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Two mages were down. The other four were rallying, two slinging lightning and fire from their hands in arcing waves, trying to beat Nica and the wolf back. The other two had retreated toward the door of the building and were chanting something while their hands surrounded a glowing orb floating between them. I didn’t know what the orb did, but it couldn’t be good for us.
I grabbed one of the short swords I’d attached to my belt and swooped in, throwing with practiced aim. The sword struck the orb, shattering it. A second later, a wave of force shot out, knocking me backward. Dizzy, I lost track of my wings and of my position between earth and sky. I hit the ground hard, knocking all the air from my lungs as the jarring impact radiated through me. For a moment, I couldn’t even breathe, my body locked up with shock and pain.
“Wey!” Nica shouted before he fell to his knees in the dirt beside me.
His hands ran over my chest, arms, and legs, looking for wounds before I managed to wheeze out, “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine! You just got knocked out of the sky!”
“Nica,” I said, finally managing to move my arms enough to grip his hands. “I’m not injured. Just stunned. Got the breath knocked out of me.”
Around us, the rest of our group had arrived and were tearing into the remaining mages. Seph’s bear dropped a limp, bloody body from his maw and roared in victory. The other shifters joined in. There were more than six bodies on the ground, but the shifters who’d taken magical hits were still breathing. The mages weren’t.
“You good, Weylyn?” Kasper asked, landing beside Nica and me.
“I’m good. Just stunned from impact.”
He nodded. “Glad you busted that orb. Fully formed, that blast might have decimated us.”
I nodded, climbing to my feet and not even growling when Nica slipped an arm around me to help. “I was thinking that as well.”
Kasper clapped me and Nica on the shoulders. “Good work, both of you. Now let’s find what we came here for.”
* * *
It had been hours.The outpost building had been torn apart—walls knocked down, floor ripped up—but the armor was nowhere to be found. In a last-ditch effort, with the sky lightening with dawn’s approach, we all fanned out from the building to search for another possible hiding place.
Nica was quiet beside me, both of us walking slowly through the sparse trees and using all our senses to locate anything out of the ordinary. A cloud of disappointment hung heavy in the air. What if we’d had it all wrong? What if it was all for nothing? I shook my head. I couldn’t let thoughts like that take over. We’d freed dozens of slaves from Holcot’s convoy, and if nothing else, that was a victory.
Nica sighed. “What if we can’t find it?” He kicked at a rock, completely unabashed in his nudity. “What if it’s not even here?”
I stopped and turned him to face me, resting our foreheads together. “Then we’ll fight this war without it.” Leaning back, I held his green gaze with mine. “I’d rather die fighting to keep us free than live another day under mage rule. Armor or no armor. We fight.”
One corner of Nica’s mouth quirked up. “Who knew you’d be such an amazing lieutenant?”
With a playful growl, I poked him in the stomach.
He chuckled, pulling in a deep breath as he turned back to keep searching, only to stop a second later. “Do you smell that?”
With a frown, I inhaled. My nose wasn’t as sensitive as Nica’s or most shifters, but there at the back of my throat, I caught a scent I recognized, faint as it was. “It smells like… Florin.”
Nica shifted, faster than I’d ever seen him, and tore away from me, leaving rivets in the dirt from his claws. I sprinted after him, watching how he ran with his nose in the air for a moment before dropping his head and sniffing along the ground.
He veered toward the mountain, powerful legs propelling him up the sloping hills that made up its base. There were too many trees for me to take flight, so I followed on foot as quickly as I could. But on four legs, Nica was much faster than me. I lost sight of him. Pushing as hard as I could, I made up ground only for his voice to reach me a second later.
“Wey! Over here!”
Heart in my throat, I ran toward him. Could Florin be here? Here with Theon? And Braz? I’d know their scents anywhere, and they’d never touched this place. All the thoughts swirling in my head ground to a halt when I reached Nica’s side. He was crouched down over dug-up earth, inspecting what looked like a small square stone door carved into the mountain’s side. An entire bush, roots and all, lay on its side a few feet away. Nica’s dirt-covered hands reached for the door.
“Wait!” Lunging forward, I grabbed his wrists.
He growled at me, bright green eyes still slitted like the tiger under his skin.
“Nica. It could be protected by magic. I won’t lose you. Take a deep breath. Even if Florin was here, Theon wasn’t.”
Nica shuddered, eyes fading back to human. He hung his head, breath coming in panting gasps. “I know. I just…”
Letting go of his wrists, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him away from the door. He breathed against me for a few minutes before straightening up and meeting my gaze.
