Page 57 of Forging Bonds: Part One

I don’t know if they hear me, but I know that I have to get to River. Following my instincts, I haul ass through the kitchen and out the back door onto the deck, just in time to see Evander racing across the vast piece of land out here, and the guys all suddenly appear around me.

“What’s happened?” Raiden asks.

“What’s wrong with River?” Doc asks, concern flooding his features.

Before I can answer, Evander appears, “Something is wrong with River!”

“We know. Neith just told us, but I don’t know why,” Griff says.

Evander looks at me in shock, “How do you know? Did he show up here as well?”

I shake my head, “No, I think I had a vision. That’s not the important thing right now. River is panicking, and from what I saw, I think his magic is going haywire. I didn’t realize that he could teleport like Doc.”

“He can’t,” Raiden says, and then adds, “shit, this is not good.”

Evander and I quickly explain what we both witnessed to the guys and how he seemed to have no control over what was happening to him.

Evander switches into leader mode, “Raiden, Griff, and Reed, you head into the sky and see if you can see him. He was on our property. Hopefully, he still is. We’ll look from the ground.”

“We can use the kelpies,” I say, and I don’t bother waiting for them to agree before I whistle, calling Mael.

The guys who aren’t flying call their kelpies too. Mael appears within seconds, and I gently stroke his nose before he ducks so that I can get on him. He seems to be aware of the urgency of the situation. The guys are soon on their kelpies too.

“How are we going to trace him?” Reed asks. “There has to be a quicker way than just flying around and hoping that we’re going to find him. He may not even be on our land anymore, especially if his magic is freaking out.”

“We need to find him quickly,” Doc says, his concern and agitation making his kelpie dance beneath him. “His magic source will be getting low, and that’s really dangerous. Especially if he can’t stop.”

“Fuck!” Griff exclaims.

“I can try and trace his magical signature, but if he’s moving around as erratically as you guys have said, then I might not be able to get a good lock on him,” Ransom offers, worry creasing his forehead.

“Try anyway,” Evander orders, his expression grim.

I feel Ransom’s magic grow and reach out, but after a few moments, he shakes his head, looking frustrated.

“I could feel him, but as soon as I got a lock on the location, it would change again,” Ransom says. “The good news is that he is still on the property. My magic was at least able to identify that.”

“How are we going to find him then?” Raiden asks. “And what are we going to do when we do find him? He’s moving so quickly; how are we going to get him and stop him from moving again?”

“I should be able to help with that. I can contain him in a kind of cage that should stop his magic, but I can’t hold it for long,” Ransom says.

“Hopefully, once he sees us, his magic will calm down. I imagine that it’s being fueled by panic at the moment,” Doc suggests.

“That still doesn’t help us find him,” Reed says impatiently.

My intuition pings, “Let me try my tracking gift. Maybe I can get it to predict where he will be rather than where he is, it’s done it before.”

“It’s worth a try,” Van nods.

I take a breath, but instead of pushing away my panic and fear for River, I pull it closer, and I use it to fuel the magic and what I’m asking of it. It must work because quicker than it ever has, the mental map shows up, and I think about being able to show the guys.

“Whoa,” Doc says, his eyes wide.

“That’s fucking insane,” Van mutters.

Raiden shakes his head as he looks at the aerial map of the guy’s land and the little glowing kitsune, “I have never seen anything like that before.”

“In theory, that should be the place that he is going to be, not the place that he is. So we should get there either before him or just after him, but we need to hurry,” I explain, ignoring everything else because there’s no time to get into my crazy gift right now and the fact that I intentionally used my magic and projected it to the guys.

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