I gulped.
Was I really doing this? Going out alone into a place called the Dark Woods in order to find some magical cave and possibly get lost foryears?
No, I couldn’t think like that.
Seeing Willow stroke her pregnant belly longingly though, I knew I had to try, and I could leave nothing to chance. Nothing.
“Willow, do you have a fancy dress I could borrow?” I asked.
Eugene showedup later that afternoon and I made him turn right back around and take me to Sawyer. That I was staying was something I had to tell him in person, and there was something I had todoin person too. I’d asked Astra to accompany us, as well as twenty guards. Surprisingly, Rab himself had volunteered to go. He and I had turned a corner, and I was grateful to no longer be butting heads with him.
“Why are we traipsing through war-torn woods with you all dressed up?” Eugene asked as he held a gun at his side, finger on the trigger.
I smoothed the red and gold silk handmade dress that Willow had given me. With the bright colors and the way it draped over one shoulder, it reminded me of an Indian Sari. I’d tied up my hair into a sleek bun and used beetroot powders Willow had given me to stain my lips and cheeks.
It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for my wedding day look, but it would have to do.
“Because I’m going away for a while and I won’t leave without being Sawyer’s wife first,” I said, determined. I wasn’t going to go into some crazy Dark Woods and let the curse kill my mate if I ended up gone for three years.
Eugene stopped dead and looked up at me, tears glistening in his eyes. “Does he know?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I know he has a lot going on.”
Eugene cleared his throat, straightening his shoulders and nodded. “I’ll get you there and back safely. Don’t worry.”
He stepped in front of me with seemingly renewed strength as we continued our walk through the woods. I stumbled over ferns and small shrubs, holding up the edges of my dress to make my way over to Astra. We’d left the Paladin horses and donkeys in favor of going on foot. A troop of twenty warriors on horseback was loud; we could be stealthier this way.
“Astra?” I stepped next to her and she looked up at me with a smile. Always smiling at me this one, such an innocent and loving soul.
“Yes, Alpha?”
I’d long stopped asking her to call me that. “You’re like a priest or a pastor, right?”
She frowned, looking confused.
“Like … you are an important person of God. You … marry people?” I hedged.
Her eyes widened as a grin broke out on her lips and she looked at my dress in a whole new light.
“Yes, Alpha, it would be my honor to oversee your joining union.”
Joining union must be what they called a wedding. “Okay, great. Thanks.”
We crept through the trees, and the once far-off noises of war grew closer and louder. Nothing new to see here, folks, just creeping through the war-ridden woods to surprise my fiancé with a wedding he knew nothing about.
‘Hey, we’re like twenty minutes away. Are my parents and Raven still in the bunker?’ I asked.
I really wanted my dad to walk me down the aisle, but I wouldn’t pull him from safety if things were still in a lockdown kind of situation.
‘Yes. Everyone who isn’t fighting is down there. It’s a secret bunker under the school … which has been completely shelled out.’
I stumbled over my footing. Shelled out? My mind spun.‘What do you meanshelled out?’
I felt the agitation run through him, but knew it wasn’t meant to be directed at me.‘It’s gone, Demi. Sterling Hill is completely gone, but the bunker holds strong. It’s thirty feet underground, with twelve inches of steel and concrete, and they’ve got a two-year food supply down there.’
Dizziness washed over me. Why would they need a two-year food supply?‘Sawyer, are they … trapped under there?’
‘Not trapped, but I’ve told them not to come out until we win the war.’
