FOREVER KNIGHTS: #17 Marked As Mine

Netherlands

She didn’t react to her name. Floating well beyond Warlock Grove and moving faster as she floated over Grier in the dead of night.

Please don’t let Radix see her. Alazar held out minimal hope that this wasn’t somehow Chavias’ doing.

The early hours of morning had already come by the time Alazar and Riaura reached the Netherlands.

The vibrant hearts of the fey already subsiding and deer wandering from their shelters to graze on the dewy brown remnants of grass before winter stole over everything. The sun masked the shine of Riaura floating above.

Alazar knew he’d lost Chavias somewhere along the way. Thankfully.

The breakneck pace was wearing.

Alazar didn’t dare turn into a wolf. If he did, he was scared she’d come tumbling through the trees and he’d have to catch her. He couldn’t turn into a dragon because it could draw more attention to her. And it’s too big and clumsy.

As they neared the Dread Hideout, Alazar was getting so exhausted he wasn’t sure how much longer he could run. Usually crossing Grier at our normal pace is a nearly two-day venture.

This had been only a few hours. Alazar knew of only one other man that often cross Grier in less than a day.

Sebastian.

Yes? The answer came immediately.

Tell Acharius I’m coming into the Merwood. Alazar directed.

Where to? Bast queried.

“The pond, I think.”

Merlin’s Sepulcher. Bast filled in. Why?

Alazar looked at the damp ground, his aching feet were covering then to the woman floating overhead at the rapid pace.

Riaura is showing me something…He said it slowly in his mind.

That lacked conviction. Bast said dryly.

Let Acharius know to meet us.

Merlin’s Sepulcher, Merwood, Dread Hideout

Alazar was relieved to see as the trees broke for the murky pond. There was the shocking red hair of a woman standing in a brown cloak and next to her was a man in a furred cloak, so large he could only be Acharius. Loosely tied to a tree. Breathing deeply and shifting nervously.

To Alazar’s horror as Riaura reached it she began to lower. Dropping through the trees and shaking leaves loose from wan branches. Some of the limbs scratching her arms and cheek as they went by. The droplets of blood immediately visible from the slashes.

As they neared the pond she dropped to mere feet above the ground and Alazar reached through her again. Trying to grab ahold of something. Anything. But like before, he just passed through.

She skid into the water at an angle and began sinking under a surging wave that rolled over her like an unraveling blanket. And like that she was gone.