these witches that my stepdad hated so much? Why did they abandon my family? Why do they just want me as a broodmare? Surely, I have more to offer than just my genes, right? I don’t even know that I want kids, honestly. I like kids, but I never saw myself having them. Can’t I just continue my life as I want it? This all changed so quickly. Fae and vampires attacked us first. Now witches and the Triune who may or may not be aspects of the Goddess. There are so many damn unanswered questions that my mind is reeling and I don’t even know which way is up anymore. Who do I trust? Can I trust anyone? Do I get any say in my own damn life! I want to choose what I do, but it seems like these adults have plans for me and I won’t get any say at all. It’s like whoever is strongest gets to choose what happens to me. Maybe I just need to hide away from it all and emerge once I’m an adult; tell them what I’m going to do and to them shove their plans up their butts.”
Sean put an arm around my waist and hugged me against his side. “We’ll be here as long as you will have us. We want you to choose your life, not let these stupid adults choose.”
We returned to silence as we continued our walk. About three hours later, Sean picked me up and resumed running so we would reach the others before nightfall.
I dozed on and off in his arms, dreaming of a world where I could have all these wonderful Guardians beside me and we didn’t have to do anything other than be kids, learning about who we were as we grew.
That beautiful dream was shattered when we made it to the rendezvous point and found Nick, Gary, Tom, and Caleb. All four covered in blood, laying on the ground, half alive.
“No!” I gasped, leaped out of Sean’s arms, and ran to them.
First, I checked on Nick, and then Caleb.
Both were alive, just weak. Likewise for Gary and Tom.
“We’re fine,” Nick whispered hoarsely. “Just let us rest and recuperate.”
I sat between them all with Chelle in my lap.
“We’ll go scout the area,” Sean said. “Stay there.”
I nodded my agreement. I wasn’t going anywhere.
After fifteen minutes of silence, they began stirring and their breathing returned to a normal pace.
Caleb pulled me into a hug first, which surprised me. He buried his nose in my hair and inhaled deeply. “You’re not hurt.”
“No,” I said, even though it wasn’t a question.
Nick pulled me out of Caleb’s hold and kissed me lightly. “I’m sorry we weren’t there to help you escape.”
“Did…what happened?” I wanted to ask about Dad, but figured he could give me a full play-by-play now instead of me grilling him with questions.
“Dad told us to hide for a few days,” Nick whispered.
“Okay,” I whispered back.
“Those other witches just want to use you to make babies,” Nick whispered and growled. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
“None of us will let that happen,” Caleb said.
“Thank you,” I said and pulled out of Nick’s hold. “I don’t know what is going to happen, but I appreciate you all coming for me.”
“We didn’t want to run after you right away in case they were following us,” Gary said and pulled me into a hug. “We figured they would try to follow us to you and we didn’t want to allow that to happen.”
“We led them on a great goose chase,” Tom added.
I pulled away from Gary to hug Tom. “You’re okay?”
He nodded as he hugged me. “Much better now that I can see and touch you.”
Yes, I felt the same.
“How are we going to defeat them?” I asked them as I scooted back to look at them all at once.
“We aren’t sure,” Tom admitted. “We’ve been mulling it over, but there are a lot more of them than there are of us.”
“Not true,” Sean said as he returned.
“What do you mean?” Nick asked him.
It warmed my heart to see him asking the other Guardian for assistance instead of being super possessive. The change had done a lot to help him mature.
“If we could gather all of the Guardians, there would be more of us than those witches or the Triune. We just might be able to defeat them all,” Sean said.
“True,” Nick whispered as he looked at the ground with a scowl, contemplating everything.
“For now, let’s