6. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Tank
E verything was going to shit. As soon as Alyssa and the others had separated from us on the way to the Winter Court, I’d known we were making the wrong decision. And now Dean was injured, we’d ended up in the one place Alyssa didn’t want to be, and we were surrounded by men I was almost certain weren’t here to be our friends.
The bear was shredding through my consciousness, fighting to be released. He wanted them removed from her presence and as far as he was concerned, there was only one way to do that—with teeth and claws.
Strangely, even though it was still taking conscious effort for me to do so, I had him under control.
Back home, it had been nearly impossible to have this level of control. He ruled. There were times when it felt more like his body than mine, that I was the secondary personality. The one who didn’t belong.
But here? It was so different here. Not that he felt different. I felt different. Almost like a part of me that had been missing had suddenly clicked into place. I just couldn’t figure out if it was coming from Alyssa and the bond we’d finally started to form between us, or if it was coming from Nymeria itself.
The bond was nothing like I’d ever heard described before. I kept feeling glimpses of her. Almost as if I had a direct line to everything that made Alyssa… well, Alyssa. And it wasn’t even complete yet.
The bear could feel it too. It wrapped around him just as tightly as it did me, and it gave him something else to fight for.
My gaze cut to the men clustering closer around us. Something about what Dean had said felt true. They were watching us too closely. There was no way they’d have let us just walk away. I could see the gleam in their eyes as soon as they’d set their sights on Alyssa. She was the reason they were here.
Which raised a question. How did they know we were here in the first place?
Fizzle had been at the portal as soon as we’d come through. And none of us had thought to ask him why. Why in all of Nymeria did he just happen to be at the portal site as we came through? He said he’d stayed in the forest after Alyssa had left, not being able to face returning to the rest of the world. But we already knew that wasn’t entirely true. He’d spoken with Rhidian. He knew what The Endless were and the things that they’d been doing to the people. He was connected with people that he couldn’t possibly have been if he’d stayed in that forest, waiting for Nymeria to take him.
But why lie?
It wasn’t as if Alyssa would have judged him for having a life. She would have been happy to know that he’d found his place in a world she’d had no choice but to leave behind.
Something more was going on here. That was obvious from how we’d been disarmed and were being escorted to the one place she didn’t want to go.
But the magic? How could it be gone?
I knew nothing about this place and it unnerved me more than I’d thought it would. Coming to Nymeria was always going to be a risk. I’d heard the stories about this place and I’d have had to be an idiot to think we wouldn’t face some kind of fight when we got here.
But magic? That was completely outside my wheelhouse. I’d rarely even seen Alyssa use her own. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d shown me the cathedral back at the garage and explained what she used it for, I’d have assumed she’d lost all magic when she came to the human realm. She wouldn’t be the first fae it would have happened to.
I looked around at the others and how they stayed close to her side. It was a wonder she wasn’t getting pissed off with the way we were all trying to shield her. That she wasn’t spoke volumes. Alyssa was worried, which meant she had no idea what was happening now, either.
A noise amongst the trees had the guards all reaching for their weapons as they stepped closer to our group. It wasn’t as comforting as it probably should have been. I didn’t trust these men to protect us from whatever it was they were so terrified of. I didn’t trust them to protect her. It had the bear surging for control again and for a split second, I actually thought he’d win. Hair bristled down my arms as the fur tried to roll across my skin, and fangs punched through my gums, flooding my mouth with the taste of blood.
The bear rejoiced, pushing harder as he felt my control fraying. It didn’t help that part of me thought shifting might actually be a good idea. I had no weapons and no training on how to keep Alyssa safe in this form, but the bear would never let anything past him. He’d shred every threat and not spend a second grieving Fizzle and Rhidian, who had firmly moved into the enemy category as far as he was concerned.
And it was that thought that had me pulling back on the shift. Clinging to the human form that would keep everyone around me safe. It had been clear back at the cave that Alyssa considered Rhidian a friend. They shared a past, one forged in pain and mutual understanding. Fizzle was possibly even more than that. She might doubt them now, but that didn’t mean days from now she wouldn’t come to see their deaths as the tragedy they would be and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I was the cause.
So the bear had to stay contained for now.
He roared his displeasure into my mind, and the pain was near blinding as it struck my temples. My hands came up to bracket each side of my head as if I thought I could hold him at bay or at least stop the pain from building to where my skull would surely split open. A rampaging bear was the last thing we needed right now.
