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I hated the cold. Everything beautiful died and the frost took over the land. I was made for sunny days on a beach somewhere.
I bet Autumn would enjoy the beach. It was a given that she’d never been to the ocean before and I couldn’t wait to watch her face as she took it in for the very first time.
She was a wonder and it was such a treat to watch her take things in for the first time and absorb all the wonders of the world that she’d been denied her entire life.
I was so excited at the prospect of getting to watch her shine so brightly. Finally.
Twenty-two years in hell and she was finally getting the chance to live a life in the sunshine.
The cold wind struck me again, this time in the face, and I decided it was time to call it quits and find the others.
We had already been here all night in the woods searching, for what I wasn’t even sure. Just anything. Signs of life, who the fuck knew at this point. Rain had suggested we come back here every night and keep a look out. Raven had agreed with him.
So now we were on a schedule and tonight was my first night. I was out here with Romero and Gunner. Why we had to come out here at night was still a mystery to me, but who was I to question the two of them. They were our leaders for a reason.
But now the sun was about to come up and I was done with this place for the night and I honestly never wanted to come back. But I would for my next shift like the good little boy that I was.
I turned around to head back to the truck where we were supposed to meet up so we could head home and I stopped short. There were now three men standing before me.
I couldn’t tell how old they were because they were filthy and covered in mud and god only knew what else. They smelled so bad that I had to cover my nose with the back of my hand when the wind carried their stench my way.
They were dressed in what appeared to be rags that had been tied together in very odd places and they still hung off of their too thin frames.
Their hair hung down in long, dirty clumps. In places there were twigs and leaves sticking out.
They had wild, deranged eyes and large sticks in their hands.
Fuck my whole life.
I’d found exactly what we’d come here looking for.
Either survivors or murders.
They looked like psychotic murders to me.
I held my hands up in front of me, gripping the flair tight. It was too early for me to set it off because I didn’t want to risk scaring them off and having them run off to wherever they’d been hiding in the woods once more.
“I’m not here to harm you. My name is Liam and I’m from a coven that was sent here to help you people. Put down the sticks and we can talk. I’ve got food in the truck and—”
My voice cut off with a garbled grunt as something struck me in the back of the head. I dropped to my knees and my palms landed before me in a pile of leaves.
Something struck me in the back of my head again and my vision swam as pain exploded behind my eyes.
Fuck.
I lit the flair with my magic and it burst to life in my hand. The flairs that both Romeo and Gunner had would light along with mine and my magic would guide them to me.
I hoped they hurried because the rest of them had converged on me now. With my count there were four of them in total and they weren’t taking turns beating on me with their sticks, they were all just going to town on me at once.
I pushed out with my magic and they stumbled back and I heard several of their sticks hit the ground.
I wasn’t surprised that none of them fought back with their magic. They didn’t have the energy for it and they had never been properly trained with it. And they had to be absolutely starving.
“Liam!” I heard Gunner screaming in the distance and I knew he was almost here. My brother was almost here to help me.
That was my last thought before something solid struck my head and everything went black.
18
