16. Chapter 16
16
L istening for repeated signs of growing outrage or some other crisis breaking out when and where she least expected it, Rebecca reminded herself again and again that, regardless of how badly she wanted to improve the situation for everyone—mostly getting them out from under this force field—the peace and clarity of mind she searched for never appeared.
Eventually, she gave in to the growing urge to move. To take a walk on her own in the middle of the night, while anyone who could sleep logged a few hours beside gently crackling fires.
Rebecca couldn’t fault her operatives for their aggressive response to being caged against their will. She shared their restlessness, and as the night wore on and her aimless walk beneath the dome took her nowhere, the urge to get out—but more importantly to be truly alone, unobserved, and isolated—simply grew too strong to ignore.
Fortunately, the force field’s contained area expanded beyond the large, open clearing beside the Polly L. Bridge. Rebecca had seen it for herself.
She turned to the tree line and headed for the forest, moving away from the direction of the rotting trailer Rowan had called his office.
She would stay as far away from that part of the woods as possible, but there were plenty more trees and secluded areas to find beneath the dome.
The farther she walked between the trees, keeping an eye out for the shimmering wall of magical light that marked her unbreakable boundary line for the next forty-something hours, she tried first simply to wear herself out. Expend the extra energy bottling up inside her after her autonomy, her ability to go wherever she pleased, whenever she pleased, had been stripped from her for the near future.
She certainly couldn’t sleep now , even knowing a few hours would likely do her more good than anything else.
At one point, she found herself walking beside the tree line again, just a few feet from breaching the trees into open land.
She stayed in the trees, but as she moved, the soft murmur of voices up ahead rose clearer and a little louder with every step.
The words themselves weren’t quite yet discernible, but she quickly recognized the voices.
Nyx and Leonard. Their tones implied a level of seriousness that probably wasn’t meant to be overheard.
Technically, it wasn’t eavesdropping if Rebecca continued on her way without pausing to listen in.
She did, however, move slightly closer toward the edge of the trees, in case they noticed someone in the woods. Then they could verify it was only their Roth-Da’al and nothing to worry about.
The light of their small fire just a few yards out flickered in wavering shadows between the tree trunks. A dozen steps later, their voices clarified and carried intelligible words toward her on the wind.
“I want to help,” Leonard said. “You can’t fault me for that. If there’s anything I can do—”
“If I knew what would help, Leonard, I would tell you. Trust me. I just don’t know…”
A soft rustling followed, then Rebecca saw one of Bor’s cellophane-wrapped GIYs reflecting the low red-orange glow of the fire as Leonard pulled it from his pack and offered it to the katari. “Well, if you skipped your last meal—”
“It has nothing to do with food. You’re not listening. I saw something…”
He paused to lower the meal substitute slowly into his lap. “What, like some kinda vision?”
Nyx shook her head. “No, this was totally different.”
“Okay… Different how?”
“I don’t know. But I’m telling you, something’s wrong. What I saw…”
Out of respect, Rebecca had tried to avoid watching them. But the second she looked up through the trees again, the glow of Nyx’s violet eyes already centered on Rebecca’s face.
At least now Nyx knew it wasn’t an enemy walking through the trees mere yards away.
That glance, however, seemed enough to make Nyx clam up. She clicked her mouth shut and didn’t say another word before averting her gaze.
There had been no anger on the katari’s face. No fear that her Roth-Da’al was nearby. Just a simple desire to maintain a private conversation without the possibility of anyone else interpreting parts of it out of context.
Rebecca understood the sentiment.
Nyx’s silence did, however, catch Leonard’s attention too. The mage looked up to follow Nyx’s previous gaze. When he saw Rebecca, he flashed her a quick, obviously fake smile and wrapped his arm around Nyx’s shoulders to draw her closer.
The nod Rebecca offered sent back was meant for both of them, but she wouldn’t stop. She kept moving past the campfire, putting it all behind her.
Whatever Nyx was worried about, it was none of Rebecca’s business. The katari had given her word to alert her Roth-Da’al to any concerning developments like her previous fainting spell. That had to be good enough.
No matter how concerned she was for Nyx’s wellbeing or how much she might have wanted to help, privacy was still a precious resource. Especially here under the dome for the next forty-four hours.
But as she continued through the woods, trying only to rid herself of the extra energy bottling up inside her with no effective release currently available, she couldn’t stop thinking about Nyx.
Something in the way the katari had looked at her niggled at the back of Rebecca’s mind. Her wide eyes and instant hesitation to continue, as if Nyx believed she’d done something wrong. As if she thought she might find herself the target of Rebecca’s anger or even possible punishment.
Rebecca hadn’t “punished” any of her operatives for anything. Any necessary disciplinary action fell under Maxwell’s wheelhouse, mostly because he’d made a habit of beating her to it. But she still wouldn’t come down on anyone, let alone Nyx, for what had looked like a moment of physical weakness manifested in a fainting spell and fluttering lashes.
Whatever the reason for Nyx’s personal concerns, now just wasn’t the time for Rebecca to chase down another mystery. Especially if it meant inserting herself into everybody else’s private affairs. There was hardly any privacy to claim beneath the dome.
For now, it was enough to know Nyx had Leonard to help her through whatever it was. As long as they could handle it and effectively do their jobs at the same time, like they’d both successfully managed so far, there was no viable reason to make a big deal out of it based on her own curiosity.
