Chapter Sixteen
The moon hid behind a shroud of thick clouds. Normally, the cover of darkness would be an advantage, but when those hunting her had supernatural senses and she didn’t, all the night did was hinder Audrey’s progress. She’d been tromping through the thick undergrowth, crisscrossing streams, and vaulting decaying fallen logs for a good forty minutes when she heard the first howl. It had been distant, coming from the direction of the fortress.
She’d done her best to cover her scent tracks but had no idea if it would buy her much time. She was more worried about the Hohlwen. She didn’t know how close they had to be to hone in on her energy signature.
There were a lot of unknowns in this half-cracked plan of hers, but she’d discovered two things so far. One, the spell blocking her magic only extended a few miles from the fortress. And two, the food at the Arcanum and her daily exercise had gotten her in the best shape of her life.
She hadn’t stopped or slowed down since she’d first slipped into the woods from the tower, and she was barely out of breath. Though she’d used her power several times to fade ahead—especially uphill—her magic was still fully charged, thanks to the impending full moon. When she’d first felt her connection to the Conduit surge to life, she’d laughed at the sheer joy of being unrestrained. For a few minutes, as she ran through the forest, she’d felt more free than at any other time in her life.
Nothing could stop her now. No one could hurt her. No one could even touch her. Though regret at what she’d done to Corvin tried to weigh her down, every leap, every flex of magic reminded her of what had been taken against her will. Now it was hers, and she wouldn’t give it up again without a fight.
In the meadow with him, she’d started to imagine what life could be like if Corvin came with her, if she didn’t have to be alone. But despite her efforts to point out the Synod’s flaws, he’d stubbornly clung to his cloistered life and archaic ideals. Audrey refused to be broken, and Corvin was already yoked. She poured her frustration at that unfairness into every pump of her legs.
As she crested a hill she’d been charging up, there was another howl much closer.
“Damn it.” She wiped the sweat from her eyes. She couldn’t see much, just the watercolor outlines of trees in every direction, except for a patch of open sky dead ahead. Audrey doubled her climbing pace as the terrain got rockier and sparser. Wild things scuttled away, startled by her sudden appearance, but the forest was surprisingly quiet otherwise.
She gave a mental tug on her powers, just to make sure she was ready if she happened to run into a bear or a cougar or something. That would be just her luck. The rocks she was scaling grew larger, and the paths between them steeper. She could no longer see anything below but treetops swaying in the wind, which was also gusting stronger the higher she climbed.
What if you can’t find a way down?
She was beginning to feel like a cat getting chased up a tree. She concentrated on a ledge fifteen feet up, gathered her magic, and faded there. From the top looking down, the jump gave her vertigo. She swallowed back a wave of nausea.
Another howl, too muffled by the forest below to judge distance or direction. Hopefully the mountain climbing would slow them down. After all, wolves weren’t built for mountain terrain. They couldn’t leap tall boulders with a single thought the way she could.
As she neared the summit, the path straightened, and she could run outright. Her legs finally started to burn. She pulled the straps of her bag tight and ran full tilt, leaping over anything darker than the bone grey dirt. She was moonlight and wind, and though her heart was pounding fiercely and her breath was sawing in and out, she felt like she could run like that forever.
Then she heard it—not a howl, but the huffing of breath and the thumping of giant paws closing in.
Much closer than she’d thought. Without turning to look, Audrey cut left into smoother terrain so she could sprint faster. She wanted to go west, but she’d get down the mountain to the south and work her way around if it meant losing the tail.
She faltered and nearly slipped down a giant crevasse, but her powers kicked in instinctually, and she found herself faded safely to the other side. Though she didn’t sense their presence, she scanned the sky for Hohlwen. She felt far too exposed.
A howl sounded from right over her shoulder; several more echoed on all sides. They’d already surrounded her?
No.
This was her only shot to save Lilly and herself. The Synod would never let her go free after this! If the wolves didn’t tear her apart first. Fire ate at the bottom of her lungs, and blood pounded in her ears. She didn’t dare look back, but she cast an energy blast over her shoulder.
There was a yelp, and then a tree shuddered and creaked, but the chorus of huffing and growls only got louder. She could nearly feel the wolf’s breath on her neck.
