Feathered Touch (Wyrd Bound Book 2)

by Shen Hart

  He couldn’t keep the edge of hope from his voice. I ignored him and set about making my nest for the night. I couldn’t deny that the sensation of needing Lee was slowly fading. It was like a mist, slowly thinning and slipping between my fingers despite trying to cling onto it. I adored him, but I didn’t need him. I looked over at Alex and felt my heart swell just a little. Him, on the other hand.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Alex and Lee had had the good grace to stop sniping at each other and work as a team during the preparations for the ritual. Ark had been very helpful and kept the mood light and easy when he’d been around. He provided some welcome levity to the entire thing. He had ranted and fumed over the angels’ nerve to ruin the balance and sanctity of the nodes, though. They were precious to the elves, something to be revered and carefully protected. The angels’ desecration of them wasn’t something he took very well. Not that I blamed him.

  I was slightly surprised to see how well Ark and Lee got along, but I shrugged it off and focused on the darkness before us. The night had come when we were finally allowed to stop the ritual and end it. All of the nodes were surrounded by forests, which made sense, given they were originally focal points of the forest. That didn’t make our lives any easier, though. Lee had paired with Dan and gone around the west side of the clearing, Nik went with Alex to cover the east side, and I kept Ryan with me. Ark had thrown me some dark looks when we said we wanted him safe and away from the conflict, but he threw himself into making health potions. We remained entirely silent as we crept up to the large open clearing where the chanting and flickering lights were coming from. I was pleased with Ryan’s progress overall, and he’d remained focused and well behaved during the proceedings to that point.

  We were some ten feet apart from each other, close enough to see each other with our wolf night sight, but not so close that we’d trip over each other. His sharp inhalation of breath knocked me from my focus. The number of humans filling the clearing was more than we had hoped. The angels all appeared to be present. They were my goal. I held up my hand to tell Ryan to stop while I assessed exactly what we had before us. We had a plan of action, but I still needed to be sure of each move. I couldn’t risk Ryan being hurt. The humans didn’t appear to be fully organised at that point. I hoped that we’d gotten there before the ritual proper had started. We were there to save lives, after all.

  Some sixty, possibly more, humans milled around the centre of the clearing. The bright moon gave them all an eerie silver glow as they crowded together and talked in hushed tones. Candles stood on tall stakes that had been driven into the ground, forming a faint warm glow around their perimeter. The angels had an olive-skinned man separate from the group standing with them. They were laughing and grinning, entirely at ease with the situation at hand. My frustration and anger began to bubble to the surface, but I calmed myself. Anger would only put my pack at risk. Ryan was looking at me, waiting patiently. I saw a flicker of movement to the east. It felt like Alex. Another flicker of movement to the west showed me that everyone was in place. We were ready to move. The plan was to slip in and neutralise the leader, Alistair. That would scatter the humans and leave us to tackle the angels.

  I found my fingers running over the cool metal of the Glock at my hip, a reassurance to myself that we were prepared. Ryan glanced from Alex’s emerging form across the clearing and back to me. I gave a clear nod, and we pushed through the last few trees between us and the open space. I took a deep breath to steady my heart rate as I scanned the humans watching for any sign of disturbance. We were half way to the group without any signs of them noticing us when all chaos broke lose.

  The tallest of the angels with his pitch-black hair and golden eyes shouted, “They have arrived!”

  The humans panicked and looked around them before they began running in all directions. A small group of them wielding knives and other simple weapons charged Alex and Nik while another group fled into the woods somewhere. I didn’t see what was happening to Lee and Dan as the blond angel led the group of humans that spread out and moved to surround Ryan and me. They were still spread wide and thin with plenty of gaps for us to slip through. Ryan had the good sense to make his move and ran to get behind the three closest him while I ran around the three closest to me. The humans weren’t a problem. It was the angel. In the blink of an eye he was in front of me. I came to a sharp stop as I went to pull out my precious blades.

  That sickening smile spread across his lips as he opened his arms. “Thalia, it’s been so long.”

