“Two o’clock, Shifter,” Moni yells from the top of my head, and I send an arrow in that direction with a thought. “Shield up at six o’clock!” she screams, yanking on my hair. I almost drop my concentration but quickly make the water at our back move in four different directions, so whatever is coming at my back will be diffused in multiple ways.
We keep on going until we reach the side where Rez was last seen. As the smoke starts to clear, I let my bubble diffuse just as something swings down and lands in my hair.
“Fuck! Get it off me,” I shriek and wave my arms around, trying to dislodge it.
“Stop hitting Chester,” Moni yells, and smacks me on the nose.
“What?” I say, dumbfounded.
A Lemur drops from my head and Moni flies down to it.
“It’s okay, Chester. He didn’t mean to hurt you,” she says in a baby voice. Gah, she's gonna kill me with this guy.
Armed guards fly by us and head straight into the fray of the retreating Rebels. Flying Shifters swoop down, picking up Rebels, dropping them into waiting arms below. I’ve heard of the tactics of some of the special ops from Knox, but I’ve never seen them in action before. As the fighting starts to die down, I re-up my efforts to find Rez.
“Rez!” I yell, cupping my hands and hollering over the dying noise.
Crunch.
Lifting my foot, I notice a magical bracelet lying on the ground with the turquoise teardrop gem I made for Rez. Thankfully, our bracelets are spelled not to break, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be taken or ripped off of us. I pick it up, desperate to hold a piece of her and scream at the top of my lungs, “REZ!”
Knox runs up to me with a furrowed brow. “What’s wrong?”
My eyes focus on the woods that Rez was concerned with as I hand over the bracelet. “I found this. I’m sure it’s Rez’s, but I can’t find her.”
Knox inhales deeply, taking in the scent and his eyes slightly dilate. “It’s definitely Rez’s. There’s also a faint scent of a giant and a low level Demon,” he states.
“A giant and a demon? How? Why? Who said they could take my best friend? This is simply unacceptable! I demand a refund! I need my bestie back! Ahh,” Moni screams and faints into Chester’s arms.
Knox shifts into his gryphon and I climb on board. “Chester, take Moni back to the apartment and let Knots know what happened. He will pass it on. We’re gonna find our girl.”
Curling my legs around his wings, I make sure I’m secure before telling Knox I’m ready. He’ll be in his tracking mode which pertains to weaving between the trees at varying heights and rapid speeds. To do that, I’ll have to stay low on his back so I don’t interfere or end up hurting myself and fucking this all up.
“Let’s go!”
ChapterForty-Six
HI-HO LISA-AWAY
Rez
My day has definitely been eventful. I wake up to a jarring dreamscape where Lynx tells me he’s starting to lose parts of his memory. I meet Moni’s mate and then run around like I’m in a marathon trying to make it to an impromptu assembly. Which, of course, I miss because I’m attacked coming out of the portal before some magical foresight shows me the ambush. Too bad it didn’t show me the Rebel that popped out of the Sulks like the twisted version of a Jack-in-the-box that ended Fish Face’s life. So I escaped that disaster only to be kidnapped ten minutes later by a demon flying squirrel and a shriveled-dick blockhead that’s taking me somewhere that feels like the embodiment of a nightmare land.
I don’t know which is worse, being kidnapped by a Giant and the squirrel from Hell or the fact we’re in the Ever Woods. This place gives me the creeps, but at least I’m up and out of the gray tendrils of smoke. As soon as we crossed the border, the atmosphere changed from cool weather to down right frigid. The sun had been poking through the trees earlier, but here none can be seen. Everything is either light gray, dark gray, or black. Even the birds that sing throughout the woods have changed. Instead of the sweet singing of song birds, we get death screeches and howls from whatever is hiding in this part of the forest.
“We should have been there by now,” the squirrel guy says in frustration. I reach out to another tree limb and hold on, slowing our progress once again. I couldn’t fight my way out of the big guy's hands, but I’ve found a way to make our escape harder on them. Anything I can grab a hold of, get my foot or hair stuck on as we progress, I do. I’ll probably regret the bruises later, but it’s the only thing I can think of at the moment.
Something wet touches my hand as I hang on for dear life, so I glance over to see what looks like a shiny clear substance. Glancing up I notice a couple of small empty fairy skins hanging from higher branches and my stomach churns.Abuhuku.Didn’t JP say that if you saw shit like this it meant they were in the area? Hopefully, it could also mean theywerein the area.Maybe I’m safer up here after all.
“It would be faster—” the blockhead turns to grab my waist and pulls me off the tree limb “—if she had no arms or legs, and these tendrils—” he kicks at the gray smoke at his feet “—wouldn’t slow me down.” He stops walking, grunts, then throws his other arm up in the air almost knocking the leather man off in the process. “How about you clear the ground so we can move faster?” the giant suggests.
“So I can get dragged away to Hell?” the squirrel-man shrieks.
“What? Have something against home?” I murmur under my breath. The squirrel man shoots me a death glare. He’s been doing that with every quip I make, like that would stop me. I roll my eyes and wiggle to reach another limb.
“If you want to get out of here faster, it would help,” the Giant grunts out as he shakes a tendril off his leg.
“FINE,” squirrel man shouts, and crawls down the Giant's body before he disappears into the smoky fog along the forest floor.
