Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Please, mighty gods, let her wake up.
“What did you do to yourself Little Wolf?” I asked softly, smoothing her hair back from her burning forehead. “Why did you take it?”
A cluster of padded footsteps arrived in camp and within moments Hadriel was crouching down near us. He was too close for my comfort but when I looked up to tell him to fuck off, his expression of abject terror gave me pause. Dante and Nova kept close too, everyone having just shifted and looking on in worry.
“She would’ve wanted to see what was different about the product,” Nova said, looking around. “Where is the fucking elixir? It’s not that bloody hard to find.”
She took off jogging. The second we got back to the castle, she was absolutely getting a promotion.
Dante was nodding, looking on. “Nova’s right, she would’ve wanted to see what made Granny’s product different from hers.”
“She was probably trying to figure out a way to fix the situation,” Hadriel said, picking at his nail in worry. “She belongs in the dragon court with Finley and Arleth. They’re fixers, too. Give them a problem and they’ll try to fix it. They’d fix the world if they could.”
“Make ready to get underway,” I said, rocking Aurelia in my lap, my hand on her heart. It was beating too quickly. Her breath was too shallow. She was losing her fight. “We need to put as much distance between us and that town as possible. We’re going to alter our course. Granny’s organization is clearly looking for Aurelia, and now they have her last known whereabouts. A royal guard might investigate the attack on the town. We don’t want to run into either.”
“What about her?” Dante pointed at Aurelia. “We can’t travel with her like that.”
“We have to. We’ll give her the phoenix elixir and she’ll ride with me.”
“They’ll keep her prisoner,” Hadriel said, the words tumbling from his mouth laced with fear. “They planned to take her to the place where they package everything because the production village was compromised. That’s what the guy at the tavern said. He sent for Granny’s dog to come and collect her.”
“We were looking in all the wrong places for information,” Dante said as Nova returned with the little vial of glowing elixir. She removed the vial’s stopper and carefully handed it to me. Dante continued. “We were looking too close to Granny’s home near the castle. People were tight lipped there. Out in these backwoods towns where the product is flowing freely and they don’t have as much competition or trouble, they’re a lot freer with their words.”
“Agreed,” Hadriel said. “I think it would be better to send in a few people masquerading as merchants to visit pubs and taverns and talk to the locals to work out the location, rather than moving in a big pack that draws too much attention. Get the location, then send in the muscle.”
“Hindsight,” someone in the back muttered.
I tucked all that into the back of my mind for later contemplation as I prepared to pour the elixir into Aurelia’s opened mouth.
“Wait!” Hadriel put out his hands to stop me. “No, no, this is wrong. She’s unconscious. She won’t swallow it. Inject it!” He clapped a few times, looking around. “You have to inject it.”
I froze. He was right. Stupid, I berated myself. We’d been in this situation in Granny’s cottage. We had precious few of these elixirs left, and I almost wasted one of them.
“I’ll do it. I got it,” someone said, and a moment later Niven stepped up, kneeling down beside us and taking the elixir from my hand. I stopped rocking so he could work. Niven hadn’t really been on her side since she’d cleaved him with the axe, but he hadn’t been thoroughly against her, either.
He pushed down the plunger on the syringe and stepped back, holding the empty materials and looking down on us.
“That’ll fix her,” Hadriel said softly, reaching forward to take her hand. Once again, I kept from growling at someone else touching my true mate when she was in this state. He cared for her. He only wanted to help. “It will. It’ll fix her. Finley and Hannon don’t make mistakes. They don’t put out bad medicine. It’ll fix her.”
“Get loaded up. We need to go,” I said while remaining still, intending to wait until the very last moment before I had to move her. She needed rest. She needed a bed. Unfortunately, those were two luxuries we didn’t have, not anymore.
It took three hours. I’d held Aurelia in my lap for three hours as my horse walked, having decided against travel in a cart in case someone attacked. I wanted to be in control of my mobility and be able to usher her away to safety immediately, if need be. It was three long hours before her eyes fluttered open and she moaned in obvious discomfort.