Page 12 of Alpha Exile

Pacing towards the backyard, I lose myself in my thoughts for a long moment. There are tracking spells, surely. Kerry can go through them with me when she comes back from the urgent care center. We can canvas the area where she took the guys, and the least wounded warriors can search for signs of the path they took.

As I close my eyes, though, I can't help but yearn for the feel of their connection. I should justknowwhere they are. Stretching towards the back of my mind, I look for them, and come up empty.

A hollow feeling yawns inside me. I want more than anything to just go out on my own and hunt them down right now.

All I want is power. Strength. To feel competent and capable. So that I can get my mates back.

Because what I ultimately want isthem.To have them at my side. To be reunited, and share in our glorious power. I want—no,need—my mates.

Reaching inside me again, I search for our bonds. As the sun rises, I look out over the scorched backyard behind my house, trying to find the sight of a glimmering thread. There has to be a sign of them somewhere—has to be a piece of them left behind.

Silver-white threads. Gold threads. Black threads. I squint my eyes, looking for their delirious light.

And spot a long, bright gold-orange thread.

Then another. And another.

Heart racing, I pace towards the source of them, hoping that they'll stretch out into the distance and point the direction towards my mates.

Six

Delilah

Getting closer, my heart sinks. The bright red-orange threads stretch out across the grass and reach for my ankles, alive and full of energy and power. They aren't the threads that connect me to my mates, though, and I'm not sure I've seen anything like them.

Knotted together in a mass on the ground, they leap and play across the grass, then dive into the earth. Squinting my eyes, I shade my gaze from the sun and see a faint glow coming from beneath the burned grass.

Beneath the ash and soots, below the scorched plants and buried roots, something living longs to grow.

Somethingsliving, that is. Because there are hundreds of threads above the ground, I realize now, and maybe even thousands more beneath the earth. Their bright red-orange energy glows like fire and stretches out on either side of me like a river of flowing lava.

They call out to me.

I feel a spark within me as some part of me responds.

"Okay." Kneeling, I put my hand on the earth and watch in wonder as the threads spool around me and stretch towards my skin. "I can hear you. What do you want from me?"

Life,they seem to whisper to me,power and heat and energy.

Magic scorches up my skin where the threads touch me. Feeling an instinctual urge, I reach towards them and pluck at them with my fingers, drawing them together and weaving them around each other.

They seem to settle and sigh as their threads join and grow.

I'm staring at them, wondering what happens next, when the ground lurches at my feet. Jumping up, I stumble back and stare, slack-jawed, as something bright orange and full of magic bursts from the earth.

It's a flowering vine. It stretches up and unfurls in spooling branches, the woven threads settling into the vines and racing across the bright orange petals of the flowers. Thorns sharpen outward and leaves unfurl, the vine's muted green tendrils curling across the earth.

Tears prick my eyes, and I feel a burst of warmth inside my chest.

"Do it again." Kerry's voice startles me. She's walking into the backyard now, her hair pulled back from her tired face, a determined look in the eyes. "Keep going."

"With what? I don't even know what I was doing."

"Weaving," she says simply, a smile tugging the corner of her mouth. "You're the daughter of a Weaver witch, after all. Magic threads are just like mating threads. Weave them together and lend them your strength, and maybe they'll give you power in return."

"What are they?" I ask, kneeling to dig my fingers into the eager threads again. "I've never seen flowers like this before."

"Neither have I, at least in real life. But I've read about them in books." Kerry draws one of the flowers into her palms, its glowing orange light caressing her face, wonder in her eyes. "They're foxfire flowers. They can be used in many potions and spells, but the main thing they do is lend power and magic to the witch who raises them from seed. And they can only bloom after the power of an unnatural fire scorches the ground where they grow."

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