Page 84 of Crown of Chaos

“I need to go check out the area around the stronghold we’ll be attacking in the next couple of days. Esme, do you want to come with and watch my back?” I questioned while folding my lips between my teeth.

“Are you allowing Ember to eat, by chance?” she countered, grabbing her weapons to strap them on as I did the same.

“Yes.” Her shoulders sagged in relief, and I turned to Siobhan and Avy. “We’ll return shortly, properly fed to stave off another unseemly outburst.”

I didn’t wait for their response before I turned and headed toward the portal. The eyes of the room followed us, and I felt their relief as I exited the room. It burned that the children actually thought I was a threat, but after what I said, I didn’t blame them. I felt Esme exiting with me and grinned at the idea of catching large prey that would sate the inner hussy within me.

The moment we were through the portal, cool evening air bathed the heated skin of my exposed arms. The landscape was breathtakingly beautiful as we passed through a forest. There were high cliff walls that had hundreds of tiny waterfalls that sent water crashing to the river below. Large birds flew around them, occasionally diving into the river to pluck out fish that had ventured too close to the surface. Splashes of color added vibrancy, and occasionally, I stopped to pick a flower to smell along the way. I had been reaching down for a red one with black petals when Esme grabbed my arm, yanking me away.

“That’s poisonous. You need to stop smelling the flowers, Aria.” She snorted, baring her teeth at the flower as if it would understand the warning. “If you watch the animals, you’ll figure out what is poisonous and what isn’t. They stay away from shit that can end their lives, which will save yours in return,” she explained as we continued to take in the vibrant scenery.

After that, I avoided the flowers as we walked deeper into the forest where the scent of pine, evergreen, and other trees grew thicker. I’d avoided speaking to Esme about our upcoming vacation, if you could call it such.

“If you had a chance to meet our people and your father, would you?”

“Inside Jasmine’s room, you saw something, didn’t you?” she questioned, forcing me to still. “Is that why you keep walking up to me, making strange faces, and then walk away?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure we should trust it, but I think we need to?” I asked hesitantly.

“Elaborate because there’s more to it than that, Aria.”

“I saw Eva. She told me that if I wanted to meet my father, I had to go through a set of trials. She stated I could only bring you with me, and that we had to get through them together.”

“Why would we need to go through trials to meet him?” she asked, as if it were the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard.

“No idea, but if I want to see him, that’s what I have—”

The sharp snap of a branch sounded somewhere deeper in the forest, and Esme and I froze, searching for the source of the disturbance. Silently, we stepped back and slid behind a large rock formation.

A long moment passed before I could make out the sounds of women’s voices as they whimpered, rushing through the forest. The accelerated rate of their rapidly beating hearts punctuated the scent of anxiety and the gentle hint of excitement. Men’s voices echoed next and they were followed by the sound of hounds snarling and growling. Then three girls, who were not much older than we were, burst into the small clearing we’d been standing in moments before.

“Run! I’ll buy you time to escape,” one pleaded, her arms bloodied as if the hounds had already attacked her.

“I’m not leaving you! We go together, remember?” another warned in a high-pitched tone, her dress filthy with dried blood.

I frowned, wondering if they realized their shouting was drawing the men directly to them. Or maybe they’d given up being silent because the hounds had their scent? It would explain why they were just standing out in the open like easy prey instead of running.

“We have to hide,” the third warned as the dogs’ feral noises drew closer. “If they find us, they’llkillus! You know it as surely as I do. Lord Carrack won’t allow us to leave him alive,” she wailed, dropping to her knees in exhaustion. They cried but didn’t seem to be in a rush to hide from whoever the hell Lord Carrack was. I chewed on my lip, pondering if I should help them, but Esme snorted and shook her head.

“This clusterfuck is not our problem, Aria,” Esme stated.

“Then whose problem is it, Esme? They’re exhausted and bleeding. That means the hounds won’t lose their trail. It also means they’re fucking dead if we don’t step in and do something.” I tilted my head to stare at her pointedly as she rolled her eyes. “Besides, you’re hungry, and those men are about to burst through the trees. We can consider them fast food if you’d like?” Between one blink and the next, her eyes had gone from violet to the vibrant amethyst shade of purple that told me her monster was peering out at me.

“Let’s go get you some food, my little beta bestie.”

“Not my best friend.” She snorted, still in control for the moment.

A moment before we stepped out of the hiding place, men rushed through the heavy branches with their dogs leashed. One smiled cruelly at the huddled women, who still weren’t making any moves to escape. He raised his hand, sending a whip rushing through the air toward the woman’s arm, barely missing it before recalling the leather strap.

I’d been wrong. She hadn’t been bitten; she’d been horse-whipped. I sent magic toward the leather and directed it to wrap tightly around the man’s throat. Another flick of my fingers had the other end of the whip secured to a high branch while he struggled to free himself. The men with him peered up and then released their holds on their leashes, which sent the dogs racing toward the terrified women.

“Heel or die, mother fuckers,” I snarled, rattling deeply from my chest. The dogs skidded to a stop and pressed their whole bodies tightly to the ground. “Good doggies,” I cooed, stopping in front of the women.

“You will pay for this, witch!” one man snarled as he drew a wicked-looking blade.

“Why do people always say that?” I asked, gradually pulling more magic to me.

His look turned calculating as he glanced at the man next to him before turning back to where Esme and I stood. He bared fangs as his face shifted. I winced at the snout that replaced his nose and then tilted my head as tusks pushed from his face.

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