Rebecca was no stranger to the frustration of others trying to poke and prod their way into personal matters that had nothing to do with them.
That was what her rational mind repeated over and over as she continued her aimless walk through the woods. But a persistent uneasiness joined her now and didn’t give up, no matter how many times she reassured herself everything was fine.
Or, if it wasn’t fine now, it would eventually turn out that way in the end.
She had to focus on something else, and the only available alternative seemed to be the simple fact that she wanted to keep moving forward, both physically in the now, through the trees, and figuratively as it pertained to whatever Shade faced next once this mandatory ceasefire came to an end.
Looking toward the future, though, reminded her repeatedly and with painful clarity that the present left little to no room for planning, even into the very near future. Who could know what might pop up on their radar next, once Rowan’s force field dissipated and they returned to real life on the outside?
Rebecca just needed more air. More solitude. More space to think.
And to chill the fuck out.
Easier said than done.
Expending this bottled-up, frenetic energy with nowhere to go had nearly always had its own perfect and successful solution, until now. Rebecca couldn’t let the hunger of her Bloodshadow magic loose in any way while the shimmering opalescent dome remained in effect.
Not that the Hakalini’ir didn’t already know exactly who she was and what she could do. She’d seen recognition in more than a few pairs of eyes beneath gleaming silver helms before the elven soldiers had quickly averted their gazes. Whether in fear or respect, she hadn’t been able to tell, but she’d grown up around those kinds of gazes from soldiers and officers, from elders and servants, all manner of elven nobility, gardeners, priestesses, tutors, common elves of Agn’a Tha’ros…
She could handle a few more on Earth.
Mostly, Rebecca didn’t want to risk hurting her own people if she let out her true magic and found herself unable to control it—in a dome that blocked cell and radio signals as well as sound, physical objects, and living magicals. The potential ways it might affect her magic as well were unpredictable and infinite.
Caught up so fully in both her thoughts and her refusal to let them control her, she hadn’t realized she’d turned deeper into the forest.
So when a hushed rustle of underbrush to her left snagged her attention, she assumed it was one of her operatives stepping away from camp for some fresh air. Or to answer the inevitable call of nature.
The second she looked in that direction, however, she immediately realized her mistake.
Neither the cherry-red glow of multiple fires nor the constant opalescent shimmer of the dome’s curved wall was visible through the trees. Those grew much more thickly here, letting in very little light, even if the stars hadn’t currently been blocked by the dome like everything else.
Then she saw it. Movement through the trees.
A dark shape slinking from tree trunk to tree trunk.
Even her ability to see in the dark with more detail and clarity than most fell short this far into the forest.
Beyond her next footstep and maybe three yards in front of her, she couldn’t see a thing.
The telltale rustle of another living thing’s presence with her did not return. Instead, a burst of curiosity and unmistakable caution filled her awareness, followed by the barest flash of tingling heat and knowing…
The residual sensation of Maxwell’s presence in the trees with her.
Now she felt him, though the constant tug toward his position, for some reason, wasn’t nearly as strong as usual. It pulled at her from the right.
Then another whispering press of weight bearing down on dry leaves and twigs coating the forest floor from her left and her right.
Rebecca stopped and summoned a burst of crimson battle magic in the form of glowing sparks toppling from her open hand. Mostly, she wanted the extra light it provided, but if for whatever reason enemies lurked nearby, a small, mostly non-threatening light show might make them think twice about heading her way.
The tug of Maxwell’s presence grew stronger on her right. Rebecca turned that way but stopped again.
He was there, all right. Maybe half a dozen yards away. Silent and sure-footed as ever. If the sight of him hadn’t corresponded perfectly with feeling his presence in the same place, she wanted to think she would have recognized the glow of those silver eyes anywhere. Even if the rest of him didn’t quite look the same.
She’d seen his wolf countless times already. The thick, shaggy gray coat. Enormous paws gliding across the earth as if made of smoke. The deadly grace with which he moved on four legs, just as powerful and intimidating as when he moved on two.
But she’d only seen this version of him in battle, when a wolf’s strength and instincts were more valuable than the shifter’s already impressive capabilities as a man.
But this?
This was different.
Rebecca had never seen the calm, wild grace of Maxwell’s wolf like this before. The sleekness of his movements, now slow and careful, nearly soft, without an enemy to distract or a target on which to pounce with fangs and claws.
In this moment, beneath the muted starlight barely dripping between the full canopy of autumn leaves not yet ready to fall, the sight took her breath away.
She’d never seen anything like it. Not to mention this other side of him she’d rarely had time to stop and consider in its entirety. Not like this.
The forest breathed with the cool silence of nighttime, and Rebecca forgot all about keeping her guard up or summoning battle magic to launch against a possible attacker.
All that existed here with her, among the trees and the sleepy rhythm of nocturnal insects that hadn’t yet found the night too cold to make their own music, was the sight of Maxwell’s wolf.
He was beautiful …
The moment could have stretched on forever, but then another rustle and snap of twigs cut through the frozen scene, again on Rebecca’s left.
Which meant the unlikely had become reality, and Rebecca had stupidly let her guard down.
She and Maxwell were not the only two beings awake and moving through these woods.
They were not alone.