  Shouts and screams echoed around us. I heard Ryan snarling and two guns went off in the distance. I couldn’t take my eyes off the angel. I shifted my weight as though to circle around him. He grinned at me and shifted his weight to counter me. I darted the opposite way and sank my blade into his ribs. Arrogance would be his downfall. He snarled, an ungodly vicious noise that cut through the air like a manic hyena. I smiled and twisted the blade as I pulled it out of him. He tried to hit but was too slow as I side-stepped him. I should have been paying better attention, though. A human hit me clean in the jaw. I almost staggered backwards but returned his favour with a swift right hook followed by a blow to the bridge of his nose. He crumpled, but the angel was gone.

  Alistair, however, was still in sight. He stood on the edge of the chaos with a surreal grin on his face and his arms crossed over his designer silk shirt. I glanced over to see Ryan floor the last of the humans around us. He took off to join Lee and Dan, who were bloodied in the middle of a group of frenzied humans. The howls of bloodlust and screams of agony echoed through the air. The candles flickered and danced, sending shadows careening across the damp ground. Chaos had claimed the land. I had to take my chance. I had to have faith that their training was enough to keep them safe.

  I ran towards Alistair, who slipped away into the trees as though he was out on a casual stroll through the forest. I snarled, but was stopped in my tracks when he turned to face me and greeted me with a nonchalant smile.

  He spread his hands in a greeting. “You must be Thalia. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  The jaguar was raging against my limits and restraints. The raven, however, was curious. The darkness surrounded us, the trees towered over us. It wouldn’t have been hard for people or creatures to ambush me. I was alone, with the anguished screams in the clearing as a harsh reminder of what I was there to do. I circled him and allowed him to speak while I stretched my energies out, feeling for other beings nearby. He was entirely alone, and completely relaxed. That piqued my curiosity. People were naturally afraid of the dark, and me. Yet there he stood.

  “We’re more alike than I suspect you’d give us credit for.”

  I bared my teeth and stepped closer to him, waiting for the trap. My heart rate slowed and my breathing eased as I focused on him. How could he claim that we were similar? I was bound to the Sisters, trying to keep the balance. He was slaughtering innocent lives to bring about his own ends. His keen eyes glinted in the faint light of the moon. His muscles were relaxed. He was entirely at ease with the situation. He carried the predatory assurance that he was entirely safe from harm. I found myself almost admiring him.

  “They told me what the gods have done to you. The suffering you have endured thanks to them.”

  I stopped in my tracks. He’d caught my attention. They had given me nothing and taken everything, yet I was still forced to help them. Each day I fought for my freedom in the knowledge that they wouldn’t give it to me. To kill the gods could give me the thing I wanted more than anything. Freedom. Was this human offering me freedom? Did he have a solution to my problems?

  “Join me. Take your place next to me when I destroy them. When I rid this world of their existence.”

  My heart thundered in my ears. To be entirely free of them was something I had dreamt of for so long. To extinguish them from this world, to shatter their threads of control, was more than I had dared hope was possible. I was frozen as the possibilities floode
d my mind. Was it a twisted joke from the Sisters? Did I dare allow that flicker of hope to form in my mind?

  He extended his hand and took a step closer to me. “Join me, Thalia.”

  My breath caught in my throat, and I found myself completely torn. I realized that my hand was extending out towards his, that he offered me the thing I wanted more than anything. I wasn’t sure that I could deny myself that. Could I live with myself if I turned down my one chance? I didn’t have the opportunity to reply as he vanished into thin air, no doubt thanks to the angels. I was left reeling. The potential for true freedom had been dangled before me.

  Chapter Thirty

  I couldn’t focus on the scenes around me. Everything swam in and out as my mind replayed what Alistair had said. It haunted me. The potential, the dangerous shard of hope. I tried to keep myself calm, to anchor myself in that around me, but I struggled. Every second of the scene kept playing in a loop in my mind. My breath caught in my throat, and my heart hammered in my chest. I might finally get that which I craved more than anything.

