Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Z
I was going to murder my mates.
What part of “don’t put yourselves in harm’s way” did they not understand?
The four of us raced through the forest, but I had no idea where the fuck we were going. I had yet to venture outside of camp, so everything was unfamiliar to me.
Another scream rent the air, and adrenaline surged through me like a lightning bolt. I picked up my pace, branches whipping at my cheeks and drawing blood.
“Where the fuck are we even going?” I asked, panting.
“We can’t bring them back to the camp.” Unlike me, Ryland didn’t sound out of breath in the slightest.
Stupid shadows.
I forced myself to stop running and, as expected, the other three stopped as well, all of them twisting to face me. My initial surprise over the situation I’d found myself in quickly morphed into anger.
Stupid, idiotic, asshole mates.
“We can’t just run nonstop for hours,” I snapped, pacing. “We need a plan.”
“We could try to get the army—” Ryland began, but I cut him off.
“We can’t risk these goblins getting close to camp.”
“So we fight them ourselves? Four of us against a couple of hundred?” Killian brought his pointer finger to his lips and began to bite at the nail.
A wave of fear threatened to tear down my composure.
What could we possibly do?
There had to be a solution. I didn’t complete three trials just to die now.
“Are we sure they’re goblins?” I demanded, whirling on Lupe.
The air around him fizzled and shimmered, then the bear shrank down, the fur receding, and my mate stood in his place. Naked.
I was going to pretend not to notice that.
“I’m positive.” Lupe nodded decisively.
“What do you know about them?”
Lupe scratched at the back of his neck, his eyes flicking in the direction of the goblins. I could still hear their wailing cries, but the noise was farther away. We had escaped them…for now.
But I had no doubt they would catch up soon.
“They travel in groups of about twenty?—”
“That is way more than twenty,” Killian murmured.
“And each family unit is run by something called a monarch.” Lupe frowned. “It’s believed that goblins share a hive mind.”
“How do we kill them?” I tightened my grip on the dagger.
“That’s the thing.” Lupe glanced back once more. “The book doesn’t say.”
Familiar claws of panic raked up my spine.
“What do you mean, it doesn’t say?”
Ryland interjected before Lupe could, “The book says goblins are typically peaceful creatures. The author found no reason to discuss ways to…dispatch them. And the section that might have had information is unreadable.”
“They certainly don’t look peaceful,” Killian said.
“They’re under Aaliyah’s control.” I began to pace once more. “But if we can somehow free them…”
I thought back to when I saved the wyvern from Aaliyah by removing those magical shackles.
Could I possibly do the same to save the goblins?
“There are hundreds of them, Z.” Lupe took a step closer. “There’s no way you can undo Aaliyah’s control on every single one. It took you a few minutes just to do a single wyvern. You’ll be killed before you can even free two goblins.”
“Unless she only saves one,” Ryland mused, the shadows completely fading to reveal his handsome face.
He flashed me a boyish smile that contrasted greatly with the malicious sparkle in his brown eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“If you find the monarch, you can remove his or her shackles. Hopefully, it’ll free all of the goblins in his or her family unit.”
The acid in my stomach sluiced around.
“Do you think that will work?” I asked.
Ryland shrugged. “If the book’s correct, and the goblins truly do share a hive mind, I don’t see why it won’t. The biggest problem will be holding all of the goblins off while you work your magic.”
“We can’t kill them,” Killian blurted. “If they’re under Aaliyah’s control, then they don’t know what they’re doing.”
His eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second.
I knew what he was thinking about, what he was remembering—when I was under Aaliyah’s control myself. I knew firsthand how addictive her magic was, how consuming.
“Killian’s right. We can’t kill the goblins until we know for sure they’re evil.”
Killian flashed me a grateful look.
“All right.” Ryland smoothly removed a dagger and flipped it in his hands. Out of all my mates, he was the most proficient with weapons. His training as a spy had taught him well. “So stop a bunch of mindless goblins from getting to Z, all without killing them. Any other requirements?” A sharp smirk curled up his lips. “Or should we make a bet?”
“A bet?” I blinked at him.
“Whoever has the most…not-kills wins.” Ryland volleyed his gaze between Killian and Lupe.
The former looked aghast, while the latter merely appeared curious.
“What do we win?”
“To be determined.”
I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. “You guys are children.”
Killian tentatively lifted his hand in the air. “I never agreed to the bet.”
“Coward,” Ryland teased.
Killian opened his mouth to retort, but another keening scream from the forest interrupted him. Closer this time.
Too close.
Fear washed over me in a torrent, painful in its intensity, but I squeezed my eyelids shut, reminding myself to focus.
Find the monarch.
Remove the dark magic.
Free the goblins.
And do all of it before these monsters could kill us.
The first goblin broke through the tree line with a roar of pure, unbridled rage, its misshapen face distorted in a snarl. Another goblin joined the first, followed by another, and another, and another.
There were so many.
Too many.
There was no way we could stop them all.
And which one was the monarch?
How did I even begin to find it?
Lupe quickly transformed into a bear and lunged at the closest goblin, taking it downwith his paws. Ryland swept his dagger out with smooth, cold precision. None of his blows would kill a goblin, but it would take them out for the time being.
Killian remained beside me, his eyes glowing and his hands clenched. At first, I didn’t know what he was doing, but my unspoken questions were answered when a goblin raced towards us.
The monster stopped abruptly, and his features went slack, his eyes turning glassy. A dazed, wistful smile unfurled on his lips, causing them to stretch. One of his hands traveled down his stomach to the bulge in his pants?—
Fuck. No.
I quickly looked away.
My gaze locked on another goblin at the edge of the tree line. He stood the tallest of all of them, though that wasn’t saying much, considering that the average height appeared to be four feet. He looked like all of the others, at least appearance-wise, but there was something about him…
I forced myself to look closer and nearly gasped when I saw the dark magic hammering off him in malevolent waves. The magic encircled both of his wrists in impenetrable shackles and wrapped around his throat like a vise.
This must’ve been the monarch.
My chest gave a rattling heave, and I narrowed my eyes at the magic around his neck, searching for any weaknesses, any cracks. And…there! Right in the center, there was what appeared to be a lock. I just needed a key.
I closed my eyes—belatedly aware of the battle waging around me—and envisioned a key the size of my pointer finger, sheathed in a golden light. The key began to solidify in my mind, and I forced my eyes open. Biting my lower lip, I guided the key towards the lock and stuck it inside. Turned it. Watched with bated breath as the collar fell away.
The goblin blinked, shook his head, and then glanced at his feet, almost as if he could see the invisible dark magic. But he still wasn’t completely free of Aaliyah’s control.
The cuffs around his wrists were easier thanthe one around his neck, mainly because I didn’t need to create another magical key. The first one I made worked perfectly.
One by one, the manacles fell to the ground.
The goblin staggered back a step, a plethora of emotions flashing across his face too quickly for me to analyze. He placed both of his palms against his chest.
Slowly, the black magic began to slither away from him, disappearing back into the forest.
Wait…no.
Not just him.
The magic was leaving all of the goblins, almost as if it had a life of its own—which I was beginning to believe it did. Black coils danced on the wind and moved across the ground before disappearing from view.
No one was fighting now.
The forest was still, though not silent. I could hear my own heart pounding erratically and the ragged breaths of my mates.
The goblins stood there, not moving, not even breathing, their gazes fixed on the monarch.
And the monarch was staring at me.
Then, in a shaky voice rife with pain, the goblin whispered, “Thank you.” He dipped his head subserviently. “Thank you for freeing my family.”