Page 80 of Fated to Monsters

“Where have you been hiding out?”

Wren flits her attention back at me before opening her mouth to speak. “Arthlia.”

Pippa stops and I nearly run into her. “That’s impossible.”

Wren pauses, too. “It’s not. We left the day after Rockbridge. We’ve been there about a week.”

“A week? Honey, the last I saw you was over a month ago.”

“A month?” Wren meets my gaze.

Pippa points to the compass. “Where are you heading?”

“North. I was told there’s a group of rebels hiding out that we could align with.”

“There isn’t much left of the north. It’s a wasteland.”

I swallow the lump that forms in my throat. There’s already been so much loss, when will it ever stop?

“I have to try.” Wren continues moving in the direction we came here for. “If we can get help, maybe some intel, we can eliminate her.”

“Is that why you came back? To kill her?”

Wren nods. “I never meant to abandon you.” She moves a branch out of the way and walks past it, holding it long enough for me to latch on before it snaps me in the face. “I would have come sooner if I could have.”

“If it’s been a month, there’s no telling when he’ll pull us back. We may have more time than we think,” I tell her.

“What do you mean?” Pippa asks.

“We’re not actually here,” Wren explains. “We’re astral projecting. Our physical bodies are on Arthlia. This was an impromptu recon mission.”

“You appear here.”

“Yeah, I don’t really understand how it works. I didn’t think I could get hurt, either, and well…” Wren holds out her arm. “This blood is very much mine.”

“And that alpha beacon is very much engaged, too.”

“That I knew would happen. When I traveled to Balial’s hell dimension, it went off.”

“You went where?” Pippa’s footsteps thunder against the ground.

I thought I was the loud one, but mine are whispers compared to hers. Gary doesn’t seem to make much noise but I’m not that thrilled about that considering I can’t tell how far or near he is to me at any given time unless I’m looking right at him.

“According to Balial, Prania was sealed off ages ago to keep Parla contained. If I can kill her, maybe they’ll reopen the realm and those that remain can be set free.”

“Why didn’t they just kill her themselves if they were capable of sealing off a whole realm?” Pippa asks the same question we all wondered, too.

"She kept evading them. It made the most sense for them to do what they did. Can't say I agree with their methods, but apparently, it was for the greater good. She had planned on eliminating all demonic creatures, no matter how big or small their demonic nature was."

“Sick bitch,” Pippa says.

“She has to be stopped.” Wren pauses and puts out her arm before pressing her index finger to her lips. Her gaze flits to each one of us, even the wolf that attacked her. “This way,” she mouths.

We follow her slowly into a bit of overgrown shrubbery. She kneels on the ground and peers through an opening.

I step closer to her and look for myself, noting the smoking structure ahead of us.

A group of at least six soldiers surveys the place. All wearing identical outfits with matching buzz cuts. I recall walking into hunter territory and stealing those provisions, not entirely sure if I would make it out of there alive. I escaped with more than my life and almost lost it again moments later. Bo and I struggled to stay alive while trapped in Rockbridge's territory, but we did everything we could to rescue Wes and Wren from that hellish prison. Even if that meant bombing the place until we could locate them.

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