Page 31 of Catnip

Great plan, actually. Just not as good ashers.

“What if…” Neri cleared his throat. “I know they showed us proof that they weren’t even around when they said they were, that they aren’t related to the Flavia, but what if they were wrong? You know. Killing them both… that could mean our ownend.”

“Don’t you worry about that. Max doesn’t plan on risking it. Richard, we’ll kill, but we’re keeping the bitch alive, justin…”

He’d opened the door, the idiot. Her eagle burst out of her skin so fast the chains binding her hands and feet were torn to shreds, along with her clothes. Although the animal would have loved to stay and scratch their eyes out, she just bulldozed her way through the three shifters. Her absolute priority was in line withAva’s.

They needed Coveneyhere.

And, alright, a few other allies wouldn’t hurt, but if they didn’t succeed, they’d never see him again. Which wasn’t anoption.

She heard a high-pitched call, too close to ignore, but, against her instincts to turn and fight whoever was coming at her, she flew straight towards the very place where they’d wantedher.

She was lucky they had been fed some nonsense that made them disregard everything her family had said. Otherwise, they might never have brought her to Dale. Otherwise, they definitely wouldn’t have planned to take her to the forum, a long open roofed hall with high columns at each side, each of which was adorned with statues. Unlike the rest of what may have been done back in the day, it wasn’t effigies of gods; they were symbols of nature - trees, leaves, fire, air, earth. Some showed stars,too.

Never slowing to soften her landing, she crashed onto the floor, and begged her eagle to let her shift back immediately. The bird relented instantly, giving her back her limbs, and more importantly, her vocalcords.

There, right in the middle of the place where their initial protection spell had been cast, she said one simpleword.

“Aperire.”

Good thing she was proficient in Latin,too.

As they were bid by their rightful owner, every ward clouding Dale from the eyes of the worldopened.

Helpless Damsel

So,that was an insight into what insanity might be like. Coveney stared into the void, the empty road ahead, where the rest of them had beenwaiting.

The eagles had been reluctant to let them – Coveney, Ace, Rye and Knox – tag along on their little rescue mission, but his Alphas hadn’t budged. Ava was part of their prides, and they had no intention of being kept out of the action. They’d relented. Good thing, too: nothing could have kept Coveney away fromAva.

The eagles that had visited Dale in the past swore it was there. All he saw was a bunch of strangers, along with his Alphas and Knox, all waiting on the side of the road. Jas had stayed at their hotel withZack.

The only thing that kept him from entirely losing his mind was that, somehow, hefelther.

“How does this thing work? According to Google Maps, there’s nothinghere.”

“It wouldn’t be much of a magical ward if it showed up on Maps,” Knoxremarked.

Still, he didn’t know it was possible to so completely cloak anything, let alone an entirecity.

“Witches were a little more ‘hard rock’ back in the day,” the wolf explained. “Virgin sacrifice, firstborns, orgies. All that stuff makes for stronger magic than what they donow.”

“So when,” he wasn’t saying if, “she pulls the wards down, it’s going to appear on Maps. Can she put them backup?”

Knox shook his head. “No living coven I know of can manage that. We’re going to watch regulars freak out that there’s a whole city out there that they didn’t know a thing about. And talk about real estatevalue.”

An eagle chuckled. “Yeah, let them try to take it fromus.”

“If I heard it right, the Flavian kept records old enough to make any historian hard. There’s noway…”

Knox stopped talking because all of a sudden, Dale was there, right in front of hiseyes.

If no one had told him the place was called Dale, Coveney might have gone with the Garden of Eden, or maybe Olympus. Picturesque didn’t begin to cover it. There was a valley covered with fields, some green, some golden, smelling of freshly cut hay. He saw sunflowers, poppies, grapes; a few horses ran freely at the bottom of a large hill. Rows of cypress trees led to a white city; each flat-roofed, elegant house seemed fit for a king. Right at the peak, there was a palace. They were too far away, so Coveney didn’t see its fountains, its obsidian and gold halls, its statues by the world’s most acclaimed artists over the ages. Still, he said, “Well, fuck me,” right before he shifted, and started running towards hismate.

The eagles made it first,obviously. He knew they would. What he hadn’t expected was that none of them would have had any work left by thispoint.

It wasn’t like the rebels had all of a sudden decided to lay down their arms and surrender, either. By the looks of it, they’d at least attempted to fight their way out ofit.

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