Wrath

On Owen and Kali, who were on the other side of the portal. “They’re created for a connection from point A to point B. It’s not a two-way street.”

She stopped her pacing in the middle of the road and stood with her feet shoulder-width apart. She pushed her hand through her short blond hair, then spun on her boot.

“Sorry, Alexis, but I’m going with or without you,” she said. She strode back to her motorcycle with purpose, mounted it, and cranked it over. “Are you coming with me, Sheree?”

The Were bit her lip, not answering right away.

“See you on the flip side then,” Char called over the rumble, and she sped down the road and disappeared.

“Shit,” I muttered. Charlotte was pissed. That was the only way to explain her behavior. She was going after Kali and Owen no matter what, even if it meant leaving me, the person she’d sworn to protect. “I’m going, too.”

I climbed onto my bike, which Sheree had ridden here, and cranked it over.

“Alexis,” Tristan said, already heading to his motorcycle, but trying to stop me anyway.

“You know what Char’s going to try, and we can’t let her do it alone!” I yelled over the rumble of my engine. “Besides, they have our son.”

I kicked the clutch, put the motorcycle in gear, and twisted the accelerator. I sped down the road and through the portal, blasting into the unknown.

Chapter 21

I experienced no whooshing of air from my lungs. No tunnel of darkness as I rode from Point A to Point B. In fact, I physically felt nothing odd as I rode through the portal and only knew I had succeeded because cold night air suddenly engulfed me and tiny raindrops sprayed my face. Well, that and because Vanessa and Char stood in the beam of my headlight when I turned it on. A rumbling behind me meant Tristan had followed me, so I pulled forward in case the rest of our group decided to do the same. Of course they did. They were loyal through and through. I just hoped I wouldn’t get them killed.

At least we seemed to be safe so far.

We shut off our engines, and I immediately searched for mind signatures, but the closest ones belonged to Normans in a town about five or so miles away. Well, besides those of animals, but they were normal beasts, too: sheep, cows, hogs, and some wild creatures. We’d been transported to a country road in the middle of nowhere, the pavement stretching north and south, and pastures spreading out in all directions. Clouds blanketed the sky, and a light rain fell on us. At least we hadn’t fallen through a hole in the air. That wouldn’t have been good for the motorcycles—or the cars Kali and Owen had been driving, which meant they hadn’t created the portal as a quick escape to somewhere random. They’d had a plan.

“Where are we?” Sheree asked, her voice small as she sat on the motorcycle Vanessa had left with us back in Virginia.

“Definitely not Hades,” I said with extreme relief.

“No. Feels like northern England,” Tristan said. I glanced over at him as he pulled out his phone and the screen lit up his face. How would he know that so easily?

Vanessa inhaled deeply. “I agree.”

Following her lead, I took my own whiff, and the air definitely smelled different. I supposed they had enough years and experience in various locations around the world to be able to tell the difference by smell and feel.

“We’re close to York,” Tristan said while studying the phone screen. “About five miles north.”

“York, England,” Charlotte said, not as a question, but as a confirmation. “I guess the bitch has a thing for the United Kingdom.”

“She did when she held Lilith and Bree captive,” Tristan agreed. “Bree said Kali found them in Ireland and moved them to various places in the U.K. before taking them to the U.S.”

Char nodded. “She left Martin as a baby in Ireland after killing his parents.”

“And I think she once had a castle in Ireland,” Vanessa said, then added, “Or was it Scotland? She’d never admit to exactly where. I’m surprised she didn’t go there.”

“Actually, it’s either southern Scotland or northern England,” Tristan said. “Lucas had me track her once, but I lost her near the border.”

“So that’s where she’s going?” I asked. “That’s where they’re taking Dorian?”

“It’s the most logical answer,” Tristan said.

I toed the kickstand to make it drop and sat back on my bike with a huff. “But neither of you know exactly where it is. There’s no sign of any of them—Kali, Owen, Dorian, or the other guy—or their minds. How do we know this isn’t a decoy? How do we know they didn’t go through another portal and are back in Virginia or went somewhere else? They could be anywhere in the world!”

“Yes, they could be,” Tristan said as he rubbed his chin. “It would be a quick and easy way to throw us off their trails. Kali would know Vanessa and I would think she went to her castle, so she could have sent us on a wild goose chase.”

I groaned, although I really wanted to punch something. “So what do we do?”

“We can’t go back through the portal,” Charlotte reminded us.

“We really only have one option,” Tristan said. “We go to the nearest town and see if we can find anything out. Maybe someone saw them drive through or—”

“You know they’re cloaked by now. Otherwise, I’d sense their mind signatures,” I said.

“Someone might still know something,” Blossom suggested.

“If her castle’s nearby, maybe someone in the village has seen her around before,” Jax offered. “Maybe did some work for her?”

“I could scan their minds from here,” I said, not liking the idea of moving, because it could mean putting more distance between Dorian and us, even if it was only five miles.

“They won’t be thinking about it unless someone’s bringing up the subject,” Tristan pointed out.

“Some of us have senses, too.” Sheree sniffed in emphasis. “Senses we can use to help you, but not from this far away.”

True. She, Jax, Vanessa, and Tristan could smell fear, desire, and even lies, and they had powerful hearing outside of people’s minds. Charlotte and Blossom had their ways, as well. And Tristan was also right about standing out here in the rain not being much of an option. It wasn’t like the sky was dropping answers on us. Only water.

So we headed for the nearest town, and my mind stayed open to other signatures the entire time. I was pleasantly surprised, yet suspicious, to find only a couple of Amadis mages in the area and no Daemoni.

“They’re in the bigger cities,” Tristan said as we rode. “This part of the country isn’t populated enough for them, but it’s only a matter of time.”

I wondered how many towns like this—unaffected so far—still remained in the world. We’d already become expectant of checkpoints in the U.S. The freakin’ United States of America, home of the free. Yeah, right. Thanks to the Daemoni and evil in high offices, the people weren’t really free anymore. They complained about their rights being taken away, but they didn’t know the half of it, what went on this very minute behind closed doors. And when they did find out? They’d have no chance in a revolution. Not when they were fighting creatures that shouldn’t exist in their world.

A sudden realization hit me that my books hadn’t been enough to prepare the Normans for the battle hovering on the horizon. Not even close. Such a paltry attempt, I saw now. Rina couldn’t have believed they’d been enough to make a difference. She must have been humoring me with her explanation of why she allowed them to be written and published. She had to have been indulging me, knowing how much I needed to write those stories to stay somewhat sane during Tristan’s absence.

Because the humans needed more. So much more.

They needed the Amadis. We needed our army.