August told Penelope she understood why she needed to go with Zagan. She needed to protect her mate and her pack who would be decimated if she stayed to fight. Zagan couldn't be stopped, according to Penelope. He couldn't be killed. Not yet anyway.
Penelope… August clenched her teeth. The powerful alyko who had supposedly made everyone from August's past forget about her. Why was a Winter alyko not powerful to take care of the vampire? And how had she even gotten on their pack land in the first place? How did she know precisely where August was? There were no answers for it. And she wasn't sure the questions mattered at this point anyway with what she was now facing.
The knots of nerves wound tighter in her stomach where her nausea was still rising at the thought of leaving Grae. She missed the ti when she naively believed people from Eliade were the biggest threats to her here. At this point, human researchers seed such a simple thing—so easy to dodge. They were nothing compared to a creature who was neither living nor dead and could not die for that reason. They were nothing like a vampiric psychopath who collected the alyko for so unknown purpose.
Just seeing what Zagan had done to Zoe was terrifying enough. What else did he do with the alyko he gathered?
August shivered under Penelope's shawl in the moonlight. She should just call the vampire's na aloud and get it over with—invite him to take her.
Her crow swooped down and landed before her on the ground.
"Is this truly what I am ant to do?" she asked, teeth chattering as the words ca out hushed and uncertain. "Leave him? Right when everything was coming together?"
The black bird clucked softly, tilting its head and focusing one eye on her.
"Do you know?" she chuckled, tears beginning to fall of their own accord.
It hopped a few tis in her direction but gave no indication about its knowledge regarding the situation, if it even had any.
"He kissed tonight, and the whole pack ca alive. It was perfect. I could feel them all—and so could he. I can feel them still, even now. How could everything be so right and then… and then this? Leaving them goes against every instinct in . And to not be able to talk with Grae about any of this before I leave… to not get him to understand and maybe develop a plan or sothing. To not say good bye."
The tears really started falling with that thought, and she let them. She didn't care if she was weak because of it. She was mourning the loss of her mate for an unknown period of ti. Who knew when she would be back and what would have transpired here while she was gone.
"I don't suppose I can take us all to that place with the tree guardian, can I? The whole pack… allow us to live there safely away from all of this? Is there room for it? Is it even possible?" she mumbled aloud, giggling at how ridiculous it sounded as she wiped the stray tears away. "What am I saying… I wouldn't even know how to get there myself if I tried."
The crow suddenly cawed loudly and flew away through the trees as if sothing startled it.
August wrapped the shawl closer around herself as she turned and stared into the darkness. Was he here? Was he listening?
Rather than call Zagan's na and invite her own disappearance that much sooner, she started wandering to see if she could figure out exactly where she was. After walking for awhile, a two story log house ca into view. There was nothing else surrounding it. Its remote location reminded her of how a witch's house was often depicted in storybooks—unexpectedly arrived upon out in the woods with nothing else around.
She stopped, wondering if approaching would put whoever might be there in danger once Zagan found her. But there were no lights on in the windows, and she didn't see any indication of movent.
"What the hell," she told herself, deciding to explore. Maybe there was a reason why whatever portal she had disappeared through brought her to this location. It might be helpful.
She opened the door and frowned. Why did this place look so familiar?
The logs on the exterior continued inside, making the place look comfortable and hoy. There was an old plaid couch and chairs facing a fireplace in the living room with a kitchen beyond and stairs off to the left leading to the second floor.
She walked in, running her hand along the couch as if inviting a mory to resurface. When she got to the bottom of the staircase, she looked up, following the steps with her eyes.
A ghost of sothing scurried up the stairs beyond sight, and her eyes grew wide. She followed, slowly putting one foot in front of the other as she ascended into the dark second story.
At the top, there was a long hallway with rooms on either side. She stopped at the first, opening the door to find a dark bathroom with a tub. Suddenly the ghost of a mory lit in front of her eyes, playing out like a movie reel.
August watched herself shaking in pain in the bath tub that first night when she arrived here at the outpost. This was the outpost. That's why it looked familiar.
The mory of Greta rushed past her out the door, and she saw Finn crouched by the bath tub, holding a garbage can for her to get sick in. A sob rose in her throat as she watched these people taking care of her. They were strangers at the ti, but now they were family.
She tore her eyes from the bath tub and saw Grae standing in the corner, tense with his arms crossed over his chest watching this female who he had saved from the Grimm being cared for. He knew she was his mate at the ti, but he was staying away from her.. She could see the fear in his eyes.
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