Hunted By Firelight by Krista Street

Chapter 6

~ AVERY ~

Wyatt was pacing. I couldn’t hear him, smell him, or see him . . . yet, a very subtle vibration shook the floorboards, and I knew that he was pacing in his room adjacent to ours.

Ever since Charlotte and I had returned from our shopping trip, he’d been tense.

Initially, he’d disappeared after Charlotte and I retreated to our room, then he’d returned carrying a tray of food for supper saying I should eat before going to bed.

As I’d dutifully eaten, despite the fluttering in my stomach which he always provoked, he’d been on high alert. When he wasn’t standing at the window constantly looking out of it, he was waiting by the door as if trying to sense something on the other side, or sending messages on his tablet as he communicated with someone in the SF.

And if that wasn’t worrying enough, his body had oozed tension as his surly mood flooded the room. An extra day’s worth of beard also coated his cheeks, and his eyes had taken on a gritty, bloodshot look that only came from lack of sleep. He needed rest more than I did, yet despite that, his energy had been strong, his alpha power vibrating around him.

Which meant something was definitely up that I wasn’t privy to.

Before crawling into bed, I’d finally asked Charlotte what the hell was going on.

“He sensed something this afternoon,” she explained. “It’s probably nothing, but just to be safe, we’re going to stay awake tonight.” She winked. “Get some shut-eye, eh? We’ll keep ya safe.”

So Wyatt had sensed something. But what?

I turned over in my bed, the room dark around me. My damp hair splayed out, leaving the pillowcase cool. I’d showered and changed into fresh clothes maybe thirty minutes ago, then climbed into bed after Wyatt left and Charlotte again insisted I sleep.

Yet despite fatigue pulling at my eyelids, begging me to drift into oblivion, that strange dipping feeling again filled my stomach. I was pretty sure it wasn’t because I needed to pee or was hungry. I’d come to learn what those sensations were, so this new feeling had to be caused by some other emotion I had yet to identify.

Charlotte still sat on her bed. Her back was to me, her attention on the window. She was fully dressed in her SF uniform with her weapons strapped to her.

“Are you really not going to sleep at all?” I asked quietly.

She glanced over her shoulder, the moonlight illuminating her profile. “No. My orders are to stay alert, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sleep. You’ve got to be tired since you’ve been awake for over a day. You should try to get some rest.”

I sighed heavily. “You sound like my mother.”

Charlotte tilted her head. “You remember your mom saying stuff like that?”

I frowned. Did I? The retort had rolled right off my tongue without a thought, so did that mean that was something I would have heard her say? Or did my confused brain have me say that because it seemed like a natural response?

I groaned. “Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t actually remember my mom saying that to me.”

And I couldn’t. My mind was one big foggy mess right now. Whenever I concentrated and tried to remember anything past language or the everyday info about random stuff, there was just a large blank cobweb of nothingness. No memories of myself. No recognition of those I once knew. No understanding of emotions or bodily sensations. Nada.

But I did know what a waterbed was, thinking back to when I’d first stepped on the magical carpet. I grumbled. How useful.

Charlotte turned to face me more. “It’s okay, girl. It may come back in time so don’t sweat it too much. Now go to sleep. We’ll keep you safe, and you need to rest.”

I opened my mouth to talk more. It didn’t seem fair that they would stay awake while I slept, but then a yawn escaped me. I stifled the sound with the back of my hand, then tried to think of something Charlotte and I could talk about, but nothing came, and I knew I couldn’t blame my lack of stimulating conversational topics on my memory loss.

Charlotte was right. I was tired.

“Fine. I’ll try and get some sleep.”

She laughed softly. “Sweet dreams.”

∞     ∞     ∞

Fire roared from a pit in the earth. Its dancing light crackled and snapped. A dark night sky loomed above, punctuated with glistening stars, yet the world here felt empty and vacant. Except for them.

Robed figures stood in a circle around the pit. They chanted, their hands joined as their low humming filled the air.

I hovered above them, my body weightless. Terror slid through my veins as my ethereal form lifted and dipped, ensnared in their rhythmic song.

Their chanting grew, words flowing from their lips in a language long dead. The power of the words buzzed through me, rising in my chest higher and higher.

Pain abruptly blazed along my limbs.

I screamed, clutching at my chest, my stomach, my throat, but the electrical fire roaring inside me burned hotter.

