Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,78
he was all right. From the little she’d seen of the Challenge before interfering, he’d no doubt sustained some brutal wounds.
She missed him. Or rather, she wished for him.
Perhaps it was the Blood Contract that made her feel so dependent and attached to him. Whatever the reason, she wanted him so desperately that her bottom lip began to quiver.
Stupid lip.
She locked her jaw and squared her shoulders. Ramses had made clear he didn’t want her in return. She was on her own.
After eating one of the cooked rabbits, Eveline pulled out the most important item from her backpack—the one remaining scroll she hadn’t flung at the eagle-man.
With nothing better to do than wait for her captor’s return (or dare she hoped, a heroic rescue by her friends) she began to pore over the neat columns of text, though they were written in a language she’d never encountered before.
As her fingertips passed over the symbols, the beautiful lines glowed, like the burning embers of a newly lit fire.
She gasped as her vision blanked and her senses crashed. She felt rather than heard the haunting words:
A Champion reborn
A King transformed.
A stone heart in fire
A soul dances higher
When True Love reveals
And old wounds heal…
Heal him, Angel of fire. Heal him when he comes for you. Take him. Take him.
Take him!
Eveline fell back onto her ass when the scroll practically blasted her with its words.
Well, alrighty then, she thought with a huff. Message received. She just wished she knew what it meant. Most of the time she enjoyed having the freedom to interpret things.
But given the urgent, prophetic tone she gleaned from these words, she prayed she’d arrive at the right conclusion.
*** *** *** ***
Mount St. Helens, Washington.
That was where they were headed. That was where, according to Rhys’ connection to his natural ruler, the Eagle King had taken Eveline. To the most active and dangerous volcano in the United States.
Ramses’ entire body turned to stone (figuratively, at least) with apprehension.
Located in the Cascade Range, the angry, grumbly mountain was part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire (aptly titled) that included over one hundred and sixty active volcanoes. Mount St. Helens was well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows. While in modern times, it was most notorious for a major eruption on May 18, 1980, where fifty-seven people were killed, that was nothing compared to the mountain’s violently eruptive periods thousands of years ago. When red hot lava gushed endlessly like the blood of a mortally wounded Mother Earth.
Why did the Eagle King bring Eveline here? To draw Ramses into a reenactment of their battle millennia ago? But how could he know to use Eveline as bait? In fact, when the Eagle King had spotted and taken off with Eveline, it’s as if he’d forgotten about his Challenge with Ramses altogether, entirely focused on his new target instead.
But then, why would Eveline be his target at all? Other than retaliation for bludgeoning him with flaming objects?
Almost there. ETA three minutes, Rhys communicated telepathically.
He seems to have left her alone in a small cave on the north side. I don’t have a strong sense of his presence nearby, which means we have some time to collect her and make our getaway.
Rhys’ wings shivered a little from the strain of flying nonstop for such a long distance, making them dip precariously against the air current.
Ramses was not fond of this type of travel, to put it mildly.
I can’t fly for long with both of you, however, Rhys admitted what Ramses had already gleaned, and certainly not if he comes after us. He’ll just make me lose my wings again anyway. But I can get you down the mountain safely.
Ramses acknowledged the information with a brief nod and gritted his teeth. Both Rhys and he weren’t in the best shapes. Rhys, from flying for so long at top speed with a heavy load; he, from his multitude of unhealed wounds. If the Eagle King pursued them, none of them would be a match for him.
Though Ramses had wounded the other warrior in the Challenge as well, none of them were as serious as the ones he inflicted when Ramses’ focus had been shattered upon recognizing who he was. Moreover, if he was indeed the Eagle King, he was one of the three most powerful Beasts. His physical strength and stamina exceeded all other Kinds.
But no matter what it took, Ramses wouldn’t let him or anyone else take Eveline