Serena’s POV:

  Darien scanned the shore for any potential trouble before turning to the nearest life raft. He untied the bindings on the pulley and it fell to the water below with a splash. Alex vaulted over the railing with a wince as his injuries pained him. He easily landed in the raft.

  Darien picked me up and lightly jumped over the railing. I held onto him tighter with the freefall, but I knew he wouldn’t drop me or miss the raft. His landing was smooth as his knees bent to absorb the shock of landing. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that he had merely descended from a rather high step on a staircase.

  Alex already had a paddle in his hands, and Darien set me on the floor at his feet before grabbing another paddle. I noticed that a couple of Alex’s bandages had fresh blood seeping through them. I felt bad for him. He had only been injured because he had been guarding me. Yet he was still willing to do so even with his current set of wounds.

  He was trying not to show it, but his injuries were obviously paining him quite a bit. I knew he healed fast, but it was not fast enough for my tastes. I hated seeing a friend in pain. I counted him as a friend, even after so little time. Could my magic help?

  I had never tried to use it on an actual person before. I started humming lightly, focusing on Alex’s wounds. A body was far more complex than a plant or a piece of metal. I had no clue where to start and just let the music guide me as I held onto the desire to see his injuries healed.

  Within seconds, I realized that this would not rely on just a handful of certain notes repeated over and over. This was as close as a hum could come to a song. The melody rose and fell in a complex pattern as I tried to keep up with the cues that were dictated to me by my magic. Sometimes the magic was a hellish conductor, and this was one of those times.

  I didn’t dare fall too far into my magic since it would quickly take over and probably turn into a whistle or an actual song. When I didn’t give into the music, it made the singing much more difficult as I tried to remain in control.

  It only took Darien and Alex a few minutes to reach shore with their strength powering the paddles. The difference in Alex’s body posture was quite noticeable by the time the raft bumped onto the shore. I had only been trying to speed up a healing process that was already hard at work, so it must have been effective.

  Darien picked me up and easily jumped to the shore without getting his feet wet. Alex wasn’t far behind him. Alex scanned the trees suspiciously, “Any idea where we might be?” His voice certainly sounded better now.

  Darien growled faintly, “Still on our side of the battle line, but barely. The crew must have found a nearby war camp and they have spread word of my strength. I can hear a group of warriors approaching us as we speak.”

  Darien’s growing irritation was causing the bond to pull. He could hear what the group was talking about and it angered him. That meant that they were likely trying to discuss ways to convince him to join the war. It saddened me that everyone we encountered seemed to want to use Darien’s strength for their own end. It wasn’t fair.

  Movement caught my eye as a dozen people with glowing eyes cautiously exited the forest to approach us. Their eyes were mostly focused on Darien and me. Oddly enough, I didn’t see any true anger as they looked at me, it was more calculating than anything else. That worried me more than the open hostility had.

  One in fancier armor took the lead, “You must be Darien. I am-”

  Darien’s snarl cut the man off, “I heard you speaking a few moments ago. The first one to touch my mate dies.”

  The entire group paled and I leaned into Darien’s side for protection as I realized that they had planned to use to me to try and control him. Between his anger and my sudden worry, the bond twisted faintly.

  His arm tightened around my shoulder slightly as a reassurance. My fear eased, he was aware of their games and he wasn’t about to let them separate us. I was safe with Darien.

  The leader bowed his head, trying to placate Darien after getting caught. “My apologies. I was handed a letter with an official seal. I did try, so if the Council objects to me ceasing to follow their instructions, I will send them to you to discuss the matter. If you heard us, then you also know why we were attempting to follow our orders.”

  Darien growled, “I don’t care. It is their war and I will not let my mate get dragged into it. The orders you were given break the laws in half a dozen different places. If the Council objects to you following the actual law instead of their petty decrees, then they can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”

  I winced, Darien was in a rather foul mood. If the Council was smart, they would scatter to the winds so that Darien could never find them. Then again, if they were truly wise, they wouldn’t have attempted any of this in the first place.

  If they had really expected Darien to carve a path through the enemy lines to get me out from behind enemy lines and back onto Tarulk territory, then they surely should have guessed that he would come back for revenge. Unless they were counting on the enemy or even another Tarulk to kill him before he got the Council house.

