Chapter 36

The sun scorched their backs as they jogged across the endless salt flats with no guards in sight.

Sylvie’s anxiety rose steadily as she thought of her mates and prayed they’d find her despite how far she was running away from them. Her mate marks hummed under her fingers as she prodded them, trying to send them her location telepathically.

“Only one more hour!” Seona sighed, lifting a lagging shifter’s arm across her shoulder for support. “Then we can rest at the falls.”

“What if there are turned? We’re too weak!”

“What about food?”

The tired voices ping-ponged back and forth, their fear filling Sylvie with doubts.

“Hey,” she tried.

“We should’ve just stayed!”

“At least they fed us...”

Sylvie slowed to a walk and spun, lifting her hands soothingly. “Hey, let’s stop for a minute, and I’ll explain the best I can.”

Seona peered over her shoulder and nodded. “Be quick, though. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

The man from earlier scoffed. “Those pussies haven’t ventured this far since the division; why start now?”

“Because, Ren, we’re their last hope for survival from those fucking freaks they call children.”

Sylvie cleared her throat, gesturing her head to a nearby cliff face, the slight overhang providing shade.

As they all found a spot to sit against the clay wall, Sylvie sat in front of them with a sigh.

“We’ll just talk for a few minutes, and then we’ll head for the falls. My mates should be getting here soon, but I don’t want to leave you all in the open if they don’t make it before sunset.”

Ren chewed on his cuticle before pointing his sharp finger at her. “You keep saying mates, plural. I thought it was a mistake earlier, but you’ve done it again.”

Nodding, Sylvie scooted closer, carefully holding her dress down to not flash everyone.

“I have three- And before you all scream at me, look.” She pulled the dress’s neckline aside, turning so everyone could see her merging marks. The gasps and wide eyes filled her with relief. At least they believed her.

“One of them is Rowan.”

“What the fuck!” Ren exclaimed, letting his head bump into the wall behind him. He scoffed again, palming his face.

“Our Alpha has a mate.”

“Three, actually,” Seona corrected, giving Sylvie a wry smile. “It’s not the right time, but I’ll be intrigued to hear how that works.”

A soft laugh bubbled from Sylvie’s lips, along with a blush. “Anyway, my other mates found a way to get here so we could bring you back. And when I was in the tunnels escaping some hungry born-vamps, I heard your voices calling for help. Not physically, but in my mind.”

She panned across their faces and scrunched her nose. “I know what you’re gonna say, that it’s impossible, but how do you think I found you?”

Seona sighed. “We believe you. But it’s still impossible.”

“Well, when my mates find us, they’ll open a portal, and we’ll go back. All of us, together.”

She smiled as a light appeared in each of their eyes; even Ren seemed excited about their rescue.

“Should we rest here for a while? Or head to the falls?”

Seona blinked up at the sky, lifting her fingers and counting softly. Then, when she noticed Sylvie staring strangely at her, she breathed air from her nose in a soft laugh.

“Time works differently here from what I’ve read. Never got to see the sun before, besides when they first took me, but I think sunset is only a few hours away.”

“What? It was dawn when I found you.”

“Yeah, well, the further from the city, the quicker the sunset, don’t ask me why. The magic in this realm is fucking weird.”

“So-” Sylvie cut herself short, looking at all the tired faces. “When did you last eat?”

“Dinner,” Ren grumbled. “You rescued us right before breakfast.”

Seona rolled her eyes and waved her hand at him. “We’ve gone far longer without food. Stop whining.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Rest then,” Sylvie said. “We’ll leave in an hour. I’ll keep watching with anyone else who wants to.”

Ren adjusted himself to stare eagle-eyed back at the shimmering castle, now just a dazzling twinkle on the horizon, while the rest of the shifters lay down and closed their eyes.

She smiled then. “Sweet dreams.”

The trek to the falls was endless. Seona’s estimation of an hour came and went, and Sylvie could barely keep up with the frazzled woman. “Are you sure this is the way?” she growled at Ren.

He grunted in reply, hoisting an older shifter on his back. The sun dimmed frighteningly fast, and the falls weren’t even on the horizon. Instead, a canyon rose around them slowly until their surroundings resembled a fishbowl.

“It’s below the crest of the hill,” Ren wheezed, adjusting the shifter.

Sylvie pulled up the rear, ensuring no one dropped behind, matching their quickening hobble.

“Watch where you step,” she called. Sylvie was about to point out a giant crack when a shifter at her side, a man with blonde hair and yellow eyes, slapped his hand over her mouth. He shook his head wide-eyed, pointing to a dark hole in the canyon wall.

“They’ll be waking soon,” he whispered roughly. “Don’t give them any reason to head to the falls.”

Sylvie nodded, desperate to get the shifters’ dirty, stained hands away from her lips. He moved back and lifted one side of his mouth.

“Sorry. You got a little something on your face.”

“Oh, fucking hell.” She swiped her hand across her face and turned back to the front when a sight forced a rush of air from her lips.

The falls.

More of an oasis in the barren desert, with a large waterfall that ran straight off the canyon cliffs, carving a path down its slopes and leading off away from them in a ten-foot-wide river.

Around the falls’ base, a large circumference of still water lapped against a muddy creek bed, and small plants sprouted around it for a few meters.

