I call to her again.
“Zorin Aegeris.”
I slam to a stop, knowing that voice. I wheel around. “High Council Elder Lorlin, I’m sorry but I don’t have time to talk.”
“You will talk, or we will have serious problems.”
He stands like a regal silver fox in the breeze.
“My mate is missing.”
“That’s why I’m here. Word arrived that you were at ABR. We know you were with the human, and that she is not entirely human.”
“And?”
“You know we don’t permit bonding with Isonians.”
“Because they’re too much like our goddess?” I snap.
“She is powerful beyond Mindoran capabilities. We have accepted you because you’ve been…diluted enough.”
“I can’t believe you,” I snarl. I’ve had enough. “You really are ungrateful for our alliance with the other planets. You don’tunderstand who is up there. You think you can avoid this war by pretending it doesn’t exist.
“You know what? Keep youMindoranstatus. Defend yourselves. I’m tired of helping you, and you controlling our lives in return.”
He tilts his head and several members of his council’s private security team encircle me like they’re starving and eager to rip me apart.
“Did you take Tessi?” I growl.
“We don’t have her. But we have you surrounded. It’s time you come in and receive your punishment for breaking so many rules.
“They’reyourrules, not mine. Notours.”
The Shifters close in. I can’t kill them all. I need an escape.
Instinct takes over. I drop to all fours and close my eyes. I feel the vibrations in the mountain beneath me. I stretch, soaking in the sunlight. It moves through my mind and body in waves that clash with the darkness inside. I channel into a swirling, pulsating mass. Fissures run through the hillside.
The ground beneath me gives way, and I feel myself sink. But I don’t open my eyes. Not yet. I need to focus if I want to be free.
Claws scrape frantically over rock. Lorlin’s soldiers snarl and shout as they scramble to free themselves from the hole I burrow into the ground.
I drop until the light nearly vanishes, then I release my hold in the darkness. My feet find solid ground again. I stand upright, lift a hand, draw my available energy into my chest and channel it again, punching an exit horizontally through the hill in the direction of my family. I run as my tunnel emerges into the sun again.
My Shifter takes over as I leap out of my tunnel and into the woods. I have to find Tessi, Radar, and Azrim before Lorlin does.
We are out of time.
31: Tessi
Radar doesn’t come back when I call. I run after him with everything I can muster until I’m utterly turned around in the woods. He’s far too fast for me when he’s in sprint mode.
I stop in an opening around a creek and try to catch my breath. “Shit. How did this go sideways so fast?”
A shudder runs through the ground. I look back up at the mountain and realize just how far I’ve run, trying to catch him. But I keep going. I have to. He is my closest family.
“Radar!”
There is no sign of him anywhere. No flash of black fur or rapid panting. And just when I think I’ve lost him completely, I catch a soft rustle in the bushes. I stop.
