped his knuckles to Franco’s, and then they were off.

“Puck, Locke, and Juan, you’re on the ground with Rhys. Hera, you’re with the enforcers and Clara. Brix and Wren, you’re with me,” King instructed.

My mouth had gone dry as I thought about how the people I loved most were here. If we lost, everyone I loved would be wiped from this Earth.

Rhys met my gaze. “Remember your training.”

“I’m not even sure how the hell I’ll use it,” I said, panic setting it.

Rhys gripped my shoulders. “You’ll know when the moment is right. Trust yourself. Trust your wolf.”

I thought about everything I’d learned from the men and women around me. At the heart of it was trust—in each other and ourselves.

I pulled air in through my nose and let it out through my mouth. I could do this .

Weapons clattered to the table, spilling out as Ender and Franco emptied duffel bags full of all types of gear. Ender looked around. “Bullets will do nothing to the mages. They need to be ended by blades. Try to decapitate or get a direct hit to the heart.”

A muscle along Franco’s jaw fluttered. “I’m ready for a little payback.”

I was sure he was. The dark mages had nearly cost him his soul. Everyone kitted up, and I checked that Kingston’s blade was still tucked into my waistband. I added a sword to my other side and a gun at my back, just in case.

As everyone readied themselves, I felt a wave of something pass through me. My gaze snapped to Hera. “The wards. They’re down.”

“Gods be with us,” she whispered.

“We move now. Follow the paths we discussed,” King ordered.

I felt voices in my head then, sweet caresses that had my eyes stinging.

“Love you to the ends of the Earth, Birdie,” Puck whispered through my mind.

“I’m with you every step,” Brix vowed.

“Be safe, Kitten. May your blade strike true,” Ender rasped.

“Know your strength,” Locke said.

And, finally, there was Kingston. “You’re our true leader, Little Warrior. We’ll follow you anywhere.”

Emotion clogged my throat as I sent only one message back. “I love you more than I thought possible. We make it through together.”

We ran through the forest in our groupings, charging for the spot Rhys had seen in his mind. I ran beside Brix and King, our footsteps echoing one another’s until the creatures stepped out from behind the trees.

Their robes swirled around them, pale faces almost glowing beneath the hoods, those haunting pure-white eyes tracking all of our movements. Something about those eyes reminded me of when Rhys’s went white when he had a vision. What did that say about what the dark mages could sense in all of us ?

I felt it then, the press of one of the mages on my mind, trying to get in. I slammed up my mental shields and bared my teeth at the group.

One dark mage stepped forward, and something about him seemed familiar. “Empath.” He grinned as he raised a ball of smoke. “I can’t wait to taste your power.”

And then chaos erupted.