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Liam, Lyra, and Zion crowded to the back, and the entire wagon shook with Hills’s unbound strength now that she was no longer subdued. In one swift kick, the gate smashed open, torn from its hinges, and the iron clattered to the ground.
Since everyone who had been gassed was a bit unsteady on their feet, Callon and Ada helped them climb out of the cage. They murmured with anxious relief as they stretched and reveled in their sudden freedom.
Hills made her way to the second cage with Farris and Saira, and I went to my son.
“You were so brave,” Del murmured, holding him tight against her. She squeezed her eyes shut, likely thanking her Patrons that, once again, Liam was safe.
I wasn’t sure how much more of this Del could take. How muchIcould. First, Alastor and King Eduart, then Maylar and the usurper. Now, this?
Liam peered up at me with a different sort of fear in his eyes. “I saw them,” he said, his voice reedy. “When they snuck into camp, but it was too late. I tried to send Nyx, but I couldn’t—”
“Hey,” I told him, crouching to take his hand. The disappointment in Liam’s voice was soul-crushing. “There was nothing you could’ve done. That device of theirs made certain you couldn’t have.” I held my son’s shoulders, staring into his eyes, praying he saw the pride I felt for him. “You were very brave, Liam. Much braver than I was when I was captured.”
His brow furrowed—even Del seemed to stiffen hearing that—and Liam licked his lips, his head tilting slightly. “You were caught by slavers?”
I nodded, only allowing myself to think about those three days now that Liam was no longer in danger. “My sister and I were. I was eight, and it was the first time I met Jake—he came to get us out, just like your mother and I will always come for you. No matter what.”
After that day, Jake started coming around more and staying longer each time, until one year, he decided not to leave at all. “You were far braver than me.”
Liam nodded, and my heart nearly burst as he wrapped his arms around me.
I held him tightly, squeezing my eyes shut. “I’m proud of you.”
“Here,” Lyra said, coming up to us with a canteen. “Water.” She handed it to Liam. All the captives looked parched and drained from the beating sun, desperate for shade and water. But it was Lyra I was worried about.
I stared into her eyes. “Are you okay?” It wasn’t her thirst or bruises that concerned me but the old wounds likely reopened. Her second run-in with slavers in recent years.
Lyra nodded and looked down at Liam, her eyes gleaming slightly, but I left her alone. “Drink up,” she told him. “There’s plenty more.”
Liam gulped a few long pulls down, gasping for a breath when he was finished.
“Hey, Liam,” I said carefully, knowing he was exhausted, but I had little choice. He wiped his mouth dry with the back of his hand. “We need to make sure there are no more slavers.” I glanced at Del, watching us with red-rimmed eyes.
I stood, looking between Liam and the ravens who had flown over from the forest at some point and landed on the metal cage. “Will you help Nyx and Sid check the roads?” Tick was already sniffing around the back of the churchyard, looking for any unseen danger. “I need my attention focused here.”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding as he licked his lips.
“Come on,” Del said, curving her arm protectively around Liam’s shoulders. “Let’s sit in the shade and get you out of the sun.” She gave me a tight-lipped smile and led Liam over to a fallen headstone in the shade of a poplar tree.
While Callon and Ada helped distribute water to the others, I focused on the cart horses and the few tied to the wagon the slavers had collected along the way. The animals were still restless and reeling from all the commotion, tugging and pulling against their ties and tack, desperate to get away.
“Shh,” I breathed, drawing closer. Callon was busy retrieving gas grenades from where they had been stashed under the benches in each of the wagons, but I hardly noticed as I tried to soothe all the horses, my mind extending to theirs in supplication. Slowly, I reached out to the closest one and pressed my palm to his face as I closed my eyes.Friends.
There was a moment when I felt the shift. A moment when not only the horse understood, but I felt a calm overcome me as well, and the adrenaline coursing through me subsided enough to feel the ground under my feet, the breeze against my skin, and the air in my lungs as I drew a breath in and out. I felt grounded again.
Rarely had I been completely cut off from my powers, and it was a strange sensation, like part of me was missing. I breathed with the horse, relishing the feeling of connection again.
There was something else on the periphery of my mind. A tingling sensation that I’d felt before but couldn’t quite place, and I nudged it, uncertain what it was.
“Fin,” Callon said quietly at my side. My eyes popped open, refocused, and I looked at him.
He nodded behind him to where the others sat under the shade of an old oak tree, hydrating as they tried to gather themselves after such a taxing ordeal. They weren’t looking at me but at the caged Ferals.
I scanned the Ferals’ faces, just as browbeaten and slicked with sweat as our people were. Nearly a dozen of them watched us with as much anger as they had apprehension and desperation. Then I saw her.
Shrewd blue eyes. Long, coal-black hair. The woman from the forest. The Feral who had led the attack on the Mantis envoy and had let me take the Sierra soldiers’ uniforms. Her eyes were locked on me. I saw the recognition gleaming back at me. I saw the uncertainty as much as I saw her curiosity, the same as I felt.
Hers was the mind I could feel. Or perhaps all of theirs—a gentle nudge against my consciousness.
