Chapter Twenty-Six
Ransom
We all nod, and then in silence head back to the camp, staying far enough away that we shouldn’t be easily detected, but close enough that we can see anything that looks like a place where you would keep a prisoner.
We walk for a while, and I’m starting to get twitchy. Time is running out, and there is still no sign of the supernatural.
As we round the corner though, we come face to face with two soldiers from the camp, obviously doing perimeter patrols.
Before they get the chance to call out for backup or to let anyone know that we’re here, I call on my magic, stepping into a shadow and appearing behind them in their own shadows. As I appear in one of their shadows, knowledge floods me, and I take his head before turning to face the other one.
He spins his eyes wide, his sword raised, as momentary confusion flashes through his gaze when I simply stand there.
Using the newfound knowledge that my magic has afforded me, I call on his own shadow, which willingly obeys as it wraps around the soldier's legs, pinning him to the spot.
“Wh-what are you doing?” The soldier exclaims, louder than I would have liked, and I command a tendril of shadows to cover his mouth.
The soldier's eyes widen in shock and panic, as pain fills them.
With one last command, I watch as the shadow consumes him entirely, making him collapse in on himself and leave nothing behind. The shadow seems thicker somehow, and it rushes up to me, twining around my legs. Instinctively, I know that it's now mine to command.
“Is it me, or is that shadow behaving like a puppy that wants pets for doing a good job?” Raiden asks with a smirk.
I grin, “That’s exactly what it's doing. Come on, someone might have heard that.”
The shadow puppy gets absorbed into my own shadow, and I know that if I need it, then it will come at a moment's notice.
“That was so fucking cool, dude,” Coen grins, and then becomes serious again. “We haven’t run into any soldiers doing patrols apart from here. I think we should check what’s in the tent just beyond the trees. Something tells me that they’re guarding the supernatural.”
“Shit, you could be right,” Raiden replies. “Let’s go, we’re running really short on time now.”
“We don’t have time to fight our way out of this. We’re going to have to do this as stealthily as possible if we have any chance of succeeding,” I warn them.
I don’t really need to. They know what we’re up against, and this is definitely not the first dicey situation that we’ve been in.
We cautiously move forward.
After listening at the side of the tent for any movement inside, Coen slices a gap big enough that we can fit through, and steps inside, as we quickly follow him.
“Didn’t think I’d see you again,” a gruff but familiar voice rumbles.
My gaze finds him, and anger floods me. He’s been badly beaten and tortured.
He’s covered in open wounds, both old and new, and blood is pooling on the floor beneath him.
He’s locked inside a barred box, barely big enough to contain him.
The back of his head is touching the bars behind him, and his nose is touching the ones in front of his face.
He’s standing, his arms outstretched, and his wrists are shackled to the bars of the cage. He can’t move an inch.
“Son of a bitch,” Coen curses, his eyes dark and deadly.
Raiden moves to the cage, reaching out a hand, and Coen stops him.
“Don’t touch the bars, there are nasty and painful spells running through them on a constant loop.
” He locks eyes with the supernatural being who is watching him cautiously, “At least that’s what I’m assuming? ”
“You are correct,” the supernatural replies, his eyes lit with curiosity as he locks eyes with Coen.
Fury fills me.
There’s only one way that Coen knows about the spells that a cage like this has.
Striding forward, I call on my magic, and it comes in a rush, reacting to my anger. With my hands pulsating with power, I grab hold of the bars, batting away the spells that try to attack me, as I flood them with my magic.
The bars and his shackles shatter, and the sound of them breaking is deafening.
The supernatural drops to the floor, and Raiden and I immediately rush to his side, helping him stand up as Coen heads to the tent door.
The supernatural looks up at me, confusion in his eyes, “I could have sworn you . . .” he trails off, and the confusion vanishes from his eyes as he adds, “We must go, that wasn’t quiet, someone will have heard it.”
“Oh yeah, they definitely heard it,” Coen confirms as he glances out of the tent flap, and then turns back, grinning. “Are you sure we don’t have enough time to play? Something about these fuckers makes me think that they would actually put up a good fight.”
The supernatural Raiden and I are holding up lets out a short bark of laughter, “Oh, they’ll definitely do that.
Something tells me that you can hold your own.