Their song grew stronger, their magic lassoing me.

I cried out as their binding snapped me tight. A geyser of power roiled inside me. No! They were trying to take it!

I gasped, my body writhing in pain as I fought their control of my spectral form.

But my body wasn’t mine. I didn’t control it. I didn’t own it.

It was theirs.

One of the figures stepped over something, and I saw that it was me he’d maneuvered around. My pale body lay on the ground, eyes closed. A sheet covered me from the chin down.

The figure peered up at me. His face was a mask of shadows and light, there but gone, present yet past. Something about him was off. I couldn’t see his features. I couldn’t identify anything at all about him. But he felt wrong.

“You will give it to me.” His voiced chilled me to the marrow of my bones. “I will control the power in your veins, oh Goddess of—”

A whisper had me bolting upright in bed, a scream trapped in my throat.

Darkness surrounded me. My heavy pants filled the air as I clutched the sheets, my fingers curling into them.

Where am I? What’s happening?

“Avery?” a deep voice said urgently.

Wyatt.

I reached for him, instinct begging me to grasp his shoulders and bury my head against his frame. Wyatt. I needed him. I needed to be with him.

He was there in an instant, his warm body enveloping me, his oak and pine scent everywhere.

“I’m here,” he whispered. His arm encircled my waist, pulling me close.

My fingers wrapped around his shoulders, my heart pounding wildly as I tried to figure out where I was and what was happening.

“A dream . . . I had a dream, I think. These men—”

“Avery listen to me,” Wyatt said interrupting. “We need to leave. Someone is after you. I felt it earlier, and I feel it again now. The wards around this inn have flared twice. They’re keeping out whoever’s trying to get in, but they’re weakening. And if whoever is after you breaches them, we need to move.”

“What? Someone’s after me? You mean, that’s why you and Charlotte stayed up—”

His pocket buzzed, and he pulled back just enough to whip out his tablet. A message glowed on its screen, but it flashed so quickly that I couldn’t see it.

“Dammit!” he seethed.

“ETA?” Charlotte asked briskly.

I blinked. My friend’s silhouette appeared by the window, pulling the curtain back.

Shit. This was serious.

“Too long,” Wyatt growled. “They’re another hour out.”

“What’s happened? Who’s out there?” The aftereffects of the dream, or whatever had terrorized me to wake up in the middle of the night, still fogged my mind, but already the details were slipping.

Instead of answering me, Wyatt gently swung my legs to the side of the bed. “Avery, I need you to put your shoes on.” His voice sounded so gravelly and deep, and his wolf shone in his eyes.

I slipped my shoes on. “Okay. Does that mean we’re going somewhere?”

A blast suddenly rocked the building, jolting me from the mattress to slide off its side.

I yelped, just as Wyatt yanked me to the floor, then placed his heavy body over mine.

“Get down!” he yelled to Charlotte.

My friend crouched to the floor just as the window shattered. Glass flew everywhere. Huge deadly shards embedded in the walls, the headboard, the carpet. It was only because Wyatt and I were nestled between the two beds that we missed their blows.

“Stay covered!” he yelled.

Charlotte crouched, her arms covering her head and protecting her face when another huge vibration strummed through the building. The scent of blood and iron filled the air.

“Shit!” Wyatt’s hold on me tightened. “The wards are down! Remember your training, Morris!”

Before I could process what was happening, Wyatt had raised himself just enough to crouch over me. A humming weapon was in his hand. He aimed it at the shattered window. Magical bullets erupted from it, shooting from the end like blazing meteors moving at light speed.

Charlotte bolted up onto one knee, her bow in hand. She shot an arrow through the window. A loud groan came from outside.

Elsewhere in the building, screams erupted as the other guests woke from sound sleeps. Another rumble shook the floor, except this time the entire floor shifted, tilting beneath us.

“We need to move!” Wyatt yelled to Charlotte.

She tucked and rolled, executing a perfect backward somersault. The maneuver put her right at the end of my bed, and her eyes flashed my way.

In her luminescent irises I saw a touch of fear but also excitement. She was enjoying this.

“Cover us,” Wyatt snarled.

My breath rushed out of me as Wyatt’s arm clamped around my waist, and then I was flying.

The wall shattered to my side when he catapulted us toward the door. Plaster shards flew everywhere. Someone was firing at us. Firing at him.

