Chapter 71 Emrys
EMRYS
Theo paces the length of the living room. He’s been doing it incessantly since Aerin left the apartment with Malice two hours ago. It’s starting to grate on Emrys, but every time he looks at the Mer to say something, Reyna catches his eye and simply shakes her head no.
The Human is reading a text on Fae histories she snuck out of Echelon, sitting on the floor with her legs folded underneath her in her Human form. It’s rare these days, to see her slight in stature with her rounded ears and rounded cheeks. It makes her look young.
Emrys plays with the carpet under his fingers. It’s been a hard week, the tension between Malice and Aerin nearly unbearable for him. The Wellroot he’s been smoking after their gym sessions helps, but navigating his feelings for the both of them is tricky at best and tenuous at worst.
Eventually Malice will find his way, Emrys knows this. He can’t help but hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Theo walks the length of the room once more before groaning.
“This is torturous,” he complains. “Honestly, I should be at this dinner. I’m a Mer Prince for fucks sake.”
Reyna smiles softly. “Mer, being the thing that kept you here,” she snickers.
“Oh, shush, Human. You have no idea the insult it is to be consider less than Fae with the amount of magic I have,” Theo says, half teasing half serious.
“Yes, yes, the almighty Mer.” Reyna’s sarcasm is thick as she flips the page of her book.
“No need to sass me, Pip.” Theo pouts.
“I told you to stop calling me that.” Reyna’s voice fades from his hearing as something else rolls through Emrys like a surge. A block of lights being turned off. A shockwave he feels from the center of his chest outwards. He grips the carpet below him harshly.
Reyna notices the change in his demeanor immediately.
“Emrys?”
He is there but he isn’t; he feels pain, but it isn’t his. There’s a vacuum, a suction of magic out of him as it floods to other members of the pack.
Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is wrong.
His thoughts spin around and around until Reyna’s hand on his knee brings him back to the living room where two sets of eyes stare at him.
“Are you okay?” Reyna’s soft voice asks.
Finally, the words make it from the whirlpool in his head to his mouth.
“Something is wrong.” he stands abruptly.
Reyna reels back; Theo straightens from where he was hunched over Emrys.
“I’m sure everything is fine,” Reyna assures him.
Theo, though, with his heightened senses and anxiety at being separated from Aerin, believes him.
“What did you feel?” he asks, crossing the room. “Can you contact her? Can you speak to her?”
Emrys tries, repeatedly. But the wall Aerin keeps between their minds is impenetrable. Fear constricts in his chest.
“Something is wrong,” Emrys repeats.
He needs to go. They need to go.
Theo rips open the curtains on the far side of the apartment. The ones that face northeast, towards the Royal Village. Where the golden facades of the Royal Village normally shine, all they can see are flames and a massive plume of smoke rising in a dark sky.
Fear grips Emrys so tightly he thinks he might choke on it. Suddenly, Theo is there shaking his shoulders.
“Tell me she is alive, Emrys. You would know, if she were dead. Tell me she is alive.”
Emrys pauses, swallows, tries to think past the fear. To push past it to find those little strings that connected him to his pack. They are there, shining. Two strings. Relief fills him.
At best, they aren’t dead.
“She’s alive, but I can’t reach her. I can’t reach either of them,” Emrys says.
Reyna is in front of him, the Human so short she hardly reaches his chest.
“Khortland?” she asks, her voice thick.
Emrys shakes his head. There is no magical bond between Khortland and Aerin without their Paramyr-bond completed. He has no way of knowing.
Theo is already shoving his feet into shoes by the door.
“We have to go to her. She’s alive right now but who knows how long she’ll be that way.” Emrys is shifted into his Wolf form before Theo finishes his sentence. Theo turns to see a Wolf and a Fae looking at him.
“No.” He points at Reyna. “You stay here. I’m not taking a fragile Human out there when we have no idea what’s happened.”
“Like hell are you leaving me behind,” Reyna snarls, shoving past him into the hallway. Theo sighs but doesn’t fight her. The elevator takes minutes off Emrys’s life. When they finally hit the street, they run.
The closer they get to the Royal Village, the more chaotic things become.
Creatures running away. Guards running towards.
Journalists with cameras. Shouting. It isn’t until they make it through the now unmanned gates that Emrys really understands why.
A section of the East side of the Royal Village is rubble, what is still standing is engulfed in flames.
And somewhere in that mess is his pack.
Emrys is one step from taking off into the fray when his neck is grabbed by Theo. The Mer hauls him up, his front legs lifting off the ground bringing Wolf and Mer eye to eye.
“They need someone to take charge out here. I will get these flames out. But you,” Theo shakes the skin he holds, his green eyes shining with determination, “You go in there and you find her. Do you understand me? You. Find. Her.”