21. Lorin
Chapter twenty-one
Lorin
" F uck," the man said, staring at Lorin, his expression mirroring Kit's perfectly. It all made sense. The barrier that kept them from going any farther, the sense that something was there that they couldn't find. "Are you sure?"
"I can feel it," Lorin said. It was unlike any other magic. Unmistakable. He looked closer at the details, trying to find the source or anything unnatural. "The ground has been cleared in that circle, there are no leaves or roots. We should get closer."
"How can we do that when it won't let us?" Kit asked, bashing a fist and foot against the barrier uselessly.
"Just like in the library," Lorin said, grasping his hand to keep him from hurting himself. He recalled what he had managed to read up about his calling so far. "I'm guiding you both. I'm letting you know where it is and where to go. The pathfinder spell will let you through with me here."
Kit twined their fingers and Lorin's long nails pressed reassuringly into the back of Kit's hand. Kit offered his other hand to the shifter, who stared at it dubiously.
"You can trust us," Kit said.
The shifter took another moment before sighing and taking his hand. "My name is Ellis by the way. Just in case this goes wrong."
Lorin licked his dry lips, the implication clear. If this goes wrong and I don't make it, at least you'll have my name.
"Kit. And my mate, Lorin," Kit said quietly.
Ellis nodded, jaw tense.
Without wasting any more time, Lorin stepped forward and through the spot that wouldn't allow Kit to pass before. To Lorin, it felt as normal as breathing, but he could see Kit and the other shifter shuddering slightly as they crossed the border.
The magic allowed them through, but that didn't mean it was gone. Lorin didn't have the key to drop the protection spell entirely like he had—unknowingly, at first—done for his own room in the library.
The coven knew where it was, however, to be using it to hide the shifters. The spell had to have been attuned to them by the pathfinder this belonged to, and if they could come and go as they pleased at any moment…
It made Lorin spiral.
Were all of the members of the coven at the structures the elders were surrounding? Or were there more of them stationed around the woods, waiting for trespassers? Was Lorin blind to the danger lurking in the shadows? Was he putting Kit at risk and walking them into the serpent's mouth?
His head was spinning with questions as they pressed forward. He kept Kit close, his eyes darting around wildly as they approached the center of the clearing, right in the middle of the barrier.
Their steps sounded hollow, despite the ground beneath their feet looking firm and sturdy. There was an echo that made Lorin suspect there was something underground. He looked around, more focused, more intent, searching for any clue that would allow them to find the other shifters. An entrance. Anything.
Kit and Ellis were both jittery next to him as they too searched the area. Their human ears were twitching as they sniffed the air, the expressions on their faces changing rapidly the longer they were there.
They ended up shifting, Kit's sleek and fluffy fox form familiar, but Ellis's scruffy coyote form a new sight. They wove through the undergrowth and thin layer of snow, their movements growing more agitated as precious time ticked by.
Lorin continued looking for any pathfinder markers, searching in the dirt and snow for a seam, a handle, or a pulse of magic.
Eventually Kit shifted back and yanked his clothes on roughly.
"You okay?" Lorin asked.
Kit's features were agitated, his hoarse voice breaking on the words, "I can hear them. I can hear their pain and smell their fear. I just don't know where they are."
Lorin frowned, glancing around again, seemingly fruitlessly. And then he spotted a pile of rocks that just looked off to him. It shouldn't have. There were dozens of them scattered around in similar piles.
He walked over, bending down to take a closer look.
This close, he could feel the low aura of magic on the pile. Separate from the magic surrounding the clearing, but masked by it from far away. Still pathfinder in nature, but layered over.
He extended his finger and pushed the largest rock on top of the pile. He sent it cascading down, the sound of it rolling and echoing around the clearing.
It was followed by a metallic sound.
Scraping.
Screeching.
Rattling.
It was deafening. It made them close their eyes against the violence of it. It felt like it lasted forever, like the sound was coming from within them it was so deafening.
Then it stopped.
Lorin opened his eyes again and there was a gaping hole in the ground in front of them, a flight of stone stairs leading down into the darkness.
Kit gasped and lurched forward, nearly tumbling down before Lorin caught him around the waist with a lunge.
"Wait," he said, keeping Kit firmly against his chest.
"Lorin," Kit said, struggling against Lorin's hold, trying to get down the stairs and into the secret room. "I have to go. We have to get them."
"I know," Lorin said, looking down the stairs with a sharp gaze. "But I'm going first. To see if there's anything else hidden that might help or hurt us."
"But—"
"We've come too far. Too far for you to get reckless now. We have to do this right to help them."
"Okay." Kit breathed out, visibly trying to calm himself. Ellis shifted in the background, pulling his clothes on quickly. "Okay, yes, go first. Just…go."
Lorin nodded and released Kit's waist, walking over and taking the first step down into darkness. His skin crawled the deeper they went, a starkly opposite feeling to what he'd experienced stepping into the room in the library. Something had pervaded the very essence of this place, dark and perverted.
There were dim lights overhead as the stairs leveled out, and the stench of the room ahead was almost unbearable.