“Woah,” she breathed, reaching for a few lagging shifters down the hill. Pebbles and dirt ricocheted down the slope, rolling into the lapping waters as they descended; Sylvie only managed not to slip and twist her ankle by some miracle and dragged her feet to the water, the socks now thoroughly torn and soaked.

“I can’t believe you didn’t have shoes that whole time,” Ren wheezed, kneeling to drink. “Maybe you’re a shifter after all.”

The blisters and cuts said otherwise as she scooped some water for herself.

“So now what?” she whispered once her throat was well coated. She spat a few grains of sediment and exhaled, shocked by the rush of white condensation. “We need a fire-”

“No!” Seona shook her head in a rush. “They’ll find us.”

The group shifted, and Sylvie bit her lip. They congregated like a tightly woven pack. Their closeness would provide warmth, the growing absence of sun plunging them into frigid temperatures.

“Then stay close to one another to stay warm. I don’t want to lose anyone before Rowan gets here.”

If Rowan got there.

“Hey,” a croaking voice called from the back of the group, their back to everyone else. “Look! Rosian berries.”

“Those are tiny, Setka.”

“Yes, but there might be more for us around here if we look.”

An idea sprung to Sylvie’s mind, and she rounded the group. “Are these edible?”

Setka gave her a weary look. “Not at this size, but yes.”

“I think I can help with that.”

Ren scoffed from the back of the group, covering his mouth when his laugh drew scathing looks and fearful shushes.

“What? First, you can mind link when that magic is void here, and now you can grow fruit. Be serious.”

Sylvie smirked, spreading her fingers and clasping the base of the plant, closing her eyes to search for the energy trails. She pulled back suddenly, almost blinded by it and coughed. “Fuck, these plants have a lot of juice.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.” She closed her eyes and tried again, this time prepared for the bioluminescent beams shooting from its roots.

“Come on,” she whispered, coaxing its light up the stems to the tiny fruits until they swelled. She searched for the deeper roots, swirling with underground springs and urged it to drink.

Soon, gasps filled their small space, and she let go, opening her eyes to see if she had succeeded. She did, the berries now the size of basketballs, the bush sagging under their weight.

“Oops.” Peering over her shoulder, she cracked up, seeing the baffled expressions of the shifters. “Please, eat. I’m half dryad. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Seona chuckled. “I understand why the Fates paired you with our Alpha now.” She shook her head and pulled a fruit off, taking a bite. “Crazy,” she said with a laugh.

The shifters ate their fill as Sylvie stared anxiously at the crest of the hill, the canyon making her feel exposed. Her memories of the hedge maze in Stone Court came to mind, visions of the hybrids clawing over them now filled with images of turned vampires standing shoulder to shoulder on the top of the canyon.

“Come on,” she willed her mates to appear over the hill. Even Kerensa would settle her nerves. While she wasn’t a damsel anymore, she wasn’t ready to fight a horde of vampires with half-dead shifters to protect.

A tap on her shoulder made her jump, and Ren clicked his tongue, offering her half of a berry.

“Hungry?” he asked with his mouthful. She shook her head and gestured back to him.

“You have it.”

Her teeth chattered as night finally settled around them, the blanket of darkness suffocating.

The shifters spoke quietly amongst themselves, some sleeping, others snuggled close and resting when a single shrill screech bounced off the canyon walls.

Sylvies heart dropped into her stomach, and she scrambled to her feet, head swivelling side to side, but in the pitch dark, she couldn’t make out anything besides the swaying plants atop the canyon. They undulated and bobbed in the absent wind forcing Sylvie to squint harder in the dark. What the fuck?

Another screech doused her in a cold sweat as the realisation hit her. There were no plants on the canyon rim. Those were bodies.

“Get in the water,” she hissed, spinning and waving all shifters towards the falls. “Get behind the waterfall, go! They’re coming!”

Seona gasped, wrangling the sleeping shifters and dragging them into the freezing water. Shocked yelps and cries poured from their lips, and the monsters responded in a terrifying game of marco-polo.

Sylvie was the last to run in, pushing the lagging shifters under the falls torrent and against a crumbly clay wall. There was little room for everyone, the water reaching most of their belly buttons, their bodies squashed like sardines as the screams outside grew bolder.

Sylvie wasn’t sure if it was tears or the waterfalls coating her cheeks, but there was no time to cry. Instead, she searched through the earth for plants, anything, to create a shield, but there was nothing. Not even a thorny grass to turn into a barricade.

She palmed her mate marks and drew sharp breaths, looking to either side to the exhausted shifters.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Through the rushing water, the hazy glow of six purple lights bounced around, blinking in and out of sight, accompanied by shrieks and hisses of the turned.

A cry at her side drew her gaze, the face of an unconscious shifter barely visible as it sunk under the water. “No!” Sylvie grabbed their torso and hoisted them up, shaking them lightly.

“Hold on.”

“I’ve got her,” Ren grunted, looping his hands under her armpits, and Sylvie spun again, opening her arms to shield as many shifters as she could. Perhaps if they took her, their hunger would be satisfied, and the shifters would be safe.

The purple lights had grown closer and significantly brighter, and Sylvie took shaky breaths. It was over for her. As the screams grew so loud, her eardrums rattled, she closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

Please protect them.

The purple light seared an image behind her eyelids of her mates. God, how she wished she could see them one last time. And as a giant pair of hands gripped her sides and dragged her through the falls, she finally screamed.