Page 76 of A Surrender Of Hope

“Lennox!” I scream, needing to get to him, but my body is completely out of my control.

“Meyer!” I hear Razar bellow as I flip toward the darkness before me, unable to stop my momentum.

“I’ve got her! Help Nox!” I hear Jesthren say as he spins past me, his big hand reaching for my own. “Grab my hand!” I grit my teeth and stretch my arm out, trying desperately to reach for his open hand. Jesthren’s panicked eyes dart to the right, and he snarls. “Now, Meyer!” he screams, fear encompassing hisfeatures as something heavy hits me on the side, knocking the air from me and sending me spiraling into the dark abyss.

I groan,my body aching as I slowly wake up and roll to my side in the cold snow, hating how numb my fingers and toes feel. The sound of fighting forces me out of the blissful darkness of my mind and brings every dull ache and pain I feel along with it.

“What the hell?” I rasp, attempting to open my eyes, then groaning as I try to place where I am. My hands wiggle in the fluffy white snow under me, and I gasp, sitting upright, eyes springing open as I look around. The sun is setting over a familiar mountain peak, and snow is blowing around me, creating small drifts everywhere I look. There’s a grunt, then a scream, and I shrink back down, the sounds of a fight growing as I slowly push myself to my knees and make my way forward. Concern and fear hit me square in the chest when I realize no one is with me on the North Ridge, and I can only hope one of the guys is close.

“Grab her!” something dark hisses, its words sounding inhuman as another scream tears through the air. My heart pounds painfully in my chest, my hand falling to my thigh holster, and I stiffen when I see only two blades are there. The rest must have been lost when I was hit in the Veil.

“Dammit,” I whisper, grabbing one of the blades as I army crawl over to a drift nearby, using it as cover as I push myself up to peer over and take in the fight happening next to me. My mouth drops open in shock as I try and fail to count the amount of dead Wraiths lying on the ground nearby. There has to be dozens of them! I spot a few Umbra Hunters strewn on the ground next to them, their unseeing eyes staring up at the sky,making my stomach roll when I see all of them dressed in black and red, telling me they are from the Drakos line.

At the center of it all is another ten Wraiths surrounding a woman who looks like she’s bleeding profusely from her side as she fights. The trail of dead Wraiths behind her abundant as she moves so fast I have difficulty keeping up.

Long brown hair spins as she ducks and deals blows, fighting off the Wraiths and killing two of them faster than I can keep up. Several of the Wraiths dart back, two raising their flails to strike, but one screams at them in a language I can't understand, and they drop their weapons as the woman's blue magic strikes one in the chest, and it crumples lifeless to the ground. The magic sends her stumbling back just as four Wraiths leap at her, and she goes crashing down to the ground with a pained grunt.

“No!” I whisper, moving my hand and raising it up as I take aim, just as twenty or more Wraiths emerge into the clearing, making me pause. Nine Wraiths we might be able to fight off… but this many? I narrow my eyes and toss one more desperate look around for the guys, but no one but me and this woman are left on this mountainside with all these Wraiths.

One of the cloaked bastards mutters something, glowing red magic circling the woman and yanking her to her feet as I slowly begin to stand, ready to do whatever I can to help her. But when her soft brown eyes meet mine, my heart stops, pain echoing in my chest as Elaine stares at me. Her mouth parts with a gasp, her eyes looking around us before she rolls her lips together and looks back at me, slowly shaking her head, and then gesturing for me to hide.

I duck a little, ensuring I’m mostly covered by the snow drift, all while keeping eye contact with her. I know she’s telling me not to do anything; she knows as much as I do that this is not a good situation and we have no hope of getting out of it withoutany help, but I can't help but shake my head and glare, refusing to leave her.

Her eyes narrow on me, anger climbing in them as she looks around, making sure we aren’t being watched as the Wraiths speak amongst themselves in their harsh foreign language. Elaine nods in the direction of the castle and shakes her head again and I curse, not sure what to do.

