Page 112 of Shifters Unifying
I squinted. Not the ceiling. It was the floor of the foyer that we’d fallen through.
Acheron had built another underground bunker.Fuck him.
Glowing runes illuminated the stone walls.
“Please, please, let me go,” Oliver yelped.
“Soon, soon,” a woman’s voice sing-songed. “We’ll set you free, to be more than you were before. Hush, little baby, don’t say a word…”
I tried to turn so I could see them, but the chains holding me down had been drawn too tightly, and each movement sent pain radiating through my limbs. The woman didn’t sound quite right in the head, but we’d been left un-gagged. If Oliver was there, the others probably were, too.
“Who’s here?” I called.
“Me,” Olivia rasped.
“Me,” John barked.
“Fuck me, too,” Phil growled.
No answer from Jasper.
Hmmm…Maybe not so foolish as I had first thought.
“How long was I out?”
“Hours,” Olivia grunted.
That meant Acheron had started with Oliver. At least the young wolf knew next to nothing about the fortifications back home or how any of patrols worked. For all Acheron knew, Emma had warded Six-Mile to keep him out.
I dragged my arms and legs inward as far as they could go. The chains popped, and a mechanical clicking began. I bit back a curse. My movements must have triggered a mechanism that pulled the shackles tighter.Dammit.This had to be where all the arms and legs at the gate had come from.
“Acheron,” I bellowed. “Stop hiding in the shadows, you sick fuck. Show yourself. Let’s settle this. Here. Now.”
“Acheron isn’t here,” the woman continued in her peculiar sing-song. “I caught you myself, in the trap he set for you. He’s taken his army and gone to capture more shifters, but he’ll return. Mama’s going to buy you a mockingbird…”
“When will he return?” What was she singing? I’d heard it before.
“When he’s squashed the rebellion in the ravens. And if that mockingbird won’t sing…”
“Rebellion? Are the ravens rethinking their allegiances?”
She hummed without responding. “He needs more energy for his plans, always more. So many experiments, so many dead. Only the living dead mages remain. But I caught you first. Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring.”
Only the mages remain…
“Are there only shadow mages here?” I asked. I had to be sure we would only have to fight through the ones who had to touch the ground to move.
“Yes, yes… And if that diamond ring turns to brass…” She was sing-singing to the tune of a lullaby that I’d heard as a child. Definitely not right in the head. But she was our only chance to get out of there.
Even if shadow mages were outside, we’d beaten them once.
I’dbeaten them once. Primal shit. An explosion.
Then it hit me. He’d gone to capture more shifters. We had more shifters in Six-Mile than we’d ever had before. Had he gone to attack Emma while we were gone?
“Where did he go?” I rasped. “Where did he go?”
“Six-Mile, East Nuttal, Bear Trees… the Ravens. Any place. Every place. Mama’s going to buy you a looking glass…”
