Page 66 of Renegade Queen
Tank’s thick thighs made getting the leather pants down difficult, but it gave me more time to appreciate him. He was every inch of the bear he kept contained inside. His muscled body could never have been for something smaller. He was a powerhouse in either form, even if he was only ever a gentle giant with me.
I’d never really watched Tank shift before. Obviously, I’d been there when it happened, but I’d never stood there and watched. I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of reluctance in his eyes before it started, like he didn’t really want to leave me. But the change rippled through him as his body morphed into that of the bear within.
Stretching to his full height, Tank’s bear let out a roar as he made his presence known to the world before dropping down to all four paws and ambling over to me. He stood in front of me, waiting. Almost like he wanted to make sure I was okay with him in this form as well.
Silly man.
Leaping forward, I wrapped my arms as far around his fuzzy neck as I could, burying my face in his soft brown fur.
“Come back to me,” I whispered, just for him.
When I pulled away, the bear chuffed and then turned and started to run. His lolloping slow run was more than slow enough for Ryder to keep pace as he jogged at his side. Taking one last look over his shoulder and sending a cheeky wink my way before he concentrated on the task at hand.
Fizzle jumped from my shoulder, taking to the air as he glided above the pair, no doubt explaining exactly where they needed to go.
“We should move further into the trees,” Dean said grimly as he watched his friend sprinting toward danger. “The trees are thicker there, and the shadows will mask us better.”
I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Tank and Ryder for long enough to engage my brain in what we needed to do next. There was just so much left unsaid between us all, and now that they’d left, I was doubting whether silence was the best option.
I’d lost enough people in my life to know that opportunities should never be wasted. Waiting for the right time was asking for fate to come and bite you in the ass. And yet, even knowing that, even having the knowledge of how it had broken me before, I still did it.
A hand clasped my shoulder, and I turned to find Maddox’s concerned eyes looking down at me.
Ever since he’d shifted, something had changed between us. There was a closeness there that didn’t belong to someone I barely knew. But I wasn’t about to fight it. It was probably the only thing that would keep me moving right now.
“Yeah, you’re right. We should move,” I said absently, taking a moment to lean against Maddox, seeking that semblance of comfort I needed right now.
“It’s okay to take a minute if you need it,” Maddox told me. “It’s okay to be upset.”
I shook my head. Because it really wasn’t. And not just because we didn’t know how long we had before The Endless would be within sight.
Giving in to my emotions right now would break me open at a time when I needed to stay strong. And if I broke, I didn’t know how I’d put myself back together again. Having a full-blown breakdown wasn’t really an option, so instead, I did what I did best. I crushed those feelings beneath a layer of stone and hoped I didn’t ever need to look that deep inside myself again.
We moved deeper into the safety of the trees, waiting for what felt like an eternity. Until finally, they came. The quiet was completely at odds with the sight in front of us as we watched them emerge from the fog as they skirted the edge of the swamps.
It was only at that point I wondered where they could have come from.
This was a force of at least forty soldiers moving at a slow but steady pace. The strange blue glow from their eyes was the first thing we saw, followed by the glint of gold reflecting from their armour. If they hadn’t been hunting us down, it would have been an impressive sight.
They jogged in straight ranks, each stepping in time with the other. Not a single thing was out of place. And knowing what I did now about the poor unfortunate souls trapped inside that armour, it was chilling to watch.
How was Arik controlling such a large force, though? I’d assumed the magic feeding inside the armour was his. But he was a winter fae, and I’d never heard of them having access to any kind of magic like that before.
Looking back, even the way he’d controlled the creatures of Nymeria who’d swept through the Spring Court should have been impossible.
There was so much more going on here, and not having any answers at all was maddening. Especially if this was going to be about more than just rescuing Damon. And how could it not be? I’d seen what was happening here with my own eyes now. I’d long suspected it, but something about being a whole realm away had made it seem like a bad dream. I couldn’t abandon these people now that I’d witnessed their pain first-hand. Honestly, the shame of leaving when I had would be with me to my dying day. I should have known better. I did know better, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. My parents would have been ashamed of what I’d let happen here.
Dean’s hand slipped into mine as we watched The Endless move closer and closer to where we were hiding.
I felt like I should hold my breath. I didn’t dare move for fear that it would give our position away.
Maddox crouched down in front of me. He looked ready to leap into action, all of his muscles tensed like a coiled spring, ready to burst forward at the first sign. There would be no fighting the force bearing down on us right now, though. Our only hope was to run and hope that Tank, Ryder and Fizzle didn’t lose ground to them.
The sound of running feet and clanking armour swept over me as The Endless started to follow the trail that the others had laid down for them. They didn’t stop. They didn’t question. They just kept up that constant pace as they hunted their prey.
It struck me that they could have easily caught up with us before now if that was what they had wanted to do. Dean was right; they were herding us to the palace. Hopefully, that plan wouldn’t change before Tank and Ryder had the opportunity to try and lose them in Meridia’s Scars.
As their ranks moved past our hiding place, we got a closer view of our enemy. I took the opportunity to properly examine the armour, looking for flaws, power sigils, and anything that could indicate a weakness. But there was nothing, or at least nothing that could be seen from our position.