“Bentli! Aryee-oos tilth err? Hell-oh!”it calls.
“Elise told me that magic square is called a cell phone,” Athanis says. “I admit, I still do not know its purpose.”
Even just hearing my mate’s name makes my heart swell with eagerness. I pick up thecell phone, squinting at the odd glow coming off one side. There are symbols on it I don’t understand, but I move it closer to my mouth and repeat after it.
“Hell-oh?”
“Hell-oh? Hoozthiss?”
“I’m looking for my mate,” I tell it in my own tongue, hoping this magic box may understand me. “Where is she?”
The magic box fills with the sound of panic before the glow goes dark with an audible click. Fascinated by the strange item, I set it back down on the floor and follow Athanis, slipping out through one of the holes of this destroyed, corpse-filled room.
All my inner beasts breathe a sigh of relief when my bare feet meet the cold soil of this forest. There is snow on the ground in patches, clinging to the trunks of some trees as the chill in the air dances over my skin. I inhale deeply of this fresh smell, looking up to admire the green trees giving way to the gray, stormboundsky. The sun hangs in the west behind the pregnant clouds, telling me morning is long since past.
What a gift, this glimpse of the sky I have missed so much.
And what a gift it is to be alive in this strange world, where my mate is.
“You were right,” I murmur, looking at my deceased friend. “Fate knew best.”
He smiles again. “It always does. Your mate is that way,” he adds, pointing in the direction of the slowly sinking sun.
Run. Find her,my inner beasts whisper, all just as thrilled as I am to be free at last.
Facing away from the facility still screeching with alarms, I break into a run, enjoying the spring wind upon my face. Leaping high, I allow the shift to overtake me until the wings of my eagle beat with the sound of freedom. Soon, I’m soaring high above the forest, my ghostly friend guiding me at my side.
The hunt for my mate has begun.
21
ZAK
I finish towelingoff after a quick shower in the motel bathroom, mussing my hair to free more water droplets.
I didn't want my tender-hearted shifter to see me again for the first time while I was covered in old blood from street fighting, so it's pretty fucking convenient that the thrall I hijacked decided to hypnotize our way into this joint to grab a shower of his own after running a few errands.
We're in Illinois now, in some dinky, ridiculously wholesome small town. The thrall tells me this is where my shifter—Heidi, he says her name is—lives. At least she did, before the Upheaval.
We're gonna go look for her once he gets off the damned phone.
Strolling out of the bathroom, I grab my clothes off a table and start redressing, picking up on the convo he's having on a cell phone he also swiped using hypnosis.
Useful little gift, apparently.
Annoying as all fucking hells when you're under it, though.
"…to hear that he's fine. I figured he would be, with that crazy doomsday bunker of his," Ian says, pacing in the motel room and rubbing his throat like it’s hurting him. "That's the wholereason I left the dogs with your old man in the first place. What? Yep, the whole shebang. Checkup, vaccinations, grooming, spa, whatever else they offer—just make the fluffballs pretty and send them to the coordinates in Maine I sent you. Then you and I will be even."
A few minutes later, when he's done with the call, he hangs up to face me. Gotta say, the thrall cleans up okay. Looks a hell of a lot better than he did a few hours ago.
"Why the fuck're you getting dogs sent to Maine?” I arch a brow.
"Long story. Here," Ian adds, reaching into his pocket before tossing me something.
I've got no fucking clue what it is when it lands in my hand. There's a bit of metal stuck through it, but otherwise it looks like a rock.
"It's a mytherun broach," he explains, pinning one onto his own clothing. He's now dressed in a black sweater, jeans, and new shoes he grabbed from a nearby store. "They're not common, but these were on display at the store, so I swiped them. It will keep Heidi from having to experience everything we're feeling. Good thing, because there's no fucking way I'm going to force Heidi to feel this painfully ravenous when we find her," he adds, grimacing as he swallows.
