Aleron: Chosen Champions Book Three, page 23
“Amazing,” Spencer said.
He clutched the adder stone in his hand as he looked around his land. Merry would have to help him cleanse it now. He wouldn’t be able to rest until the negative energy had been cleared away. His plants had been trampled, and his belongings torn through. They’d need to sage the place entirely and replace all the crystals and protective elements.
“Spencer, I need you to focus on me for a minute, okay?” Logan had his shoulder again.
Spencer nodded.
“Tell me what happened.”
So Spencer walked him through it. Hearing the unfamiliar noise and understanding it meant someone was outside. Waking Aleron, who’d taken control and come up with the plan. Him hiding in the cellar while Aleron tried to get away.
“He wouldn’t fit, Logan. I wanted him to hide with me, but he wouldn’t fit.” Spencer’s emotions took over even though he tried to hold them back. “He wouldn’t stay, but he told me what to do. To get into range and call you. He made me promise.” Spencer’s voice broke, and he had to lean into Logan. He didn’t know where the weakness came from, but Logan supported him.
Then he felt another set of arms around him. “I’m here,” Bailey said softly. “We’ve got you.”
“What did he make you promise?” Logan said softly.
“To wait an hour. To make sure they were gone. I counted. Thirty-six hundred seconds. I kept my promise, then I ran.”
“You did exactly the right thing,” Logan said. “Stay here with Bailey while we take a look inside, okay?”
“They hurt him,” Spencer said. “I h-heard him cry out, and then I think he fell. They only hurt him.” Spencer hadn’t let the idea that it could be anything worse sink into his head, but suddenly it did. He panicked. “Logan.”
“He’s not dead,” Logan said, his voice stern and commanding. “Look at me.”
Spencer raised his head and met Logan’s gaze.
“He is not dead. One, we’d know. I’m a wolf. I could smell it, and I don’t. Two, they’d be stupid. He’s leverage. That gives us time to get him back.”
Spencer put his faith in the alpha’s confidence. His own had disappeared with Aleron.
26
SPENCER
Spencer understood Logan’s logic when he ordered them to search the area, but every second Aleron spent with Nio was one more second he was being hurt. They all knew it. Whatever Nio wanted, he’d torture Aleron to get the details.
Spencer forced himself to focus, squeezing the adder stone so tightly in his hand it cut into his palm. “Wolf,” Spencer said suddenly.
“What?” Bailey asked.
Logan must have heard him speak because he appeared on the porch and stared at Spencer, waiting for an explanation.
“There was a wolf. In the cellar. He sneezed because of the rosemary and wouldn’t shift because he said it would be worse. He kept sneezing. I’ll have to throw it all away now. I dried extra for you, Bailey, so you could have some of my herbs in your kitchen. They’ll all have to go now.”
“That’s okay. I don’t want wolf spit on my herbs anyway. Plus, you can show me how to do it. You know I like to learn things. What else did you hear?”
Spencer tried to think back to those few minutes. “The oracle isn’t here.”
Bailey squeezed Spencer’s hand and drew his attention. “Tell me.”
“He said, ‘There’s nowhere to hide down here. Get upstairs and get the griffin. He must have been telling the truth about the oracle not being here. Unlucky fucker.’ I don’t know what he meant.”
“It means they were looking for you,” Logan said. “And they think you’re the oracle.”
Spencer scowled. “That’s completely illogical. How would I be the oracle, and why would they even think that?”
“That’s a very good question, and I intend to find the answer,” Logan said. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Bailey led Spencer to the porch and had him sit down. He wanted Aleron there beside him, scooting his chair forward so his shorter legs could reach the rails. He wanted to hear him complaining about the shower. He wanted him back.
The sun began to rise over the trees. Spencer unclenched his hand from around the adder stone. He held it up toward the light, trying to catch another glimpse of his message, but this time it was nothing more than a simple hole through a stone.
