Chapter 13
Kiara
When I woke, I didn’t know how much time had passed. There was no indication of the time of day in the cold room that I was kept in: no windows, no clock, just sterile, buzzing light. My body was stiff from being cramped in the cage, and my shoulder hurt from lying on my side. At least I’d managed to squirm free of the cords Colt had left around my arms. Stretching my limbs in the little space I had, I sat up on my knees and stared blearily into the room, listening for evidence that somebody might be nearby. Not that anybody in this house would help me. But if Colt was around, that might give me another opportunity to try to escape.
There was only stillness. I sighed, my shoulders sagging in dismay.
The disappointment accompanying the stillness was so much heavier than I’d anticipated. It struck me like a freight train, the weight of some intangible sadness I couldn’t describe. My heart became lead and dragged me back down to the floor, where I lay and stared into nothingness, letting tears bubble up from my eyes and roll down my cheeks. Vivid empathy for some unknown loss strangled me, and if I’d known what it was for, perhaps I would have been better equipped to deal with it. But I had no idea why I felt this way, and it overwhelmed me. For an hour, I found myself shaking, suddenly doubting that I could be strong enough to endure this. Was I crying because I was trapped? My sorrow didn’t feel like my own.
The intense emotion drained me of energy, leaving my eyes stinging and my chest aching until I drifted back into a fragmented dream. When I woke the second time, it was to hunger, thirst, and a full bladder.
Sorrow still haunted me, but it was tolerable now that the most intense waves of empathy had passed. My biological needs made it easier for me to concentrate on escaping. I didn’t want to soil myself in this cage, and I especially didn’t want Colt to find me in a puddle. Although, the idea of letting myself die of dehydration in my human form was appealing.
I crawled over to the cage door and stuck my fingers through the wire to examine the padlock. It was a standard 30mm brass padlock that took a small key. With enough force, it could be broken open, but I couldn’t access it well enough to strike it with anything. My only other option was to pick the lock. And fortunately, as a unicorn hybrid, my mother had been conscious enough of the dangers to our kind that she’d prepared me for instances where I might need to escape capture. She taught me to pick locks when I was young, and that skill had come in handy more than once while on the run these past few months. I just needed something to use as a pick.
The cage was in the middle of the room. I couldn’t reach anything from here, and all I had in the cage with me were a couple of bungee cords.
Another wave of melancholy paralyzed me, and I slumped into a ball as I retreated inwardly, bemoaning that I wouldn’t get anywhere without a good pick for the lock. What was I supposed to do now? Was I going to be trapped here until Colt’s despicable pack came to drag me to my fate? Had I truly failed in rescuing my mother?
No. It can’t end like this.
I gritted my teeth and pushed myself upright. I had to think. Grabbing two bungee cords, I linked them together and, holding on to one end, flung them between the wire walls of the cage toward the counter. Unfortunately, as I’d predicted, I couldn’t reach anything on it—and I even lost one of the bungee cords when it unhooked from the one in my hand. Damn it. Okay, maybe I wasn’t going to be able to pick the lock. There had to be something else I could do!
Returning to the idea of breaking the padlock, I stared at my nemesis, assessing it, and then remembered that if I could pull the shackle and tap on the side, it might be possible to dislodge the tumblers inside. But again, I couldn’t do that from inside the cage, not with the limited accessibility I had. Using the bungee cord, however…
I looped the cord through the shackle, secured the hook, and then stretched the cord as far as I could, hooking the other end to a crossbar of the cage’s frame. The tension on the shackle would pull it apart for me. Then, I reached my fingers between the wires of the cage door, tilting the padlock carefully with one hand; with the other, I tapped hard with my fingertip. Every now and then, I heard a click. It was mind-numbing—I kept at it for what felt like an hour, my fingers aching from the effort. Finally, my determination was rewarded when, with one fateful tap, the lock cracked open.
I stared in disbelief. It had actually worked! My sore fingertips were worth it.
Freedom was within reach. I frantically removed the padlock, kicked open the door, and crawled out of the cage. A delicious moment was spent stretching my arms and legs, breathing deeply in relief at my victory. But I had to hurry—now that I’d escaped my cell, I couldn’t waste any more time.
Leaving the cold room, I made my way up the basement stairs and into the dinette Colt had dragged me through. The sun shone brightly outside, clear blue skies suggesting warmth in the air. Even the sunshine pouring in through the glass door felt nice on my skin. The floor was strangely clean, though I remembered having left a mess behind when Colt was taking me downstairs. No matter. I paused to listen and look around me a few seconds longer, but it was clear nobody was in the house and hadn’t been all day. After unlocking the door and stepping through, I didn’t bother closing it again—perhaps a final act of defiance toward Colt, leaving his doors wide open as I fled into the yard. Then, I shifted, resuming the form of my hybrid beast.
