161: Nik's POV
161: Nik's POV
Darius was shivering by the fire, holding his palms out toward the flames for warmth. I’d placed runes surrounding the nearby area, keeping us hidden by sight and sound from our enemies. Still, we both stayed primarily silent. For the last few days and nights, words hadn’t been exchanged between us at all. We’d just fallen into the natural routine of being two brothers who were fleeing from their enemies.
Walk or run for miles on end through the day. Hunt and forage for food as we went. Settle in and take shifts keeping guard through the night.
He was angry with me for the way I’d behaved with Ada going, and he had every right to be. I’d put us all into a terrible position and left us open for attack. My behavior had been erratic. But this silence and perpetual running? I think he was punishing himself. What for? I wasn’t sure even he knew.
I’d figured out pretty quickly after Phoenix and Dagger had disappeared that something had gone horribly wrong. Then, we’d watched as the ships along the shore started to get hit with cannons. It had felt like all hope had been lost until a couple dozen ships seemed to blink out of existence.
With one look at each other, Darius and I had taken off back toward the Forest of the Forgotten. I’d used my shadows to block us from view as best as I could, but was sure at least some enemies would be following. Now, on the seventh day of running, we were nearing the edge of the forest. We’d been slowed down by the disconnect from our wolves, finding that we were hungrier and more tired than usual.
Tonight, we would have to talk. We needed to decide what we were doing together. I looked up at Darius, who was still staring at the flames and holding his palms out. When I cleared my throat, his head snapped up to look at me.
My voice was hoarse. “We need to decide where we’re going.”
“Where do we even begin, Nik?” Darius sighed, dropping his hands into his lap. “We don’t even know if they’re alive.”
Wolves or not, I had to believe we would know if Ada and Phoenix were dead. And I didn’t feel that gaping hole in my soul that I expected from that loss. I nodded slowly, tossing a pinecone into the fire. “They’re alive, Darius.”
“You can’t know that,” he insisted.
“I have to believe it,” I snapped, shadows flaring around my hands. “They’re alive, and we need to figure out what we are doing. How we can help them?”
Darius blinked at me. After a few silent moments, he sighed, “If they are alive, where would they go?”
“Assuming they made some kind of deal and Phoenix was able to advise on tactics,” I ran through a dozen or so scenarios in my head, “They would go to the Midnight Pack.”
“Strategically, yes. But what if they didn’t make a deal and Phoenix isn’t advising?” Darius countered, crossing his arms over his chest.
My brother’s face was smudged with the dirt and soot of the last week. Dark circles were beneath his eyes, and his usually tan and bright skin was taking on a sheeny pallor. Some of this was stress, some of it was lack of sleep. But most of it was the Forest. He wasn’t meant to be here.
I shrugged, “We should still go to the Midnight Pack. Based on what we saw, they’d pulled all of the forces from that area.”
“The rebellion started there. It isn’t safe.”
“Nowhere is safe, Darius,” my voice was low, my shoulder sinking forward as I slouched and dropped my head in my hands, “Everywhere here is now enemy territory. We have no allies, no army, and no strength. Our best bet is to flee to where the best-case scenario is.”
He gave me a curt nod and then leaned back against a nearby tree. Darius closed his eyes, signaling the conversation was over. I sighed and looked into the flames. I’d expected my love for Ada to have faded slightly with the disconnect from my wolf. There was still this aching feeling in my chest, this emptiness in my bones without her. It told me that my love for her had very little to do with my wolf.
Did she feel the same way? Was she thinking about me? If she was smart, she would assume I was dead and prepare for the worst. Knowing her, she’d probably resolved herself to this— but only after someone had to hold her back from coming for us. Probably Blade and Dagger, if I had to guess.
I looked up at the sky. It was a cloudless night, and the moon was high, full. The constellations were all clear. Crickets were chirping; the sound carried along with the blissful cool night breeze. Everything around us smelled like campfire and pine. The trees had been whispering the last few nights, calling to both Darius and me in familiar voices. Tonight, they were silent.
A few of my shadows slithered beyond my rune border, slowly slinking across the ground to return to me. As they crawled up my body, whispering into my ear, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
He’s here, the sound came from the shadow on my right. He’s here, the shadow on my left. He’s here, the forest around me seemed to scream. I jumped to my feet, suddenly hearing the same two words — He’s here— from every direction. The sound grew louder with each spin I completed, the voices seeming to close in on me from every direction.
Just as they reached their pinnacle, all sound in the forest died out. Darius jolted awake just as the fire was extinguished behind me. Everything went still. The breeze had stopped, the chirping had died out. I narrowed my eyes at a growing group of shadows. They seemed to be moving toward us, taking a solid form.
A figure emerged from the shadows, metal armor glinting in the moonlight. The man was still too far for me to make out any details of his features, but his voice carried across to me and sounded like he was talking in my ear— which was alarming because I could swear his mouth wasn’t moving at all:
“I’m looking for my daughter, and I believe you are two of her mates. Her name is Ada. Can you tell me where she is?”