Alyssa’s soft hand reached for mine as she pulled it away from my head. I hadn’t even realised that we’d all come to a stop until I looked down at her in confusion.
“Not now. It’s not the time,” she murmured, and I knew she was talking to the bear and not me.
He quieted, but I could feel him watching her through my eyes.
This was better. This was easier to manage. If he could contain his rage and thirst for violence, he could at least spend his time watching for danger.
The bear huffed petulantly at me. Even if he could see the point, he’d never accept that immediately removing the threats wasn’t the better idea. But, for now at least, he seemed to concede control to me as he waited at the edges of my mind, watching for when he was needed.
Alyssa’s gaze darted behind me, further up the path we seemed to follow. I could see the unease that had her muscles bunching up, ready for action. Pulling her to my chest, I tipped my head down to brush my cheek against her hair, inhaling her scent as I let it settle the bear inside me.
“If you want to turn back, we can. Their tiny swords are nothing,” I murmured against her hair, knowing only she could hear me.
The others shouldn’t be able to shift until the full moon, but Maddox had managed it once when Alyssa had been in danger before. I was fairly confident he could do it again if a fight broke out now. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dean’s shift would follow as well. The only problem was Fizzle’s magic. He’d overwhelmed us with it once before. So the question really was whether he’d be willing to do it again. He was clearly in on whatever this was with Rhidian, but he’d tried to make Alyssa leave before. Maybe he’d be willing to help her now if she accepted that was what she wanted.
“No. We need to see this through. I want to know what’s happening here and we need…” Her gaze darted to Dean, who bristled at the implication. He didn’t like that he was currently our weakest link. Dean might have been managing his injury until now, no doubt largely in part to his shifter healing, but that didn’t mean he could keep this up. He needed medical treatment, and we didn’t have the supplies to do that ourselves.
Dean glared at the two of us from where he was leaning against Ryder. He clung to Alyssa’s other hand like it was his lifeline, and I couldn’t fault him for it. She gave me a strength I’d never be able to find anywhere else, either.
“Let’s do this then,” I grumbled, turning back to the direction we’d been heading.
Rhidian flinched, his fingers twitching like he was trying to hold himself back from reaching for his sword, and a wicked grin stretched across my lips in response.
He saw us for the threat we were, and there was something satisfying in knowing it.
Alyssa nodded, and we pushed forward, the guards awkwardly mirroring our movements, as relief practically flowed off them in waves.
“It’s not far now,” Alyssa said, more to herself than anyone else.
She still had her hand in mine, and her grip tightened at her words. I knew she was trying to find the strength to keep moving forward and if walking between Dean and me, holding each of our hands was what she needed, she’d hear no objections from either of us.
There wasn’t much room on the path for us to walk in a line and Ryder had little option but to tag on the end as he kept Dean upright.
“Stick to the path,” one guard barked as Ryder’s steps strayed further into the undergrowth.
I frowned in confusion as I looked around us again. I could see how the guard was glaring down at the ground and a thought struck me—it wasn’t something hiding in the forest that was making them so nervous, it was the actual forest itself. Even when the guards strayed from the path, they were carefully picking their way across the ground through areas where the plantlife didn’t grow.
A vine hung from a tree ahead. Caught in the soft breeze, it drifted closer towards us as we went to pass. My hand automatically came up to push it aside, only to have a flash of steel cut through the air above me. I pulled my hand back with a growl, squinting in annoyance at the guard which had appeared at my side.
“You’re welcome,” he snarled. “Now keep your hands to yourself.”
What the fuck was going on here?
Even Alyssa seemed to have perked up at what was happening. Her eyes lit with curiosity as she looked out into the forest again.
When she pulled away from me, stepping across my path to reach for one of the trees, it was the guard my hands snapped out to stop. He didn’t get the honour of touching my mate. Besides, if there was anyone in this group I trusted to know what they were doing in this place, it was Alyssa.
“Alyssandra,” Fizzle warned, but her steps didn’t falter at the name she rarely heard anymore.
Instead, she spread her fingers wide across the tree bark as she stepped close enough that her lips were just a breath away from the tree. Her head cocked to the side before she gasped in a breath, her brow scrunching in thought as her hands stroked across the surface.
My cock twitched in my pants as I watched the caress, my mind moving back to the one night we’d spent together. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. But I knew how that caress would feel, as if I’d been feeling it for my entire life.
