Page 168 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Letting them too close.
Providing a weakness.
“When did you see her?” Corbin asked, always too observant.
“This afternoon,” she answered shortly.
“When, Eviana?” Lange growled, the flames of their fire dancing in the small gust of wind that fed it. When she pressed her lips together, he added, “We can’t help if you keep information from us. Surely you’ve learned this by now.”
She didn’t say anything right away, debating what to reveal. She had to try, she supposed.
“She found me. In the woods,” she finally answered.
“The fuck?” Lange said, sitting up straighter. “Why didn’t you just grab her then? We could already be running.”
“And go where?” Eviana hissed. “Where are we going to hide a child that Valter will be seeking as surely as he is hunting me? I can’t take her until we have a plan.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you dragged us all the way here,” Lange spat back.
“Maybe you should go fuck yourself,” she sneered.
“Everyone calm down,” Corbin interjected. “Knowing what she looks like is helpful. We don’t have to sit and watch the children for hours anymore trying to pick out which one is her. Now we just need to figure out our escape plan.”
“And how to keep these cursed woods from preying on her,” Lange muttered. “The three of us is one thing, but a child?”
The truth was, Eviana had been avoiding this part of the plan, hoping something would come to her on the journey to the Estate. But she’d come up short, and now it was fucking her over. Until they had a solid plan, they couldn’t take her.
“Let’s say the woods weren’t an issue,” Eviana ventured, interrupting Corbin and Lange’s bickering. “Where would you suggest we go?”
“To Tessa,” Lange said immediately.
“We have no idea where she is,” Corbin countered. “Where do we even start?”
“Arius Kingdom, I suppose,” Lange mused.
“Absolutely not,” Eviana interjected. “I cannot set foot in Arius Kingdom. It’s too… No.”
“We could try Achaz Kingdom,” Corbin said, pulling on the back of his neck. “With the rumors we’ve heard, I don’t think she’s there, but it is closer.”
“Except we have to go deeper into the woods,” Lange said flatly. “Not to mention cross the Wynfell River.”
“Which wouldn’t be an issue for Corbin,” Eviana said, things starting to fall into place in her mind. “And I already told you the woods wouldn’t be an issue.”
“That was hypothetical,bellana. The woods will absolutely be an issue, and I still cannot go along with making a child endure them.”
“She wouldn’t be enduring them,” she replied. “She has befriended them.”
The two males stared at her, clearly not knowing what to say or if to even believe her. She couldn’t blame them. For hours, she’d been trying to work out the same.
Priya would have powerful earth magic, just like her. Then there was Mansel’s Nith blood. Earth and creativity. The Sprytes, Nymphs, and Imps were spirits of nature and dreams. Clearly her power made her connected to them somehow. If they could use that, they could easily go deeper into the woods. No one would hunt them there, and the child would be able to keep the woods at bay.
In theory, anyway.
She had no idea how deep that power went, but in the end, it was all they had to go on.
“We go to Achaz Kingdom,” Eviana said in the silence that had descended. “From there, we figure out a way to get in contact with Tessa.”
Lange was shaking his head. “This isn’t a plan. This is banking on dreams.”
