AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wild!” I shouted, cupping my mouth and projecting my voice as loud as I could. The wind immediately picked up, carrying the sound away, and I twisted to glare at T. “Why am I here, T? Just let me go,please. You don’t have to land down there if you’re worried they’ll hurt you.” Which was a very valid concern. “Just drop me somewhere nearby and I’ll walk. I have to get to Wild, he needs me.”
T swooped away from the makeshift battlefield, slowing down slightly as we lost altitude. Hope spiked in my chest. Maybe he was going to put me down? Let me go? I didn’t hate T—in spite of the kidnapping, he’d done his best to take care of me and he just seemed so lonely. But I had things to do; I had to find my soul bonds, my loves, and I had to fulfill the prophecy. As much as I wanted to be T’s friend, to show him what a friend could be, I couldn’t stay here.
That spike of hope shriveled up and died in my chest as instead of landing on the ground, T banked right, landing on the roof of a tall, cube-shaped building at least three stories high.
“Seriously?” I muttered under my breath, cursing my luck. There were no other buildings around here. The battlefield they’d chosen seemed to be miles of flat plains, though it was hard to tell for sure in the darkness. T could have landedanywhere elseand I’d have been on the ground.
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t seem keen to let me go once he’d landed. He slithered around the roof, still clutching me in his hand like a toy he didn’t want to let go of, inspecting his surroundings. The roof was a flat square with a chain link fence around all sides, presumably as a safety measure. There was internal access via a door in one corner to whatever the building below was, but T happily parked his butt right in front of it, blocking off the only obvious exit. Or at least the onlysafeone.
“You’re being really mean, did you know that?” I wriggled free of T’s fingers the moment I could, sprinting for the chain link fence and squinting out into the darkness. We were probably only half a mile at most away, and if I looked hard enough, I swore I could make out shapes moving in the darkness. “I’m not apet. You can’t just keep me here.”
T slumped back in the corner he’d chosen, completely concealing the rooftop door from view, an almost petulant look on his face as he tucked his serpent legs beneath him. I turned my back on him, annoyed, and hoisted myself up the fence, arm muscles shaking with exertion as I did so.
The fish, sleep and gallons of fresh rainwater had helped, but I was still weak and my body let me know about it with every shake and tremble. How was Wild marching into battle right now? I was sure he’d found more food sources than me, given that I was being flown around everywhere, but he also required a lot more food than me to function.
With a resigned sigh, I half fell, half climbed back down to the roof, leaning my forehead against the fence for a moment while I caught my breath. The thick wire dug uncomfortably into my skin, distracting me from the simmering burn in my muscles. There was no point even trying to get away tonight. At first light, I’d assess my options and go from there.
As if to reiterate my point, a sudden, entirely unnatural gust of wind blasted me back from the fence, all but shoving me backward across the roof until I was within reaching distance of T’s legs. One of them wound around my middle, yanking me back into the strange little nest he kept making for me.
Like a pet.
I did my best to swat his oversized hand away when he started stroking over my eyelids again, encouraging me to go to sleep.
“Can’t you at least send them some rain? Some fresh water to drink?” I pressed. “Those people down there are my friends. One of them is a man I love. If you wantusto be friends, then you can’t letmyfriends suffer.”
T huffed impatiently, but as I watched, rain clouds formed over the Spartoi army.
“Thank you,” I murmured, hoping I was helping and not hindering. “I’m going to be on that battlefield. And you, T, are going to help me.”
I woke up to the clang of metal against metal and the sound of shouting in the distance. I scrunched my eyes shut, fear and grief hitting me in an overwhelming wave. This was inevitable, I always knew it had been, but I still wished that it wasn’t.
T made a strange rumbling sound of reassurance, patting my head while his legs unwound, more out of pent-up frustration than to intentionally release me from his grip, I thought. I wriggled free, standing on shaky legs. The sun was only just beginning to rise, bathing the world reddish-gold. From the edge of the roof, I watched as the two sides clashed, only able to tell which was which from the shining armor and weapons of the Spartoi. Where was Wild? Was he okay? Had they given him a weapon?
We’d come a long way from the first time we’d met in person. Whenhe’dbeen the one on the roof, armed with throwing knives that he’d hurled with perfect accuracy at the agathos trying to kidnap me. Then again, there was a very good chance he was fighting agathos, and I’d ended up kidnapped yet again, just by a different captor, so perhaps we hadn’t come so far after all.
“What if your mother appears?” I asked T, stalking back across the roof and stopping in front of him with my hands on my hips. He was curled up like an oversized cat, butt still firmly planted in front of the door. “Those are probably agathos down there, and the agathos are her army, whether she wants them or not. Will you fight for her if she asks you to?”
This time, when T opened his eyes, it was to give me an indignant stare. He huffed out a puff of smoke before lifting his giant head, shaking it once. He clambered onto his strange legs, slithering forward while hunching to keep a low profile, and I briefly got my hopes up that we were going to go down there and intervene. Instead, T cocked his head, and the entire battlefield was hidden from view under thick, charcoal-colored clouds, occasionally lit up by flashes of lightning running through them.
If I was being charitable, I’d say that he was trying to limit the extent of the damage both sides could do by raining them out, but it was more likely that he thought I wouldn’t pay them any attention if I couldn’tseethem.
Not likely. I was getting to that battlefield if it was the last thing I did.
Chapter 20
Idisentangledmyselffroma sniping, bitter conversation between two of the human families staying in the camp, waving over Brio to intervene with his Harmonia gifts. It wasn’t sustainable—every agathos gift required a sacrifice, and Brio maintaining harmony among other relationships created discord in his own with us, which was especially frustrating since all of us outcasts lived together at The Lodge. It wasn’t fair to keep relying on him so heavily, especially when the in-fighting had been so relentless. We were all exhausted.
Brio gave me a nod of acknowledgment as he waded into the fray, and instead of returning to The Lodge to grab the linen that needed washing, I made my way down to the river without any laundry to catch my breath.
The very air itself felt different, and with it had come a fresh wave of restlessness. The constant buzz of agitation had built to a roar of frustration, and I had no idea why.Whythe winds of change had blown in this angrier, more violent direction. What did it mean?
Hadn’t we gone through enough?
“How are you doing?” Chance asked, coming to stand next to me as I looked out over the river.
“I’m tired,” I admitted, staring down at the still surface and trying to compose myself.
“I’m not surprised. You’re so busy all the time.” He laughed humorlessly. “You left our place a teenage girl, and now you’re a grown woman with more responsibility than any one person should carry.”
