“Weston, shift!” Rue shouted. Before Avery’s eyes, Weston shed his human skin and transformed into a hissing mountain lion.
“Go!” Rue shouted. His sinewy body glided through the forest. Avery heard the crunch of bones as Weston took out one of the winged fae.
The remaining two Nepheli warriors were through the trees with a blast of dark starlight.
A female fae with ebony skin and raven black feathers looked at her through violet eyes. Darkness, like a clear night, flowed out of her, aimed at Avery. She countered the fae’s essence with all the magic she had remaining in her. The two struck in the same place. Dark starlight from the fae met Avery’s brilliant green power. They burst through each other, erupting in an explosion of tree needles and bark as Avery and the woman fell to the ground from the impact, landing right next to each other. Just as she was trying to regain her balance, she felt a blade at her throat.
Avery froze, shifting her eyes to her friend. Rue’s face was stunned with disbelief as she paused her fight with the other Nepheli warrior. That warrior stopped, too, watching what would happen next.
“Cooperate, and I will not harm you,” the woman said in a surprisingly calm, clear voice.
Avery’s mind raced. She had seconds to give in or fight back. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to watch her friends die. No, the best thing she could do was cooperate. She tried to think through everything she remembered from missing persons’ stories and true crime podcasts. Wasn’t she supposed to fight? Don’t let them remove her, or she’d be lost forever. Right? She thought about the training Rue taught her. She’d already learned how to disarm an assailant.
“I understand,” Avery rasped. “Just don’t hurt me or my friends. Please.” She played the mouse as she grabbed the knife with her left hand and shot a bolt of iridescent light through the fae woman with her right hand. The woman immediately dropped the knife and tumbled back, dragging Avery to the ground with her.
Suddenly, a pair of strong arms caught her. Avery kept her eyes squeezed shut, her weary body screamed in protest. She was just too tired to fight any longer.
“Down on the ground! All three of you,” Rylo said. He tossed Avery to the ground like a rag doll. “You fools! Did you think you could defeat a group of Nepheli warriors?” The voice was like honey and whiskey. Smooth and sweet, but with enough burn to know that she was not getting out of this.
Finally, she opened her eyes to see the golden man standing before her. Cold rage burned in his amber eyes. A hole was ripped through his shirt, revealing healing skin that seemed incandescent in the filtered sunlight.
“Hurt me again, and I will get a taste of that human blood of yours, witchy woman,” the man purred. “Now, what do we have here? The human we have all heard rumors that Savine captured and turned into his pet, a little shifter, and a Bayberry? What an odd group of guards!”
Avery’s eyes went wide. She was caught, but she needed to keep her friends safe.
Weston sprinted through the trees on swift cat legs. When he saw Avery was captured, he immediately shifted into his human form.
“Down on the ground, kitty cat,” the woman with the magic like night said.
“Let’s move out. Now. Savine will know where we are by now. The trees will have already reported to him. Kill the others,” the golden man commanded.
“No!” Avery rasped out the word, burning in her throat. “Please, I’ll go with you. I won’t fight again. Just don’t hurt them.”
A shriek filled the air as the sinking sun was blotted into shadows.
“Eagan!” Susan whimpered. Avery couldn’t even comprehend what next terror she’d be facing when an eagle the size of a minivan came crashing through the woods.
The golden man looked at Avery and moved to scoop her into his arms. He brought her over to the enormous eagle and pulled her up with him onto its back.
“Fine, we will bring the three others. I’m not above collecting exotic slaves,” he said as his essence wrapped around Avery. It was surprisingly pleasant. Like lying in a warm bed on a cool, rainy morning. She tried fighting the lulling essence, but it wassoinviting, and her body was so, so tired. Before she succumbed to the enchanted sleep, she thought only of Savine. Then all was darkness.
Chapter forty-one
Savine
Savine’s lungs burned as he ran up the mountainside to the trees guarding Avery. He knew that bastard Rylo would take Avery as soon as he could get his hands on her. No doubt, this entire attack was a way to get to her. To take her from him.
Fiery hot rage burned through him as he ran, sword in hand. He would flay Rylo alive if he laid a hand on Avery. All he hoped for was that she’d stay hidden and protected by Rue and Weston. He prayed that if she was threatened, she would fight like the Abyss was opening for her.
The sun was sinking in the sky overhead by this point. He’d been fighting against the Hylaxes and Latians for hours. His own body threatened to succumb to exhaustion, but he pressed on, running at a pace he never thought possible.
Overhead, a strange cloud blocked the evening light. He turned his head to the sky. His essence squirmed under his skin, raging to be released against the eagans overhead. Flying at the front of the group on the back of a massive eagan was Rylo with Avery, seemingly unconscious, or worse, in his arms. Another monstrous eagan behind him soared overhead, carrying at least three fae. But the sight of a black-winged figure turned his body to ice. It couldn’t be. Selene, the woman who had tortured him in the Tower of Teeth, was withRylo.
Savine’s essence exploded out of him, raising the land he stood on in a jagged heap as he stretched himself up. Vines shot from his hands, reaching out to grab Avery from the air. The vines came up short and plummeted back to the upturned ground. It was too far of a stretch. There was nothing Savine could do to reach Avery.
“Avery! She’smy soulmate!” Savine bellowed. The anguish seared through him down to his marrow. The pain of seeing her taken—of knowing that he did nothing to protect her—was going to destroy him. He continued to spend his essence, shooting useless vines after the fading figures in the air as he shouted in panic.
Latian shifters took to the skies as they saw their leader lash out against the flying Nepheli. They flew toward the enemy and began their attack with beaks and claws. But it was too little to stop the retreating enemy. In their bird form, the shifted fae was no match against the Sun King. Rylo kidnapped Avery and was leaving right before his very eyes, and he could do nothing to stop him.
