The Aftermath ✔

27 I WARNED YOU

Once Slade readjusted her vision, she hurried to help Eli up.

"E. Hang on. E."

A wolf came bounding toward them. It jumped and shifted. Lomos recoiled at the sight of them.

"How—how—I—I ran for miles. How are you two here?"

Slade pleaded, "Get Eli. We've just made an enemy who's smarter than us."

Lomos fixed his kilt and tucked his head under Eli's arm. "Come on. Walk with me. Move them legs. Come on." He twisted his head, partially shifted and let out a howl. Once he was back to normal, he assured them, "The boys'll come."

And they did. Six wolves accosted them and shifted. They got Eli as far as the top of the steps before a barrier forced them to stop.

"Can't bring in wounded?" Lomos asked.

"No, sir. Sovereign Manos swore Eli and her would be back beat up. He said to let them die, sir."

Another werewolf interjected, "But there's no telling if he was serious."

Groaning in the back of his throat, Lomos started down the steps again. "Of course he was serious. How convenient if one of us gets gutted, there's no way to come back here." Once they reached the bottom, they hurried to drag Eli to the base of the stone staircase. A metal door came into view with the shifting of some branches.

Lomos banged.

The peep latch slid open.

"It's me." Lomos waited.

Bolts after bolts sounded and the door creaked open. The face there had Slade frozen.

Margarite had the grace to blush as she bowed her head. "Sovereign."

She held the human baby close with both hands.

"No time for pleasantries," Lomos said. "We have to get him into the main house. That dwarf—"

"Fuck the dwarf," Slade said, overtaking him. "If it's even a real dwarf and not something else. So that means it's useless for healing. We need Trixie."

All men, including Lomos, slowed in their efforts to find Eli fast help.

"The harpy?" Lomos asked. "Must it really be her?"

Slade nodded.

"Shit." Lomos swore under his breath a second time, "Shit."

Margarite blocked their path. "Lo," she begged, "don't challenge him—Manos is...he doesn't bluff."

Her words resounded; Lomos looked ready to give up. In time, he glanced at Eli, blood still dripping down his body, then her yet again.

"I need all the loyalty runes I can get. Doing this isn't an empty gesture. He'll owe me one. Maybe—maybe if shit goes south and I'm stuck in the wolf, this rescue can earn me some magic. But we have to do something. And we've gotta do it fast or he's as good as dead." He hefted more of Eli's body weight onto him and instructed the other men there, "Clean the blood and two of you stay with Marg and the baby. Don't leave 'em, even if I call. You pretend you didn't hear it."

A chorus of, "Yes, sir," sounded behind them once Lomos brushed Margarite aside and slid the metal door open. He gave her a fleeting glance.

These steps even outnumbered the ones at the main entrance.

"Emergency escapes," Lomos explained, "and only two of them in the entire house."

"Yes. I remember. Wait, there are two?"