“A step to a staircase. A stair to a staircase. Stairs. A stair to stairs.” Spencer repeated the words over and over again, trying to find meaning in the vision. Bailey sat with him, his arm around Spencer’s shoulders as Spencer let his mind wander and try to find the connection.
“What in the Goddesses’ name is he babbling about?” Ozias barked.
Spencer didn’t remember when the Prince of Hell arrived, but it was good he was helping. They needed it. They had to rescue Aleron.
“Hey,” Bailey said, standing and putting himself in front of Spencer. “Watch how you talk about a member of my pack.”
“Then tell him to stop praying to my damn grandmother. She’s not going to help, I can promise him that.”
Spencer froze. “Bailey, move.”
Bailey turned to him in confusion, but Spencer simply lifted him out of the way and ran toward his bookcase. They’d knocked the bookcase over, but Spencer picked it up and shoved it out of his way. Then he searched the pile of books on the ground.
“Spencer!”
But his head was already in the books, and he knew exactly which one to grab. He didn’t even know how accurate it was, but it was the oldest book of mythology he possessed, and the one scholars suggested was best translated from the old languages. The simple twist of a word here and there could change the entire meaning of a passage. Spencer wouldn’t even get started on the butchery of the Bible’s translations from the original languages. It was a travesty.
That didn’t matter at the moment, however.
Asteria did.
They knew her as a Greek goddess, but now Spencer realized she was so much more. She was the missing piece of the puzzle. One of the Titans. The old ones. Hecate’s mother. Ozias’s grandmother. A stair. Asteria. It might not be the meaning of the clue, but it certainly seemed reasonable. After all, Asteria was known for her gift of prophesy, so who better to give him a message from the adder stone than the Goddess herself?
But she was known for more than that. She was a necromancer, as well, and considering Ozias was the Prince of Hell, his grandmother would have been one of its high queens. He finally found the passage he sought. The words weren’t entirely clear to him, so he turned to the prince and found him glaring down at Spencer where he sat on the floor with the book on his lap.
“Your grandmother, what did she do?”
“A lot of things.” Ozias said. “She was an incredibly powerful Queen of Hell.”
Spencer didn’t care about any of that. He had a specific line of thought he needed to follow. “She created the hellhounds.”
“The hell beasts, yes. They were her guard dogs. My mother made the agreement with her sister to merge them with humans to form the hellhounds as you know them, the shifters who are guardians of the human realm.”
“But her beasts, her guard dogs, they could go anywhere, right?”
Ozias scowled at him. “What are you talking about?”
Spencer shook. His thoughts were racing so fast he couldn’t make sense of them.
Logan came to his rescue. He knelt in front of Spencer and took the book off his lap. “Talk me through it. Slowly so I understand.”
Spencer held up the adder stone. “I saw a step, then a staircase. A stair, then a staircase.”
“Okay, what does that mean?”
“I wasn’t sure. A path, maybe, but it’s a clue. I’m sure of it. Ozias thought I said Asteria, his grandmother’s name. She made the hellhounds. Well, the hell beasts, Ozias said. They kept her safe in hell. And they could always be at her side because—”
“She gave them the ability to portal to her anytime she needed their protection.” Ozias’s tone changed.
“They’re trying to make portals,” Spencer said. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he did. “It’s why the magic is always messed up and pieced together. They’re trying to use the old ways to figure it out. And I think they’ve managed to do it, at least to some degree.”
“It makes sense,” Logan said. “It would take a hell of a lot of power, though.”
“Like the power stolen from a bunch of creatures and humans you’ve bound to you by taking their hair?” Gideon suggested. “We don’t know how many more there are, but if he’s been at this for as long as we think he has, there could be dozens.”
“More,” Spencer said. “If they can portal at will, it makes them dangerous.”
“Impossible,” Solomon said. “Even a mage of Henry’s caliber would have trouble making a portal, much less more than one.”
“Search the woods,” Logan said sharply. “Look for runes. Ozias, see if you can find any magical remains. It degrades fast, so if Spencer’s right, we’ve already lost a couple hours.”
