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The man turns, facing them and backing up.
“Run!” Thomas had screamed, and we took off across the pavement, running alongside the forest. The closer we got to it, the more I could feel the activation of the wards surrounding the place.
They were blocking me in. That realization makes my blood run cold when a portal opens up ahead of us. What I’m not expecting was for them to send hellhounds after me. The shaky portal opens up down the end of the parking lot, four of the beasts jumping through it and landing on the pavement. Thomas had grabbed my arm and ripped me back as the hellhounds came for us.
Turning, I spin around to see the dark cloaked fae blocking us from the other way. My head whips back and forth trying to keep an eye on the Dark-Fae figures and hellhounds stalking toward us. Just then, I stumble as I peer at one of the fae. Something about them was off.
I could sense it. Sense the familiarity with them, which made me falter as they approached. Thomas lets off his magic, sending it flying toward the fae, and they are forced back when the hellhounds charged toward us.
“They will come for you,” he screams when he flicks his wrist and opens up a portal. He shoves me, and I try to grab his coat, but the portal sucks me in.
“You could feel her, couldn't you?” Darius whispers to me. My brows furrow in confusion as I watched myself get dumped into the woods.
I was tossed violently against the hard ground and rolled into a tree. Lifting my head, I screamed as the portal shuddered just as I saw the hellhound's teeth rip into his coat. I jump to my feet, running for the portal to help him when it evaporates, leaving me stuck wherever he sent me. When I tried to portal back, I couldn't grasp his location.
“Felt who?”
“And you tried to go back for him,” Darius whispers, avoiding my question. He watches me try to open a portal only for it to fizzle.
I had no idea what city I was in or where we were within its limits. He blocked me completely and now I was in a forest. God knows where and all I could do was pray he is alright. His power was strong. He should be able to fight the hellhounds off, but the fae?
“These woods look familiar. Where did he send you?” Darius asks as the memory continues to play. I had walked in circles for days before finding a road, yet in the memory, I was able to speed it up to when I finally found a road. Darius curses.
“Of course, all we had to do was go home,” Darius whispers, his hand on my arm as he watches me collapse on the side of the road in exhaustion.
“The A wasn't for Aleera,” Darius murmurs.
“Pardon?”
Darius looks at me, his hands clutching my arms tighter.
“I'll show you,” he whispers, and I suddenly experience my memory being rewound and altered until it’s no longer my memory, but his.
ChapterForty-Three
Past Darius is in some warehouse. He presses his hand to a wall and curses because of how low his magic is. Hellhounds follow him like obedient little pets, and I gasp, looking at him. And he swallowed when his phone rang. The hellhounds wander off as he answers it. It is a three-way call; Tobias and Thomas' faces appear on the phone.
“Thomas,” Darius says, watching his hellhounds look around.
“What's up?” Tobias asks his brother, who appears to be in a different location.
“I felt her. She is close.”
“Where are you?” Darius asks, whistling loudly and his hellhounds come bounding back toward him.
“Outside, Astrid,” Thomas tells him, and I blink. Darius' eyes bear into mine, watching my reaction to his words. I had searched for Astrid City and could never find it. When Kalen’s words from months ago come back to me. It isn't a city but a name.
“Wait for us. We will come to you,” Tobias tells his brother.
“I think she is in trouble.”
“Thomas, wait for us. You don't know what you're running into,” Darius tells him, and his brows furrowed when a scream sounds in the background. My scream.
“Thomas. Don't, wait for us.”
“Sorry, brother, but this one is special.”
“Thomas, send me your location, now!” Tobias screams at his brother.
