Page 35

H ome . Liekki urged his beast onward into the sky.

It was the pre-dawn hour, and the sun had yet to rise.

He was walking the barren lands of the southern point of their territory.

It was an oceanfront now but was once the old Black Mesa.

It wasn't very likely that the rogue wolf or anyone else lived in the area. However, he didn’t mind being in the place.

Strolling among the unique rock formations always provided a place of solace for him.

At night, there weren’t as many stars in the sky as there used to be, and the land was dark without a moon to illuminate the wonder of it all.

The sight wasn’t an issue for his dragon.

It was still a place of peace for him at the moment. The central area was too crowded for a Drahk to think.

Well, for him to think. He couldn’t speak for anyone else if they felt the same unrest. He couldn’t even sift out what was going on with him.

The only thing he knew was that a pulsating energy thrummed through his body and brought attention to the cavernous hole in his core the size of a canyon.

Never before had he felt a sense of lack, emptiness.

There was too much entertainment and numerous Drahkelles to keep him occupied when he wasn’t handling Thunder business for and with his brother.

Since Aodh had his mate and had claimed her, Liekki was used to managing more than his regular duties.

It didn’t bother him because it was better than the downtime that seemed to stretch time.

Flap. Flap. Flap. His dragon’s massive wings beat through the air, sending dust, gravel, and debris across the land as he went higher and higher. He didn’t allow his beast to soar into the dense clouds this time, knowing his dragon wanted to feel the warmth of the sunrise on its scales.

The beast flew mere miles above the treetops, enjoying seeing the tall gods of the land bend beneath the power of its wings.

Small animals darted across the land, and birds sprang forth from branches, some trying to accompany the beast while others flew in the opposite direction out of its path.

With every movement, near and far, his dragon's acute vision didn’t miss a single thing in its surroundings.

His dragon let out a loud roar that shook the internal muscles of its core.

Liekki let the dragon have its fun. When he took the patrol duties, it was the only time he remained in his scaled form for extended hours. Now, his beast found its path close to the Fae border, deciding to follow that line until it took Liekki to his place northeast of the territory center.

The wind fluttered rapidly over the large, thick scales, but there was a low, rolling fire blazing in the core of his beast that helped Liekki remain settled.

Some part of him understood the enticement of the old Drahk and how they ended their final days in dragon form—there was an unexplainable serenity in it.

He shook himself. If Aodh heard the thoughts that went through his mind, he’d smack the shit out of him until he reclaimed his senses. It wasn’t that Liekki desired to breathe his final breath of fire or take his final flight.

Fucking, hell, no . He enjoyed life too much. He knew he was simply in a funk right now.

However, it was the damn tension in his shoulder muscles and along his spine which felt like something was beckoning and reaching out to him, similar to the back side of an echo. Where it originated, the hell if he knew, but something heralded his fucking soul.

Was it danger?

Something the Great Spirit was alerting him to look out for, to keep the Thunder protected? But if that was the case, Aodh should be feeling out of sorts, not him.

However, his kind didn’t have a threat predator.

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Drahks had come to the aid of the Scots.

However, the British and even the fearful Irishman who saw the dragon’s presence as a threat instead of peacemakers had manufactured harpoon launchers that had killed more than a handful of his kind—the young and arrogantly foolish.

The Mckenna, at that time, had removed the threat by ordering all Drahks to melt the contraptions and leave man to their own devices and failures.

Liekki pushed his wayward thoughts aside, and with an empty mind, he stared out through the eyes of his beast and watched as the sun crested the horizon and saturated the dark-violet sky with coral and wildfire-orange ribbons.

As his gaze took in the marvelous sight, his dragon snatched it away in the next breath and shifted its focus toward the ground, its attention captured by something off in the distance.

Even when it altered its course, the rigidity of his dragon’s body notified Liekki that something was off.

His beast was bound and determined to reach whatever had snagged its attention.

~YH~

Avalore crawled out from the bushes she’d slept under last night when she could no longer walk or see the next step.

The forest she’d been running and moving through most of the day before had been so dense and rugged.

Her feet hurt from stepping on twigs, brambles, rocks, and other things.

Now and then, she switched her single slipper from one foot to the other.

The trees had helped keep most of the day's heat off her, but she still felt it seeping into her pores and draining her strength. At one point, she’d become delirious from the lack of food and water.

She’d found a tree with berries on it, and even though she knew better, she’d eaten more than two handfuls and carried another in the hem of her gown as she trudged on, unsure where she was going.

Praying they were the correct type of berries and didn’t turn her belly.

That was the problem when running for one's life in a spur-of-the-moment decision with no plans.

She hadn’t seen anyone. Only a few wilderness animals, too fast for her to try and catch, but she didn’t think she wanted to eat a weasel or possum anyway.

As she ran and then walked, she kept to the copse areas to remain hidden from the rumored cannibalistic people.

She hoped she would discover someplace to live alone, maybe by water.

The day before, she’d found a small inlet about a mile wide.

She’d drunk from it and had been thankful the water was fresh and not brackish because she had no way of boiling it.

However, it had been in a clearing, and she was afraid to stay too long and have whatever may be hunting her come upon her easily, even though she hadn’t heard anything chasing her since they left.

Maybe her government had decided she wasn’t worth the bother.

Or Michaela had been right, and the thing went after her instead.

She’d used the mud at the bank to cover herself from head to toe, hiding her scent; from what, she didn’t know. But she figured if there were any large animals out in the wild, they could track her.

Taking a moment to dust off some of the insects from her skin and pick out the twigs and leaves from her hair, she glanced around the vicinity, scanning it for danger or a hint of the direction she should take.

But there was nothing, but she couldn’t remain by the bush any longer.

She needed to find a hidden cave or a place to build a hovel or hut.

She hoped Mich was okay. Her friend hadn’t been doing well, and the pain in Avalore’s chest made her wonder if Mich had made it far since her friend had been ill for a while before their great escape.

Avalore set off through an odd archway created by two trees that appeared to have grown into each other. She halted when she got to the other side of the big trees.

Before Avalore lay a wide-open field, she would usually have been distressed because there would have been only two choices: run across the space and risk being seen or skirt around it, taking longer to get to the other side.

However, curiosity bubbled up inside as she stared at a vehicle parked roughly thirty yards away from her in the clearing.

Avalore looked left and right, carefully observing the area to see if the truck's owners were around.

She saw no one. Yesterday, she came across a couple of old military outposts that were dilapidated or burned out, making it unsafe for her to do more than glance at them.

Unlike the small buildings, the vehicle was dusty, and some fallen tree needles had collected on the front windshield and hood, and grass grew tall around the wheels, but it was relatively in good condition.

Besides, there were tire tracks. If the truck had been there since the catastrophes, it would have been significantly damaged and would not have just appeared old.

The tracks led back into a path behind it, one that, if she tracked back, may have paralleled her journey from the Wall, but not exactly.

She had to believe in the possibility that others may have left the human compound, too.

Maybe they had already developed some form of an existence out here if she found them.

Feeling hope for the first time, she started toward the blue truck.

She was eager to find a portion of food, supplies, or even a clue as to where the owners had gone.

Halfway there, a gust of wind came out of nowhere, bellowing her gown and sending her unruly and knotted strands of hair into her face.

At first, she felt grateful for the breeze to cool her sweaty, itchy, dirty skin.

However, when another blast, more robust than the first, struck her back like a shove and blew up rubble from the ground, causing it to ping against her skin, she winced.

Then, she noticed that only the nearby trees and bushes were swayed or bowed from the gale.

An unsettling feeling came over her, followed by two small animals and a flock of birds dashing past her.