Chapter 36 Oren
Oren
Something ripped me out of sleep.
Not a sound.
Nothing had moved.
It was a lurch in my chest—like the bond had been punched.
I sat up sharply, heart hammering.
The campsite was still dark, embers glowing faintly. Chloe curled up between Oliver and Deshawn.
I sat up so fast I nearly knocked into Zane beside me.
The camp was still.
Too still.
The space where Reverie had been curled? Empty.
A chill bolted through me.
“Oren?” Jet whispered, rubbing his eyes, instantly alert when he saw my face.
Before I could answer, Nathan jolted upright with a ragged gasp, flames blooming across his arms as instinct overtook sleep. His kestrel, Dale, took to the sky in distress.
“She’s gone,” he growled.
Zeke and Zane both sprang up at the exact moment, every muscle tensed. Beasts flashing in their eyes.
“Not just her.” Jet looked around the camp, noting what I had missed in my panic.
I scanned the clearing—
Tanya’s bedroll: empty.
Razor’s gear: untouched, but he was clearly not here.
Malik’s coat near the logs: no Malik in sight.
Four missing.
The question was: Why?
Adelaide bolted awake next, eyes sharp as blades. John jerked up behind her.
“Who’s missing?” Adelaide demanded.
Jet’s voice shook. “Reverie, Tanya, Razor, and Malik. All four signatures vanished at once.”
John’s face drained of color. “Shadow displacement.”
I snarled low in my throat. “Trent.”
The air itself seemed to recoil at the name.
Zane breathed fire onto the dying embers to help warm the air. “Why would he take them too?”
Jet frowned. “What is Tanya’s ability?”
“Fuck!” Jesse growled, then changed into a massive tiger and started shredding his sleeping gear.
“What?” I directed my question to John, more than a little startled by Jesse’s loss of control.
John began to walk toward his twin, but Adelaide stopped him and went that way herself. “She can bind things together, whether it’s a person, animal, or object.” He answered distractedly.
“Okay, but he’s already bonded to her. So why would her ability matter to him?" Nathan looked relieved at John’s answer, but I waited for the other shoe to drop.
Adelaide replied from within the circle of Jesse’s arms, him having transformed back into a man. “She can also break existing bonds.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
Then Zane ended the silence. “That dead motherfucker!” His pupils elongated, and I knew he wasn’t far from his Draxon taking over.
“Get it the fuck together.” Zeke grabbed his brother’s shoulders. “She’ll fight with everything she has, so we can’t fall apart at what-ifs. Now suck it up and let's use our abilities to find her.”
Jet closed his eyes, reaching for any lingering echo of our Nexus. His breathing hitched. “I can’t feel her. Not even a flicker.” His hands fisted.
I reached for Reverie, “He’s right. The bond is silent.”
“He can do that?” Chloe whispered, standing by Kharox, who had drifted closer during our panic.
Adelaide’s voice turned low, bitter. “Trent can silence anything he touches. Power. Memory. Bond. He developed that, among many others after he was injected with the serum.”
John took her in his arms till he and his brother surrounded her.
Zane cracked his knuckles. “So, we hunt him.”
Zeke nodded, Frynn’s icy presence humming under his skin. “We don’t wait. We don’t rest. We don’t think. We go.”
“No,” I corrected quietly, standing. “We go—but we think like Trent.” The others stilled. “Because he didn’t just kidnap Reverie,” I frowned. “He took the one woman who binds abilities, the man who steals them, and the third who is their anchor.”
“What else is he planning?” Jet mumbled to himself, not expecting a reply.
A sharp pulse hit the back of my mind—fast, urgent, unmistakably Fellat.
Pantar. I hadn’t noticed he was missing. Neither he nor Mira was here.
My eyes snapped wide.
“Oren.” The telepathic voice was rough silk, deep and edged with panic. “Wake. Now.”
“I’m awake,” I hissed under my breath.
The others froze, sensing the shift in me.
Jet glanced over. “Pantar?”
I nodded once, already rising.
“He took her,” Pantar growled into my mind. “And the Binding One with her Faction.”
Nathan surged forward. “Do you know where they went?”
Pantar’s voice trembled with fury and something like fear. “Trent. He masked his scent—but not well enough for a Fellat. Mira and I followed him as soon as I awoke.”
My heart slammed into my ribs. “You’re tracking them?”
“Yes. Through the trees. Through stone. He went to holding cells beneath the mountain—outside of Bellona.” I repeated this information out loud.
“I know where those are located.” Sly moved silently into camp.
“Where were you?” Adelaide untangled herself from Jesse and John and threw herself into his arms.
We hadn’t noticed him missing either.
He seemed defeated by life, but his face lit up when he held his Nexus. “I woke up and realized Reverie was missing. I hoped she had just woken early and was checking out our surroundings. Sadly, I saw no sign of her and came back this way.”
“Do you know how to get in?” I asked Sly, not giving a shit as to where he was.
“No. I can get us there, but they were closed years ago. Or at least that’s what I thought.
” He kissed the top of Adelaid’s head. “Maybe that’s where Rue has been held all these years.
Selene knew I’d been searching for him, and I’m almost positive it was Beatrice who mentioned that the Resistance had destroyed those chambers. ”
A cold feeling twisted in my gut. “Pantar—are they all alive?”
There was a long, terrible pause. “Yes. Our Nexus is fine. The Binding One, too. Though her men are frantic.” He growled low. “Trent smells more unstable than before.”
Nathan swore softly. Stroking the kestrel who had landed on his shoulder.
Zeke stepped closer to me, Frynn humming under his skin. “Pantar—can you lead us to them?”
“We can. But not alone.” His voice shifted—lower, protective, ancient. “Danger coils there. A predator older than your wars sleeps in those tunnels. Even two Fellat cannot defeat it without help.”
Before I could respond, a second voice rumbled behind Chloe.
Kharox.
The large Varruk emerged from the shadows like a rising mountain, his eyes glowing like embers.
“Reverie is touched by the Ancestors—no creature bound to Aurathia will ignore the call to help her.” He looked deadly in that moment.
The urge to kill was evident on his face, with sharp teeth ready to rend and tear flesh from bones.
I knew the feeling.
Oliver drew Chloe away from him and into his arms. Deshawn placed himself subtly in front of her.
Kharox continued, his gaze on me. “I will summon others of my kind. Varruk, who still honors the old oaths. Some will answer. Some will come hoping to regain the favor of a queen once more.”
“How fast?” Zeke asked, his voice echoing slightly as Drakk surged closer to the surface.
Kharox lowered his head, listening to something none of us could hear. “The signal has been sent. They will be waiting in the forest surrounding the mountain.”
Nathan paced like a caged storm. “We can’t delay for them. If they’re not waiting, I’m going in.”
“We won’t,” I nodded in agreement.
Pantar appeared at my side, fur bristling, tentacles twitching with distress. He pressed his broad head against my chest—a gesture he hadn’t used since he was much younger. “Hurry, Oren. Hurry before all is lost. He knows not what he’s doing, and the Ancestors won’t allow another betrayal.”
Everyone froze.
Nathan’s voice was barely a whisper. “Betrayal?”
Pantar looked at him, eyes burning amber. “He has one chance to put everything right, or Aurathia will be no more. Mira has stayed behind to monitor them, but we must hurry.”
My blood went cold.
Kharox growled, teeth flashing like scythes. “Then we do not delay. We prepare, we gather strength, and we strike with every creature that answers the call.”
I straightened, feeling the bond roar back to life for the briefest of moments—even silenced, it fought. “Then we move,” voice steady with purpose. “It’s time to end this once and for all.”