Shifters - The Jade Forest Chronicles 1

by Vivienne Neas

  What the fae called a ‘cell’ I expected to look like a dungeon. It really didn’t. It was almost more comfortable than the room at the Crown Inn, where we’d been staying until now. It was, of course, still imprisonment, and that took away from the sense of luxury.

  Still, my ‘cell’ was decorated in greens and grays, with an actual bed and a separate bathroom with a toilet and a shower. But the door was heavy metal, like the door of a safe, and the window with a nice view had bars in front of it. I was a prisoner, and I was very aware of that.

  I had to get out of here. I had to get back to the pack. They needed me. Aryn was strong, but he wasn’t strong enough to do everything alone. He was third for a reason, and he would be panicking. The alpha and the second both being captured in a matter of two days was worth panicking about.

  I went through the cell. As a werewolf, I was strong enough to bench-press a car, but I wasn’t strong enough to get out of here. The fae must have anticipated something like this – a creature with immense power being locked up in here. Then again, that fae who had brought me here had been a monster – the biggest fae I had ever seen, with hands that could probably kill me with one smack. But he had been gentle.

  That had oozed out of him, seeping out of his pores, making his scary image and his colossal size seem almost pointless.

  Maybe I was the only one who had noticed it. He was one of Amber’s friends. He adored her; that was obvious from the way he looked at her and the regret that had filled the air around him when she was captured.

  Where was she now? Were they going to listen to her when she told them what was happening? Were they going to care?

  The bars in front of the window wouldn’t budge. They didn’t bend; I couldn’t get them out of the walls; nothing worked. And the worst of it was the fact that nothing in the room was silver – silver and werewolves don’t go together – which meant that theoretically, there was no reason for me not to be able to get out of there.

  I sat down on the bed and looked around. The cell displayed what I’d learned of the fae. They were gentle people, and everything they did was organized and well-planned. Like the room. But they were terrified of the outside world and had locked themselves inside an impenetrable cage to make sure that nothing tainted from the outside world could get in.

  And nothing beautiful from within could get out.

  Except Amber. She was fae, and she was different. She wanted more than this restrictive life. I could feel it when I was with her, a burning desire that was so strong it set me on fire, too.

  I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes. If I couldn’t get out of here, I could send out my feelers and see what I could find. I focused on the building we were in, pushing out my power and reading what came back at me, almost like echolocation.

  She was here somewhere. I could feel her, but I couldn’t place where she was. They were holding her somewhere on the premises, but it seemed like my senses were being scrambled somehow. I was willing to bet that the same thing dimmed her magic, too.

  I pushed still farther out. I recognized the big guy and the woman – Bluegrain – and a non-entity that I guessed was a cleaner or a secretary of sorts.

  And then the rest of the reserve, buzzing with magic and power.

  I couldn’t get farther than that. My power was only so strong. There were no other wolves nearby, and I couldn’t reach as far as finding Raphael.

  The moment I thought about him, something happened.

  My skin grew hot. It felt like I was on fire. I rubbed my arms, hoping to ease the heat, but it just got worse. I broke out in a sweat and struggled to breathe. It felt like something had sliced my throat, but I was still breathing, not bleeding out. I was still alive.

  I grunted and groaned and rolled around on the bed, and then power stronger than anything I’d ever possessed washed through me and filled the cell until it felt like I was going to explode, like the walls were going to burst open. I couldn’t hold it anymore.

  And then it was over.

  The pain left me, but the power remained, and suddenly I was aware of the pack. Every single one of them. It was like they were attached to me by some invisible thread. I felt them, all the way from the mountain I called home.

  I got up. The urge to change was fierce, but I was able to stop it without trouble. A howl ripped out of my throat even though I was in human form, and somehow I knew that all of the pack was howling with me.

  I was alpha. I had the power now.

  Raphael was dead.

  They had killed him, and it was only a matter of time before they came after the rest of us. I couldn’t let that happen. The pack was my responsibility now. They’d always been my blood.

  I got up and walked to the door. Power coursed through my veins in a way it never had before. I was going to try this again. I needed to get out there.

  I braced myself, lifted a leg, and kicked the door right where the locking mechanism was. A crack sounded, and then the whole cell shuddered, the stone cracking with a nauseating sound all the way up to the ceiling. The door groaned and fell forward. It was dented where I’d kicked it. The stone frame had holes ripped out of it where the hinges had been set.

