Page 54 of Shattered Darkness
He only smirks, though not bothered at all.
“Well, the object that needs to hold that much power is going to have to be pretty resilient and strong in itself,” Maverick continues, “which made me wonder if there were specific types of objects made out of specific things that would be able to hold a significant amount of power, including the spells to conceal it with no issue.”
“Fuck, that’s a good idea,” I reply, and then ask, “Did you find anything?”
“Yeah, thankfully, the list of materials that can hold that amount of magic easily over a sustained period of time is pretty short, which was more than I could’ve hoped for. It means that we can go through the list and then see if anything in the castle is made of those things. I have a feeling that we’ll know when we see the object because it will be kicking off so much power.”
“That’s brilliant. It certainly gives us something to focus on and shrinks our search parameters,” Kai replies.
“Yeah, it does. Although the academy is huge, and who knows where the Order could’ve taken it, it’s still going to take us a while to find it,” Maverick says.
“Yeah, but at least we know what we could be looking for now.” Erin points out with a smile.
Hunter
I get why Sage is worried. There are a lot of threats to us at the moment, and it’s not safe for us to be separated, but we really don’t have a choice. We need a good run, and Jax needs to swim in a natural water source in order to keep him at full strength. There was also no way that we’d be able to bring all of us with us, we would’ve been far too noticeable, and it would have almost been asking for the teachers to find us and give us shit.
There’s just too many of us as a whole group, that and some of them wouldn’t be able to keep up, which means we wouldn’t be able to run as hard as we need to. Which is fine sometimes, but when we don’t know when it will be safe enough to have another proper run, we need to run hard and not move slower for other people. Thankfully, Jax, for whatever reason, can move almost as fast on land as he can in the water and, because of that, can easily keep up with the rest of us.
“What’s the plan?” Kyle asks as we head out of the back of the academy and toward the woods.
It’s late, which is when Cain suggested we go just to avoid any unnecessary attention, which I was pretty happy with anyway because I love night runs. The academy comes alive with a whole host of different sounds and creatures and feels a lot more peaceful.
“We’ll run to the lake and then let Jax do his thing, maybe cool off ourselves for a short amount of time, and then we’ll carry on and head toward the trail to do the loop,” I reply.
“Sounds good to me.” Nate replies and then adds, “We’re going to have to be as quick as possible because Erin is not happy that we’re out here.”
“Neither is Sage,” Jax replies.
“Did you guys hear from Cain yet?” Kyle asks as we make our way to the head of the trail, getting ready to transform into our animals.
I shake my head, “No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were staying out of our way since he knows that we’re going to have questions.”
Kyle smirks, “Yeah, that makes sense.”
Chapter Eighteen
Hunter
All talk of Cain stops as we get to the path; just inside the trees, Nate, Kyle, and I all transform into our animal halves. I instantly feel a wave of immense relief wash over me. It's been far too long since I’ve been in my wolf form, and I’ve missed it greatly. There’s a sense of pure joy that surrounds us as we run through the forest. Nate and Kyle will stretch their wings when we get further into the woods and where we’re less likely to be seen by anyone else.
Jax is managing to keep up with us but not as well as he usually does, and as I glance back to look at him, I see that he’s already out of breath.
He’s in worse shape than he let on, and I’m going to be having a strong word with him later about allowing that to happen. Right now, I’m more worried about getting him into the natural water before he collapses. Nate and Kyle have clearly realised what I have because they slow their pace, not going full out like they would typically, as they both give me a worried look. Especially when Jax doesn’t give us any shit for slowing down for him because he doesn’t need us to, or at least usually doesn’t.
I’m going to have to make sure that he gets to the lake a lot more often than he has been. I kind of thought that he was going, and I was just missing it. Clearly, that wasn’t the case. Sage is going to be so mad if she figures out how long he must’ve gone without the water.
Maybe that’s what he needs though to remind him that he has to take care of himself, and not just everyone else.
Thankfully, despite us slowing down, we get to the lake quickly. As soon as it comes into view, Jax puts on a burst of speed, moving faster than I thought he could, and dives into the bright blue depths. The rest of us pause on the banks and watch the water.
The wave of relief that came over me when he first went into the water starts to turn back into tension the longer that I stare at the water, and he doesn’t come back up. I’m worried enough that I let the magic of my shift take over me, and I shift back into my human form, Kyle and Nate quickly doing the same.
“Is he okay?” Kyle asks worriedly.
“He’s not normally under for this long,” Nate says and then adds, “although he doesn’t usually allow himself to get that weak before he gets in the water.”
“Exactly,” I say with a frown, “I mean, water is his thing, so in theory, he should be absolutely fine. He’s most likely just absorbing as much power as he can from being surrounded by water. I mean, he’s never got that low before, so it’s probably going to take longer for him to replenish his stores.”