The storage room on the second floor was not what I was expecting it to be. Scarlett went down the hall to check on Archer while I searched for the traveling packs Miriam was talking about. I pulled on a string hanging from the ceiling and the entire room flooded with light.
I gasped.
It was a long, narrow room lined with shelves, with backpacks and hiking boots, several stacks of clothing, shelf-stable food... and weapons, lots of them.
“Holy shit,” I hissed, clutching the traveling packs, essentially backpacks with tal rods to support the weight during long hikes, to my chest.
Everything I needed was in this room. Miriam must have seen my secret plans written all over my face.
Now I just needed to convince Scarlett to go with .
I backed out of the room and shut the door behind , tossing the bags along the wall in the hallway. The house was incredibly quiet today with such a large amount of Jared’s n gone.
“He’s asleep,” Scarlett whispered as she ca out of the infirmary. “Ready? Our jackets are downstairs.”
I nodded and followed her through the house. Miriam’s voice drifted through the lower level where the house was filled with kitchen sounds, as well as Giselle’s voice lifted in a frustrated whine.
“Giselle is upset because Jared took Tommy instead of Brandt on this trip,” Scarlett said as she shrugged into her coat. She pulled a hat over her head as I held the door open for us to exit the house.
“Yeah... Brandt,” I said, not aning to growl, but that was exactly how it sounded.
Scarlett shot a look, but I just smiled at her. I was, hopefully, doing a good job of hiding the absolute agony ripping to shreds after my conversation with Jared last night. I felt like he’d taken a piece of with him, and now my heart was wrapped in grief. I couldn’t believe he’d just left. I’m sure he thought I’d give up and leave without a fight.
He didn’t know very well if he actually believed that.
We reached the sparse trees at the edge of the village where the ground began to slope towards the bluff. Rain pattered against my head, my curls twisting and springing up all over the space in the thick humidity.
“Wanna see sothing cool?” I asked.
She shrugged one shoulder, swinging the picnic basket Miriam had waiting for us by the front door.
“Have you seen the stone circle yet?”
“Oh, no,” she said, her cheeks going pink. “I know it’s there, but I’ve never–”
“Co on. It’s pretty cool.” I didn’t give her the option to protest as I took the picnic basket from her and walked briskly through the trees.
She let out her breath, mumbling to herself as she followed over the fallen logs and rich green underbrush. Spring was here, and the ground was dusted with fresh spring greens, the new leaves on the trees beginning to unfurl. It slled wonderful, crisp and clean. I was feeling much better by the ti we reached the bluff overlooking the river valley below.
“Down this way,” I coaxed, despite Scarlett’s hesitation. “I won’t let you fall. I promise.”
Scarlett made a few noises of protest as we struggled down the trail, which was slick with mud and debris from the storm last night. Finally, we found ourselves on flat ground again, and in the distance, I could see the grove of trees that hid the stone circle from view.
“I was thinking we were going to walk a few loops around the village,” Scarlett breathed as we sat beneath a large oak, its thick branches sheltering us from the rain. “But this is actually really nice.”
I toyed with the brown paper covering my sandwich. I didn’t have even a hint of an appetite. I probably wouldn’t for a while.
“Has Archer told you... anything?”
“What do you an?” she asked, taking a bite of her sandwich and staring at expectantly.
“About what he found out?”
She shook her head, looking thoroughly confused.
Damnit. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her this. I couldn’t totally bla Archer for not saying anything yet. He was literally laying in bed with stitches running across his abdon after being flayed open like a fish.
“The Alpha who got you pregnant is dead,” I said, then winced as her sandwich hit the ground. “Your son–”
“Oh,” she choked, tears welling in her eyes. “Is he dead?”
“No, no, no. He’s not dead. He’s with Abel–”
“Oh no!” She held her face in her hands, a sob escaping her lips. “That’s worse!”
“What do you an that’s worse? If you know where Abel is–”
“Abel is horrible, Eliza. An absolute monster!”
“How, exactly?”
Scarlett let her hands fall to her sides, her mouth opening, but no words ca out.
“I’ve never t him, but I’ve heard stories–”
“Would he seriously harm a little boy?”
“I don’t–I don’t know–”
“Look,” I said, scooting closer to her and taking her hands in mine. “I’m leaving tonight. I want you to co with . I want to go get your son.”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“We walk right in and get him. You’re his mother. His father is dead.”
She stared at blankly, her face void of all expression. For a mont, I thought she was having a stroke, but then she swallowed, blinking away tears.
“When Archer is well, he’ll go–”
“I don’t think we have that kind of ti,” I said firmly, squeezing her hands. “They’re holding him for ransom. I can make a deal with Abel–I don’t care what it is–but you’ll return with your son, I promise.”
