45. Chapter Forty-Five
~Evalina~
Though Etta had been my home all my life, it felt foreign as I crossed through the portal back into the fae world. The pale pink sky seemed muted after the terrestrial blue, and the overpowering scent of Etta berries from the nearby forest made my stomach churn.
The werewolf men cast curious glances my way as they got their first look at me, perhaps surprised to see that I did in fact exist, while Calista surveyed the rocky expanse ahead. “Where do we start?”
The portal had brought us into a desolate area at the far edge of Etta’s territory. Uneven, jagged ground and a lack of fresh water and plants made it unsuitable for habitation and there were no signs of life anywhere. That meant we didn’t have to worry about randomly running into people going about their day, but it also meant that we could be spotted from a distance if anyone happened to be nearby, or if the dragons that lived to the south happened to pass overhead.
“The only prison I know of is the pens, so we’ll go there first. If he’s not there, we’ll go to the residence and find Tarron. We should move quickly until we reach the forest and have some cover.”
Silently, Calista, Leo and the others followed me as I made for the trees that marked the start of Etta’s forest. The distant call of a dragon spurred us into a sprint, my heart pounding as I struggled to match their longer-legged pace.
Thankfully, we reached the forest without incident, and after taking a moment to catch my breath, we started through the trees, slower and more carefully than before, everyone’s eyes and ears trained for any sign of danger. The trail led us close to the territory’s main town but we made a wide circle of it, staying in the trees and ducking out of sight whenever anyone came close. Once, a group of women passed only a few feet away as we all huddled behind a large bush. Thankfully, fairies didn’t possess the same sensitive noses that werewolves did, and they walked right by with no idea we were there.
Nearly two hours passed before the rounded dome of the pens appeared in the distance. My heart ached with the thought of what Tarron might have done to Felix in that time, but I pushed my worry down. I couldn’t change anything that had happened, only what might happen next, and we were getting close. I had to stay focused.
“There’s the prison,” I whispered to Calista as we all huddled behind the trunk of a wide heffa tree, pointing to the circular structure she’d helped me to escape from before. “And it looks like there are extra guards. That must mean he’s in there.”
Peering around the trunk, I spotted five royal guards, my heart thudding a little harder with each one I counted. I’d never seen so many at the pens before, so whoever they held inside, they were taking it seriously. It had to be Felix.
Calista frowned as her eyes glazed over in that strange werewolf method of communication. “He’s not answering my mind-link. This close, he should hear me.”
“Maybe the magical protection around the cells is interfering?” I suggested, refusing to accept the possibility that he might be too injured to answer, or worse.
“That’s possible,” Leo agreed, giving me a sympathetic nod, and I couldn’t tell if he really believed that or if he just wanted to make me feel better. “So, what’s the plan? How are we getting him out?”
“We’ll need to get through the guards, the locks and the magical barrier. The first one, we should be able to figure out, the second, I can take care of, but I don’t know how we get past the magic,” I admitted. “I don’t have that ability.”
Rather than looking defeated, Leo pulled his phone out of his pocket. He tapped on it a few times, holding the strange, glowing object up in the air and bringing it back down while I watched in fascinated confusion.
“As I suspected,” he finally announced. “The magic’s giving off a signal similar to electricity. If I jam it, it might disrupt the barrier.”
Not a word of that made sense to me, but Calista nodded at my side. “Should we do that first?”
On that point, I could offer an opinion. “If one of the guards is controlling the magic, they’ll feel when it’s disrupted. It would alert them that something’s going on.”
“Okay, guards first then. Here’s what we’re going to do about them.”
She laid out a strategy for us to attack and take out all the guards at once while I listened in open-mouthed awe.
“How did you learn all of that?” I asked when the others left to take up the positions she’d assigned them. Her knowledge seemed almost magical to me.
A smile broke through her serious demeanour. “I spent a long time training on how to hunt different supernatural creatures. The situation might be different here but the tactics still work. And speaking of supernatural beings…”
She reached into her pocket, pulled out a couple of small paper rectangles and held them out to me.
“This is sugar. If you’re cornered, rip it open and drop it. Any fae nearby will be compelled to count the grains. Just make sure you don’t look at it or it will affect you too.”
I tucked the packets carefully into the pouch attached to my dress and turned back towards the pens. I couldn’t see any of the other werewolves anymore, but after another minute, Calista confirmed to me that they were all in place.
“We’re ready to move when you are.”
I gave her a firm nod. “Let’s go.”
She gave the order through their telepathic link and the men sprang into action. From nowhere, two wolves appeared, bursting out of the trees and running towards the guards at full speed. Shouts of surprise filled the air as the guards did their best to take a defensive position, bows aimed at the intruders. A few arrows flew but the wolves managed to avoid them. The animals retreated into the woods, drawing the guards into an ambush where the werewolves still in human form struck them down with swift, precise blows.
The whole thing took no more than a couple of minutes.
“That was amazing,” I whispered to Calista but she only allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction before gesturing towards the pens.
“Let’s see if he’s in there.”
The distant calls of harpies sent a shiver down my spine as Calista and I crept closer to the pens. We peered into the darkness of each cell, calling Felix’s name, but no reply came and my heart thudded more heavily with each silent second that passed. There had to be someone in the cells or there wouldn’t have been so many guards. Whoever it was must be too injured to reply.
Leo approached just as Calista and I finished our search. “Go ahead and try to disable the magic so Evalina can open the doors,” she instructed him.
Using his phone, Leo pressed on the screen a few times again until I felt the protective layer disappear, allowing my own magic to access the lock system. Since I didn’t know which cell he might be in, I had to open them all, and I could feel my power waning the more I used it. I’d never tried to undo so many locks all at once.
The cells creaked open, but as I stepped forward, a wave of dizziness crashed over me. My knees buckled, and I hit the ground hard.
“Evalina?”
Calista sounded far away as she called to me and I did my best to reassure her. “I’m okay. Find Felix. I’ll be right there.”
Shaking my head, I tried to regain my balance but the world continued to spin around me. I thought I heard shouting but everything had become muffled. My arms trembled beneath my weight when I tried to push myself up and I collapsed again, my face smashing straight into the hard ground. The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me was a pair of pointed shoes stepping into view, shoes that I knew didn’t belong to any werewolf.