Tipping her head forward, Alyssa rested her forehead against the tree and the ring of steel pierced the air as whatever fear was ruling them overcame some guards.
“You should have told me, Fizzle,” Alyssa said as she finally moved away from the tree, one hand lingering on the surface until she almost reluctantly dragged her fingertips across the surface as she moved out of reach.
“Would you have come here if you’d known?” The owl gryphon finally jumped from Rhidian’s shoulder, spreading his wings wide as he glided across the distance between us.
I moved to the side as I saw him coming for his usual perch on my shoulder. It might have been petty, but I wasn’t in the mood to be accommodating for the little creature I didn’t know I could trust anymore. He hissed in response before moving to land on Alyssa’s shoulder instead, and I could have sworn I saw a smug look on his little face as he wrapped his tail around her neck.
“Nymeria doesn’t scare me like it does the rest of you,” she said mysteriously.
“Because it’s a part of you,” Rhidian added.
The smile on his face was more terrifying than anything else we’d witnessed since we’d been here. It screamed that whatever was happening here; he was certain now that he was right and Alyssa was the answer to whatever his problem was.
“You’ve no idea what this is, and it terrifies you because you don’t feel the land anymore. You might still be able to do your little magic tricks, but you know you hold nothing but a shadow of what the fae once were.” Alyssa’s voice sounded so different. Stronger almost. “We keep moving.”
When she strode forward, she pushed past Rhidian with a sense of purpose and the rest of us followed. The guards who had seemed an oppressive force before had no choice but to fall back and follow, too.
Dean and I let her hands drift from ours but stayed close behind her, as Maddox stalked closer, closing his distance and covering our backs.
It didn’t take long before the forest seemed to grow more ominous. What had once been nothing but trees changed to something my mind couldn’t quite comprehend.
At first I saw glimpses of broken buildings between the trees, broken down structures with collapsed roofs, stones dotted the ground where they’d fallen from the walls.
But then other items appeared that made no sense. An upturned pot, gleaming like new metal in the shaft of sunlight that pierced through the canopy. A cart, stacked with boxes and bundles of cloth that looked like it was waiting to be moved except a tree had seemingly punched through the side of the wood and one wheel entirely.
Then there were the more ominous signs. The perfectly preserved doll wrapped in vines like they were trying to wring the life from its soft material body. Clothes still drifting on the breeze even though the vines were creeping along the line they hung from.
It was like the forest had sprung to life overnight in this village while people still lived here. But if that was the case, then what had happened to them? Life clearly hadn’t continued on because this place seemed abandoned and it didn’t take a genius to realise that whatever had happened here was why the guards were so terrified of the forest.
I didn’t even see the massive structure in front of us until we were practically steps away from it. The trees now reached as far as the palace’s walls. Vines crept up the surface as if trying to swallow it whole and claim back what the plant life had yet to break through.
“The palace is the only structure that remains safe,” Rhidian said from somewhere behind us. “We had to move the refugees inside a few months ago. No one hardly ever ventures outside now if they have any choice.”
Alyssa said nothing at first. She came to a stop at the bottom of the steps that lead up to a massive pair of wooden doors. Ironically, they’d been carved with an intricate pattern of vines, similar to those that were now trying to take over the rest of the structure.
The pain on her face tore at my heart. This was where she’d run from. It was where her parents had been killed and she’d never even had the chance to say goodbye.
“You just need to go inside,” Rhidian said quietly after we’d stood here for a few moments.
Only she didn’t move. Alyssa kept staring at the doors, not moving even a fracture of an inch, no doubt lost in the memories of the tragedy that had happened here.
“Just open the…” Rhidian tried again, only to be interrupted.
“Shut up!” barked Fizzle. “You can never understand what this is like,” he added quietly.
I heard the words he didn’t say. The confession that I knew Alyssa didn’t care to hear right now. He’d been back here already. There had been a day when Fizzle had stood frozen at these doors, even though he’d led Alyssa to believe otherwise.
We fell into an uneasy silence. The guards lined up behind us, turning their backs on us as they stared out at the forest we’d travelled through.
I had so many questions, so many accusations that wanted to scream out of me. Instead, I stood in silence.
I may not understand what was happening here, but Alyssa did, and I trusted her with my life. We wouldn’t have come this far if she didn’t want us to, or at least if a part of her didn’t want to. And if she wanted to stand here for days working up whatever courage she needed to move through those doors, then that was what we’d do. Rhidian would just have to get over it on his own, or I and the men around me would show him how to.