Chapter 157

Chapter 157
Sarah PoV

Jeremy has the witch in his arms, and she’s unconscious, has he hurt her? That’s not like Jeremy. He’d never hurt a child. I know he wouldn’t.
I rush forward, darting through the crowd of fighting men to try and get to him, I need to save the little girl before anything else happens. If she were my daughter, she’d never have to use her magic again, not unless she wanted to.
I can tell by the way her hair is knotted and black that she has been mistreated, probably starved too with how thin she is. Fuck, why would anyone do this to a child?
Children are precious, innocent. They don’t deserve this, any of it. She doesn’t deserve it.
Goddess above, I hope Jeremy hasn’t hurt her, I don’t think I could ever forgive him if he has. There are ways to get a witch to stop attacking without violence, especially one that doesn’t look a day over eight years old. Maybe younger, it’s hard to tell with all the dirt clinging to her skin.
“Jeremy.” I shout, almost close enough to stop running.
He turns, his eyes loving with mine. “Sarah.” He shouts back. “What are you doing here?” He moves closer, walking surprisingly quickly considering he has the girl in his arms. “You weren’t supposed to come this close to the front line.”
“I had to.” I say, my eyes on the kid. “I had to make sure no one hurt her.”
He follows my gaze, “she’s not hurt.” He tells me. “She’s just sleeping.”
“How did you get her to stop attacking?” I ask, sceptical.
I take a step closer, feeling for her pulse, and sure enough, it’s strong. Really strong. The girl is fine, or as fine as a person can be when they’ve been beaten and starved.
“It was easier than I thought, actually.” He laughs a little, then stops when she stirs in his arms. “She didn’t want to fight, she was being forced to by Alpha Tris. All I did was promise her that we’d protect her and give her a home. I said we wouldn’t hurt her.”
Alpha Tris. I should have known that he’d have something to do with this, there are horror stories about his pack, and we’ve even had some refugees from there. According to everyone I’ve spoken to from his pack, he’s a monster, even with the children.
He’s constantly enlisting children to fight for him by threatening their families.
Did he do the same thing to her?
“And we won’t hurt her.” I stare down at the little girl, my heart aching. “No one will ever hurt her again.”
It was a promise, not to Jeremy, not to me, but to her. To the little girl who should be loved and taken care of, not beaten and forced to fight.
Jeremy smiles at me, gently cupping my cheek with one hand whilst holding onto the girl with the other. “I knew you’d agree.”
I smile back, unable to help myself, his smile has always been infectious. “What’s her name?” I ask, “and where is Drake?”
“He’s sorting some of the dead out I guess.” Jeremy says flatly, “I left him back there.” He point to a vague space behind him. “I was more focused about getting her out of there.” He looks down at her again. “Her name is Sophie.”
Sophie. A beautiful name, for a beautiful little girl.
“We just need to wipe all that dirt away; I bet her blonde hair is stunning and bright.” I say, looking around at the men guarding us from the fighting.
The warriors won’t let anyone hurt me, I know that for certain. But if Alpha Tris notices we’ve got his witch, he won’t be happy, he’ll throw all the men he has left to try and get her back.
We need to hide her.
“Come on.” I say to Jeremy. “Let’s get Sophie out of sight before she draws unwanted attention.”
He nods, adjusting her against his shoulder before he follows me back towards where I left Dylan. There are a lot more warriors over there, if Tris comes, we’ll be able to hold him off together.
“There’s something else.” Jeremy says as we walk swiftly. “Something that Sophie said before she went to sleep.”
I turn to him, “is it important?”
He nods, “I think so.”
I wave my hand at him, wanting to tell him to tell me later, once the fighting was over, but something in my chest told me to listen. Maybe it’s because I know he won’t say it’s important unless it really is. Or maybe it’s the moon goddess guiding me. I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that I need to hear him out.
“Tell me.” I eventually say, my voice colder than I mean it to be.
It must be the stress getting to me.
I don’t do well under immense pressure, I never have.
He takes a breath, a deep one, and I’m not sure why. “She mentioned something about making the warriors she was fighting with stronger, with her magic.”
What? That makes no sense.
“I’m sorry, what?” I frown, stopping in my tracks.
“I think she was boosting the warriors somehow, making them harder to kill. I think that’s why the battle is still going, that’s why they managed to almost kill Dylan.” He looks at me with serious eyes. “But she stopped, she asked me if she could stop because it was hurting her and I said yes.”
Fuck, this changes everything.
If she can make their warriors stronger with her magic we need to get her as far away from the battlefield as possible in case she changes her mind about being on our side. Kids can be unpredictable, and I can’t handle unpredictable right now.
I turn to one of the warriors I trust. “Take this little girl to the bunker and protect her, don’t let anyone you don’t recognise get near her. Understand?”
He looks between Jeremy and me before he nods, “I’ll make sure she’s safe.” He promised.
I watch Jeremy gently hand her over, “if she wakes up, tell her I’m not far away, but I still have to fight the bad guys.”
The warrior nods, turning and walking faster than we did.
“If Tris has realised she’s stopped helping him, this is going to get ugly, and fast.” I say, my eyes on the little girl as she slowly disappears into the crowd of men and women.
“You’re right.” Jeremy says, his voice like ice. “But we can win now that she’s not helping them, we just need to chop off the snakes head.”
“You mean go straight for Tris?” I ask.
“Exactly.” He nods.
Go straight for the head, it’s a good plan, but pulling it off is going to be hard.