Chapter 452
98 – Elara
Without hesitation Jax and Dev grab our hands and we pull them through. They both stumble gaining their bearings. I wasn’t sure if they could come through without a blood or mate tie to me. That might still be true since Ben pulled Dev through. Again, the results were anticlimactic.
“Well, I don’t know what I expected, but definitely more than that.” Jax huffs next to me as he checks his mate like Ben did to me.
When he’s satisfied, they both look around the same as Ben and I did. “Where do we go from here?” Dev asks. Forest is on three of our sides and the water to the south. There aren’t a lot of places to go.
I look around and feel for the buzz I am starting to associate with magic around me. “That way.” I point and move on instinct. The tree line isn’t as dense as I thought. From the outside of the barrier, the forest looks like it gets thicker and thicker until you can’t see a thing through the darkness.
Inside the barrier, we only walk about a hundred feet when the forest opens up completely to a clearing and the sight takes my breath away.
Down the center of the clearing is a craggy divide. I walk to the edge of the cliff and gasp. I can feel the buzz increase, like a breeze flowing out of the fissure right into my face.
Lining the walls of the cliffs are blue, red and purple stones jutting out in all directions. The power is like a pulse matching my own heartbeat. “This is what that witch b*tch wants.” I say reaching my hand out to touch the power flowing on the breeze.
“What is this exactly?” Jax asks, as they all come up behind me.
“A quarry? Don’t witches use stones like these? Have them in pockets and hanging in windows.” Dev suggests.
“Why would anyone excavate this stuff when the power source is so intense like this?” Ben asks from my right.
I don’t answer, walking along the edge. “What is that?” The hum of magic gets stronger the closer I move to the shape in the middle where a massive stone glints in the middle. “It looks like a…”
“Star?” Ben asks.
“Yeah.” I breathe out. The outcropping of stones and rock make a star. “I wonder if it grew like that or if someone made it look like that.”
“This is what they want isn’t it?” Dev asks, but the question is less a question and more a statement. “They want whatever this is and they knew it was here.”
“Why wait so long to take the land? Why now?” Ben starts pacing behind me. “There is so much power here, we can all feel it. Imagine what a witch who can channel and use the power could feel here.”
“Jason? Can you still hear us?” I ask through the link. I need to know how far this goes and if we can communicate through the barrier, or if it is just a glamour.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“We may need your girl, Brianna and Marietta. What is everyone doing?”
“Juliette is napping, she’s been working with Brianna this morning.”
“On what, Jason?” Ben asks.
“She doesn’t tell me much, but something about the Chaos part of her magic.” Jason grumbles. “I guess because of the nature of that powe there isn’t a direct training for it, but if the magic isn’t used and harnessed it can become volatile according to Marietta. Whatever the ck that means. ‘s draining her though, and I can’t decide if they are keeping her tired on purpose or actually trying to help.”
“Honestly, probably both until we can get some information out of her.” Elara says. “Can you let Marietta and Brianna know we are inside the barrier and we’ve found something?”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE INSIDE THE BARRIER?!”
“Would you relax?! Ben drawls out moving away from me in the opposite direction of Dev and Jax. “We ran the northern border and found a weak point, so we tested it out and found our way in.”
“That you randomly decided to test without a witch to help you in case it went wrong and sucked you dry like that kid?! ARe you crazy?!?”
“Jason, you need to relax.” I attempt to get back on track while we are walking the perimeter of the fissure.
“The f*ck I do!”
“Gamma! You need to watch your tone!” I stop. His outburst is not normal. I know he’s close friends with Ben, but he’s never stepped out of line before.
“Sorry Alpha, I need to get out of this f*cking house, but I can’t leave her for too
long. I’m losing my damn mind. Give me a job Alpha, please.”
I look at Ben. have no idea what to
do for his friend, but I get not
wanting to be stuck in the house
too. “He’s your best friend. What do I do?” I ask outloud. I don’t care if Jax and Dev hear, maybe they have some ideas. “We need to check this out, but I don’t think she’s ready to join us. She has trauma and doesn’t trust us or this could still be some kind of long con on her part, complicated by being mated to someone on our side and she’s trying to figure out her next steps. Bringing her here could help her out in a positive and a negative capacity.” I take a deep breath and look around.
I see the water to the South of us and mountains to the West. I know the rest of my pack lands are to the East and North. There are so many things going on right now, I honestly don’t know what to do. I feel the calm in the air, like this crevice is telling me to relax and listen… to slow down. How the hell do you slow down when you’re being attacked on all sides with each side throwing something different at you?
“His wolf isn’t going to let him go far from his mate while she is healing from whatever the hell was done to her. He was able to run yesterday when we found the kid in the barrier. He’s a Gamma and his instincts are to protect the leadership of the pack. Is there something we can have him doing in the packhouse that can help us here?”
“ALPHA! Red Fang is asking for assistance at the border. They are being attacked.”