I feel like I’m watching my soul, my essence, drain out with it, but I don’t have enough time to be scared by that when magic simultaneously blazes out of each of my Chosen. Their magic doesn’t join mine to feed the barrier surrounding us, but slams directly into me instead. I can’t see what’s happened to Sorik, my dad, or my Shields. I’m blinded by the light that my Chosen are feeding into me and thatI’msubsequently feeding into the barrier.
The wrongness, the missing piece, I felt before when it came to the magic in the barrier slowly changes, and what felt incomplete and off, now feels healed and right. Contentment settles in my chest, and just like that, my magic blinks out.
I take a moment to catch my breath. I’m just about to internally start high-fiving myself for not feeling like I’m going to pass out—which is how I felt last time this happened—when my Chosen crumble to the dirt. Panic zaps through me. Reality violently yanks me away from the pride and peace I was just fist bumping. I scramble to Sabin who was the closest to me when he fell, and pull his limp body into my lap.
Fear hammers in my chest when I realize that I can’t get to all of them at once. Sabin’s chest moves slowly against mine. That feeling is the only thing that holds me to the here and now and keeps me from completely losing my shit.
They’re okay, Vinna. They’re just unconscious. They’re alive.
I repeat this over and over again to myself, wrapping the words around me like the tether they are. I ass-scoot with Sabin in my arms, slowly moving so that I can pull them all to me. I notice absently that the circle of diamonds that recently showed up on my palm is still glowing, but I ignore it as the need to touch each of my guys and physically make sure they are okay overpowers everything else in my mind.
“What in the name ofClose Encounters of the Third Kindjust fucking happened?” Kallan asks, his eyes trained on the ceiling of the barrier. Light pulses and flickers through it, punctuating his question.
“Well, if there is anyone here, they know they have company now thanks to that light show,” Becket announces, and I don’t miss the irritation in his tone.
“Everyone okay?” Nash asks as he rushes over to check on each of my Chosen.
He methodically checks each of them, while the rest of his coven and Sorik sound off with their yeses, and I try to stop freaking the fuck out. I welcome the numbness that starts to take over as I chantthey’ll wake up, they’re fineover and over to myself. I work to compartmentalize my worry and panic, because Becket is right. I just fucking light showed ahoney, I’m hometo anyone who does live within these magical walls.
Fucking annoying unpredictable magic!
“We need to move. If anyone is here, it’s possible Becket might get the parade he’s been dreaming about, but there’s also a chance that they may want to fuck us up too,” I tell them.
“Kallan, you see any good defensible positions?” Enoch asks.
Kallan immediately starts scanning everything around us with a more critical eye. “We can move higher, see if there’s anything good up there that makes us less sitting duck-ish.”
I nod in agreement and arrange Sabin flat on his back. “Each of us needs to carry one of my Chosen. Let’s go!” I shout out, and then I grab Sabin’s leg, roll on top of him and use the momentum to get him up on my shoulders into a fireman carry.
“Dad, we’re placing Ryker on your shoulders. You will carry him and make sure no harm comes to him,” I order.
There’s no reaction to my direction, but when Enoch and Kallan place Ryker on Vaughn’s shoulders, he holds him there. At this point, I’ll take it. I call on my runes and shove magic into all of my limbs to help support Sabin’s weight. He’s taller than me and has more muscle, but I didn’t realize he would feel this heavy. Maybe it’s the weeks of walking or the drain on my magic, but I feel shaky as I hold him.
Enoch and Kallan get Siah on Sorik’s shoulders, Bastien on Nash’s shoulders, and Valen on Becket’s shoulders. Then they both execute the same roll I just used. Kallan picks up Torrez, and Enoch picks up Knox.
“On me,” Kallan directs, and we all follow him, single file, toward the densely packed trees. Adrenaline and panic fortify my tired muscles, and I focus on keeping Sabin safe on my shoulders. I debate if I should use any of my other runes to try and ensure nothing can sneak up on us, but I worry what will happen if I burn myself out from trying to do too much.
Fuck it.
I’m not sure what we’re walking into, and we’re seven people down. We need all the help we can get. I activate every rune on my body that isn’t a weapon, feeding magic into every mark on me that could give us the tactical advantage. My hearing increases. Color fades away and everything becomes more detailed as my eyesight changes. I breathe deeply, the familiar scent of trees, dirt, foliage, and the people I’m with filling my nose.
It’s as if threads from my body sink into the mountain with each step, helping me identify movement in and on the soil and navigate the terrain.Well, that’s new.With each step I take, I feel better, stronger, more rejuvenated. I file that away to be looked at later; I don’t know what it is, but I’ll take it.
We hike for about twenty minutes, burrowing deeper into the thick forest, when I feel it. We’re being watched.
9
Ifeel eyes on me. But regardless of every magic fueled ability that I have activated right now, I can’t tell where. I stop midstep, goosebumps rising on my arms. I open my mouth to say something to the others, when something drops from the sky and slams into the earth fifteen feet away. Dirt, rocks, and other forest floor debris go flying up all around us. Alarmed shouts are about all we can get out as more mystery things start dropping from the sky. I spot limbs and feathers on one projectile before my vision is blurred by the dirt cloud that forms as it slams into the ground.
My Shields, Sorik, and I all work quickly, dropping my Chosen to the ground and forming a protective circle around them. I try to scream for Vaughn to get in the middle too, but he can’t hear me above all the chaos that’s going on around us. Sorik darts for him though and yells a command in his ear. Relief fills me when Vaughn sets Ryker down gently and then lies on top of him.
My throat tightens at the sight of my father protecting one of my Chosen with his life. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to any of them, and a part of me wants to lie on my dad to protect him too. I drop kick all concern and worry away, and armor myself instead with the vicious need to protect them all. Once again I tap into my baser self, the one that screams for blood and demands thatyou don’t fuck with what’s mine.
I call on my long sword and clap the hilt to force it to replicate. I can feel Enoch doing the same behind me. Becket calls on his maces. Kallan palms his throwing knives, and Nash twirls both of his short swords in his hands. Short swords materialize in Sorik’s hands, and I summon a bright yellow-orange defensive barrier around where my Chosen lie unconscious. I chase away the fleeting thought that they’re going to be pissed they missed the action. I call on an offensive barrier, the magenta protection strengthening the yellow-orange barrier protecting them.
People step through the thick dirt-clouded air, and we all realize quickly that we’re surrounded. A couple of them have wings, but the rest look just like us. From what I can make out through the clouds of debris now slowly floating back to the floor of the mountain, I catch various shades of men, with a couple of women interspersed. They all wear a type of black armor, but it looks leather-like as opposed to metal. They appear to be slowly closing in on us, and I can make out through the hazy air, glowing orbs floating in the hands of some and weapons clutched in the hands of others.
Sentinels.
