Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(39)

Unlike a flesh-and-blood woman, she remembered well the day she was born--the wonder and confusion as the maidens welcomed her as their new queen. Unlike humans and most immortals, Ilinas were born with the basic knowledge they needed to survive, including the language of their kind.

Yes, she had memories of this place, of the births of other Ilinas who'd come after her.

But of the lower chamber, the stone chamber that was supposedly hers alone, she had no memories at all.

Mel's low cry behind her had her whirling, ready to fight, but she saw no one and nothing wrong. They were alone. It took her a second to realize the problem, and when she did, her eyes went wide.

Melisande was sinking into the floor, her feet slowly disappearing into the decorative mosaic tile.

Melisande reached for her. Ariana grabbed her hands, trying without success to pull her free.

"Turn to mist, Melisande!"

"I can't! It's some kind of trap." Her oldest friend's eyes took on a rare and gut-wrenching terror.

They'd walked into a trap that could have been set by only one race.

The Mage.

Regret raked at Hawke's mind. He should have shoved Tighe away from him. He should have saved his friend.

Excruciating pain speared through his skull as his hawk screeched in agony. The pain had become a constant, now, an ever-present torment. At least he knew what was happening, though it was of no comfort whatsoever. He'd fallen into a spirit trap whose purpose was to separate man from beast. And when it succeeded? He'd be dead. The trap would spit out his body as it had the bodies of the seventeen all those years ago, leaving the hawk spirit trapped inside in perpetual agony, if the sounds of the other animals were anything to go by.

They'd been in there for centuries.

His hawk screeched again.

Easy, buddy. Calm your feathers.

But instead of soothing the spirit as he'd intended, he only seemed to inflame the creature's fury. Hawke felt the bird's anger pummel the insides of his mind, melding with the pain.

Dammit, I didn't get us trapped in here on purpose!

He had to find a way out of here. For the hundredth time, he prayed to the goddess that he'd been mistaken about Tighe's falling in with him, that Stripes was safely with the others. With his mate. For the first time in the long years he'd known the tiger shifter, Tighe radiated with a happiness Hawke envied. If anyone deserved that happiness, it was Stripes. Yet Hawke was all too afraid he was trapped down there with him, about to leave Delaney a widow.

The other Ferals couldn't afford to lose two more animals. Perhaps more? He had no idea how many had fallen into this with him.

Goddess, get us out of here. Take my life, if you must, but not like this. Let the hawk fly free to mark another.

Don't let us both end like this!

Slowly, he shoved back the anger, both the hawk's and his own, forcing his mind to search for a solution. There had to be a way out of there. Perhaps the animal spirits themselves knew the answer if he could only find a way to communicate with them. There were at least a dozen distinct animal sounds he'd managed to identify, at least a dozen animals--several different kinds of cats, two or three bears, the screech of a bird that wasn't his hawk. And others he couldn't identify. He'd heard a deep snorting that might have come from any one of several large animals. He heard them, not with his ears, for his senses were in limbo, but with his mind.

Were they really even there? The question had plagued him from the start. He'd tried to call to them, to communicate with them, but he'd failed to get any response.

All he heard in the depths of his mind was the hawk's punishing anger. And the sound of pain.

"Get some lunch." Lyon turned to head back into the house after the Ilinas' disappearance. "Pink keeps making too much food. I think she's convinced that Tighe and Hawke might return at any moment, and she wants to be ready in case they're famished."

Kougar continued to stare at the spot Ariana had stood just moments before, frustration eating at him that she'd left. He felt her in the Crystal Realm and was tempted to follow, but he knew she didn't intend to stay there. By the time he found her, she'd be gone again, down to the earthbound Temple of the Queens.

He hated that she refused to let him protect her, but he trusted her to return, as he hadn't before. Something had changed between them as they'd traveled his dream and her memories, together.

He joined Lyon as his chief opened the patio door. "Any word on Hookeye?" Kougar asked.

"Not yet. Skye's family has put the word out. Someone has to know of a sorcerer whose eyes had oddly-shaped pupils."

One would think. And when they got a lock on him, Kougar was damn well going to be first in line to hunt the bastard down. Meanwhile, he waited. And the waiting was killing him.

How much harder this must be on Tighe's mate, forced to wait while others tried to save the one she loved.

"How's Delaney?" he asked Lyon.

Lyon gave him a surprised look as if he hadn't expected him to remember Tighe had a mate, let alone her name. "She's on her way back to Harpers Ferry to join Vhyper."

Kougar knew that Vhyper watched over the place where Hawke and Tighe had fallen into the vortex in case they reappeared. Of course, if they did, it would almost certainly be as corpses.

"Delaney puts up a good front." Lyon started into the dining room, empty but for Wulfe. "But I've found her pacing the house at all hours, day and night."