Page 69 of Magic Hunted
“Why have we stopped?” An elf shouted from the line behind us.
We slipped past the warbugs coming to a stop one behind the other. Eventually, we came to the start of the line. Taredd’s warbug chewed apart shards of rock to reveal a glimmering golden wall embedded into the earth.
I recognized that gold. It was the edge of the dome, the same golden magic that sparked when the grimoire stirred within me. An urge tugged in the center of my stomach, coaxing me forward.
Shanyirra peered behind her at me. “You know what this is, child. You sense it, don’t you?”
My panther slipped past the narrow space between the warbugs’ legs and the rough edges of the earth the creature had chewed through. Sparks of golden magic fluttered within me as the grimoire stirred. A knowing rose inside me as magic recognized magic.
“Let the grimoire rise within you. The magic will connect and when it does, you’ll be able to open a portal to let us through,” Shanyirra said.
The grimoire shimmered through my consciousness, pressing me forward. My nose touched the wall. The magic fizzed and almost made me sneeze. A wave of joy expanded within me as my part of the grimoire sought the dome’s magic. The wall parted, a hole receding to the edges of the tunnel the warbug had chewed until I faced a flat wall of rock. Golden sparks lit the edges of the tunnel, bubbles of gold gently raining down on us. The magic was pure and beautiful, even in the darkness deep underground.
My mates nudged me, their awe and wonder filling the space in my chest where our fledgling bond was growing. The grimoire’s magic was stunning, but it wasn’t mine. I laid no claim to it, even though it had been safe inside me. This was Faerie magic in its purest form, a living force of its own.
“General, your warbug can now proceed. Child, when we have passed, please close the dome. We don’t want anything following us,” Shanyirra said.
“Step back and stay safe as we pass,” Taredd said to us. He waited until we’d padded behind him before flicking the warbug’s reins.
The warbug chomped its pincers and ripped into the rock. Taredd and the warbug disappeared into the tunnel it created. The others followed, skating past one after the other. We kept to a small alcove as they passed. I didn’t want to get under their claws knowing what they could do. The last warbug passed us carrying four elves, a male and three females, with a child. I hoped the others were as lucky to get out, but Shanyirra would have made sure of that before she decimated the village.
We passed the wall of gold. I stepped into the ring as the grimoire fluttered to life. Magic sparked out of me, bubbling around the circumference before if flashed, causing the ring to shrink until it once again became a solid wall of glittering gold.
We followed the last warbug until the tunnel tilted into an upward trajectory. A rumble and an explosion preceded distant sunlight. Taredd must have breached the surface. We scrambled up the steep slope the warbugs had made as daylight grew brighter around us. The warbug ahead skittered out of the hole. With a giant leap, my mates and I followed.
My panther’s eyes were quick to adjust to the fading daylight. Our surroundings were familiar. We were in the clearing before the wolves’ lodge, beyond which was the forest where they freely gave into their wolves and roamed.
My attention wasn’t on the forest, or the village settled in the trees. It was on the three massive males who burst from the front door of the lodge and the lick of unease spearing through me now I’d made it to wolf territory. My motive for being here may have changed, but it didn’t change who I was to them, or what I’d done to them. I was in my panther form, but when I Changed it was impossible to know how this would play out when they recognized me. I steeled myself, because if there was one thing I didn’t expect, it was forgiveness.
Alerick’s hand formed fists as he came to a halt at the top of the steps, his gaze sliding around the elves perched on the warbugs scattered on the front lawn of his rustic cabin. Behind him on his right, Jarom paused, his body as still and tense as his bond brother.
It was the third male I focused on. He was fierce with tattoos I knew trailed from his head and across his body. The designs told of another world. A foreign world and one I was beginning to think was real and not fiction at all because I knew on the back of his left calf, was inked a warbug hiding behind a glistening magenta flower not found anywhere on earth.
I stepped forward, becoming the focus of all three wolf shifters, took a deep breath and let my panther’s form slip back to my human, all the time watching Jarom. He would either accept me or he would try to kill me, and I didn’t know which he’d choose.
Chapter Thirty-Five
My mates surrounded me, shielding me with their bodies. They were naked like me, but that wasn’t as important to them as protecting me. Shock rippled through the wolves, but it only took a moment for it to process through them. That was the thing about the wolves; they took everything in their stride.
“Wasn’t it enough to deceive us, Haera, you’ve come to destroy us, too?” Alerick snarled, his brows lowering over stormy eyes. His gaze razed the threat of warbugs and elves behind me.
I tried to push past Ashir’s solid shoulder, but he wouldn’t budge. I wiggled my face between Ashir’s biceps and Savvas’ pec. “I understand what this looks like, but I’m not here to fight.”
“You have no right to behereat all, after what you did to my pack. Leave now and take everyone you came here with.” Alerick planted his legs wide and crossed his arms over his broad chest, a muscle jumping at his temple.
“We’re all here for the same reason. You’re in danger from Titan. We’ve come to warn you,” I said.
A muscle ticked at Alerick’s temple while Eike’s mouth fell open. “They’re elves.”
“Yes. Elves.” I swallowed hard, the sounds of battle still loud in my mind. “We’ve come from under the Wastelands. Titan attacked us and we think he’s on his way here, if he isn’t already. You’re in danger. You have to believe me,” I said.
“This is another of your tricks. Humans spelled to look like elves. Creatures created from magic and nightmares. I knew you were low, but I didn’t think you could stoop so far,” Jarom said. His body trembled as he held himself back from Changing. The damage I’d done to them was inexcusable, but I had to find a way for them to listen. This wasn’t only about me.
“I’m so sorry, Jarom. If I could take back what I did to you, I would. Titan…didn’t give me a choice.” My throat tightened, remembering the threat he’d made before he literally threw me to the wolves. “If I didn’t make you think I was your ma…didn’t do what he told me to do…he said he would kill every child under five in his stronghold. He would have done it in the worst possible way, Jarom. You know he would have.”
Silence rang through the clearing. My mates’ shock colored the thin threads that bound us. Savvas stepped closer to me, his arm coming about my waist. I leaned into his support. Needing it because in order to beg the wolves’ forgiveness, everyone would learn my worst secret.
There was no choice. I either had to make the wolves think I was their mate or hundreds of children would have died. It didn’t matter whether they were human or shifter. They were children.
