Page 62 of The Hidden Falling
“It’s not any of my Elites. I would know,” Darius tilts his head. “You also didn’t smell what she claims to have smelled by the river, and neither did I. Maybe she just got scared and imagined it.”
“Are you fucking stupid!” I growl at him and he scowls. “That girl knows what is and what isn’t scary to her, and a man scared her. She didn’t just imagine it, she’s thirteen.” There is no way she did. I saw the fear in her eyes as she told me. There was someone here. Someone is in Eridian, and if Darius is right, it wasn’t any of us.
Then who was it and how did they get in? I rub my arms, my body still feeling cold to my bones.
“Do you know what she meant by the smell?” Josh asks, scratching his chin in thought.
“I’m not sure,” I reply, then look at Darius. “Have you?” I haven’t been through all of Vrohkaria like he has. I’ve only been through a little portion of the lands and through The Deadlands to here. If anyone knows this smell, surely, he would.
His eyes turn unfocused for a second before he shakes his head. “No. Only old blood comes to mind when she mentioned bad iron, and you would find that on a rotting corpse, which is not something I’m assuming she came across,” he pauses in thought before continuing. “I’ll have my Elites that are not in The Deadlands search the forest and have Maize scry it as well if your adamant someone was really here.”
I ignore his last words. “She won’t be able to scry inside the lilk trees, but she could do the forest. Where is your witch anyway?” I ask Darius, looking around to see if I can spot her.
“Probably with my men in their cabin.” His reply is blunt, and I can’t help but look him over to see if he is affected by that. He isn’t.
“I’ll talk with whoever is searching the forest, I can help them look and we can speak to the ones camping out there too,” Taylor tells Darius, and they walk down the deck steps.
“Wait,” I call out and they both turn. To Darius I ask something that’s been niggling at me. “Why are you helping?”
He thinks for a moment. “If someone was here, it might be the person who helped the missing woman in The Deadlands.” His stare pins me to the spot, and I swallow, knowing that won’t be the case. “We are on a time limit to find her, and my patience is running out. Rogures are slaughtering everything they can throughout Vrohkaria as we speak. We are needed out there, not wasting our time here.”
So there is a time limit like Hudson said.
I fling my arms out. “Then why don’t you just leave? Go back?” He’s the Alpha of the Elites, he can go back when he wants.
“I need to find this woman who has either been taken or is trying to escape her responsibilities,” he grinds out, his jaw ticking.
Responsibilities? Like what? Being in a fucking hole on her back for how many years for sick fucks to rape?
I take a deep breath “She is most likely dead. I’ve told you neither she or the other person would not survive out in The Deadlands. The search for her is useless.”
He looks at me curiously, his jaw ticking. “I have some time left, the Highers sent us here personally and their request needs to be fulfilled before we return home. Either she is found dead or alive, or we go back empty handed with no answers, which isn’t an option.” With that he turns and walks toward Leo, Damian, Jerrod and Zaide, who are waiting further down the path. Taylor scowls at him before following them to organize a search in the forest. Seb, Hudson and Colten lag behind them, making sure the healers’ cabin is off limits discreetly when they return to Eridian and, no doubt, search here too.
“I have a bad feeling,” I whisper to Josh. “Who is here and how did they find us? Why did they try to grab Sam?”
He squeezes my shoulder gently as we look over Eridian from my deck. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Will Solvier know?”
“I’m going to find out, he knows all who enter here.” I chew the inside of my lower lip as I rack my brain for the smell Sam mentioned. I don’t recall one exactly like it, but I may have smelled something similar before.
I pray to the Gods I’m not right. Because if I am, I don’t want to think about what would happen.
What it would mean for Eridian.
Thirty Three
Rhea
“Solvier!”Icallthroughthe trees. I could really do with him being here right now.
I put my hand to the dirt ground, closing my eyes and opening my senses to feel for tremors. Nothing, not even a slight disturbance. I stand and sigh, rubbing the back of my neck as exhaustion hits me.“How’s the search going?”I yawn down the link to Josh.
“Nearly done. No strange smells around, and we haven’t seen anyone matching Sam’s description of the man she saw,”Josh tells me, and I slunk down on the ground with a grunt. How can someone just appear in Eridian and leave no trace? Better yet, what the fuck is anyone doing here in the first place?
This is really bad.
I rub my calves, groaning as I knead the muscle, trying to ease its soreness. They feel on fire and my feet are more than likely covered in blisters with how long I’ve been searching for Solvier. It’s way into the night now, and after searching for Sam all day and now searching for Solvier, I don’t want to move for a week after this. When is this shit going to stop?
I huff at myself. “A girl can wish.”
