Kissed by Krista Street
Chapter 6
~ WYATT ~
Within seconds, the portal key transferred Nicholas and me back to Shrouding Estate. Dozens of Fae Guard still sat among the ruins nursing nasty cuts and battle wounds. Fairy healers dashed about, using magic to heal those they could and easing the pain of those they couldn’t. Many more would die today. It was inevitable.
“You’re back.” Bavar hurried toward us. Clean orange hair curled around his ears, and his clothing looked new and spotless. Even his dagger was blood free. He’d no doubt used fairy magic to cleanse himself. Bavar inclined his head toward one of the estate’s remaining wings that hadn’t been completely destroyed. “The seer is here. She just arrived.”
“Good. Let’s see what she can find.” Bavar led the way as I filled him in on the visit to Bulgaria. “The information the gargoyles found in the library alludes to the Elixias Mountains. If the seer is unable to pinpoint Avery’s location, we go there.”
Bavar cocked his head. “The Elixias Mountains are days away from here. Lord Godasara and his warlocks must have used portal keys or advanced magic to transport themselves that far.”
An image filled my mind of Lord Godasara’s grin before he tumbled with Avery into a foreign-looking portal. The usual glowing red doorway conjured with portal keys had been absent. Only a circular void had appeared from thin air.
“I think he created his own portal when he took Avery.” My heart kicked up, beating faster.
“He is an ancient elf.” Nicholas’s perfectly waxed eyebrows drew together. “He probably has enough magic to do that.”
Bavar’s expression turned grim. “The very few fae old enough to remember the elf lords’ magic say it was terrifying in its strength. We saw only a hint of that in the battle. But we’ll still get Avery back,” Bavar was quick to add when he caught my expression.
“That’s if she’s there.” Gods, my heart was beating so fast.
“I think she very well could be,” Nicholas said. “The cave system beneath those mountains was where Lord Godasara spent most of his time before his death, as has been confirmed by the scrolls. It’s not unreasonable to believe he’s there again.”
“This way.” Bavar took a sharp turn around a crumbling pillar of stone. “The seer’s waiting near Merimum wing.”
The three of us jumped over rocks and rubble as the scent of smoke filled the air.
The seer stood near a tipped over wall, a plush turquoise-colored couch in tatters behind her. Hair the color of onyx hung down her back, and a long skirt flowed from her hips. Her top billowed around her, reminding me of a flapping sail on a boat.
She turned when we approached, her crystalline blue eyes sharp and focused.
Bavar bowed. “Nolene, this is Major Jamison and our gargoyle representative, Nicholas Fitzpatrick.”
Nolene dipped her head. “I hear you’re looking for the woman who was abducted from this location earlier today.”
“That’s right.” I placed my hands on my hips. “And we don’t have a moment to spare. She’s already been gone for hours.”
“I’ve heard, and I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I was working with a demon lord, and he wasn’t inclined to let me leave until I finished what he’d paid for.”
“Not a problem,” I replied curtly. “Now, what do you need to locate Avery?”
Nolene brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Do you have an item of her clothing? Or a lock of her hair? Or something that she recently touched? I need something of her essence, the more recent she was in contact with it the better.”
“I have something.” Bavar pulled a piece of clothing from a bag he’d been carrying. “I figured you would need as much.” He held up the bright pink sweater, almost guiltily. “While you were at the library, I retrieved this from the chambers you and Avery shared. It carries her scent, so I’m guessing she wore this recently?”
My gut tightened. “She wore that yesterday.” My nostrils flared. Avery’s fresh lilac fragrance wafted from the swath of fabric. “Will that work?” I asked Nolene.
“I believe so. Now, I might just move away from the commotion.” She walked carefully over the rubble away from other SF members who cast us curious glances. The healers hurried about, not paying us any attention.
We followed Nolene to the forest’s edge. Tree branches and broken roots littered the ground.
Once we reached a clearing, she stopped and fingered the fabric between her hands. “I will need silence while I try to find her location. Please don’t interrupt me.”
None of us replied, yet the tension that oozed around us was palpable. Even Nicholas stood rigidly while my hands stayed balled at my sides.
Nolene closed her eyes and rubbed the fabric more. She stood quietly, her eyeballs moving rapidly beneath her closed lids, as if she were in REM sleep. A moment passed, then another. She shifted slightly from foot to foot, her body swaying as her long skirt flowed around her ankles.
In the distance, moans came from the wounded and shouts carried from those attending to them, but my attention stayed focused on the seer.
Nolene frowned, her eyebrows drawing together in a dark line. Her lips parted, then she said in an even-toned voice, “I see a forest and mountains. The sun isn’t bright there. It’s behind clouds. No. Wait.” Her frown deepened. “The sun is completely hidden.” Another moment passed, and her eyeballs moved faster. “I’m going down and down, far beneath the ground. There’s no sun here. It’s dark and cold, and I see rocks. So many rocks. She’s surrounded by them.” She opened her eyes. Her irises had turned milky, as if unseeing, yet I knew she was seeing so much.
