Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 38 - Rohana - Locked Out

Well, at least we now know who the witch is. The only problem is, is that she's Darius's old professor, which means that we can't kidnap her without him attempting to find her, and killing her is out of the question. Not to mention that she's always by his side or one of Darius's friends, so we'd have to kidnap them too, and that's definitely out of the question.

Willa's still trying to get past the witch's tricks, but she's not making much progress. She can get to a few of them, but it's not long after she breaks it that the witch comes to repair it. Willa outranks us all when it comes to power, but there are still things in this world that are unfamiliar to even her.

I'm on watch today, and I'm not in a very compliant mood right now. First, we get locked out of keeping a closer eye on Darius, and now we can't see our Queen. Sure we can follow Darius around but at a further distance, but with the Mater, we can't get within the room without one of those water wolves somehow sniffing us out and blocking us. We've encountered their breed before with past elementals, and they take a serious amount of energy that we can't spare to get past. And that's not even going to mention that getting past them isn't the hard part. Oh no, the hard part is outrunning them before they catch you again.

There are too many of them watching every seam and crack into that room since Darius and the cadre have arrived. Not even Makatza - who shifted into the tiniest animal she could think of - could get past them. I volunteered to freeze time and sneak past them that way, but Willa shot me down and said that we should be grateful that they were there. If we can't get past them, then neither can Xaxias and his troop of demented cannibals. The only people we do have eyes on are the ones at the cabin in the Dearg Forest, and despite our trepidation, we're not too worried about them.

Since the pirates have occupied a portion of the forest and the Inferno Clearing covers another part and then some, the creatures have been more active near the border of the forest. No one's going to walk into there when there's a four-armed, two-legged, tentacle-faced, yellow-eyed, and spike-tailed monster staring at you through a dead black tree line. People have been avoiding the piece of land when its inhabitants kept to the heart of it, now no one will even glance at it without having nightmares the same night.

Still, even we have to keep our distance from them so that way one of the assassins doesn't notice a branch bending with extra weight that can't be seen upon it. The branches make for a good cover, but Tanith was discovered when the female assassin noticed her sudden crash pattern in the trees. They and the pirates have been keeping an extra eye on the trees since then. Looking out for them isn't necessarily as important as looking out for the elementals, but with Roseia having an Awakening of a sort that revealed a power Xaxias would so greatly love to possess, there are still precautions needed.

Now we know nothing of what Darius and his band of heroes plan to do since his witch teacher gave them all totems to keep anyone of magical identity from touching or harming them. Willa keeps looking on the bright side and saying that the woman is doing both us and them a favor, but I say that she's taking away the one protection that they'll need. We've cut our shift out to only half the day, going from sunrise to high noon. That leaves two-thirds of the rest of day and night for them to do something stupid, or for Xaxias to sense them.

However, I can't argue against it.

We have two days before we make our own move regardless if the Pater does so then or not, and we can't use Hollis Mountain as a safe haven after that. We've been transferring the Thralians to three alternative and potential locations that we can use during the second half of the day, and they've been testing the waters to see which would best cloak our blood. Willa hasn't put any wards around these locations, and she won't until we've chosen which is most suitable. It'd take too much energy to transfer everyone to another continent all at once, battle Xaxias, and then get our own asses across the seas.