Fuck, where are the guys? Why aren't they here? Are they safe? Are they hurt? Panic swells within me as I drop down and close my eyes, feeling sick to my stomach.

“Where are you taking me? Let me go!” Elaine snarls, making my hands shake as I hear the Wraiths leave, taking Elaine with them.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I rasp, palming my blade as I wait, letting the sound of them walking through the snow fade. I look in the direction of the castle, then to the ridge where the Veil appeared the first time we crossed. Only nothing’s there now—only wind and snow.

I take a deep breath and nod, looking around me before making up my mind. I want to find the guys and make sure they’re okay, but I can't leave Elaine with the Wraiths. Fighting may not have been an option at the moment, but that doesn't mean we’ll stay outnumbered forever. As long as I don't lose their path, I can follow them and wait to get Elaine out of their hands without both of us dying.

Standing, I start to move through the snow, careful to walk lightly as I track the footprints of the Wraiths. “You’ve got this,” I whisper, trying to keep myself calm as I pick up my pace, all while praying that the guys are okay and will find us before something really awful happens.

THIRTY-FIVE

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North of the Castle

Istride past the four Beastia outside and through the cave's opening, my teeth grinding to calm my raging magic as it whips about, making my cloak swirl around my feet. Snow is encrusted on my shoes, and I can feel ice on my hair as I shiver, hating how fucking cold it is in this realm.

“Report!” I snarl, moving further into the cave and letting my magic remove the facade around us, showing me the warm, brightly lit room deep in the mountainside I created years ago. Tossing my sword to the ground, I tear my cloak from around my shoulders, my magic sparking red, then gold, before settling on black. The stolen magic constantly wars within me for dominance, and I’m having difficulty controlling it.

The Wraiths standing guard before me dip their head, and I wave my hand, shoving them to the side as I stride up to the sniveling Siberian Senior, who wrings his hands nervously in front of him. The man ducks his head and shuffles back a step, his yellow and brown cloak torn as he looks around at the Hunters he has gathered there.

“The… the Wraiths brought back a human girl. As you requested,” Leroy Gareev rasps as I move around him, flexing my hands at my sides as I try to figure out my next move. Lennox Regalis will come after the girl once he knows I have her, and I need to be prepared for that. But if I can make sure everything is okay up here, I may be able to get back down to the castle before anyone spots me and finish what I started in the first place. My eyes jump up to where Archer stands, his cloak pulled over his head, standing at attention like always.

“And where is she?” I ask as I narrow my eyes and check my spells over the Demon Prince, not understanding how he’s been able to do what I asked the entire time yet never fully completing his mission. My mental control over his decisions is foolproof, yet he’s been able to skirt everything I asked.

When commanded to kill Yannos Darakh, he managed to shoot the arrow, and yet, Yannos is still alive. When I told him to break into the Castle and kidnap the Queen, he broke in, but the Queen managed to get away from him. I can’t decide if the issue is with Archer or the meddlesome girl who has also been at each interaction.

“Tied and bound in the holding cell you prepared,” Leroy rasps, and I nod, moving to see her for myself. “But.. I uh… well,” Leroy stutters, and I frown, something pricking at my senses like I’m being watched.

“Spit it out!” I snarl, hating these people and wishing I no longer needed them. Once I have the girl under control, I can kill Lennox and start the process of opening my father's tombs. Then, I can eliminate these men and not have to listen to their incessant whining. This whole time, I have been harvesting magic, trying to gather enough to release him, when all I needed was the stupid blonde, half-human girl—decades wasted when I could have simply taken the girl's mother when I hunted her down all those years ago. Instead, I killed her for her magicand wasted the opportunity. As a direct descendant of Inanis, I figured she would be the key to releasing my father, but I had been wrong.

“She killed over thirty Wraiths,” the Siberian Senior chokes out, making me pause in my steps and turn on my heel to glare at the worthless sack of shit in front of me.

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