round the corner of the house. I slam into something hard, and it goes flying away from me as I stumble forward, moving too fast to get my feet underneath me. I’m plucked from the air like a dainty little feather and pulled back into a strong muscled chest.
“Gotchya,” Torrez growls into my ear and then nips at the top of my left shoulder.
His teeth graze over the runes there, and it sends a heated flash throughout my entire body.
“No way, I was fouled,” I argue as Torrez’s strong arms wrap around me.
He steadies me as I struggle to catch my balance, and I simultaneously soak my underwear and try not to rub up against every inch of him that’s currently pressed against me. I look around to see who or what ricocheted off of me and find Aydin getting up and dusting himself off. I point to the ginger giant. “See, I call interference.”
“Where’s the fire, Little Badass?”
“No fire, just a hungry wolf,” I tell him as I step out of Torrez’s hold and away from the vibrating laughter in his chest. “Where are you coming from?” I ask in an effort to distract myself from the pressing need of my magic-tainted libido. You’d think I’d be used to the magical pull to solidify the Chosen bond, but nope, I’m not.
“There’s a barn just past the trees that Silva has set up as a war room with maps of the area and supplies. We were just going over where we need to stake out and the best places to try and get info about Lach and Kee.”
I look past Aydin’s massive arm. I don’t see the building he’s pointing to, but I do spot its dark brown roof peeking just above the trees. I close the door on my frowning hormones and immediately go into battle prep mode. There’s quite a bit of open space and flat ground back here before the dense tree line begins, and I start working through training scenarios in my mind as Aydin and Torrez chat about something.
“Have any lamia been spotted nearby? How much do we know about Adriel’s nest size and location?” I ask.
Aydin lets out a sigh and rubs at the back of his neck. “We don’t know much, unfortunately. The closest lamia spotting was a couple towns over. It seems there are clusters that move in and out of some border towns, near Russia mostly. Lachlan and Keegan were trying to see if there was a pattern to their movements when they were taken.”
“So how do we know that Adriel even has them?” I ask, as I quickly think through a training schedule and try to see if there’s any other way to get Lachlan and Keegan without things turning into an all-out war we’re not ready for.
“Because there were spelled signs saying so pinned all over town. When Silva went to look for them after they missed a check in, he found the signs but no hint of Lachlan and Keegan anywhere, and no lamia. Silva, Evrin and I are going to head out and see what we can find. As soon as we have more information, we can start strategizing,” Aydin tells me like he can read exactly where my mind has gone.
I blow out an exasperated breath and take one more look around before locking eyes with Torrez.
“We need to train our asses off, and we need to start now.”
6
Enoch, Kallan, and Nash walk out onto the patchy grass and hard packed dirt of the yard behind the houses we’re all staying in. I can feel the tension around me rise as they do. I try to shrug it off from where it attempts to cling to my shoulders, but with no luck. Enoch looks around warily until his eyes land on mine, and his mouth tilts up in a smile. Bastien mumbles something as Kallan, Nash, and Enoch move closer, and I elbow him in the side. We haven’t even started to try to train together, and despite my explanations of why we need to train, I’m still worried about what will happen if Bastien and the others refuse to play nice.
Nash, Kallan, and Enoch stop directly across from my Chosen, and they square off with each other. They’re all puffed up chests, resentful eyes, and anger-clenched jaws, and I can’t help but huff out a sigh. I stand at the head of it all, ignoring the symbolism in my place and theirs, and tap into