Once I was animal again, I roared with hunger. My first priority was to eat, but all I could do was forage, even though the anger that had been rekindled in me made me want to attack something. And still, sorrow lingered deep in my chest in a way I couldn’t dispel. Resisting these emotions, I focused on tracking down a meal.
After I got something in my stomach, I could think a little more clearly, but anger won out. I was unbelievably mad at Colt, remembering how he’d spoken to me like he was on my side, like our fated mate bond was enough to make him want to defend me from his wicked family and the dragons. Obviously, he had been lying to me, which made it even worse that he dared get close enough to pleasure me. He was using me! Despite the inevitable blood poisoning, I wanted to sink my teeth into him and make him pay. But first, I had to find both him and my mother.
And how was I supposed to do that?
I was in the heart of Dalesbloom territory now. There was no sign of wolves or dragons here except for old, stale scents. All I could think to do was to scour the territory until I ran into them.
That became the rest of my day. Powered by vengeance, I ran the perimeter of Dalesbloom from the northwest to the northeast, only catching whiffs of day-old stench. I would have thought they’d visit their own borders, but it seemed they hadn’t come this way all day. Following the eastern perimeter south, I approached the neutral zone that met with Eastpeak’s territory, then headed west again. It seemed unlikely that I would encounter Dalesbloom or the Inkscales on the boundaries adjacent to Eastpeak or Grandbay, but I did catch a whiff of two things of interest.
They caught my scent at the same time.
Two voices barked through the trees as the sun sank westward. My fur bristled, body tensing as I zeroed in on the two approaching wolves: one, a delicate, golden palette clutching a backpack in her teeth; the other, a fiery auburn—both of them with tails wagging and ears pointed forward. I stood my ground as Billie and Aislin trotted up to me, sniffing and exchanging lupine whimpers of joy to see me. What do they care? But when their eyes quickly changed and showed worry, I realized they must have smelled Hexen Manor on me.
Raising my head, I conveyed without words that I still intended to hold them at arm’s length. The females pulled back; Billie dropped the bag before her tongue dashed out against her nose, and Aislin flashed her teeth with enthusiasm. Billie grabbed her backpack again, and they both turned away; then, they looked back at me, imploring me to follow them. I didn’t know what they intended to show me, but if they were taking me back to Alpha Everett’s place, I wasn’t going to stick around. Still, I supposed I’d see what they were up to, for now.
With me loping behind Billie and Aislin, we ventured into the mountainous terrain, approaching the junction of Eastpeak, Grandbay, and Dalesbloom territories. The area was still neutral ground—and for a good reason. The closer we got, the more I could feel discomfort in my veins, a ringing in my ears, and a bit of nose blindness that I wasn’t accustomed to. Something seemed to be distorting my senses, and I could tell the other two felt it, too.
Under a rocky ledge, the girls transformed. I took their cue and shifted into my human form, as well. Our naked bodies caught the faint glow of the waxing crescent, an omen of what little time we had left before the Lycan ritual.
“Half a mile away is an abandoned silver mine,” Aislin explained, pulling on shorts and a t-shirt from the backpack. It was much too cold on that autumn night for such sparse clothing, but she seemed unaffected by the chill. “Billie and I think that’s where they’re hiding.”
“Wouldn’t that be stupid of them? Wolves are vulnerable to silver,” I said.
“Exactly,” said Billie, now in leggings and a long-sleeved shirt. She handed me a pair of leggings and a t-shirt, too. “The silver ore masks their presence to wolves. We never would have been able to detect them. But Gavin told me he and Catrina used to go to the mine, which made me think the Hexens aren’t afraid of being there. Aislin and I decided to check it out, just to see; and if we find evidence of them, we’ll go back and tell everyone.”
As I finished pulling on the clothes Billie had given me, I said, “If we find them there, I’m going in. I have to rescue my mom.”
Billie’s eyes widened. “That would be suicide. We need to be strategic and enlist the help of Mythguard. If you just walk in, you’ll be handing yourself over to them.”
“But I have a feeling you might have already done that,” said Aislin, scrunching her nose.
“Colt captured me and locked me in his basement. I didn’t go with him by choice,” I said.
Aislin rolled her eyes. “Oh, of course. Fucking Colt.”
Lacking the patience to argue about my plan, I charged ahead, intent on investigating this silver mine.
“Wait,” said Billie.
I glanced back and saw her extending a handgun to me.
“I brought this just in case. I already know there’s no reasoning with you, so here. Take this to protect yourself.”
I grabbed the gun and weighed it in my hands. I’d never used one before. My thanks was expressed in a brisk nod before I continued, this time with Billie and Aislin following me. If Dalesbloom and the Inkscales were hiding in that mine, then my mother would be there, too, and I’d put a bullet in anyone who stood between us.