♦Part 1—The Escape of Boeson
Eleven months ago, in Serenity, Illinois, the One True Mate prophecy matured.
Trevor, thewolvenLieutenant of the Khain Special Response Team, met his half-angel, half-human mate, Ella.
The day before, Ella sold her pendant to Mrs. Abigail White, who seemed to be human. The demon, Khain, showed up and blew the store to pieces. Ella ran, while Mrs. White was left to her own secret devices. The store merchandise was moved, and Trevor later bought the pendant back from Abigail’s husband while Abigail was away on an important task.
Trevor and Ella fell for each other quickly, and their future looked favorable, until the demon accosted Ella’s sister, Shay, and used her to lure Ella into the Pravus, the demon’s hell-like home.
Bereft over the loss of his mate, Trevor ordered his team to fall back and offered himself as trade, knowing the demon would be interested in him because he was the leader of the KSRT, named in The Demon Death and The Savior prophecies. The demon accepted the trade and Trevor headed into the Pravus alone, certain of his own impending demise, but praying to the goddess Rhen that Ella would make it out alive.
The moment Trevor crossed over, his team planned a powerful, and ultimately successful, rescue mission. In the resulting chaos, the demon’s right-handfoxenescaped and ran off into the night.
It turns out thewolvenweren’t the only ones who’d planned a rescue that day.
…
1—Rescue in the Forest
Serenity, Illinois, U.S.A.
11 months ago
The day the demon Khain lured Ella into the Pravus, then Trevor offered himself as trade, and a rescue team went in after them both as seen in One True Mate 1; Shifter’s Sacrifice.
The old woman moved alone through the morning-bright forest, her head down and her eyes on the ground. She was a witch and afoxen, and she had important business that day.
She stood just under five feet tall—compact, and slightly stooped, wearing a thick, long, wool dress, a cloak with hood, and lace-up boots. On her shoulders lay an intact mink pelt, fashioned as a stole. In her hand was a twisted walking stick, which she jabbed into the ground every few feet.
Jab. Jab.
“Here,” she said quietly. “The very center of his home is here.”
She walked outward from the spot in a spiral, jabbing as she went, moving around trees and through underbrush.
Jab. Jab.
“The mind-gate will open here.”
Jab. Jab. Jab.
“The Fates say the Promised will come through first, then two dirty wolves, then Boe.”
She raised her head and looked up, pointing the walking stick directly north.
“There—that’s the direction he’ll run in.”
The woman reached to her shoulder and grabbed the head of the mink pelt just behind its tiny ears, then she licked the thumb on her other hand and pressed it to the nose of the thing. A crimson puff of smoke rose into the air. The mink shook, then filled with life, its dead eyes brightening, its belly inflating. It stood like a weasel, balancing precariously, then stretched its long back and ran down the woman’s clothes to the ground, where it screeched. At the noise, two mice emerged from the woman’s cloak and scampered to the ground.
She produced a cloth bag from a hidden pocket and dropped it to the ground. The mink ran to the bag and nosed the top flap open, revealing at least a hundred tiny black balls. The mice and the mink took a ball in their mouths and ran off. Each animal placed their ball in a different spot: one stuck on the base of a tree, one nestled between the leaves of a small plant, and one pressed into the bark of a fallen log. Once placed, each animal ran back to the bag and took another black ball, repeating the process in an ever-widening spherical pattern.
When the bag was finally empty, the mink grabbed it with sharp teeth and ran up the woman’s clothes, putting the bag in her hand. She stuffed it in an inner pocket.
“Now the escape route,” she said.
The mink squeaked then ran away to the north. The mice followed. The woman followed as well, slowly. After several paces, she turned and surveyed the area. She lifted her walking stick and twirled it once in the air, then threw it to the ground, then took a leather cord with multiple knots tied in it from an inner pocket and held it up by the lowest knot.
“A summer storm, a winter snow. I call winds forth to swirl and blow.”