She tossed a few more blasts in random directions and heard another crash in the trees. She juked right just as one of the massive beasts lunged at where ankles had been. She blasted him right in the face, and he tumbled back down the hill with a pained whimper.
Audrey started fading, first to one side, then the other in a zig-zag pattern. As fast as she could think, she flitted up the mountainside. Sweat poured into her eyes whenever she paused to catch her breath and rain energy blasts behind her, but the combination of adrenaline and the nearly full moon kept her magical battery at a seemingly endless charge.
Still, they stayed right on her heels.
She faded another twenty feet just as a wolf broke through the trees and came up beside her. He was massive—five feet at the shoulder, solid muscle and thick black fur. His white fangs gleamed, and the unnatural glow in his eyes flashed as he narrowed the gap between them with long, graceful strides.
He gave a long, low howl. Others answered from behind, sounding farther away.
The leader of the pack dodged a shower of energy blasts. One caught him in the shoulder, and he fell out of her peripheral vision.
She turned up the juice and ran so hard she felt like she was flying. Ahead, there was a break in the already sparse trees. Without thinking, she closed her eyes and pictured herself there. She materialized in the clearing…only to find herself in midair, falling. She snatched at a tree root on the way down and caught herself, though her shoulder and knees slammed into the cliffside. A cascade of rock chunks slid off the ledge and rained down on her. One hit her square in the face, and she almost let go. The strap of her makeshift bag broke, the contents skipping along the crags into the dark abyss of the ravine below.
Audrey was able to wedge one foot into a crevice of the nearly sheer rock face, but just as she shifted her weight, the root she was holding onto slipped loose. She sucked in a breath to scream, and suddenly she was dangling by her wrist, held in a vice-tight grip. She looked up to see Roderic’s stern face. His normally grey eyes glowed with golden flames.
He gritted his teeth as he slowly lifted her with one of his giant, tattooed arms. When she was high enough to throw her leg over the edge of the outcropping, she climbed the rest of the way on her own, but his hand remained a manacle around her wrist. She felt a tingle of magic as he wrapped some spell around her before letting go.
She lay on the ground with her eyes closed, willing her heart to calm before it exploded. She was boiling hot, and a sheen of sweat covered her skin, which now puckered in goosebumps in the cool night air. She’d run for her life before, but never with a magical turbo-boost like that. She already knew, but Audrey tried to summon an energy ball in her hand and felt nothing but a faint sputter of magic. As usual, she was totally and completely screwed.
And, as usual, the best thing to do is keep your mouth shut.
She sat up and found herself face to snout with three giant wolves, their teeth bared and hackles up. She scuttled backwards and bumped into Roderic, shirtless and bleeding from a jagged gash in his shoulder with scorch marks at the edges.
Had she done that? She expected a wave of guilt, but the adrenaline flooding her system was keeping her numb to all emotions.
Roderic climbed to his feet and spoke in some guttural language she didn’t recognize, probably demon. The wolves bowed their heads, then trotted off into the night. He grabbed Audrey under the arms and set her on her feet like she weighed nothing. Though she refused to look at him, he inspected her body, then turned her face one way and the other.
“Are you all right?”
She shook her head and flinched away.
He sighed. In the blink of an eye, he had a shirt on and was holding a blanket out to her. She let him wrap it around her shoulders but did nothing to stop it from sliding to the ground.
What now, genius?
“Can you walk?”
She nodded.
“After you, then.”
With the foreboding guard over her shoulder, reeking of unspoken disappointment, she trudged back down the hill. Though the consequences of getting caught had entered her mind before, she hadn’t had time to consider all of them. It was a no or go situation. She either went for it, or not, consequences be damned. In times like that, it’s better not to think about them too hard. Now that the answer was no, she had no choice but to face them. She had failed Lilly, betrayed Corvin, and would most likely loser her powers and memories now. Life had gone from complicated to grim in a few short hours. She should be used to it by now, but this time it really fucking stung.
In the face of all that, even after nearly dying, it was seeing Corvin again—imagining the hurt in his eyes—that made her heart so heavy and leaden she could barely put one foot in front of the other.