  I forced myself to deal with the boys and everything around me. They’d done very well and managed to come out of it relatively unscathed. Alex and Lee had worked reasonably enough together, and only a few humans had been killed. We had gone into it with the vague hope of harming none of them, but to think that there would be no collateral damage, particularly when angels were involved, was foolish. The humans had quickly scattered into the forest once the angels and Alistair had fled. Ark had been waiting for us back at the house when we returned. The boys were all happy that none of them had to endure his healing potion, though.

  The rituals were certainly powerful, and there was potential there for him to rip open the fabric that separated the gods’ plane from ours. The wild energies from the forest combined with the angels’ understanding of the world could be united with the blood magic to do just that. They would have to tear open every one of the humans to release the energy they needed, but it could be done. I ran it back through my head over and over. If it could be done, then could I, in any right mind, stop him? Did I want to take the risk of destroying my one chance at true freedom? The Sisters must have known that that was his true intention there, and it did fit into their twisted sense of humour. To have me strip myself of my only opportunity would be very much their idea of amusement.

  A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts. Lee’s green eyes met mine, and I frowned, trying to piece together what I’d missed. He was crouched in front me while I sat on the grass out in the garden.

  “What’s wrong, Suriel?”

  The creases around his eyes seemed to highlight them somehow. Doubt and concern trickled through his words.

  I have him a half-hearted smile. “It’s just a fucked-up situation, is all.”

  I hadn’t lied to him, I’d just chosen to only give him some of the information. He moved around and sat next to me, looking up at the stars overhead. I missed the days when I would lay out on the beach or the meadow and listen to them sing. It was a beautiful trilling sound that made my heart soar. That was before I shut myself off from the world.

  A thumb brushed the tear from my cheek. “You’re hiding things from me, Suriel.”

  I refused to look at him. Two sets of footsteps came up behind us and Lee moved away from me a little. Dan sat a little too close next to me, and Ryan flopped in front of me. They had cuts and grazes on their faces and arms, but nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days.

  I sat up and grinned as I ran my finger down the cut through Ryan’s eyebrow. “The women will love that.”

  The emotion wasn’t quite there, but I felt as though I acted the cheeky charm well enough. My mind refused to move on from Alistair’s words and the potential they held.

  Ryan grinned back at me and ran his finger over the cut. “Well, they do like men with scars.”

  We all laughed and enjoyed the peace of the moment. It hadn’t gone as we’d hoped. We needed to push on and try again.

  “Here you are. We thought you were hiding.”

  There was a touch of ice to his words that made my hackles rise. “Not at all, Alexei.”

  His footsteps missed half a beat when I used his full name. He stood over me. “What happened with Alistair?”

  Everyone turned to look at me. Even the slight breeze held its breath in anticipation of my words.

  “The angels whisked him away before I could get close enough to do anything.”

  I told myself that it wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t the full truth. Alex sighed softly and sat on the grass with us. Nik paced around for a few seconds before he settled down next to Ryan. Ark had apparently returned to his cottage. He didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the ‘furballs’. Lee had tensed since Alex had appeared, and Alex remained stiff and alert. I muttered about my moment of peace having vanished. No one said anything, all lost in thought.

  The peace was shattered when Nik growled, “We should have slaughtered them.”

  I sighed softly. “We tried. Angels are notoriously difficult to kill due to their connection with the gods.”

  “The gods. I never believed they even existed. I didn’t want to accept that such cruel and twisted beings could be in control of our lives.”

  He stood up and went to the place where we had burned Lucy’s body. I glanced around the group, but they all looked at me. I didn’t know what they wanted. He clearly needed space.

  “My views on the gods are well known by all,” I said.

  Dan said, “And why do they still exist? Surely if enough beings got together…”

  Alex glared at him. “The gods are there for a reason. Everything exists in balance; that is why we were made, to help keep the delicate balance.”

  Dan looked away from him, but his eyes still darted back to me. I simply shrugged. Alex growled to himself, his coyote rippling below the surface. Lee stood with him and held his eye contact. I couldn’t resist. I saw no reason to.

