Page 100 of Woven Souls

“You see, stealing power isn’t all bad,” the Elder continues. “But you can see why we’d keep this from the general public, and from the Ghosts, whose moral standards were much too high.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Jonah snaps. “You sound crazy.”

“Iam just giving you some insight. I have nothing to do with any of this,” the Elder gives Jonah his full attention. “Just as Theodon and Viktor here have nothing to do with it.”

“Just because you had no hand in the actual reaping of natural magic from other realms, doesn’t mean you weren’t complicit in other ways,” I counter.

The Elder tsks. “You know nothing of what I have or have not done.”

“So, what happens now?” Jonah demands. “You kill us in order to keep your secret?”

The older Fae chuckles.

“Perhaps eventually. These two are Fallen after all. We cannot allow them to walk free. You, whoever you are, well, you’ll probably meet your end sooner than these two. But for now, I need you three.” He looks at one of the guards. The guard reaches into her shirt pocket.

“Need us for what?” I hope to keep him talking. Maybe I can think of a way out of this.

The guard throws something towards us. The ping of something small and metal hitting the ground draws my attention downwards. A small plume of purple smoke explodes by our feet. The three of us back up until our backs hit the wall. The smoke hits our faces, and immediately I feel the magic creep into my body. My vision blurs, and my head begins to swim, and I can’t feel my legs. As the world tilts sideways, I hear the Elder say,

“For bait.”

Chapter25

WILLOW

“We’re going to die.”

“Stop it. No, we aren’t.” Kwil grabs my wrist and yanks me behind him as a massive demon pounces at us. His hand vanishes from around my wrist, and he lunges at the creature with a terrifying snarl.

His blade whistles through the air, a tribute to the sheer speed at which it flies, and it slides through the demon’s neck half a second later. The creature didn’t even get a chance to roar. Before the head hits the ground, Kwil grabs me again, and we’re running.

The ground trembles beneath our feet as the approaching Utikyie, four of them this time, search for us through the thick, eerily brightly colored forest. I’ve already sent two back over, but they keep popping up. This is beyond frustrating.

The grass beneath our feet is almost neon green, and the unusually dense leaves almost block out the sun. The bushes we barrel through have branches and thorns thicker than any I’ve ever seen and felt. At first, I thought all of this was just a trick of the light. Everlast is part of this world, whether the inhabitants of it want to believe that or not. It’s not a magical place.

Though you could have fooled me with how strange the vegetation around the perimeter is.

Something just isn’t right about this place, and now that the awe has faded, unease is churning my stomach painfully.

“There, I see them!” a voice shouts in the distance.

It’s followed by a scream of fear that twists with agony before abruptly getting cut off.

“That’s going to be us,” I say breathlessly.

Kwil says nothing to this. He’s a bit busy slicing through two more demons that lurch from the thick vegetation. Bullets go flying near us, hitting tree trunks and the ground. Dirt sprays all around. Kwil swears, and we switch directions. We’ve been running around for almost four hours now and that was after the two hour walk to get to the perimeter of Everlast.

I’m tired.

My feet hurt.

I’m hungry.

And I’m close to being fed up with all this nonsense. I try to help, but whenever I try to use my power, Kwil’s quick to tell me to keep it to myself. But while I’m internally bemoaning the entire situation, Kwil seems completely unfazed. In fact, this seems like his element. He hasn’t even broken a sweat yet, and he’s been doing most of the work. I swear I almost caught him smiling as if this was a game. Who the hell enjoys running for fun? Fate really thought it was being funny pairing me with this guy.

Thank goodness he’s hot.

Jumping out from behind a tree as large as a redwood, two Fae raise their guns and point them at us. Before Kwil can move, I act. Their bodies drop.

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