I wrapped my arms around my head, bracing myself as the electrical power inside me began to sparkle and sizzle, growing and swelling, begging me to let it out. But what did I do with it?

Just as we reached the door, a shadowy figure floated in front of the window, then entered the room.

“Charlotte!” I screamed.

Her back was to the intruder. She leapt toward us, but a spell shot from the shadowy figure and hit her square in the shoulder.

Wyatt exploded through the door into the hallway, and then we were racing down it. I pummeled his back as I dangled over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Stop! Charlotte fell!”

But he didn’t pause.

“We need to go back and get her!”

His jaw clamped shut so hard, his teeth snapped. “No! I need to keep you safe!”

“Wyatt, please! We can’t leave her!”

Another groan shook the building, and dust from the walls puffed around us.

The lights went out.

Screams rose from the first floor.

The floorboards shook again.

A terrible roar came from the end of the building.

“Wyatt!” I pleaded.

“My orders are to keep you safe!”

Another explosion rocked the building, and Wyatt stumbled toward the wall.

Electricity zapped along my skin, my hair standing on end. The volcano of power inside me was begging to erupt.

“Please! We can’t leave her.”

Gritting his teeth, he didn’t let go and instead swept open the door to the stairwell just as a glow burst in the hall behind us, emanating from the room I’d been sleeping in. The room that Charlotte was still in.

A black mist formed outside the doorway, slinking along the floorboards toward us. It rose and swelled, growing in size.

My eyes widened as we disappeared down the stairwell, and the terrifying mist disappeared from view.

I didn’t manage to see anything else since Wyatt’s movements turned into a blur. He moved so fast. So unbelievably fast.

But we’d left Charlotte.

“We have to go back!” I screamed.

We burst through the bottom door onto the main floor. Other guests in the inn were frantically running about. It was dark everywhere, and the walls kept vibrating as ancient magic sparked around us.

“What’s happening?” a fairy yelled to a woman as they raced down the hall.

“Are we under attack?” somebody else wailed as a child began crying.

“Does the king know?” a man bellowed as he clutched a suitcase to his chest.

It was chaos. Everywhere.

Wyatt grunted when a man shot out of his door and barreled into us, before steadying himself and sprinting again. The world turned into a blur once more. The next thing I knew we were bursting through the front door out into the cool night.

“Wyatt, no! Stop! Please!” Choked sobs worked up my throat.

But he refused to slow.

“Wyatt. Let. Me. Go!” A huge rush of energy shot from me of its own accord, zapping him in the chest. Damn. I hadn’t meant to do that.

He came to a careening halt, and I scrambled from his arms.

I stood on the lawn, the inn behind us emitting terrible creaks and groans. Wyatt rubbed his chest, his face twisted in a grimace.

A moment of guilt clouded me. I had no idea how badly I’d hurt him, but I guessed it hadn’t been a simple shock given the expression on his face. But I needed to focus on Charlotte, not Wyatt.

I crossed the two feet of distance between us and grabbed his shirt. “We have to go back and get Charlotte.”

“My orders are to protect you, and Charlotte knows—”

“I don’t give a fuck what your orders are! We’re not leaving her!” I shoved away from him, intent on getting Charlotte myself, when his large hand shot out and gripped my upper arm.

A snarl tore from me, and the power inside me swelled, but before another surge of energy could break away from me of its own volition, Wyatt released his grip.

“Avery,” he pleaded, his eyes glowing as brightly as the moon. “I need to keep you safe. I can’t risk any harm coming to you.”

And that’s when I saw it and heard it. The desperation in his eyes. The raw fear in his words. His actions weren’t because of orders. They were because of his feelings for me. His feelings were why he’d left my friend—his squad mate—behind.

I remembered what Charlotte had said. Wolves who want to claim a woman will do anything for her.

But I couldn’t leave my friend.

“I’m going back inside for her if you won’t.”

“NO!” His bellow made me pause as a terrified inn resident streaked past us, clad only in nightclothes. Another rumble came from the building, and the west side fell an alarming foot.

“Wyatt, the building is going down! We don’t have much time. If we don’t get her now, she’ll die.”

His gaze whipped to the building. Tension roiled around him, energy waxing and waning.

“Look! It’s coming down!”

He blinked, then staggered back. As if coming out of a trance, his face paled. “Shit! What have I done?” he whispered.