I held my breath, and my heart beat faster. Unable to help myself, I bit out, “Are you able to identify anything more concretely? A landmark or a village near this underground area?”
Bavar grabbed my arm and squeezed, effectively silencing me, but damn it was hard to stand by and remain quiet when the seer’s information was so vague.
She continued staring around us, her gaze staying fixed far away. “It’s cold and dark. So very dark. And she’s bound, trapped. Something holds her. It’s keeping her from breaking free.”
A growl rumbled in my chest, and magic flowed hotly beneath my skin. I would tear apart the men who took her, limb from limb, and I would enjoy every minute of it.
“Fear surrounds this place and so much dark magic. It travels through the rocks and around her. Something evil envelops this place, like a shroud.” She blinked, and her eyes abruptly cleared. Once again, blue irises regarded us. She took a deep breath and then another. Placing a hand against a nearby tree to steady herself, she said, “I’m sorry, but that’s all I can see. I don’t have anything more.”
I gritted my teeth together so I wouldn’t vent my annoyance. Mountains. Trees. Rocks. Coldness. Underground. That was all we had to go on. That was it.
And that could have been hundreds of places in the fae lands.
Bavar, Nicholas, and I shared a frustrated look.
“Are you sure you can’t see anything more specific?” I prodded. “Perhaps a landmark that’s unique? Like the shape of the mountains?”
Nolene shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I just saw mountains. They could be anywhere, but wherever they are, it’s far away and not near habitation. I know that much.”
Nicholas crossed his arms, his fingers tapping his bicep. “It must be the Elixias Mountains. They’re days away from any villages, and they’re surrounded by trees.”
Bavar nodded. “And there are cave systems, too, beneath the mountains. Nicholas is right. It’s quite possibly the place, and right now, it’s all we have to go on.”
But what if we’re wrong?
That nagging fear stole over me again, like a bad rash. We were taking a gamble again, only going off minimal information and hoping it was right, just as we had done after Avery had fallen ill from the Safrinite comet.
Nicholas’s and my last hunch had turned out correct, when we’d whisked Avery to the fae lands at the cusp of the alignment.
Hopefully, this hunch would be right too.
“Thank you for your time,” I said to Nolene. “Does Wes need you elsewhere?”
She gave a wan smile. “I’m always needed elsewhere. If there’s nothing more for me to do here, I shall leave you for my next assignment.”
“No, nothing further, thank you.” Bavar gave a final bow.
After Nolene left, I faced Bavar. “We’re going to need at least three squads. When I spoke with Wes earlier today, he said two would be arriving about now. Have you heard about a third?”
“No. In our last communication, he was still working on getting a third free. That damned fighting in Jakarta. It’s taking so many of our resources.”
My wolf rumbled. He paced within my belly, growling and snarling. His agitation seeped into my veins, making my heart race and my muscles flex. Because hearing that Avery was being kept somewhere underground which was dark and cold, and that she was being held against her will surrounded by dark magic . . . Fuck, it made both of us see red.
“We need to go. We can’t wait for them.” A part of me knew I was losing it again, but dammit, hours had already passed since my mate had been taken. Every moment she was gone, she was more at risk. “Who knows what they’re doing to her. We need to get to her.”
“And we will,” Bavar said calmly. “But we can’t go without proper backup. You saw how strong those warlocks are. Look at what they did to the Fae Guard.” He swept his hand toward the wounded guardsmen, many of whom were still bleeding and sporting horrific wounds.
“It was the forest that did that. That damned elf lord can control the trees.”
“And the Elixias Mountains are surrounded by forest,” Nicholas chimed in. “Bavar is right. You shouldn’t go without the right kind of backup.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him when he’d become an SF commander, but then I remembered what he’d said in the library—how he’d spoken so candidly and honestly about his actions toward Lassa and then Avery.
He is not your enemy.
Hana’s soft words breezed through my mind. The Bulgarian libraries’ healer, the witch who was nearly four hundred years old, had sensed the turmoil that constantly ran between me and the vamp.
But even she had known that Nicholas wasn’t to blame for everything.
I took a deep breath, trying to stem my bone-deep rage, and to reason with my irrational desire to run headfirst toward my mate. Because Bavar and Nicholas were right. If the Elixias Mountains and the surrounding forest were where Avery was being held, we needed a careful and covert plan.
It was the only way we could defeat the elf lord.
“I think we should go now and scope out the area.” My nostrils flared as my mind whirled. I looked toward Bavar. “Just the two of us, so we know what we’re getting into, and when the third squad arrives, all the squads join us, and then we attack.”
Bavar nodded, a gleam shining from his eyes. “Yes, that works. You and I go now, and when the teams are ready to be mobilized we not only attack, we destroy.”
