Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Oliver
The door clicks shut behind me and I step out into the forest on shaky legs. Swallowing through my now dry throat, I start walking through our village. All around me, the once vibrant forest is now dark as night, like a fire has blasted through destroying everything in its wake. Our homes are still standing thanks to Jolie and the power of some other enchantresses, thank Silvia.
It’s dead silent out here; everyone staying inside the safety of their homes, scared to come out. My fingernails dig into my palms as I continue walking deeper into the forest. It’s dangerous as fuck being out here, but I need to see how far the damage runs. I need to fly.
After taking a deep breath in and out, I start running at full pace, my shoes crunching against the ash. With a leap, my body transforms into an eagle as I take to the skies. I squeal into the sky as I go higher and higher until I feel like I’m high enough to see the damage. My gaze looks down over Silvia and my heart skips a beat. James has ripped through our village, leaving the rest of Silvia untouched. He clearly wanted to send a message and a message to us only—that he’s coming for us and he will do whatever it takes to keep Silvia under his thumb.
I move through the early morning skies, stretching my wings, looking out for anything else that might be able to help us. Any signs of slayers or Alaric—or anything, for that matter. There are lots of Slayers surrounding the kingdom and guarding the forest. They haven’t moved much from there, which I’m thankful for. We need time to train Dara and find the final stone, ruby. With that, we have some fighting chance at taking back Silvia and putting an end to this darkness that is James. We want to rebuild Silvia and have a chance at being a family without the looming danger at every turn.
I want to show Dara what our life could be like without all of this. The one fear that I can’t shake is that she’ll want to go back to Earth when this is all done. That she’ll leave us again, and I don’t think I can handle that. We have her back now, and I can’t let her go.
She completes us. Brings out the best in each one of us. Without her, we just don’t make sense.
I land back down on the ground and transform into my human form. The cool air sends shivers all over my body. Before heading back home, I check in with Mum and Dad. Dad’s been training everyone in the village so they’re ready for war. Ready to fight to save what’s left of Silvia. Mum’s been worried sick about the girls and sends me back with some food, with a gentle kiss on the cheek.
After checking in on the girls, I make my way down into the training room and throw myself into training. Blair’s there, practising his archery. He’s missing a lot of targets, which isn’t like him at all. He’s trained his whole life to master this skill and never misses. I’m worried about my brother, but I can’t do anything to help him after what he told me the other night. Only he can sort himself out. It kills me deep inside to see my twin broken like this. Knowing that James inflicted pain on him has made me want to storm the kingdom and slit James’s throat. His time will come, and I just hope he’s ready ’cause I won’t be going easy on him. No one touches my family and gets away with it. No one.