Page 56 of Hidden Fate

“Theron can ride with me, and Hydra, Errol, and two others can ride in the rental car.” Thorn licked his bottom lip.

“I’m going.” Saphira wagged a finger. “I may not have a fated-mate connection, but I want to be involved. These people know me, and more familiar faces will be helpful.”

I hadn’t thought of that. The guards the king had brought had likely worked with him for years.

“Brenton should go as well. He’ll know some of them, too.” Errol strolled to the door to leave the bedroom.

Tyson blocked it. “Why shouldn’t I go? Is it because I used to be injured?”

“What?” Errol shook his head hard. “That’s not it at all. It’s because you were more of a recluse, and Brenton was an advisor to the king for almost as long as I was. People will recognize him, especially since he’s older.”

Tyson’s head hung, and his cheeks burned. “Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”

My chest hurt. Even though he was healed, the way he’d been treated still affected him. I hated that Drake had made him feel like less of a person when he was just as whole as any of us.

“We’ve got a plan.” Vlad clapped his hands. “Now it’s time to execute it. Everly had a good point earlier—donotmention anything to Peter about who our source is. If asked, we saw someone mention this on the Dragonnet. Don’t trust him.”

Our group dispersed to get ready to head out for another long day.

* * *

The car ridewith Vlad wasn’t as awkward as I’d feared.

I wore one of Thorn’s baseball caps, keeping it pulled low over my face in case we passed anyone we knew. Thorn had done the same, and I learned he kept caps around for when he wanted to hide half his face.

Cassidy had packed us some lunch and snacks so we wouldn’t have to stop often on the way there or back. We also brought large coolers filled with sandwiches. There was no telling when these ten guards had last eaten. For all we knew, they were living off the land.

I learned that Vlad had similar tastes in music to Thorn, and I realized Vlad had probably influenced Thorn’s taste growing up. We talked about our hobbies and interests, and when he learned that I loved to paint, his eyes glowed. Though Vlad wasn’t a painter, he’d loved collecting paintings…until his life had changed twenty-one years ago.

As we pulled into our destination parking lot, I stared at a mountain of rocks surrounded by trees. We jumped from our vehicles, ready to search the area for any signs that Drake’s warriors were already here, but as the queen had promised, they weren’t here since darkness hadn’t fallen.

We trooped into the thick black gum, eastern red cedar, and tulip trees. The air was warm, around eighty, and a herd of elk roamed nearby.

Thorn came to my side as we walked deeper into the woods. None of us spoke, afraid we might scare the warriors or miss the sound of a threat. We tried to keep our steps light…feeble.

Vlad and Theron led our group, with Thorn and me right behind them. Hydra and Brenton took the rear, with Saphira and Errol between us.

I found myself enjoying the sun on my skin and being part of nature—something I’d despised as a human. My dragon inched forward, the animal side of me reveling in being free and unbound.

We must have been walking for over an hour when something startled us to our right. It was too large to be an elk and too small to be a bear.

Our group turned and tiptoed toward the sound. I stifled a gasp when I saw one of the king’s warriors who’d been at Theron’s thunder.

One of us kicked a rock. At the rattling sound, the warrior jerked his head around, right toward Hydra.

Someone he didn’t recognize. He spun and ran away as quickly as possible, forcing us to chase him.

The man yelled, “They’re here! Run! They’ve found us.”

“Wait!” Thorn shouted, but that only made them run faster.

They didn’t recognize his voice, which wasn’t surprising. They hadn’t heard him speak much before. Between seeing Hydra and hearing an unfamiliar voice, their panic took over.

Shit. We had to stop them before they disappeared…or Drake’s warriors found us.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

I ran as fastas I could. Our only saving grace was that human hikers could be in the area, and this site could easily be seen, so the men weren’t likely to shift into dragon form unless they were super desperate and afraid. But these were the king’s warriors, and they were loyal—keeping the secret of the existence of dragons even while in danger would be important to them out of respect for their former leader.

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