Page 67 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

“The hellhounds took his magic. They said there was something unnatural about it?” Sam tilted his head to the side, like he was trying to remember. “Anyway, they took it because they said it wasn’t safe.”

“That’s not possible.”

Henry tucked in closer to Sam’s back.

“Look, lady, I don’t know who this person is who wants Henry’s magic, but you can’t take what isn’t there, okay? You don’t think it’s possible? Why don’t you go ask your bossman? He’ll tell you. I’m new to all this stuff, but I know what I saw. And that hellhound guy is not someone I would fuck around with. He was really pissed off.”

Her breaths came in gasping huffs and her face splotched red. “I’ll be back.”

She stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Okay. That… worked better than I expected.” He turned and knelt in front of Henry. “How are you doing, buddy?”

Henry shrugged in that careless way of kids that meant everything was wrong. It tore Sam apart in a whole new way and he reached for Henry. Henry stiffened against him, his body trembling in fear. “I’m here, Henry. I’m here.”

Henry pushed away, though, and turned his back on Sam.

“Henry?”

“You lied, Sam.”

The bottom dropped out of Sam’s stomach. He may not be the alpha, but he’d certainly taken on the role of one. And alphas don’t lie.

“I know I did. I’m sorry that upset you. I’ll never lie to you, Henry, but we needed some time to think, didn’t we? I wanted to get her out of here so we could figure something out.”

Henry wiped his arm over his face before turning to face Sam once more. “I don’t like it here.”

“I don’t either. I don’t suppose you know how to open that hole back up, do you? So we could just hop back home?”

Henry shook his head. They were locked in a room Sam only barely recognized as one of the back rooms in the farmhouse they’d found the kids in. It was empty and the windows still had bars over them. “Think, Sam. Think.”

“Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you open a window?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

Henry held up his wrist once more, showing the leather band. “Because Meshaq said if I called him, he would come.”

And his magic needed air to work. Sam pulled Henry into a quick hug. “Let me try.”

The windows wouldn’t open, but Sam eyed the old glass. He pulled off his T-shirt and wrapped it around his hand. “Step back.”

The first hit of his fist onto one of the old panes cracked it, and with the second, he was able to punch through the glass. The shirt only provided some protection and Sam felt the shards of glass embed into his hand. He hid the injury from Henry, though, and gestured to the open square. “That work?”

Henry nodded and moved over to the window. He closed his eyes and the air picked up in the room, a cool breeze which quickly turned colder. Sam took the opportunity to unwrap his hand and found several bleeding wounds. One particularly bad cut worried him, so he bit the end of his shirt and made a hole with his teeth. He used that to tear a strip of fabric off to use as a makeshift bandage.

“Sam, you’re hurt.”

“It’ll be okay. We’ll get Alpha here and he’ll be able to patch me up. Help me tie this around it though? I don’t want to bleed all over the place.”

Sam wrapped the strip around the worst of the wound and held the ends up for Henry, who tied the knot. “So, did you call him?”

Henry nodded. “Zaire said even if someone tries to block the air from me, they can’t block it all the way. She said I had to find it and use it.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”