I, however, will not be able to in my current state.
The cage stopped my body from healing, and it will take a few moments for my healing ability to click back on. ”
“Can you walk?” I ask him.
“With help,” he admits, although I can tell that he fucking hates having to admit it.
“Alright, we’ve got you. Come on,” Raiden says, as we start moving toward the slice in the tent that we made.
“I’ll keep them at bay,” Coen says, not seeming worried about it at all, but then he wouldn’t be, he loves this sort of stuff.
We don’t waste any more time talking as we help the supernatural through the hole and then start moving as quickly as we’re able to.
He is not small, and at this point, we’re having to take most of his weight.
We move as quickly as we can, heading back into the woods and past the headless soldier, no sign of the other one.
I don’t really know where the shadow took the other soldier. I do, however, know that he is dead and is not going to be a problem, so it’s something that I don’t need to concern myself with now.
“Your handywork?” The supernatural asks through clenched teeth, pain paling his face and making sweat bead along his brow.
I nod, “Yep, and I’m pretty sure it’s just going to piss the others off more, so we need to get as far away from here as possible, before they start following.”
“My healing ability is starting to kick back online, but I fear that it won’t work quickly enough,” he replies, already taking more of his weight as we start to move quicker.
It’s not fast enough though.
“Stop!” Someone behind us yells.
“The Hunt,” the supernatural says. “We must run. There are too many of them.”
“You got it,” Coen grins. He shifts within the blink of an eye, swings his tail, knocking over the first wave of soldiers coming for us as Raiden spreads his wings and lifts the shocked supernatural up onto Coen’s back, and I scramble up as well.
Coen leaps into the air.
We were trying to remain stealthy so that we could escape, but since they’ve clearly found us, there’s no point anymore, and Coen in his dragon form is formidable.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden a dragon,” the supernatural mutters. His eyebrows draw down in frustrated confusion as he adds, “At least, I think it has.”
His words are confusing, but we don’t really have the time to delve into their meaning right now.
Standing up on Coen’s back as he flies higher into the sky, I grin as I see Raiden dodging and diving the magical shit being thrown at him, all with a giant smile on his face.
Using my magic, I grab hold of the spell thrown at us and then throw it back. Raiden, the supernatural, and I are all whooping and laughing when it explodes on impact, scattering the soldiers.
“Portal up ahead!” Raiden yells, and I glance over my shoulder. Sure enough, there it is.
I glance at the grinning supernatural as he watches the chaos beneath us unfold.
“I’m sorry, man, but it looks like we’re out of time. You’re going to have to come back to our place, and we can figure it out from there!” I shout over the sound of the wind and explosions.
The supernatural opens his mouth, but whatever he was going to say is swallowed in an instant as we all get pulled through the portal.
As we come out of the other side, I roll, taking the impact of the landing on my shoulder and groaning.
“Apparently, going through portals makes me shift back,” Coen says casually from the floor, staring up at the trees as he breathes heavily.
“It’s a good job, I think Neith and House would have had something to say about it if you flattened a load of trees,” Raiden points out with a smirk.
Coen gasps and puts his hand on his chest, “Are you calling me fat?”
“That’s what I heard,” I tease with a grin.
A low chuckle has me remembering that we brought the supernatural through the portal with us, and that he’s probably freaking out and or thinking that we are absolutely insane right now.
Coen
Ransom looks over at the supernatural and smiles, “Sorry, man. Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, I cannot carry on calling you dude or random guy in my head. What’s your name?” Raiden interrupts.
To be fair, it’s been driving me slightly crazy as well.
It’s strange because I get why Ransom wanted to go and make sure that he was okay.
When I saw him in that contraption, one that I am far too familiar with, I wanted to do what Ransom did, and I would have done it myself if it were a skill that I had, as it was, I almost used my fire.
There’s something about him that feels familiar, which is odd, but I’m clearly not the only one who feels that way, so I’m just going to go with it for now.
He’s incredibly strong, even in his weakened state, and he’s got the same kind of violence surrounding him, or at least it’s very similar to the way that violence surrounds Ransom.
It’s different from normal violence, it’s darker, more feral. Less controlled.
The supernatural scrubs his hand across the back of his neck and replies, “I don’t know.”