Page 23 of Whisper Woods (Legends of the Whisper Woods #3)
Seff
My third trip through the portal is significantly easier, knowing what to expect. The others don’t fare so well and take a couple of seconds to recover. Roan braces his hands on his knees, doubled over with nausea while Tor leaps up from the heap he landed in to vomit into the bushes.
I’d have a little more sympathy for their pain, but I can’t. My body is burning since crossing the border, the need to get to Rafe eating my insides, making my stomach turn violently.
“Which way do we go?” Seldon frowns, turning in circles, hands on his hips. He’s right, there’s no path. The area is completely swamped by forest and undergrowth.
Fuck . Tearing at my hands, I try to settle my rapidly rising heart rate with some deep breaths but it doesn’t work. I spin on my bare feet trying to figure out which way to go, but I’m completely blinded by my increasing panic.
Move over . Wolf growls, slamming at the barrier that separates our consciousness. And so I let him take control. The change, so soon after the portal travel, makes him momentarily dizzy, and he stumbles on his paws for a moment.
The others watch on, whispering to each other as they regroup. Wolf ignores them, eyeing the trees with his superior vision, single-minded in his search for a path to Rafe. From where my consciousness resides, I can see it. Whether it was already there and it’s now just clearer, or the Whisper Woods themselves are clearing the way for us, a narrow, still overgrown path appears.
Turning back to our friends, Wolf barks sharply in their direction and tears off down the path without waiting to see if they follow.
He can feel it too, that burning urgency to get to Rafe .
Something’s wrong. Bad . Wolf is panting hard, absolutely flooring it through the underbrush. I can vaguely hear the others struggling to keep up behind us. Seldon is the only one able to keep pace, having changed into his sleek red fox form, but even he lags behind.
Wolf is right, though. Our instincts are once again firing off a thousand and ten warnings. It’s the same fear I’ve had since Heylor appeared in Rafe’s office. The terrible feeling that something awful has begun. That we will not be able to stop it. That I will lose Rafe forever if I do not get back to him.
The separation from him feels like a bleeding wound inside me. Maybe it’s made worse because this time it wasn’t our choice? I don’t know. But, Gods, it hurts.
I don’t know how Caelan and Tor cope. I haven’t even mated Rafe yet and this is how it feels. Caelan and Tor are bonded mates and that shit’s like, elite level connection. Or how Roan must’ve felt when Theo was kidnapped? Was that only a week ago? Fuck. It feels like six lifetimes. Either way, I have no idea how he did it. They may not have gone through their mating ceremony yet, but like, it’s inevitable.
Wolf comes to an abrupt stop when the path reaches the peak of the hill that surrounds the Tathissian border. He pants loudly, tongue hanging from his mouth while trying to recover his breath. This portal was a fuck-ton closer than the one Rafe and I used earlier, or maybe Rafe was right and the Whisper Woods are still playing us like pawns for their own games.
Pawing the ground impatiently, we wait for the others to catch up. They stumble, grumbling and groaning, clutching their aching chests and legs when they appear. Edith is the last to arrive, collapsing to the ground cursing me, the Woods, and running in general. Caelan looks pale, sweat dripping from his hair, his breathing loud and wheezy.
Wolf doesn’t have any patience for any of them and I scold him sharply when he snaps and stamps his feet at our friends.
“What the fuck?” Roan growls threateningly when Wolf gets too impatient with Theo, tugging at his pants with his sharp teeth.
“Roan, it’s fine.” Theo reassures his love between panting breaths, laying his hand on Roan’s arm. “He just needs us to get to Rafe.”
Wolf whines at the name, dropping to the floor to nuzzle his nose into his front paws. Edith rolls herself off the ground with a loud effort, stumbling to the crest to view the other side of the hill, and Tathys itself.
“It’s okay buddy, we’ll get you there, ‘kay?” Tor squats to scratch at Wolf’s ears, Caelan’s characteristic kindness rolling off him.
“Do we know where to find him?” Theo asks, his breathing significantly more even now. Wolf huffs and jumps to his feet, ready to lead the way, but Edith interjects.
“Um, not an expert on these things. But is there a chance he could be over there?” She points a bony finger out over the distance and we all make our way to join her.
We’ve landed much further west than with the now closed portal, at the very tail of the hill that rings Tathys. It’s much lower here, tapering off into the dragon’s lands only a few kilometres to the west. In the far distance and to the east, is the city of Tathys itself, looking significantly duller and less wondrous in the gloomy grey light of the day. Even the farmlands have lost their vibrant green, the vividness of Tathys fading with terrifying speed.
But that’s not what Edith is pointing to.
No, what she’s seen in the very near distance, on the southern cliffs is… chaos. Wolf paws the ground while we all gather and strain to see what’s happening.
Two figures—tiny in the distance—are on top of a big flat stone with a large crowd gathered around. Awareness prickles everywhere, Wolf’s and my instincts firing like machine guns, too chaotic to make reason or sense.
“What the fuck is going on, Seff?” Theo whispers, digging his fingers into Wolf’s coat. Seldon circles, yipping anxiously, and burrows himself under Wolf's chest, peeking out from under his chin. Wolf whines, stepping on the spot as we watch a dark, terrifying beast leaps from out of fucking nowhere from the other side of the cliff and attack the gathering of beings.
A bloody howl rips from Wolf’s chest and he bolts, tearing down the cliff at breakneck speed towards the carnage, leaving our friends screaming in terror and following in a panic .
Because Wolf recognised that being just as I did. The smudge of green on the stone block, too.
It’s Rafe.
