Page 68 of Freed Wolfsbane

When I see that it’s his gun, I’m moving before I even know what I’m doing. The rage that has been simmering inside me from how he killed Jake like he meant nothing and was prepared to do the same to Annabel burns into a full-blown inferno. I’m ready to march through all of these Knights and rip out Ryker’s throat.

But my muscles seize up before I can take more than a few steps. I struggle against the invisible force holding me captive, but I’m unable to move even an inch.

“Now is not the time, child.”Dido’s voice sounds both sympathetic and exasperated with me.

If I leave him alive, he’ll continue to hurt more people. He would hurt my mates, my family, and everyone I care about without a second thought. Why shouldn’t I kill him?I grit out in my mind.

“I am not against killing him, but now is not the time. What is your plan after you kill him and the Knights are alerted to your presence?”

I glare at her.I’ll figure it out.

“That is not good enough. Is the satisfaction of killing Ryker now worth forfeiting the chance to break the curse and keep the Knights from coming after those you care about? Is Ryker’s death really more important than keeping your people and your loved ones safe?”Dido’s tone is dripping with disappointment, and she finally breaks through to me.

I’d hang my head if I could move, because Dido’s right. Whatever satisfaction I get from killing Ryker right now isn’t worth getting myself killed or allowing the curse to continue.

You’re right, I whisper reluctantly.Sorry.

“Do not apologize, child. I cannot tell you how many times emotion ruled my actions instead of reason. But I want you to learn from my many, many mistakes, not repeat them.”Dido releases control of my body, and I slump.

I startle upright at a loud bang echoing across the green space. Hunting for the source of the sound, I see Ryker standing over Clark, who has red blooming across the front of his white shirt. His eyes are wide and sightless as he goes completely limp on the grass.

“Anyone else want to tell me that it will take two more weeks to complete this one, simple project of expanding the curse?” When the remaining scientists frantically shake their heads, Ryker’s mouth twists up in a cruel grin. “Now I expect it to be done by end of day Friday. Otherwise, I’ll need to get a new team of scientists. Understand?”

The scientists nervously nod again. Without glancing back, Ryker turns on his heel and marches across the green, straight toward me. I shrink back against the wall as he continues on his mission, stopping only a few feet away from me.

He bends down to rummage in one of the crates for something. I try to stealthily scoot around the wall to get more space from the dude who just killed someone in front of hundreds of witnesses.

I’m almost to the corner when my shirt snags on a loose stone. It makes a horrible scraping sound as I drag the brick with me. I freeze in a panic as Ryker snaps his head up and looks directly at me. When he squints like he can just make out my form, my heart leaps into my throat in fear.

While everything in me wants to run, I’m worried I’ll make too much noise, so I stay exactly where I am. Ryker abandons the crate he was inspecting and walks over to the wall, scanning it critically. I hold my breath as he moves closer and closer to me.

Right when he’s about to walk into me, a hare leaps out from one of the windows and sprints across the green, startling quite a few Knights. Ryker blows out a breath and mutters, “Damn rabbits.” He shakes his head and goes back to rooting through the crate.

Once his back is turned, I quickly free my shirt and tiptoe the last few feet until I’m back around the corner. I breathe out a small sigh of relief and send up a thank-you to the bunny for saving my ass. Shaking my head at how close I just came to Ryker finding me, I carefully walk back the way I came.

Using one of the further-out streets, I slowly circle the entire island. Thanks to my multiple brushes with being discovered and brutally murdered by the Knights, I’m hypervigilant as I creep around. It takes me another couple hours to cautiously move through the entirety of the city, snapping photos as I go.

While I’m able to get a lot of pictures of the outer ring of buildings, I don’t take the chance of getting close to the interior green space again. I also avoid what looks like the central castle and surrounding administrative buildings. All of those structures are heavily guarded by Knights, although no one seems to be inside them.

I have to assume that’s where the curse is and why it’s so closely watched. That’ll be the first place I check when we return to take back Dido’s city. Although, I haven’t actually entered any of the buildings, so for all I know, the curse could be housed in a random warehouse. Here’s hoping that’s not the case, because that’ll take ages to find.

My steps are dragging when I finally make it back to the part of the wall I scaled to get up here. Luckily, there’s no Knight waiting here like there was when I arrived, but no part of me wants to climb thirty feet down and swim an hour back. I can barely keep my eyes open, my skin is itchy from the dried salt, and my heels are blistered from the wet fabric of my sneakers rubbing on them for so long.

But I have to. Staying up here with the Knights isn’t an option.

Blowing out a harsh breath, I slip off my shoes, tie them together, and hang them around my neck. I shove my phone in the dry bag and loop that around my neck as well. Then I plant my hands on the rampart and vault over, trusting Dido to get me down safely.

CHAPTER33

BRIAR

“We don’t have enough forces to go up against a thousand heavily armed Knights.” Uncle Vale shakes his head and rubs a hand over his closely cropped beard as he thinks through something. “Even with all of our enforcers, we’re looking at two hundred wolves.”

We all got back around eight in the evening our time, but I was exhausted. Malachi told Vale we needed to have a strategy meeting in the morning, and then we went straight to bed.

Now, we’re in the dining room bright and early with Vale, his betas, the pack’s top enforcers, Rhys, and his mages. All of them listened intently to what we found, and I passed around my phone so they could look at the situation themselves.

“What about the mages?” Malachi asks.

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