  The warriors were pale and uncertain of what to make of my livid mate who so easily insulted the powerful Council members. The leader nodded slowly as he evaluated the situation he had been dumped into, “We will hold our peace with you and yours then. Will you remain in the camp until tomorrow?”

  Darien shook his head hard, “No, we are going to take a cart and head back north once you provide us enough supplies to get that far.”

  The leader must have realized that the wisest decision would be to give in to Darien’s demands. He bowed his head again, “Of course. Please follow us. You will not want a cart though, many of the roads are so muddy that they are impassible regardless of how often we try to repair them.”

  Darien narrowed his eyes, but didn’t comment. He held me close as we started walking behind the group of warriors.

  * * *

  The leader hadn’t been joking when he said the roads were muddy. There were numerous stretches of knee-deep sticky mud that Darien refused to let me even attempt to walk through. He carried me the majority of the time.

  The deep mud was a struggle for the other Tarulk as well. Darien was the only one who wasn’t tired by the time we reached a campsite. It was used so often by those passing through that people had left tents standing permanently in the damp dirt. Darien had me on his lap as we sat near the fire.

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  The leader had sent an escort of a dozen warriors with us, much to Darien’s displeasure. All of them had sworn to not harm or touch me in the face of Darien’s anger. We had not made good time, and Darien was on edge with how close we were to the battlefront.

  Alex started a conversation with one of the other warriors as we sat around a campfire, “How often is the enemy advancing and how far do they push when they do advance?”

  The man sighed, “Small areas leapfrog out in no pattern we can see or predict. Each spot in the line advances roughly once a week. When they push forward, they come fast and overwhelm any defenses with sheer numbers. All we have been able to do is fall back.”

  Alex tilted his head in faint confusion, “And they just let you escape?”

  The man dipped his head in embarrassment, “They seem to leave straight paths in their positions just for us to run through to escape back to our side.”

  Darien was watching the man intently, “You speak as if from experience.”

  The man tensed nervously under Darien’s stare, “I have had it happen to me a dozen times now. Most in the camp behind us have fled through those paths numerous times as well. The Dranek block any attempt to go deeper into the area they hold, but they let us run back to our side.”

  “Have they actually killed anyone yet?”

  The grief on his face was apparent, “Yes. Any who try to fight them, they will fight. Unless a person drops their weapons and simply flees, they are attacked.”

  Alex looked thoughtful, “I suspect that they have the majority of our weapons with tactics like that. Not to mention all of the supplies that would have been in the camp such as food and tents.”

  The man made a face and I could tell that Alex’s deduction was spot-on. “The army is hard pressed to give us weapons or any sort of supplies when every camp along the entire battlefront loses everything roughly once a week.”

  Darien’s eyes focused on the man sharply, “When was the last time this section advanced?”

  “Five days ago.”

  Darien frowned at that news, “What are the odds of them advancing soon?”

  The warrior shrugged, “No idea. Anytime between three and twelve days is what we usually see. It seems quite random.”

  Darien narrowed his eyes, but didn’t comment further. I watched as Alex cooked something in the coals on the side of the fire. It looked like light purple soggy rice. He passed the first bowl to me, which I took with slight embarrassment at being served first. Darien didn’t seem to find anything wrong with the gesture as he accepted the second bowl.

  Humming before eating or drinking was habit by now. Thankfully, the rice stuff tasted better than it looked, and it vaguely reminded me of pineapple. Alex declined help in washing the dishes. Most of the warriors washed their own, although Alex snagged my bowl as well as Darien’s.

  I remained on Darien’s lap. A light coat was not needed with the heat that came off of Darien’s chest. That man was practically a heater. I wasn’t sure if it was normal for Tarulk to be that warm or not. Alex finished drying the last of the dishes and took a seat on a nearby log.

  The other warriors were mostly on the other side of the fire, trying to avoid Darien as much as possible. Alex pulled off his shirt before he started unwrapping the bloodstained bandages that were crisscrossed around most of his chest.

  He used a damp rag to wipe off the dried blood. I didn’t see any injuries, just a couple of pale pink marks. Alex inspected a pink mark, although he didn’t seem surprised that they had healed so fast. He discarded the bandages and put his shirt back on.

