“I’ve got your back,” Avery said turningaround to watch my ass. She might desire to be a healer but she could rip aman’s throat out in seconds.
After finding a good grip on the largecutters, I started snapping the chain link. It was harder than I thought. Thefence looked to be steel coated in silver. After great effort, I made theopening wide enough so that even our biggest wolves could crawl through withoutgetting scratched by the silver. Once I had pulled the six-foot opening awayand tossed it to the side, I called for my dad.
‘I’ve opened the fence. I’m at thesouthwest side. Facing Mount Hood,’Itold him.
He didn’t answer right away and I was beginningto get nervous. A few more gunshots rang out and chills went up my arms. I wastwo seconds away from screaming ‘Dad’ and running into this place blindly, whenhe spoke.
‘Your mom is opening the last fivecontainers and I’m taking out the guards with the rest of our dominants.’
I was relieved that he was out butnervous he was hunting down the guards with the semi-automatic rifles.
“Check on Mason,” Avery whispered.
Good Idea. Sitting around doing nothingwasn’t usually on my resume.
Although Mason was pack and my cousin, Icouldn’t speak into his mind, so I contacted Gavin instead.‘How’s itgoing?’I sent, relieved to find our matebond slightly open. He was keepingit guarded, ready to clamp it down at any moment, but it was open for now andfor that I was grateful.
‘We had some trouble with the sleepingpowder but I’ve got the truck and I’m headed your way.’
I frowned.‘What trouble?’Whatdid he meanhehad the truck? Where was Mason?
‘Mason got a little excited and dousedhimself with the powder as he threw it in the guy’s face. He asleep in therig.’
I couldn’t help but laugh. Alexa justdied and we were in the middle of a very dangerous situation but Mason’sstupidity actually made me laugh.
‘Be safe,’I told him.
Avery pulled on my arm to get myattention. “Why are you smiling?”
I just shook my head. “Mason dousedhimself in sleeping powder.”
Avery sighed, her red hair shaking aroundher shoulders. “Sounds like Mason.”
Before I could retort, a twig snappedbehind me. I had barely even turned to see the source of the sound, when areddish glowing ball flew through the fog and slammed into Avery’s chest.
The wind knocked out of me at the realizationthat Avery had just been hit with dark magic.
“Gretchen!” I stood, arms out, magiccrackling up and down my spine as I set up my protective shield and stoodbefore Avery.
I couldn’t see the attacker through thethick fog but they clearly could see us. Probably using some kind of visionspell. Shit. I should have put more time into my magic studies.
“If you hurt my friend, I’m going to killyou!” I shouted into the fog.
A high-pitched cackle rose up and Iprepared to throw whatever magic I had at the spot the sound came from. Ididn’t dare risk a glance behind me to see what state Avery was in. I needed totake out this threat first. Condensing my magic into a ball, I called up asimple stun spell, and wound my hand back. I nearly threw it but then I heard athump and a shriek, and a scrawny black-haired witch fell at my feet before me.
Gretchen walked out of the fog and rolledher eyes. “These witches are not classically trained,” she droned as ifoffended.
“Avery’s been hit!” I dissolved my stunspell and spun around dropping to the ground. Avery was crumbled in a ball,breathing but unconscious. She whimpered and I froze looking at my covenleader.
“What’s wrong?” I didn’t want to touchher for fear of doing anything more to hurt her.
Gretchen’s face creased in concentrationas she scanned Avery’s body with her healer sense. “Ah, a dream sleep. She’slooping Avery into a never-ending nightmare. I can fix it but not until we gethome. I need some rare herbs.”
Crap. “Okay.” It was actually a relief.
‘Jaxon, Avery’s hurt. Come find us,’I told my twin. Panic spiked my twinbond and then I felt Jaxon pulling on my senses, trying to figure out where wewere. His fear saturated my entire body and I realized I made it sound moredire than it was. I mean yeah, she was hurt but she wasn’t bleeding out oranything.
‘She’s going to be okay. She’s stuck in anightmare spell from a dark witch. Gretchen can fix her but not until we gether some rare herbs.’