“Please, if you ever cared for me, please go back and get her. Do it for me.”

His jaw clenched, and in a blur of action, he whisked me off the lawn and stopped near the street, the inn even farther away.

His glowing eyes met mine. “Stay here and create the protective dome around you. I can’t believe I fucking left her, and I can’t believe I’m now fucking leaving you!” His mouth slammed into mine, his kiss quick and violent.

Before I could utter a sound of surprise, he disappeared in a blur.

My lips parted as understanding dawned. It’d taken him two seconds to move me, kiss me, and be back inside the building.

I fingered my mouth. Good Gods. Wyatt had feelings for me. Charlotte had been right.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I shook those thoughts off and watched in horror as smoke rose from one side of the building. More screams followed as a tingling sense of fear crept up my spine. A part of my mind knew that I needed to create the dome again—even though I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d done it in the first place—but before I could try, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

“I didn’t think it would be this easy,” a man said calmly from behind me. “With that wolf guarding you non-stop, I didn’t think he would leave an opening.”

My breath stopped as I spun around. That voice. Something about that voice . . .

My heart beat harder as I came face to face with a tall robed figure standing just on the other side of the short fence that lined the inn’s property. His face was hidden, only his mouth revealed.

An ache coiled around my gut. Something about his mouth looked familiar.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you?” He glided closer to the fence as the screams continued behind me. “For thousands of years, that’s how long I’ve been waiting, and finally, here you are.”

Icy dread slid through my veins, and I stumbled backward just as Wyatt burst through the door with an unconscious Charlotte draped over his shoulder. “Avery!” he roared.

The building collapsed, the entire western side suddenly giving out as movement from the other side of the property drew my attention.

A group of figures appeared from around the corner, their bodies also adorned in long robes.

All of the blood drained from my face.

It was them. The figures from my dream.

The fuzzy dream came roaring back.

The fire.

The chanting.

The robes.

The otherworldly spells.

They were here for me. Wyatt’s instincts had been right.

I spun back to the tall one, gasping in shock when I found him standing right in front of me. He’d moved so fast and so silently.

Terror clawed up my throat as I tripped over my feet to get away from him. The power inside me roiled, but fuck me if I knew how to use it on command.

I bumped into something, and a cloud of oak and pine scents wafted around me.

Before I could respond or try again to form the dome, Wyatt was in front of me, his body blocking me from view, as Charlotte lay unconscious on the ground.

“You’re not taking her,” he snarled.

The man, or supernatural, or whoever the hell he was, laughed. The fucker actually laughed. “Is that what you think, wolf? She’s not yours. She’s mine.”

Granted, I didn’t know Wyatt at all, or know much about this claiming business, but I had a feeling that was the absolute worst thing this dude could have said to the commander.

An enraged growl tore from Wyatt just as the rest of the building crumbled, the old, teetering walls snapping like matchsticks. More screams came, one cut off by a gut-wrenching crunch.

Before I could process what that meant, magic shimmered around Wyatt, and I knew he was about to shift into his wolf.

But then the other robed figures were around us. They’d moved so fast, one second on the side of the property, and the next encircling us.

They began chanting under their breath as a spell shot toward me.

I shrieked and tried to dodge out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough.

Wyatt stopped from shifting and grabbed me, hurtling me out of the spell’s path at the last second.

The wind was knocked out of me from the abrupt movement, and the power inside my body hummed all the more. Use it! Use the power to stop this!

But I didn’t know how. Even though adrenaline pumped through my veins, and the terrible power inside me bubbled and roiled, I didn’t know how to command it.

You still need to try.

Electricity sped along my skin, zapping Wyatt. He hissed but didn’t let go.

Fuck, that wasn’t what I’d meant to do.

“Take him out,” the tall man said, his eerily calm voice never wavering.

The rest of the robed figures raised their hands in unison. A blast of spells shot from them. With them encircling us, Wyatt had nowhere to go but up.

He leapt, his feet leaving the ground at an impossibly fast speed, but the spells followed.

They hit him simultaneously. All of them.

A scream trapped in my throat. Wyatt landed with a sickening thump next to Charlotte.

Disbelief coursed through me as the figures moved in closer. All I could do was gape at Wyatt and Charlotte on the ground.

They were both silent.

Unmoving.

Blood trickled from Charlotte’s shoulder.

Wyatt’s head lolled to the side.

