Zev roared and kicked a broken crate, sending it crashing across the alley. It splintered into a hundred shards of broken hope.
Cassiel’s legs wobbled, and he collapsed against the wall.How could he lose Dyna? The bond was intact, that meant she was alive, but she was terrified. Her fear washed through him like an icy wave. He held on to the sensation. It was his only connection to her.
He closed his eyes and she came to him, smiling that carefree silly smile. She was his bonded. His to protect. She belonged at his side.
Find her.
A power shifted inside of him. It rushed through him in a barreling wave and broke through an internal barrier in his mind. It locked onto the connection he had with Dyna. Her life force pulsed within him, flaring in the pitch darkness of his misery. It pulled him to the east, indicating exactly where she was.
His yearning demanded she be found, and the bond had responded.
Cassiel leaped to his feet and sprinted down an eastern alley. The wolf and the elf ran beside him wordlessly. They didn’t press him. He wouldn’t have known how to answer if they had. How could he explain something he hardly comprehended?
He didn’t know what it meant. But for once, since their Blood Bond had been established, it felt right. It felt true. As if Dyna was meant to be his all along.
Chapter 40
Von
The rapid beating of Von and Geon’s footfalls echoed through the vacant alleys of Corron. He followed the ferryman’s markers that led them to the shrouded hills bordering Loch Loden. They needed to get Dyna to the Kazer Bluffs, where Elon was to wait for them at midday. Which was soon. When the location spell had vanished yesterday, he and the Raiders had spent all night, and most of the dawn, searching for Dyna until they found her in the market. They had wasted too much time.
His master was waiting.
His back ached from Dyna’s fists beating against it. She weighed nothing, but she had given him so much trouble that they had to bind her limbs and gag her with torn strips of Geon’s tunic.
Eventually, her beatings slowed and grew weaker until she laid limp over Von’s shoulder. The sound of her soft weeping stirred familiar guilt. It reminded him of the last time he did this, with another girl that fought him until she too gave up and cried in defeat.
Von had stolen Yavi from her father’s home in the middle of the night—the true story he had fed the ferryman.
Tarn had ordered her captured for her linguistic skills. She didn’t deserve to be stolen from her life and family any more than Dyna did. Yavi’s forgiveness was a small miracle Von wasn’t worthy of, but he spent every day after loving her for it.
Von reached the dead-end of the alley containing the gap in the wall. He slowed to a stop and put Dyna down. She teetered on shaky legs. Geon attempted to steady her, but she shoved him off. The binding around Dyna’s ankles had loosened enough from her wiggling. She tripped in the attempt to kick it off and fell against the dead-end wall. When she noticed the gap there, she quickly backed away from it. Her wide eyes flickered back and forth as she studied the space between him and Geon. Her legs braced in preparation to run.
“You’ll never make it, lass,” Von said. “Stop fighting.”
She glared at him and reached up with her bound hands to yank down her gag. “I’ll never stop fighting you.”
He almost smiled at her valor. She reminded him too much of Yavi. He wished he could walk away, and let her go. But he couldn’t.
“You’re a feisty one,” he sighed. “I’ll give you that—”
She dove for her escape. Von grabbed her arm and spun her around, holding her back flush against his chest. She thrashed and kicked, screeching like an angry cat. He replaced her gag to muffle the noise and snatched his hand away before she bit his fingers.
“Take her legs.” Von nodded to Geon as he hooked his grip around her underarms.
“Please be still,” Geon pleaded. This was not something Von had planned for him to do, but the lad obediently grabbed her ankles and hoisted her up parallel to the ground. She jerked her foot free and thrust her heel in his face so hard that he almost dropped her.
“Hold her tight!”
“Sorry, Commander,” he said sheepishly, blood leaking from his nose.
Von grimaced. “All right?”
Geon nodded, quickly wiping his nose on his shoulder. He grasped Dyna’s ankles again in a tight grip and led the way backward for the hole in the wall.
She squirmed and jerked, screaming through the gag. They lugged her out of the dank alley and onto the forested hill. Only to find it was shrouded in a fog so heavy, they could hardly see a few paces in front of them.
“Strange, there’d been no fog this early morn,” Geon said as he set Dyna down on her feet.
