Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
Sloan
“It was him. I know it was him.” With hurried abandon, Jack threw provisions into a sack. “I saw his eyes. He saw me. I just know.”
Sloan bit her tongue. How was she supposed to tell her friend, this boy recently turned a man, that it may not be his father he’d seen on the battlefield? The last thing she wanted to do was take his hope away, but Sloan wasn’t the type to sugarcoat the truth.
Just like Jack, she had seen the werewolves break out of the mage engine. Caught in the middle of the fight, she hadn’t seen the large, white werewolf Jack insisted was his father.
“What if it’s not Marcus?” Sloan leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms. “I know Leah has the ability to raise the dead; she proved that with Aareth’s wife.
I can follow your logic that the Burrow Den beast biting your father would then turn him into a werewolf like Aareth, but you have to admit, this is a stretch. ”
“Elizabeth told me he was alive.” Jack picked up a large canteen from a shelf in the supply room, then his eyes searched the unfamiliar Azra larder before finding a giant, wooden barrel with a spout.
“I didn’t know if I could believe her at first, but after the fight, after I saw him …
it’s him Sloan, I know it is. He looked right at me and didn’t attack me, even before those yellow mage collars they wore were deactivated. ”
“And what about Abigail?” Sloan was doing her best to keep the parenting tone out of her voice.
She didn’t have kids of her own or a younger brother, but if she did, she imagined this is how an older sister or a mother would feel.
“How are you even going to track him? He scattered with the rest of the werewolves when Elizabeth was defeated.”
Jack turned the spout on the barrel, testing it to see if it was indeed water before he filled up his canteen.
He was silent for a moment. Sloan already knew nothing she could say would make him stay.
She was only trying to have him reason out his plan.
In all honesty, hearing that Jack even had a plan at this point would make her feel better.
“Abigail will understand.” Jack closed the tap and screwed the lid onto his canteen. “She and her mother have a lot of work to do on the path to Elizabeth’s recovery. She’ll understand. I won’t be gone long.”
“You didn’t answer my second question.”
“What’s that?”
“How are you going to track him? He could be halfway back to New Hope, or terrorizing Term right now.”
“I’ll find a way.” Jack draped the canteen strap around his shoulder.
He grabbed the sack of food, then thought twice about his rations and crammed in a few more packages of dried meat and fruit.
“I’ll find a spell; I’ll ask people. You forget, my father and I are the very best trackers in the Outland. I’ll find him.”
“I’d go with you if I could.” But Sloan pushed the idea from her mind. There was no way she could leave Azra now. The entire city was looking at her for help in the face of the coming war. “Maybe I can get away just for a few days.”
Jack stopped in front of her. He looked exhausted, but he still managed a smile on his tired face. “I know you’d come if you could, but that’s not what’s going to happen. I’m going to be gone for a few days, and I’ll be back with my father.”
“All right.” Sloan stepped to the side, admitting defeat. “Be careful. If you don’t come back in one piece, I’ll kill you.”
“He’ll be fine.” Aareth’s strong voice interrupted the two. “I’m going with him.”
Sloan and Jack directed their attention to the road, where a setting sun silhouetted Aareth’s large shoulders. The once-city inspector now turned werewolf wore his usual black coat, boots, and a rueful grin.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” Sloan lied. A sense of gratefulness was already filling her. Jack and Aareth travelling together would tenfold lessen the burden of worry she felt.
“You don’t have to come.” Jack shouldered his pack. “I can do this myself.”
“Oh, I know.” Aareth shrugged. “I don’t have to do anything. I want to do this. Partly for you, partly because if it is Marcus out there, I owe him.”
“What about training your pack of werewolves here?” Jack asked, turning to Sloan for permission. “Is he allowed to come?”
“What? I don’t need her permission to go with you on a play date.” Aareth scowled at Jack. “I turned an Azra soldier named Jaxon before we left to fight the New Hope mage engine. Edison is helping with his transition, and Croft has to do some weird moon thing to turn him anyway.”
“He should probably stay here.” Sloan raised her right eyebrow at her werewolf friend. “But he’s a grown man. He’ll have to make his own decisions.”
Sloan saw Jack’s tense shoulders lower. He even gave a brief smile. As much as Jack would go alone if he had to, it was clear now that he hadn’t wanted to make the journey by himself.
“I would tell you two to be careful,” Sloan said to Jack and Aareth, “but I know those words would be a waste of my time.”
“We’ll be back before New Hope gets here.” Aareth turned to leave, yet hesitated for a moment. “You know that has to be their next play, right? They’re coming.”
“Yes, yes, I know that.” Sloan waved away Aareth’s words. “Get going. I’m a big girl. I can take care of my own wars.”
Sloan stood in the road watching Jack and Aareth talking to one another as they traveled down Azra’s sloping path that led to the city gates.
It seemed an eternity ago that she had met the boy and his father, and the then-shady former inspector.
In reality, it hadn’t been that long at all.
Sloan owned underwear she’d had longer. It was the events surrounding them that made the two men like family.
“You look like you’re going to drill holes in their backs,” Cherub’s voice boomed behind Sloan. “Is there something wrong? Should I bar them from leaving the city?”
“No, no.” Sloan turned to the gargoyle leader of the Azra army. “They’re going to find Jack’s father. How are preparations for the city’s defense coming?”
“We’ll be ready.” Cherub shrugged into her long, white cloak that protected her skin from the sun’s rays. “I still hate the idea of not being in the first engagement. Theo is recovering from his wounds, but I fear Croft has lost sight of the real goal.”
“Elizabeth.” Sloan already knew what the female gargoyle was talking about.
In a way, she couldn’t blame the witch. Croft finally had her daughters with her, and they needed her, both in their own ways.
“You and I are more than capable of preparing the city until Theo is healed and Croft has her head on straight again. Her entire family has been through so much.”
“Your assistance would be helpful; however, I feel like you have your own issues to deal with at the moment.” Cherub looked behind her, back up the main road of Azra and to the capitol building.
“The woman you turned before you left is a handful. You should really spend some time with her, and the other humans you plan on forming into your vampire squad.”
“Why?” A sense of dread inked through Sloan’s veins. She was already responsible for turning an Azra guard. If anything happened to Babs, or as a result of her actions, it was on Sloan. “What’s wrong with Babs?”
“You should really go see for yourself.” Cherub’s hard, grey eyes were too cold to read.
Sloan took off up the hill, the worst scenario playing through her mind.