Oh Gods!

Terror bloomed inside me that was so potent and raw that it ensnared my senses, flooded my mind, and became a living entity within me which consumed everything I saw and felt.

Were both Wyatt and Charlotte dead?

“Take her.” The tall man’s command sliced through me.

Hands reached for me, ripping, shoving, and pinning. The robed men formed a solid wall around me.

But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Wyatt and Charlotte. This can’t be happening! This isn’t real. I’m in a dream. None of this is real! They’re fine.

Despite my internal denial, the wails and moans continued coming from the ruined building that now lay in a pile of smoke and cracked wood. Supernaturals were trapped beneath the rubble, dying and terrified, their cries being snuffed out like candles.

Oh my God, they’re dying. The other guests are dying. This isn’t a dream.

The robed men’s hands continued to paw me, before lifting me. My feet were no longer on the ground. And Charlotte and Wyatt still hadn’t moved. Because they were probably dead.

The world turned into a sea, as if everything moved through thick black water. Sounds, sights, and smells all blended into one. An echoing void opened within me, as the electrical energy in my chest charged and grew.

Wyatt and Charlotte. No. No. They can’t be dead. Please, no.

I lashed my arms out in pain as an insufferable grief consumed me. Please don’t let them be dead. Please!

An agonizing chasm of torment split my sternum. The hands slipped, their hold loosening until I fell to the ground.

And then they were reaching for me again. Groping. Tugging. Pulling. Owning me.

But I crouched to the ground, curling into a ball, my arms covering my head as anguish erupted in my chest.

The crack inside me opened further, fissuring like the earth splitting wide open during an earthquake. Images of Wyatt and Charlotte immobile on the ground flooded my mind again and again.

The crack widened, and then—it exploded.

Burning, surging energy skated up my chest and through my arms. The force of it knocked my head back. I shot to standing, arms flying out.

The robed figures flew through the air, as if a nuclear explosion had ripped through them, sending the men careening in a blast outward, and then—

Everything went still.

The world stopped.

Time froze.

The crashing, burning, and screams—they just . . . stopped.

Around me, everything had ceased. Frozen in time.

The robed figures were suspended in mid-air. Wyatt and Charlotte were unconscious on the ground. The blood flowing from Charlotte’s shoulder didn’t move; a drop of it hovered immobile in the air. And the tall robed figure by the fence waited vacant-looking and unmoving.

I slowly turned in a circle, taking in the paralyzed world.

What just happened?

But I didn’t have time to process it. Whatever power had been unleashed inside me was buzzing through my system, and pouring out of me in vengeful waves. Electricity fired along my nerves, heating my blood. Sparks flew everywhere.

And I had no idea how long it would last.

A flicker of awareness shuddered through me, drawing my attention back to the robed figure by the fence. He didn’t move, yet I felt him watching me. His gaze was glued to mine as I reached for Wyatt and Charlotte.

The man knew what was happening. He understood it, but he still couldn’t move, although his eyes did. They followed me.

Fear crawled up my chest in icy tentacles as the immense power flowed through my limbs. I picked up Wyatt and Charlotte, one under each arm, as if they were cotton-stuffed rag dolls. But they were both tall. Their legs dragged on the ground. Still, their weight and long forms didn’t stop me. The power coursing through me was so great.

I began to run.

The crystalized world flew past me in a blur. I ran and ran and ran. I passed silent houses, fae standing frozen in the streets, fields of immobile tall grass, walls sheathed in gold . . .

I left it all behind. I ran until the city faded and the view of a great sea spread out before me.

Burning pain raged through me at the sheer magnitude of energy it took to keep the power activated while carrying hundreds of pounds of weight.

Even though the world stayed immobile, I was anything but. Ragged breaths cleaved my lungs. Sweat trailed down my temples. Lactic acid built in my muscles.

Regardless, I kept going, pushing my body and mind to its absolute breaking point.

I ran until the colossal power in me grew small and misty, mere vapors of the mighty explosion that had rocked time and space.

I ran until the world jolted to a start, the air moving, the insects chirping, the stars twinkling.

I ran until I couldn’t run anymore.

I collapsed in a field, the sound of waves crashing in the distance. The world faded to nothingness as my body finally broke.

Wyatt and Charlotte fell to the ground beside me, still unconscious and unmoving. Then my eyes closed as exhaustion overtook me.