  I stepped over the door and walked through the corridors that surrounded the system of cells. I found my way out easily, and opened a door that led into the normal life of the fae.

  Amber was here somewhere. I felt it in my bones. I just couldn’t find her.

  I looked for Bluegrain, too, but she was nowhere to be found. At this point, the power in my body was so strong I felt like I had a fever.

  When I walked the way we’d come, I ran into the big guy. What had Amber called him?

  He stopped in his tracks and looked me up and down. “I’m assuming you need to leave,” he said a moment later. He sounded calm, like it was just a statement.

  I nodded. “Where is she?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  I shook my head and pushed past him. My quarrel was not with this guy. He would get into trouble; I understood that. I also got the feeling that being fae and getting into trouble was a lot worse than anyone else being in trouble.

  “I can,” a voice said to my left. Amber’s little green friend was standing there. She was thin and wispy, but her character was strong. “I don’t work for her, and no one knows I know.”

  “Why are you helping?”

  She looked me up and down, matching me to some image in her mind. She came across cheeky. “Because Amber trusts you.” She walked up to me. “If you hurt her in any way, I’m going to make sure you’re hurting for a very long time.”

  Did we really have time for the best friend speech now?

  I nodded.

  “Call me Fern.”

  “Like the plant?” It slipped out before I had the chance to stop myself.

  She glared at me. “You’re not funny.”

  I shrugged, and she turned on her heel. I followed her. She led me through a maze of corridors until she stopped in front of a white door that looked like it might lead to a parlor or some other elegant room.

  “You have to open this.”

  I wasn’t going to ask for a key. I broke the door down without thinking about it.

  “Alpha, huh?” she asked.

  “Can you tell?”

  “You feel a lot worse than before.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult, but I took it and moved through the doorway. The moment I was inside, I felt my power drain away, like someone had shoved it into a jar and put the lid on it.

  “What is this place?” I asked Fern.

  “Neutral, so if you get caught in here, they’ll have your head. The only reason you weren’t in here before was because you weren’t alpha before.”

  “Fern?” Amber’s voice came from behind one of the doors.

  Fern smiled and skipped to the door. I couldn’t break it down now. I was very aware of my lack of power. In
here I was just… human.

  How long had it been since I’d been human? I shook off the thought. Now was the worst possible time to get caught up in nostalgia.

  “How are we going to open that?” I asked.

  Fern produced a paperclip from her pocket. “The old-fashioned way.”

  She picked the lock. It was ridiculous, but effective. When the door opened, Amber flew out and hugged Fern.

  “I thought I heard you,” she said happily.

  “I brought your pet,” Fern said.

  Amber laughed and turned to me. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We stepped through the broken door again. The moment we were outside that horrible set of rooms, I felt myself recharge. The power was back. I could suddenly breathe again now that I was out.

  “Whoa,” Amber said. “What happened to you?”

  Right. She could feel the power. “The alpha is dead.”

  Her face fell. “I’m sorry.”

  Fern looked from me to Amber and back. “I'm out of here. If Muriel finds out I helped you, we’re going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble. A lot more than before, and I’m not keen on going into the chamber. You know how she feels about me.”

  Amber hugged her again. “Thank you.”

  She smiled at Amber, glared at me, and then disappeared.

  “Fae aren’t as bad as I thought,” I said.

  Amber snorted.

  We managed to make our way out of the hall to a car without anyone trying to stop us. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t going to stop and ask questions.

  Amber started the car and floored it. We made it to the gate. I ducked down, and we were allowed through without a problem.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  I’d wanted to go to the mountains to look after my pack, but I’d been wrong. The danger wasn’t there, not yet. Something else was wrong. Now that we were out of the reserve, I felt something else out there, something familiar and strange all at the same time. And it was headed toward Forechester Keep. I doubted it was going for a friendly cup of tea.

  “The keep,” I said.

  Amber didn’t ask questions. She headed for the south bridge, where we’d need to get over the river. I was filled with a sense of urgency. I didn’t know what we were going to find. All I knew was that we had to get there as soon as we could, if we wanted to keep living our lives the way we had up until now.

  Chapter 9 -Amber