Everyone moved and spread out around the house. Bailey sank down onto the floor beside Spencer and grabbed his hand. “If the bad guys can portal like the hellhounds… this is bad.”
Spencer nodded. “I don’t think they’ve mastered it yet. They can do it, though. I’m sure of it. But it takes a ton of power, and then they’ll have to get more to do it again. They haven’t found a true power source yet.”
His thoughts raced as he pieced together clues he hadn’t understood before. “I don’t think they can go far. It would take too much power. But it helps them get away from shifters who need to see and hear when they’re hunting. They can simply vanish and appear some distance away. It makes sense, but they want more. They want more power to do what the hellhounds can do.”
“And they think maybe the oracle can help them find it. Which is why they are looking for him,” Bailey added.
“Or her,” Spencer said. “We don’t know who the oracle is. We shouldn’t assume to know their sexuality.”
“You’re right. Hell, we need to get in contact with the oracle and let them know what’s going on. What if they aren’t safe?” Bailey asked.
“It’s why no one knows,” Spencer said. “If no one knows who the oracle is, no one can find them. But clues are everywhere, Bailey. Aleron and I talked about it once. We said we probably had enough clues to figure it out if we had to. What if they do too?”
Logan ran back into the room a moment later. “We found it. They definitely made a portal, but Ozias doesn’t think it can take them far.”
Bailey and Spencer shared a look before Logan continued.
“Which means we may be able to pick up a trail. We’re going to get a few more flyers in here and take to the air. Spencer, do you have a map of the area? I need to know where the nearest road access points are. If they couldn’t portal far, they probably parked somewhere nearby so they could get away.”
Spencer nodded. “I can show you.”
He pushed to his feet and went to one of the many piles of books they’d thrown to the floor. His grandmother’s map of her property was neatly folded inside one. He found it and opened it up. It was old and frail but would do the trick. Logan held one side against the wall, and Bailey held the other. Spencer showed them spots where roads now existed that hadn’t years before. There weren’t many of them.
“Good job,” Logan said.
Someone outside screamed, and then they heard a bellow of rage. Spencer leapt to his feet, recognizing the first voice immediately. “Merry!”
Logan grabbed him before he made it out the door, and for the first time, Spencer fought against the alpha’s hold.
“She’s my friend,” Spencer yelled.
Vice held a struggling Merry and didn’t let her go. “She pepper-sprayed me.”
“Well, you tried to sneak up on me, you asshole. What did you think I was going to do when a strange man tries to sneak up behind me while he’s trespassing on land that isn’t his, blow you a kiss?” She made an exasperated huff, then elbowed the hellhound in the stomach. He grunted but didn’t loosen his hold.
“Let her go, Vice,” Logan said. “She’s a friend.”
“Not of mine,” Vice complained. His eyes were red and leaking.
“That probably really hurts,” Spencer mumbled to Bailey.
“Probably so.”
Vice released his hold on Merry, and she ran toward them. Spencer met her partway, and she flung her arms around him. “My wind chimes were going crazy this morning. I couldn’t get any sleep at all. Something told me you were in trouble. I came as fast as I could.”
As it was a half day’s walk, she’d no doubt been running as much as Spencer had earlier. “They took Aleron,” Spencer said, his voice cracking. “We’re trying to find him. They want to try to search nearby roads to see if they can figure out where they parked.”
“There’s a forestry service road about three miles west of here,” Merry said. “Come on. I can take you. It’s only on the government maps, but that’s how I’d come in if I was trying to get close without anyone knowing.”
Merry began walking toward the woods but paused when she realized no one was following her. “Well, come on, we don’t have all day. It’s gonna take us a couple hours to get there, even if we hurry.”
Before she could argue further, several portals opened. Aleron’s griffin cousins emerged, as well as Henry the mage. Spencer remembered then that Aleron’s cousin, Eduard, was Henry’s mate. He was very thankful they’d come to help.