  Heads suddenly turned towards the road in alarm and several of the warriors stood up as they drew their blades. My eyes followed their gaze as Darien growled lowly and tensed up. It took me several seconds to notice that one of the really muddy sections of the road had more mud bubbling up and spreading out like a slow volcano.

  The ground shook lightly and my eyes widened. I had never been in an earthquake before. A gasp escaped my lips as I noticed that some sort of hunchbacked creature was rising out of the mud. We had walked through that patch of mud just hours ago, where had the creature come from?

  Four of the warriors with bows started shooting arrows at the deformed blob of mud. That only pissed it off. The creature proved to have two back legs and two long grotesque arms as it climbed out of the mud to lurch towards its attackers.

  Darien was on his feet and swiftly backing up with me in his arms. Alex moved between mud creature and us. A backhanded swat from the creature sent one of the Tarulk warriors flying into the trees. This creature was like something from a badly underfunded horror film. “What is that thing?”

  Darien’s voice was practically a growl, “A mud torque. They tend to hunt at dusk and dawn.”

  Alex was also growling faintly as he also backed up with us, “We don’t have the proper weapons to fight this thing.”

  Darien was silent before he put my feet back on the ground. “I can probably take it out. Keep an eye on Serena.”

  Darien looked down at me for a long moment before reluctantly letting me go. His eyes tracked back to the mud creature that was in close pursuit of two warriors. With an irritated exhale, he stepped around me and started jogging towards it.

  Alex drew his dagger and stood close enough that I could feel the heat coming off of his body. His extremely close proximity was oddly uncomfortable, and I realized that the bond was to blame. It didn’t like me being near other males. I ignored it, I was safer if Alex was close and I knew he would never harm me.

  Darien engaged the creature, but his powerful blows didn’t seem to make a lasting impression on it. The creature would hit the ground and get right back up. Like a gel stress ball, it just regained its shape within seconds.

  Blows that had sent steel doors flying off of hinges barely even inconvenienced the nightmarish attacker. The knee-deep mud was also hampering Darien and his reflexes were much slower as his feet kept getting stuck in the soft mud. Some of the other warriors tried to help out, but the creature’s reach was longer than their swords.

  Alex murmured, “They have no bones to break. Darien will have to rip it to pieces and its skin is covered in slimy mud which is nearly impossible to get a grip on it. We usually use special nets to catch them and drag them into a cage on dry ground before using fire to kill them.”

  A warrior near the creature suddenly yelled as he dropped down. It took me a moment to realize that the ground had fallen beneath his feet. In that same moment, four other warriors also encountered the same problem and disappeared from sight with shouts of surprise.

  Alex suddenly grabbed me and jumped away from where we had been standing as a small sinkhole appeared there as well. Alex shouted, “Darien! The ground!” He dropped me as soon as his feet hit the ground.

  His expression and the way he rubbed his arms told me that he had paid a price of pain to get me to safety. The drop had jarred me a bit, but nothing serious.

  Darien tried to disengage with a worried expression. I got to my feet and watched him in concern. The mud creature managed to grab Darien’s ankle in one long arm. Darien turned on it with a snarl as he punched its face, but the creature didn’t loosen its grip.

  Two more warriors dropped out of sight. The grass just beside us dropped to reveal a hole, and I could see inky blackness as if there was a cave just beneath. Alex swiftly moved between me and the hole before backing up, forcing me away from the new sinkhole.

  I screamed as something jumped out of the hole at Alex. Alex snarled as he knocked it away with a slash of his dagger. The bond twisted and Darien roared in rage. I staggered away from Alex as two more furry rat-like creatures half my size scrambled out of the hole and jumped at him like starving dogs.

  The ground beneath Alex’s feet suddenly gave way. He tried to jump out of the way, but wasn’t quite successful. He grabbed onto a nearby shrub to keep from falling down. One of the creatures turned towards me with bared yellow teeth and my fear skyrocketed. I started backing away from the rat-like creature. “Alex! Darien!”

  I could see both of them fighting to come to my aid, but another furry creature jumped onto Alex while Darien was in the process of ripping the arm off the mud torque to get free. I was suddenly falling as the ground under my feet gave way. “Darien!”

  I wildly grabbed at the grass as the bond twisted painfully in my terror. Something grabbed my ankles and dragged me down into the darkness. I fell and hit the ground beneath me as bits of dirt showered down. My head striking a rock was the last thing I felt.