“Why would you do this for ?”
“Because you’re my friend and I love you,” I said, sowhat shocked. “Archer found out where he is but can’t go get him. I’m part of the crew, so now it’s my responsibility.”
“Brandt won’t let us–”
“Let worry about Brandt,” I said, waving my hand in dismissal.
She peered at , narrowing her eyes. “You asked about incapacitating soone–”
“Exactly,” I grinned. “I won’t kill him, obviously.”
Scarlett looked away from , her eyes locked on the trees surrounding us. The whole area was filled with the sound of rain pattering against the leaves of the trees, a natural symphony of sound.
She rose to her feet, pacing a bit and digging her booted toes into the ground as she mulled over my offer.
“I will find you an escort back to the village,” I said. “You’ll be safe the entire ti.”
“Why an escort? Are you not returning?”
“Not for a while. There’s sowhere else I need to go,” I said.
My mind filled with the map I’d created based on the ancient map of Egoren and Jared’s tattoos. If Scarlett could get to Abel, I could find a way north to where I believe Myrel used to be. Once there....
I hadn’t thought that far, not yet. One quest at a ti.
“What about Jared?”
Her question hit like a freight train, totally derailing my thoughts. That creeping depression locked around my heart, pulling back to reality.
“What about him?”
“He’ll kill us both if we do this.”
“He won’t. He’ll be mad at , not you. This is my idea and I’ll make sure he knows that.” I bit back the rest of the words. I wanted to tell her everything that had happened, that Jared told I was his mate and then effectively ruined my life in the next sentence.
Maybe I was being a little dramatic. He could be wrong. We both could be. I could turn twenty-one and find my mate on a random street corner one day, and all of this would be just a strange, long lost mory, a fever dream.
But this hurt, badly. Everything in my soul was telling this was real, this was fated. I was ant to be here, on this journey.
It should have been with him.
Scarlett would do just fine as a travel companion, however.
“So, is this a yes?” I asked.
She’d walked away a few paces, running her fingers over a thicket of alders. “He won’t recognize ,” she said sadly, her voice straining around the words. “He was taken from before I even had a chance to hold him.”
“You’re his mother, Scarlett. This shouldn’t have happened to either of you.”
She stooped, tilting her head as she examined sothing on the ground. “We’d have to travel through the Dark Forest, you know. His territory is north of here, then to the west... deep in the west.”
“I can handle it. It’s not as bad as they make it sound.”
She breathed deeply, standing back up and turning to face .
“I’ll go.”
I stood up, dropping my uneaten lunch back in the basket. Scarlett gave a shy smile, but her cheeks colored deeply as she took a deep breath.
“I wonder what he looks like,” she whispered, the corners of her mouth twitching as her smile grew.
“We’re going to find out. We’ll leave once everyone else has gone to bed. Be ready, okay?”
“I’d leave right now if you asked,” she breathed, her smile wavering.
She turned from and continued to explore the area, coming to a stop where the trees rested against the rocky bluff. I packed up our lunch. It was raining in earnest now, and the thick droplets pelted my head as I stepped out from under the shelter of the oak with the basket hanging from the crook of my elbow.
Scarlett reached up, standing on her tiptoes as her fingers grazed the rock. A piece of rock the size of the picnic basket slid free of the bluff, flattening a bush below it. I yelped in surprise, my hand flying over my chest as my heartbeat began to race.
“You could’ve been crushed!” I cried, hurrying over to her.
“Look,” she said, turning to with sothing shiny in her hand.
I arched my brows as she unfurled her fingers, the pale gray light reflecting off a smooth, gold surface connected to a chain.
I drew in my breath as I slowly picked up the chain, letting the locket dangle in the air between us.
“Do you know what this is?” I whispered, lowering it into my palm. “It’s Jared’s locket. It belonged to his mother.”
“I thought Carn stole it?”
“No,” I said, opening it with my fingernail. “She threw it away.”
Inside was a variety of tiny gears and chanisms. I turned it over in my hands, trying to figure out how to make it play the song.
My heart was racing. I couldn’t figure it out.
But then a single note played, the entire locket trembling with effort to play the next.
“It’s been outside for years. It might be broken,” Scarlett said as she peered at it with a furrowed brow.
I turned it upright so I could see the gears. It was still trying to move. Opening it up likely activated sothing inside.
Another strained note rang out, followed by trembling, grinding gears. Then another, then another. Suddenly the area erupted in music, mingling with the rain.
I closed my eyes as the familiar song filled my ears.
Talk about fate, I thought. I knew at that mont that taking Scarlett on a journey to find her son was exactly what I was ant to be doing.
Now to take care of our Brandt and Archer problem.
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