Merry’s eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“Or,” Logan suggested, waving Victor forward, “we fly.”
Coal moved to Logan’s side and shifted into his dragon form. Victor just as quickly became a griffin. Merry sent Spencer a look.
“Show them any road points that are close, Merry. We may be able to catch up to them. They can’t have gone far.”
“I’m on it. Let’s fly, my pretties! Fly! Fly!”
Bailey snickered at her, but Spencer didn’t get the joke. Some of the others chuckled too, which helped lighten some of the tension.
“We’ll find him,” Logan promised. “The others are on foot, using their noses to see what they can find. Eduard, if you and Henry can head toward Scout, he and Ozias are at the spot where we think they either made a portal or tried to. See what you can find out. Vice, take Bailey and Spencer back to the warehouse. Bailey can clear your eyes after he lets the oracle know what’s going on.”
Vice nodded, and after shooting another glare toward Merry, opened a portal behind Bailey and Spencer. “Let’s go. My eyes are burning out of my skull. That woman really is the wicked witch.”
The rest of the human members of the pack waited for them at the warehouse. Spencer was enveloped in a group hug the moment they saw him. Bailey grabbed the first aid kit and flushed out Vice’s eyes. He didn’t wait around, though. Once Bailey finished, he opened another portal and took off.
Bailey grabbed Spencer’s hand and pulled him to the stairs. “Will, you’re in charge of breakfast. Spencer needs to refuel. Ashley, grab him a sports drink from the fridge. Everyone else, computer room. We may not be able to help from the ground, but we can certainly look at maps and check for satellite images with the oracle.”
The pack scattered and did as Bailey’d commanded.
“You still have your earbud in?” Bailey asked.
Spencer nodded and touched the small device in his ear.
“Good. We’ll get updates now that we’re back in range. Oracle, if you can show us the maps, Spencer might be able to get us better coordinates. The map he had was older than both of us combined.”
One of the large screens on the wall lit up a few seconds later. Spencer couldn’t believe the technology they had at their fingertips. He hurried over to the wall, recognizing the terrain and quickly finding his land on the map. “This is where my cabin is,” he pointed.
A small dot appeared on the location.
“Merry’s place.”
Another dot.
“Here’s the hiking trail. It’s not on my map at home, but it leads up to the waterfalls. It’s a tough trail, though, so it’s not used a lot. It starts”—Spencer traced his finger back down the trail—“here at this fork in the path. This way ends in a loop, but this one leads back to a small parking area. Only a few cars, but it’s a good spot to check.”
Some of the roads were clearly marked, but not the old dirt ones that led to hunting cabins or old places that had been long abandoned. Most of those roads were so pitted or overgrown they couldn’t be used.
Spencer paused his thoughts on the map. “Oracle, they told you Nio was looking for you. Are you safe?”
“I am. I have my own security. Thank you for asking, Spencer.”
Spencer accepted the oracle’s word and went back to the map. He’d lived on his land his entire life and had explored miles and miles around it. He kept circling out, finding new and farther areas where Nio and the others could have parked.
They didn’t know how far their portals could take them, so Spencer prayed they could search far and fast enough to find Aleron before Nio could do his worst. Spencer glanced at Taj, who’d come into the room with them. He sat at one of the tables, staring into the distance.
That blank, terror-filled stare was enough to set Spencer’s own fear off again. He returned his attention to the map, burying everything and focusing on finding every possible location he could. It was the only thing keeping him from losing himself and doing nothing but staring in fear like Nio’s last victim.
27
ALERON
The shock of cold water hitting his face pulled Aleron back to consciousness. He sputtered and coughed before opening his eyes to assess his situation. They had him in some kind of outbuilding—a small barn, maybe—and had zip tied him to a chair. If he was Logan or Gideon, he’d probably know some fancy move to flip the chair over, shatter it, free himself, then use the broken chair leg to stab Nio through the heart.
