“No,” I whispered. It seemed that after all these centuries, I was finally in need of meeting Our Liege. I could only hope that someone with extensive years of experience and power would know exactly how one took on a god and maybe survived to tell the tale.
Eight
Rowe was struggled to keep pace with me. Shifting my wings to the right, I lowered onto a branch, catching the tree trunk with my left hand. The branch groaned and creaked beneath my feet but held. I turned back and watched for Rowe to catch up. Summoning up my powers, I lifted my free hand palm open toward him. A fresh gust of wind not only pushed him in my direction, but also lifted him higher in the air.
Part of our ability to fly came from magic and being able to control the wind. The iron collar around Rowe’s neck was inhibiting his ability to control the winds, leaving me to assist him at regular intervals. He wasn’t happy about the arrangement, his muttered curses carried to me on the same wind. I could only shake my head. There was no way I could trust him without the collar. I had little doubt he would slit my throat and then be on his way in a flash otherwise, though I wasn’t sure he would run in the opposite direction of Aurora, even after encountering Greenwood’s daughters.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Rowe demanded when he drew close to me.
Pulling my wings in for a second, I bent my legs before pushing off the tree and launching myself into the air. The wind swarmed beneath me as I threw out my wings again so I lifted higher, well above the treetops. The full moon was fading slowly, but it still painted the earth below with a silvery light that glistened over small pockets of snow dotting the mountains we were headed through.
“We have someone that we need to talk to before we reach Cynnia.” I stretched out my arms and spread my fingers, enjoying the feel of the cold wind threading between them. “You’re not my only assignment.”
“Who?”
I ignored his question as I scanned the ground for a break in the thick pine trees that covered the earth below us. “There.”
I looked over to find Rowe glaring at me, and for a moment I wondered if he would argue with me.
To my surprise, he shifted his wings and started to slowly circle so he could land in the clearing I’d indicated. I followed behind him, giving him a wide enough berth so I would not land on his heels.
The ground was soft beneath my feet from the melting of the last of the snows and from the recent rain that had passed through the area. Folding in my wings, I knelt down and embedded my fingers deep into the earth. I cocked my head to one side and listened with all of my senses. There were other naturi in the area, a lot of them, from the animal clan. We were very close to where we needed to be. In fact, if we weren’t being watched and followed already, we would be very soon.
“Where are we?” Rowe demanded. I looked up to find him standing with his hands on his hips, his wings now missing. It was still hours before sunrise, meaning we could still travel by air for quite a while before I called a halt. But he could already tell that I planned to travel on by foot. I didn’t pull us out of the air unless it was absolutely necessary. For us, it was both safer and quicker to travel by air. On land, we became the target of too many other creatures I was hoping to avoid until we reached our next destination.
Standing, I brushed off my hands on the legs of my pants before hooking a lock of hair behind my ear. “We’re within the Smoky Mountains. We need to head in that direction.” I pointed off toward the southeast, deeper into the woods and away from any signs of human life. There were only dots of humanity within the mountains, and all spaced far enough apart that we could tread through the region without attracting their attention even if we weren’t cloaked.
“We’re walking?”
“For now.”
“So we’re headed into animal clan territory,” he stated, frowning over at me as I started to walk past him.
I continued to walk, leaving him to catch up. “We’re going to speak to Kane.”
Rowe jogged up a couple steps and roughly grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to a halt. “You’re going to get us killed. Since the door was opened, Kane and the rest of the clan have become extremely territorial. They aren’t going to welcome you into what they see as their domain—they’re going to attack.”
“Let them attack. We will defeat them, and then we shall have a personal escort to their leader,” I said, pulling free of his grasp so I could resume walking through the forest.
“Confident with your whip at your side that you can take any of our kind down?” Rowe sneered, but I could hear his footsteps on the soft earth. He was at least following me.
“I will not use the whip against the animal clan,” I growled. “They are simply defending their domain from trespassers. Jasmine and the others were attempting to steal you from me and were aiming to kill me. They would not see reason. Kane’s people will.”
“They already surround us.”
“I know.”
“And yet you’re determined to continue on this suicidal quest because Cynnia asked you.”
“She asked me to fetch you. This small side trip should not be nearly as treacherous.”
“Ha. Ha,” Rowe mocked when he realized I was teasing him. I had little doubt that getting in to speak with Kane was going to be dangerous and tricky. Since the opening of the door and Mira’s attack on Aurora, the animal clan had largely separated itself from the other clans and gathered in the Smoky Mountains, using the rocky and heavily covered terrain as a refuge from the world. And right now Rowe and I were walking right into the heart of their domain.
We continued on in silence, weaving among the trees as we slowly trekked uphill toward the heaviest concentration of naturi. I could hear animals moving closer to us with the click and scratch of claws moving over bark and through the dirt. A knot twisted tighter in my stomach, and I struggled to keep my heartbeat slow and even despite the fact the animal clan was tightening around us, closing in the circle until we would finally be faced with the voice of the squad that had been sent to defend their territory from interlopers.
As we entered a small clearing, a low growl rumbled around us. Standing with Rowe, I picked out several large wolves, a few bobcats, and a pair of mountain lions. Smaller luminous eyes stared out from the darkness, making me think we were surrounded by a large selection of foxes and raccoons as well. Reaching out with my powers, I discovered that most of the larger animals surrounding us were actually naturi that had shape-shifted into animal form, while the smaller creatures were truly animals that may have been summoned to help with the coming fight.
“We’re here to speak with Kane,” I announced, holding my hands out to my sides, open and empty. I wasn’t going to start a fight, and I preferred to avoid one at all costs considering that we were severely outnumbered.
Above my head in front of me, a large owl hooted a couple times before it spread its beautiful white wings and glided down. The white feathers melted away to reveal a man with darkly tanned skin and a shaggy mane of blond hair. It looked as if he would have been more natural in the form of a lion, rather than the unassuming and easily overlooked form of an owl. The moonlight gilded his naked body as he took a couple steps toward us. The animals that surrounded us also took a couple steps closer, shrinking the circle. Rowe shifted his stance, bumping his shoulder against mine as I forced myself to remain as still as possible. They were trying to goad us into acting.
Under most circumstances I would have trusted Rowe not to strike, but to calmly brush off their attempts to strike fear in him. However, the iron collar was inhibiting his powers, leaving him weaker and potentially at their mercy. I had put him at a distinct disadvantage; something I’m sure he was unaccustomed to. If he felt too threatened, I had no doubt he would strike first in an effort to save himself.
“We have come to speak with clan leader Kane,” I announced in a strong voice. “Will you let us pass?”
