Davina (Davy Harwood #3)(40)

“It’ll cost you, but it’ll be worth it. Send them back to Roane. They’ll be safe with him. They won’t be with you.”

“I . . . I don’t have enough strength.”

She laughed at me. “You do. You’ve been restoring it since you woke. You just have to tap into it.”

“What have I been using since I woke?”

“You have a back channel of power. It’s all stored up. It’s where I’m speaking to you from. You are me. I am you. I am this back section of power. Open up your mind and let me in.”

“I . . . can’t . . .” I was going to say I didn’t know to do that, but it wasn’t true. I did. It was the same way I had gotten into Cal and Spencer’s minds. I had my own door closed off to myself. I just needed to find it and burst through it, but . . . thinking about it, I hesitated.

“Come on, Davy,” she started to chide.

“Stop it!” I screamed back, the words coming from my throat as well. My heart was pounding. I could feel her wanting to get in. That was when I realized it—that door wasn’t keeping me out, it was keeping her in. It was keeping The Immortal from completely taking over me.

“Davy?”

I didn’t know who said my name, but I looked to Gavin. Seeing concern and his anger lessening, I almost whimpered. “It’s The Immortal. She’s trying to take over.”

A wave of alarm swept over all of them.

Gavin froze in place and asked, his voice dipping low, “What did you say?”





ROANE



Roane and Bastion had been tailing the Romah army for three days. They were trying to go around them, moving higher on the mountains to give the entire army a wide berth and their progress was painstakingly slow. More than once they were almost discovered and each time, Roane worried about what they’d have to do if that happened. No matter the consequences, whoever discovered them would have to be murdered. If the body was found, that could start a war before he was ready for it. The only plan he had was one he didn’t want to do. It put them at risk as well, but so far, he hadn’t needed to put it into play.

So far.

They were high up, at the highest line of trees on the mountainside. If they broke free from their cover, they’d be seen from below and every time there was a clearing, both had to drop to the ground and crawl across, going as fast as possible.

They weren’t moving as fast as Roane wanted. They needed to get ahead, but the break hadn’t come for them. The Romah army didn’t rest. They slept in shifts. While some would walk, the others would sleep on some makeshift carts. The awake ones would pull them ahead, then switch places and progress even further. The weight of their comrades slowed them down, but not enough.

They were being assisted with magic. Roane felt it in the air. It was covering all of them and it was a problem. It’d be a problem in the future as well. He wasn’t sure where the magic came from, but he knew it was there and he knew it was protecting and helping them to go at an unnaturally faster pace.

He and Bastion were running, sprinting from tree to tree, when suddenly they felt a shift in the air. Both vampires froze as one, looking like statues now.

“Do you see anything?” he asked Bastion in his head.

Bastion leaned forward and his nostrils flared. He closed his eyes and smelled the air, like a wolf would do. Roane knew the answer was nothing before Bastion thought to him, “No. Whoever it is, is beyond the next ridge.”

He edged farther. Instead of their break-neck speed, he and Bastion snuck ahead, keeping to the trees for camouflage. They were going at a snail’s pace now. He wanted to see whoever or whatever it was before they saw them, and as they cleared the hill, both froze in place. A wolf scout was thirty feet in front of them, resting against a tree. Its head was down with closed eyes, and the wolf panted for a moment. In and out. It sounded like it was struggling for breath, but that was from the speed the group was traveling at. Even the wolves were tired.

Roane thought to Bastion, “Hold. The wolf will move forward.”

Bastion didn’t move an inch, but he replied, “The wolf will keep moving ahead of us. We’re stuck behind him.”

Roane grimaced. There was no way around it. If the wolf didn’t move down, but kept going straight ahead of them, he knew Bastion was right. A confrontation was imminent. He was about to signal Bastion to move around when a wolf’s howl filled the air. The wolf in front of them immediately responded. His eyes opened and his head fell back. A long howl ripped from deep in its throat and the two vampires shared a look. From the intensity of closeness of this howl, both knew they wouldn’t forget the sound. It was haunting, sounding from a deep sorrow.