of nowhere twenty steps away from my home, coming from in between the cabins all clad in dark leather armor. Some have green straps across their chest, others black. I spin in a circle, looking at all who surround me with their weapons out, aimed at me. I bend slowly with my heart in my throat and take my knife out from my boot, growling at them. Visions of light illuminate gently across the ground, like a flowing misty river, causing some of the armored males to grunt in pain when it reaches them while others fall to their knees. Zahariss answered my call. I head for two that have slumped to the floor, aiming to jump over them to get to Kade. The glint of a blade to my side catches my attention.
I lean back on myself, the male’s short sword an inch from my chest as I spin and aim a kick at him. I hit his stomach, and he grunts, folding over on himself. I grab the back of his head and bring my knee up, smashing it into his nose. Pain radiates through my kneecap as it threatens to buckle, but I hold steady. Slashing out with my knife and then kicking the male over, I move toward an opening in the circle. Darius suddenly steps into the gap I was aiming for, and I snarl at him, coming to a halt. He now wears the same armor as the men around us, but he has two leather straps across his torso, one red, one gold. Making it known he’s the Alpha of the Elites.
“Rhea!” Josh shouts, and I turn, seeing him running toward me with the guys, but men stop them, engaging them in a fight. The sound of clashing metal hits my ears over the racing of my heart.
Colten jumps on Damian, blade in hand. Hudson tackles Jerrod to the floor while Taylor goes blow for blow with Zaide. Seb grabs a guard off of Finn and aims for his temple, while I spot Axel tackling another. I look around, seeing Elites and the Highers’ guards grabbing my pack, the cries of the kids for their moms piercing my soul. My breathing picks up as I look toward my own cabin, seeing no lights on inside and screams flood my ears from all around me. I look back at Darius as he grunts and looks toward the ground where light is shimmering along the surface. His brows dip until he bends down and places a hand atop of it. He mutters something I can’t make out and the light stops, sinking into the ground and disappearing all together. Zahariss’ small protection ending. The sighs of relief come from the men surrounding me as they stand to attention with the Alpha of Elites in their presence, glaring at me.
“Arhhh.” A pained shout comes from ahead, and my eyes widen when I turn and see Kade staggering out of our front door, Maize at his side.
An Elite grabs a hold of him, dragging him roughly toward us, and I growl. No. No, no, no, no. I step forward to go toward him, but the Elite that has a hold on him brings his blade up to Kade’s throat, the threat clear. Maize smirks beside them, her posture relaxed as her eyes scan the chaos before her. Kade holds his head between his hands as I’m unable to move, his face scrunched in pain. The circle of men creates a space for him as they reach us, and he’s thrown forward. He stumbles and then falls to his knees. I rush over to him as quickly as possible.
“Carzan,” I whisper to Kade as he grunts in pain, gripping his head tightly between his hands, his fingers pulling the blond strands. What is wrong with him?
My body trembles as I raise my knife, kneeling protectively next to him. Grabbing the hilt, I go to slice my palm, ready to ask Zahariss for more help, when an arrow whizzes past me and grazes my cheek. I stop short as I hiss, the scratch stinging as blood trickles down and drips from my jaw. I turn my face to Leo, bow in hand, arrow notched as he moves his aim to Kade who’s still holding his head before me.
“Be careful of your actions, Rhea.” Leo warns, pulling the string of his bow back, ready to fire at Kade. I know he won’t hesitate to do it, the look in his eyes says as much. I lower my knife slowly and place it in my boot as he watches my every move.
I need to get Kade out of here. I need to get him somewhere safe.
A commotion has me looking toward my cabin, and I see Sam run out, Sybill on her heels. Sam stops short at the mayhem around Eridian, looking around wildly until she spots Kade at my feet. Her face crumples, tears flowing, and she makes a move toward us. Sybill grabs her and holds her close as she tries to get to him, shouting his name with so much terror in it. She has never shouted before. Maize steps up next to them, a look of disgust on her face and blade in hand. Sybill drags Sam behind her, shaking her head wildly at the threat, backing up to protect her daughter as another a male joins them. My hands shake as I watch my home being overrun by Elites and guards, my pack dragged around and tied up. How did this happen?
The barrier around Eridian flickers aggressively, and as another pained howl echoes around us, my body trembles with awareness. I turn my head and see Josie and Danny are trying to get to each other, screaming for one another with desperation. Taylor is still fighting with Zaide while Hudson has managed to get near Colten. They stand back-to-back as they deflect Damian and Jerrod’s attempts to subdue them. Seb is on the floor, two Elites trying to wrap rope around him. Another cry reaches my ears, and I see Katy at her cabin door, holding little Oscar close to her chest as they try to take him off of her. A sob bubbles up in my throat. I go to stand on shaky legs to try and do anything to help, but one look at Leo with his aim still on Kade has me frozen.
“Josh!” A scream comes from the left of me. A scream so full of desperation my blood turns cold, so very cold as I slowly move my head to look at the healer’s cabin, tears stinging my eyes.
Oh, Gods.
An Elite has Sarah in his grasp, pulling her down the steps as Anna follows, her face bloody as she lifts her palms. Red tendrils flow from her hands, twisting strands ready to strike when a guard backhands her, her head twisting to the side as she crumples to the floor. The male is on her instantly, winding rope around her wrists until it glows. I watch as she struggles until she finally slumps into the ground, subdued.