And Brydon.
And they’re in trouble.
***
Mindless and feral with fear, Wolf crosses the empty field with reckless disregard for anything other than getting to Rafe. I have no idea if my friends are close behind me. I just need to get to him.
They caught him. He was a fury of pain and destruction before they managed to reign him in, the horrifying sounds carrying across the flat, open landscape with gross clarity.
The magic surrounding them builds until it is blinding, a rainbow glowing dome of energy that is repulsive, physically trying to push me away and draw me in at once.
I would bet anything that it is Heylor in the centre of it all. My guts churn and Wolf lets loose another howl of pain. Fucking Heylor and his crony—it has to be them. Does that mean that they found a way to seal Tathys off forever? Take Rafe from me for good? We will never see him again. He will be gone . I will be alone forever without the being I know deep down in my spirit, is my mate.
My thoughts run after each other, goading Wolf on. He eats up the distance in a furious rage. It builds and builds.
Lose my mate. Lose Rafe. Gone. Gone. Gone. No more love. No. Mine. Rafe is mine. Ours. Mine. Ours. Rafe! My screaming thoughts and Wolf’s blur together into a twisted, feral thing, pumping through us both until his body is buzzing and tingling with the strength of our need to get to Rafe.
Wolf crashes through the circle of magic without a second thought. The surge of power ricochets through us, sizzling our skin, but we don’t feel the burn. It forces our change though the magic twisted and warped as it is, leaving us in a freakish, furred half-state .
I don’t have the luxury of thinking about it now. My eyes dart around the scene catching flickers of images, Brydon on the stone block, tied to the fucking queen . Is she dead? I don’t have time to consider it, because I spot Rafe, dangling between two hulking beings in what I recognise as the uniform of the Tathissian Guard.
An unhinged, primitive roar rips out of me, jarring the shocked beings who’d already noticed me into action. I launch myself at them, heedless of the danger, taking the most direct path to my mate.
Get to Rafe .
Magic bounces off me as I slash at the beings in my way with the dagger like claws on the tips of my fingers, gnashing my feral, elongated teeth at any being foolish enough to get close. The smell of blood burns my nose but I shove down the bile rising in my throat with a fierceness I’ve never known. Behind me I’m aware of the snapping and sizzling of what can only be my friend's entrance as they throw themselves into the fight. A being attaches themselves to my back and I reach back to grab them, flinging them into those cowering in fear of the fight.
“ Enough! ” I recognise the booming voice as Heylor’s, just seconds before my hands snap to my sides, invisible magical restraints making me immobile.
I curse, and through my raging haze I see my friends, bound and bloody, too. The remaining guards, only a handful still standing, force us through the crowd.
“For fuck’s sake, not again.” Theo mutters angrily under his breath next to me. From the corner of my eye I can see his hands sparking, but no handy balls of burning golden light spring to life. Roan just snorts and grunts in response, his veins bulging dangerously as he berserker-rages out.
“Touch him again and I will eviscerate you.” Tor threatens the guard shoving Caelan between his shoulders.
The guard, a being with the hairiest eyebrows I’ve ever seen snorts mockingly at the empty threat. Another guard has Seldon by the tail, swinging his red fox body in the air. His little paws scramble in the air, as he yips loudly—twisting and turning against the painful hold.
I swallow hard against the vomit rising in my throat as I look at my friends beside me, who I’ve led to… fuck. I can’t. On one side Theo presses in closer to me, in solidarity or because I’m falling, I don’t know. On the other, Edith pressed in close, too, her pinky finger hooking into mine.
Oh shit. Rafe . I can see him now. Crumpled in a heap against the stone block at Brydon’s feet. My blood rushes through my ears. I can’t breathe, my chest rising and falling rapidly, but no oxygen is getting in. The world goes black, circling in entirely on Rafe’s lifeless body lying prone before the altar.
I glare at Heylor, his face cartoonishly villainous in the green glow of the sacred fire in the vessel before him. He ignores me, though, too drunk on his own power and the magic he’s channelling.
Throwing his arms into the air, Heylor restarts his chants, the magic in the air centring on him. I have no idea what he’s saying in his unnatural, guttural voice. But I can feel the power in it. Feel the magic zipping through the air. It sparkles in the dimming light as darker, heavier clouds roll over us, blocking out the sun.
My eyes shift to Brydon on the stone block—it must be an ancient altar or something. His back is rigid against the pole he’s tied against and while his body is unmoving, I can recognise the anxious twitch in his blue claws and the fear he’s trying to tamp down.
Holy shit. He’s not going to… his Dad’s not going to kill him, is he? No fucking way. I whimper, but no one can hear me. No one but Edith who tightens that hooked grip on my pinky. My eyes dart back and forth between Brydon and Heylor.
No, no, no, no. Lights dance in front of my eyes. Not just because of the absolutely insane amount of magic shimmering in the air.
“ Gods of old.” His chant somehow continues in a creeping whisper, even when Heylor’s new deep and scratching voice booms out, sending a shocked whisper through his followers. “The time has come. Protect our city. Accept our sacrifices! Let our will be done!”
There is a rumble in the sky, and the earth shakes with an almighty crack. Panicked shouts rattle through the air as the ground trembles. We’re shoved to our knees as our guards frantically attempt to protect themselves from the unknown darkness rapidly descending upon us.
In the distance thunder rolls like a thousand hoof beats and near me, I can hear Theo cackle a maniacal laugh. Right before everything explodes in a stupendous, blinding light, I swear I can hear him mutter, “you fucking idiot.”
And then the world… ends.