Chapter 20
Dev
We watched the trucks patrol the highway from our hiding place in the trees.
They drove past, one after another.
Every truck stamped with that damn sun crest.
Fucking Order.
Kieran had driven our truck off-road and buried it beneath brush and shadow in the dark of the night.
If we were caught on the highway right now, there would be nowhere to go.
We had retreated to the thick scrub and forest that lined the Aurelion. Deep enough for the dark to swallow us whole.
We were forced to watch Sy shift on the riverbank.
His bones cracked. A sharp grunt tore from him as the dragon folded inward.
He did not flinch.
Even with the gaping wound in his arm.
Now he stood in borrowed clothes that barely contained him, glowering at K and me. Ash braced his injured arm tight against his chest.
The bolt had torn through his wing. The landing wrenched his leg.
He was struggling to stand. But if he decided to move, none of us could have stopped him.
“Where the hell did all these soldiers come from?” Ash muttered.
“They’ve been mobilising since we arrived,” Kieran said quietly. “They know we’re in the area.”
“This isn’t mobilisation,” I said. “It’s an occupation.”
“How the hell are we going to get through that?” Ash asked.
Engines growled along the highway. More headlights cut through the dark.
“We need to find Seph,” Sy said, his eyes narrowed.
“Maybe if you hadn’t taken her out of the compound none of this would have happened!” Kieran said coldly.
Sy went very still.
Then he hissed.
“Enough, the pair of you!” I snapped. “This isn’t helping. Seph is out there. And the longer we stand here arguing, the worse it gets for her.”
“What if those soldiers caught her?” Ash asked, voice splintering.
“They didn’t,” I said – too fast.
No one said anything for a second.
Kieran’s jaw tightened. “We won’t blunder in blind. We split up. Two track the soldiers. Two go along the river.”
He glanced toward the highway. “I’ll follow them. Get eyes on what we’re dealing with. Then I can warn Elliot.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll take the forest path along the river toward Telluride.” The routes to my old stomping ground were already mapping themselves in my head. “Sy — head the other way. Toward Whitford.”
Sy growled, his body coiled tightly. His gaze hadn’t moved from Kieran’s face.
Kieran turned to Ash. “You’re with me. Your air can cover us.”
Ash’s glare was instant. “I want the river.”
“You can’t,” Kieran didn’t blink.
“She’d go that way. It’s cover. It’s water. It’s—”
“It’s predictable,” Kieran cut in. “And if those soldiers have her, I can’t take them alone.” His eyes locked onto Ash’s. “I need your air.”
Silence stretched tight between them.
Ash’s hands flexed at his sides. His jaw ground once, hard — like he was swallowing fire.
“And if not for me,” Kieran said, quieter now, steel threaded through it, “then do it for her. You know she’d want that.”
Ash swallowed. The fight drained out of him, leaving something stripped raw in its place.
“Believe me,” Kieran said softly. “I don’t want anything to happen to Seph.”
He looked away for a fraction of a second — like he didn’t trust his face to hold.
“I care about her too,” he added. “I always did.”
I snorted before I could stop myself.
Kieran’s gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade. “Got something to say, Dev?”
“No,” I said flatly. “Not now. Not while she’s missing.”
Kieran held my stare a second longer than necessary. Then he nodded once. “Okay. We meet back at the compound in three days.”
Sy didn’t respond.
He turned and limped off, already moving as if the pain were an inconvenience rather than a warning. His body was trying to kick-start its healing — muscle knitting, breath evening out — but the damage was still there.
“You don’t think—” Ash began in a low voice.
“No,” Kieran said immediately. “I don’t.”
He didn’t look away from the river.
“She’s alive.”
“How do you know?”
For half a second, Kieran almost smiled.
“Because she’s not allowed to die,” he said.
Kieran and I met eyes.
Just for a moment, the shields weren’t there.
I saw the fear.
And something else — sharp, desperate, buried deep.
Then his walls slammed back into place.
Ash watched Sy disappear into the night towards the river.
For a moment I thought he might argue again. Might defy Kieran. That he would follow the river anyway.
Instead, he rolled his shoulders once, hard — like he was locking something inside himself — and turned.
Kieran didn’t follow immediately.
He stood at the edge of the trees, staring toward the river cutting through the dark.
The water roared somewhere beyond the brush — relentless. Unforgiving.
His fingers flexed at his sides.
Then his face shuttered.
He turned back to the highway.
“Let’s move.”