  “So much for you two getting along for my sake.”

  Alex bared his teeth at Lee before he stalked off inside. Lee followed close behind him. The shouting began a few seconds later. I lay back on the grass and pined for the simpler, more peaceful days, when I listened to the stars sing and felt myself in tune with everything. Instead, I was nothing but a chaotic little ball, fucked up, torn, tattered, and exhausted. It really wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I let Alistair go ahead with his plans. The gods clearly weren’t doing the world much good.

  Ryan placed his hand on mine, his mouth in a small frown as he said, “Penny for your thoughts…”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, the phrase sounded so absurd from his mouth. I petted him on the head when he looked offended, poor cub.

  “I’m just plotting the next move, is all.”

  He nodded.

  Dan responded with, “Death and destruction, I should think.”

  I simply smiled.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Things were tense over the course of the evening. Alex and Lee kept shouting at each other, one blaming the other for fucking up the plan and not acting quickly enough. Then going around in circles about whether we should have targeted the angels, tried to save more humans, or just gone directly after Alistair. I ignored the whole thing and stayed away from both of them as much as possible. I had other things to occupy my mind. If he managed to succeed and the gods were destroyed, how would the world look? If I had my absolute freedom, did I want my life with Lee as I had pined after for so long?

  I closed my eyes and pushed all the questions aside. They weren’t doing me any good. Nik had become withdrawn, and his face reflected the storm behind his eyes. Lee and Alex were still inside shouting at each other, so I led the boys through the gate and out into the woods, where we shifted into our wolf forms. Let the fools shout. We were going to release our pent-up energy and move forwards. Dwelling on the mistakes and running in circles wasn’t doing anything any good.

  I nippe
d Ryan’s ear and bowled Dan over with a playful pounce before I took off into the woods and enjoyed the serenity of just running. Nik ran at my side, pushing Ryan away and leaving Dan behind us. I grinned at him and picked up the pace, his longer legs easily moving up a gear without any effort on his part. He needed to let go. He needed to exert himself. I pushed onwards, going faster and testing where my limits lay. We ran flat out until my muscles ached and my chest heaved. Each of them had their tongues lolling out and were grateful to slow down to an easy trot. Even Nik was fighting to catch his breath. His eyes shone, though, and his ears were pricked forward and interested in the world around him. It was the first step in moving on. In healing.

  We had paused and lay on the cool earth for a breather when Nik caught scent of it. His ears pricked and his body stiffened. He looked to me for approval. I sniffed the air and caught the delicious scent of deer. We all stood slowly and I nudged Nik to take point. He was becoming a good tracker, and he needed the release. He sniffed the air and took off at a steady lope. It wasn’t long before we saw the young stag. It hadn’t started to regrow its antlers yet, making it an easier target for us. It stopped dead as we approached; Nik had the good sense to slow to a steady walk, his head low as he started to stalk it.

  The stag twisted away from us and ran away into the forest. We were hot on its heels, our focus complete. It turned and weaved between the trees, but we remained close behind it. I don’t know how long we’d run for when it ran itself up a corner. A large rock formation emerged out of the earth, and it had no place to go. Nik remained on point, pushing it further back against the rocks while I went in front of it and Dan and Ryan moved behind it. It was trapped, and it knew it.

  The scent of fear rolled off it. We lowered our bodies, teeth bared as we slowly approached it. It kicked out at Ryan, who easily dodged it. It lowered its head and tried to run between us, but Nik snarled and drove it back again. We closed in on it. The blood was almost palpable in the air. Its eyes began to roll as it pressed itself against the rock before it tried lashing out again. Ryan leapt on its hindquarters and sank his teeth in deep just before Dan jumped on its flank and bit deep into its soft flesh. It cried out and kicked, but the boys held on. I glanced at Nik. He had the honor and he needed to do it quickly. The thing was panicking, flailing, and trying to slam Ryan and Dan against the rock. Nik launched himself at its throat. The crunch was audible when he crushed its windpipe. He ripped its throat out, and it collapsed to the ground.