Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(75)

Almost in a daze I walked to the barn and opened the big doors.
Dox, Sla, and the triplets hung from the rafters. Or at least, I assumed it was them by the colors left on their hands and feet, the only skin left on them.
Skinned, they’d been skinned alive and left to die hanging by hooks in the backs.
I stood there, stared at what was left of one of my closest friends, of allies that had dared stand with me, who threw their lot in with mine.
Dox’s laughter, his brownies and ogre beer, the piercings and his big grin that had wavered. The courage he’d found in facing his past and the longing I’d seen in him when he’d looked at Sas.
Mother of the gods, this wasn’t happening, I had to be dreaming. A nightmare of the worst kind; I would wake from with sweat pouring off my body, all of my friends still intact.
Fear, stark and ugly, snaked through me. There was only one soul missing from this mess, and it hit me hard.
“EVE!” I Tracked her and she was at a distance, unharmed but freaked the hell out.
I spun and looked to the sky in the direction I could feel her threads.
“Rylee, look.” Liam pointed at the distant horizon, but I couldn’t see what his eyes had picked up. I grabbed Pamela, dragged her to her feet and ran around the side of the barn to try and see what Liam pointed at.
Minutes passed before the glittering scales caught the fading light.
I am here, Tracker, because you are not going to survive without me. And we can’t have that, can we?
Blaz’s words, his presence, soothed some of the fear, though his very presence raised questions.
“Eve, did you see her?”
I sent her to the unicorns, to rally them.
I slumped where I stood. “Tell me, this isn’t happening. Tell me I’m out of my mind.”
Sobbing reached my ears and I turned my head, as Milly fell to her knees, her head bowed. For the first time, I thought maybe she really had loved Ethan. Maybe he’d been her Liam.
All around us it was as if a war had been waged and we were seeing the aftermath, the destruction of lives beyond what we’d ever expected.
Blaz landed with a backwash of his wings, let out a heavy blow of air.
There are others coming. The demon has begun to gather an army, and you must do the same.
His head dropped so his eyes were right in front of mine, but I could see by the looks on Liam’s and Pamela’s faces I wasn’t the only one hearing his words.
You are the one I was born to fly with, into the battle that will decide the fate of the world. You are the world’s only hope, Rylee. You are the one that will stop this from happening again. You must draw on everything you’ve ever learned, and we must fight before it is too late.
Will you stand or will you run away?
Liam put a hand to my back. “There is no real decision, Rylee. You know that.”
I did know. I slowly turned, taking in all those who would look to me to fight a battle I knew I would lose. Pamela and her innocence, the powerhouse she was only just emerging. Alex and his loyalty, and the laughter he brought to me. Blaz and the connection between us I couldn’t deny, the safety he represented. Milly and the past that hovered between us, her loyalty would always be in question, but we needed her strength. Then there were those that had died already at the hands of Orion.
The Beast.
Dox.
Sla, Tin, Lop and Dev.
I met Liam’s eyes, saw the compassion there, saw the love that had grown to be my world and everything I would fight for. He reached out to me, took my hand. “To the end and back, I will stand with you.”
This was my family, and even the black sheep in it were loved, and I would fight for them all to my last breath.
I tightened my hand on Liam’s, my voice steady even though I doubted my abilities, doubted they had the right person. It didn’t matter anymore. Orion thought I was the one that would face him, and so I would, regardless of my doubts. I would make Orion regret ever crossing me and mine.
I let out a breath and hardened everything within me.
“I will stand.”
Blaz nodded and I felt his approval as I spoke.
“And I will wipe these fuckers off the face of the world.”