“Wow. Shadow is a badass. He tried to save this guy, but there were too many men. He… Shadow got shot just as he was transporting them out of there.” Odyssey frowns. “Shadow wasn’t with him. He tried searching for him.” He shakes his head. “I think he passed out. He was shot too, right before he was transported out. When he woke up, he didn’t know where he was or what day it was. It took him a while to find his way here.”
“You can hear all of that in his head?” Alexis asks, concern etched over his face.
“No. I can see it. It’s like watching a movie.” He slowly looks at me. “What the hell did you do to me, G? I hear shit and see things in other people’s minds.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I never did this before.” I tilt my head back toward Elias. “I don’t know why or how I’m doing this,” I whisper.
“I think you could always do this, just on a smaller scale.” He lets out a deep breath. “Alright, you two knuckleheads. Let’s get out of here just in case something happens. Let’s go find Anders and Chris.”
I shake my head. “I’m not leaving until Reggie wakes up.”
“Are you crazy? This room is going to explode!” Alexis exclaims.
“No, it’s not. You’re probably just seeing his magic recharge or something.”
Alexis looks at me as if I've lost my mind. “How would you know that?” he demands, crossing his arms over his chest. His mouth opens and then closes, his eyes wide in surprise. His eyes dart between Elias and myself. “What is wrong with your skin?”
“Are you asking me?” Elias grouches, pointing at his chest.
Alexis briskly nods. His eyes shift to me, and his head jerks back. “Shit! I think I can see magic. Wow.”
“Better than listening to everyone’s fucked-up thoughts,” Odyssey grumbles.
“Alright, we need to get you two over to Anders. Let’s go.” Elias jerks his head toward the door. He faces me before following them out. “You want to go home? Talk to your parents?”
I glance down at the floor and shake my head. “I want to stay here.”
“Okay. You call one of us when he wakes up. Chris will want to ask him some questions.”
I nod and wrap my arms around his waist. When I bury my face in his shirt, the reality of what Odyssey just said sinks in. Tyler was shot, and he didn’t make it out of wherever he and Reggie were together. Odyssey didn’t say it out loud, but the unspoken message was there. He might be dead.
Cold dread ghosts over my skin and sinks into the empty hole in my chest. A muffled wail escapes from the back of my throat. Please, someone tell me this is a nightmare. I will wake up soon, and Shadow will be right here, training the recruits, lurking in the shadows to surprise me with a kiss. He promised that we had time.
“He’s not dead, little one,” Elias assures me. “I know what it sounds like, but I refuse to believe it was that easy to take him down. He’s not dead. He’s too smart and too tough, and he was trained for situations like this practically his whole life. Have faith. We’ll find him.”
Chapter 57
Capture of the Guard
SHADOW
Six Years Ago
Igasp awake as a burning sensation brings me back to consciousness. Sprays of liquid fall around me. Sharp pain radiates down my arms into my shoulders. Another sluice of fiery liquid falls over my skin, and I grit my teeth in pain. The swift fluttering beat of my heart echoes in my ears, and my muscles clench and quiver involuntarily. When my brain catches up to what is taking place, I come to the realization that I wasn’t burned but doused in ice cold water.
My head droops back, and my vision focuses on the chains wrapped around my wrist, suspending me from the beams of an old, abandoned warehouse.
“This all could have been prevented."
I ignore the voice coming from somewhere in the shadows. Dropping my chin to my chest, I breath in through the pain.
Toby,I whisper in my mind, but I hear nothing but a deafening silence. He's gone. So is my magic and the ability to shift into my wolf.
"I don't want to break you, Tyler."
"Traitor," I croak in a hoarse rasp and squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of pain courses through every fiber of my body.
The traitor laughs. "Is that what Anders and the Emerald Guard made you believe? That we are all traitors?" he tsks. “We’re not traitors, Tyler. We just believe in a different way of life, a different hierarchy of sorts.”
