Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“There you are.” Captain Theodon Wrenn lifted his head toward the sky and inhaled, savoring the resounding thrum of power that had fully revealed itself. “Finally.” He studied the air, his eyes assessing an invisible trail leading up the mountains—his mountains.
He paused, fury slowly gathering. “The whole fucking time. You’ve been this close the whole fucking time?”
He had sensed this force before. In the span of a decade, it had called to him in little trills, without warning or reason.
Sometimes months would pass before he felt its darkness again.
When it did arise, he could never sense where it was coming from.
All others in his company were effortless for him to discover and track down.
Not this power. It didn’t want to be found—until today.
“Who are you talking to?” Callum, his third-in-command, emerged from the tunnels below. The sun had barely risen, but they were already awake and ready to train.
Theo couldn’t answer, his focus on that alluring scent. It was so much bolder than it had ever been. A veil had been lifted. There was a very clear path now.
He was always able to sense those who would be useful to him, those who could actually last up here maintaining the line.
For their power to be truly great, mortals needed him—needed his guidance to help them revive that buried magic lying dormant within.
Traces of godly power had become so diluted over time, only his ritual could awaken a descendant’s full potential.
How had this power evaded his senses for this long?
His temper flared at the deception, and he looked in every direction for something to take out his frustration on.
He found a deeply rooted tree and plucked it as effortlessly as he would a flower.
With a rage-filled groan he cracked the trunk over his thigh and flung the two pieces clear across the valley.
Manos, his second-in-command, ducked just in time to avoid the trunk colliding with his skull.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Theo didn’t hear him. His thoughts were disorganized, branching off in every direction. This source of power was already awake, it hadn’t been dulled with time. It was chaotic and dark, brimming with hostility from being locked away for far too long.
“We’re leaving.”
“Why?” Callum asked in confusion. “Where are we going?”
“Keles,” Theo replied.
“What’s in Keles?”
“I’m not sure,” he lied. He would explain when they were closer, when he could be absolutely certain. “But whatever it is . . . we need to find it before anyone else does.”