I was answered with a nod beneath the cloak.
I squatted before the youngling, trying to get a better look under the hood. “Are your parents here, or are you a Solus? I also bore the name growing up, and there’s no shame in it.” My hand reached out as a peace offer. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
At the same moment my hand reached out, I was frozen where I stood from the next thing that reached my ears. “Elianna, no!” Veli’s voice echoed in a near scream that startled me. “They know!”
Before I had time to react, my gaze whipped back to the child, or what I thought was one. An aged, withered hand shot out from the cloak and gripped my wrist, just as its hood lifted to reveal crimson eyes beneath them and a bone chilling cackle from the crone.
“Fuck!” I hissed as her grip on my wrist tightened, and she tried to pull me to her.
Damn this soft heart of mine.
On instinct, my opposite hand unsheathed my dagger and ripped it through the skin atop her arm, forcing her to release me with a screech of pain.
I nearly tripped over my own feet as I hurried back to Veli and Avery. Soldiers flooded the streets then, coming out from every alley and corner. Kellan was at the front of them, a cruel grin on his face.
“Evening, Princess,” he greeted with a wicked grin, and a growl rumbled through me at the sight of him still alive. “Did you really think we wouldn’t know?”
“We need to run. Now!” Veli screamed as she tugged on our arms, propelling us into a sprint back towards the portal.
“Get them!” he boomed and his soldiers funneled around him, chasing after us as he remained in the square.
“How did they find us?! How did they know?!” I shouted, trying to breathe through the desperate run we were in.
“Azenna must’ve created a shield around the city. You know I have not explored the magic of that book. It could be anything!”
The echoes of armored boots reverberated through the streets as the army of soldiers closed in. Moving swiftly, we darted around corners and deftly weaved through the shadows cast by the towering buildings. We only had a few more blocks until we reached the portal.
“Foolish little heir of the realm.” Azenna’s all-powerful, malevolent voice filled my head. “Did you truly think we would allow you all to just come here and waltz out with our people? The only one who heard your whisper was me. And, my dear, you will never be leaving this city again.”
“Get out of my head, witch!”
“Don’t listen to her, Lia!” Avery boomed.
I let out a scream of frustration as I forced my body to move faster, and out of the periphery of my vision, power lashed out from the side of us.
“Avery, look out!” I tugged her into me, but we both lost our footing and tumbled to the ground.
Veli’s magic lashed out back toward the source of the attack as I pulled Avery to her feet, and we were on the move once more.
“Come on!” I screamed as a volley of arrows soared through the air, narrowly missing us.
As we turned the last corner, the portal appeared, and tears were streaming down my face at the sight of it. We were close. We were so gods-damn close. Veli continued to have her magic attack the soldiers behind us, sending her shadows to devour and choke them the closer they loomed at our backs.
“Don’t look!” she demanded. “Just keep going!”
My steps quickened as we neared the rift, but somehow, time slowed all around me. A figure of swirling, lashing darkness formed at my side, moving along with me in tandem. My eyes whipped in its direction mid run, and what I saw gazing back at me made my heart nearly stop.
The shadows revealed Azenna’s face, an ear-to-ear grin adorning it. “I told you, you will not be leaving the city,Heir of the Realm.”
“No!” Veli boomed from behind me, and suddenly, my body felt as if it would collapse as power slammed into me on all sides.
“Lia!” Avery’s desperate, heart-wrenching scream filled my ears as she reached out for my hand, but it slipped from her grasp.
Azenna’s shadows reached for me, threatening to consume me whole as a burning blast erupted at my back from Veli, sending my body violently soaring through theair and blasting through the opposite side of the portal that was twenty feet before us.
The portal’s essence sizzled my skin, and then my body slammed into the unforgiving terrain of Alaia. The force of Veli’s power sent me tumbling halfway to where our soldiers awaited.
“Lia!” my mate screamed in horror.