I look back at Sarah as she claws at the male Elite dragging her, screaming and kicking with everything she has for him to release her. Josh aims a punch at a male’s temple, not even waiting until the guard collapses to the ground before he makes a run for Sarah, his growl deadly. He dodges Elites, pushing one out of the way, and slicing another as he makes his way toward her. He’s so close to reaching her when a body hits the side of him, and they both go down in a tangle of limbs.
“Get off her,” he shouts at the man holding Sarah as he tries to get the guard off of him. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
The Elite holding Sarah tightens his grip on her, one arm around her torso, the other around the front of her throat as he drags her over to us. I stand slowly on trembling limbs as a tear escapes my eye. I keep close to Kade, making no move to attack as Leo keeps a watchful eye on me. I watch on as if I’m in someone else’s body as Darius looks at Sarah curiously. I watch on as he steps closer to her and grabs her chin, moving her face side to side, and I watch as his eyes light up in recognition as they come to mine before looking back at her.
Josh is still shouting. Taylor, Seb, Hudson and Colten are still fighting a losing battle. Anna is still slumped on the floor, and Danny and Josie are tied up beside her as they huddle together. An Elite and Maize have Sam and Sybill backed into a corner and someone has finally taken Oscar from Katy. The Elites and guards are taking my screaming pack members out of their cabins, the kids petrified and crying, mothers begging. Kade is whimpering in pain on the ground next to me as I look around me at the sheer number of people, and the position we are in. Then I finally look at Darius, and I know it’s all over.
“You said you would protect them. We made a vow,” I whisper at him. I know Darius hears me, but he’s still looking over Sarah’s face, whose eyes are wide with horror, looking up at him as his tall frame towers over her.
“We did,” he agrees coldly. “But no more. Time to go home, isn’t it Sarah?”
And there it is, he knows exactly who she is, the woman he has been searching weeks on end for. The reason he entered The Deadlands. The reason he hasn’t been able to go home and continue his search to stop the rogures. I was hiding her from him all this time and now he finally knows.
My vision blurs around the edges at the look in Sarah’s eyes. They’re lifeless now, it’s like she doesn’t even breathe anymore. Darius releases her chin without another look and steps into the circle of men as the barrier that was rippling around us finally breaks. Tiny specks of light fall down around Eridian, dark pink and orange dropping like small droplets of rain. I look up as another tear falls from my eye, my world imploding around me. The haunting last painful howl of Solvier burrows in my heart as it reaches me. Wisps come out of the trees, the cabins, and the ground, floating in between the specks of the barrier before coming toward me. I hold out a shaking hand, reaching toward them as a sob rips from my chest, the force of it nearly bringing me to my knees. The wisp’s warmth touches me, their glow slowly dimming as the smallest one makes contact with my cheek. I close my eyes as more tears fall, feeling the connection between us and their familiar presence for what feels like the last time. The warmth slowly lessens, causing me to open my eyes. I look up with blurry vision, watching them fly into the night sky, their glow fading as the last speckles of the barrier sink into the ground, disappearing.
The blood from my cheek mixes with my tears, dripping onto the dirt below me, and it’s like I can feel the earth beneath my feet weeping at the loss with me. The slight breeze caressing me is the lands’ cry, the swaying branches of the trees reaching out to each other in comfort are the wisps’ heartbreak as Solvier’s presence graces us no more.
Runa whimpers inside me, curling up against the pain in our soul, a lone howl leaving her. I encountered Solvier within my first moon cycle at Eridian, and he’s been by my side for eleven years, helping and guiding me. He has been someone I can go to for words of wisdom. I don’t have that anymore, Eridian doesn’t have its guardian anymore and the land has lost a being that was worthy.
And now all is lost.
The screams of my pack still surround me, the gut-wrenching cries of the kids calling for their mothers as the Elites and guards drag them away, separating them. Just like I feared they would. I watch with detachedness. A numbness I’m all too familiar with but haven’t felt in a very long time. I didn’t know I could feel this way anymore. I didn’t think I would ever feel the clutches of frozen shards surrounding my heart, piercing it with every breath I take, squeezing it with every scream I hear, bleeding it as every cry lodges itself deep inside.
Darius enters my blurry vision. He steps in front of me, looking down at Kade briefly before his cold, green eyes meet mine. He watches my tears fall with indifference, tracking them down my face then back up to the cut on my cheek until finally, his eyes meet mine.
They bounce between my dull ones before addressing everyone. “The laws of Vrohkaria have been broken. You are all to be taken to Wolvorn Castle in Fenrikar to be held there and put on trial. The traitor and her closest will be chained for aiding her, her pack will be questioned,” he states, and a drowsiness suddenly starts to take over me. I look down sluggishly and see some sort of dark mist appearing around my ankles, seeping into me as I fall to my knees before him. My last remaining strength leaves me, and Kade slumps forward, his hands limply falling from his head as I reach out to him. Trying to keep him close and out of reach of anyone that can hurt him. My eyes go hazy and dark spots enter my vision as I lay on the ground, my hand touching the side of Kade’s face. Everything goes quiet as I slip further into unconsciousness, my limbs struggling to respond as Runa tries to help me, pawing at me to get up, to move, but I’m too weak.
My eyes flutter as Darius crouches down beside me, his eyes still cold as they hold my rapidly closing ones. “Darius… don’t, vallier… please…” I murmur to him as my eyes finally close, unable to keep them open.
The last thing I feel is coldness against both of my wrists as darkness overtakes me.