Taking the last step brought him face to face with a reality he wanted to refuse to believe existed. Cage upon cage and crate upon crate, stacked against the walls and each other. Bookcases had been shoved to the side to make way for them. Cauldrons and tables full of gruesome ingredients were dotted around. The room stretched beyond what Lorin could immediately see, and he had to wonder just how far it extended under the earth.
He realized in horror some cages were larger than others, but all of them were barely large enough to allow space for movement. And inside…shifters. Some in animal, some in human form.
Rattling their cages. Screaming at them. Crying out for help.
Lorin felt sick.
"I've been here before," Kit whispered, and it broke something in Lorin not just to hear it, but to see it. "I remember."
"Keys," Ellis said, clearly doing his best to keep his mind focused. "We need keys. Or a way to set them free."
"I can try magic, but I don't want to risk hurting anyone," Lorin said, trying not to choke on his words. Honestly, he didn't trust himself to do any sort of spell with how his mind was spinning and his hands were shaking.
Kit had already wandered away from him, turning the place inside out with jerky movements. Things crashed to the floor, but he paid them no mind, his head turning left and right, nose in the air whenever he caught scent of something.
Lorin joined the search, noticing from the corner of his eye Ellis walking over to the shifters and talking to some of them in low tones as they shrank away from what they deemed strangers.
Lorin sifted through the mess the coven had left around. They obviously hadn't cared about organization or cleanliness. He spotted a few pathfinder books lying destroyed or in cinders, which made him think that the coven had been trying to find a way to access them. He hoped they hadn't found it.
He flipped the cover of a book that had been left out on a pedestal, with scars on its face in the form of magical soot marks. His eyes caught and held on words that had been scrawled inside its surface.
To whom it may concern,
I have betrayed the calling of a pathfinder. I do not, necessarily, regret my motivation. Seeking power is an inherent need in people. Wanting more of it is natural. I do, however, regret my methods. Tying myself to this coven was a mistake. Their way lies not power, but pure madness.
If you found this note, I have hope that you're a better person than I am. Help them. And don't look for me. I don't want to be found. I do give you my word, one pathfinder to another, that I will never attempt something like this again. If my word is worth anything anymore.
Good luck.
Lorin stared at the note in shock as the implications of it set in.
Not only had a pathfinder been partially responsible for what this coven had been doing and how it had been subjugating shifters, but it seemed to be in hope of gaining a shifter bond. Power, as they said.
Exactly what Lorin had.
The horror was hard to swallow. The guilt by association. There was a teetering line of morality he could now see in front of him clearly. Lorin realized that just because a calling was just, like he believed the pathfinder's to be, didn't mean that those who felt it were all inherently good.
"I found it!" Kit exclaimed.
Lorin glanced over to see Kit holding up a set of keys triumphantly. Lorin left the book where it was and grabbed for one of the torches with shaky hands before rushing over to help.
They approached the first cage with a cougar shifter inside it. It growled at the sight of Lorin and he backed off. He understood its mistrust of him as a witch.
Kit gave a warning growl back, amber eyes sharp. "He's my mate. He's here to help you."
The cougar didn't look like it believed him, but it quieted down, at least. Kit examined the lock on the cage before testing the keys he believed would fit.
Realizing what was going on, the other shifters went wild, desperate to be released as well. Ellis tried to calm them, but it was hard to reason with someone who had been trapped for who knows how long. Lorin understood their mania.
Sudden thunder shook the very earth under their feet, rattling the cages and throwing several people off balance. The shifters cried out in every animal language.
Ellis ran back up the stairs and Lorin steadied Kit as he stumbled.
The acrid smell of smoke began to crawl down the stairs and Lorin gasped as Ellis shouted, "They've set the woods ablaze!"
Lorin could taste the raw power in the air, the intent to harm and destroy hanging heavy and thick.
"We have to hurry," Lorin said.
Kit nodded firmly, his eyes wide with worry as he hurried to unlock the cages.
"Please don't scatter," Kit begged them one by one as he released their bonds. "We'll show you the safest way out. I know you want to run."
It was hard to corral them, especially with the smoke rising and their animal instincts telling them to escape it.
The ground continued to shake with magic.
Lorin left Ellis and Kit to it for a moment to rush up the stairs to check what was happening for himself.
He crested the top of the stairs and immediately saw the patches of magical purple flames that weren't dampened by the winter season. They had caught and the fire was raging, spreading. The sky was lit up with unnatural flashes as magic clashed.
They had to hurry.
Kit
Kit unlocked cage after cage, fighting back the trauma that threatened to freeze him in place. He remembered these cages. This place. They were fragments of memories, blocked by magic and clouded with fear, but there was no mistaking this feeling. He looked at the shifters and knew. He'd lived the torment reflected in their eyes.
Shifters poured out, clawing their way over one another, desperate for freedom, some turning back to help free the others.
As he moved deeper, he realized there was a scent lingering in the air that was becoming clearer to him, above the filth and magic and smoke. It poked at the hole in his heart that had been leaking his joy slowly, drop by drop, despite his happiness at finding Lorin. An involuntary yip burst from his throat, followed by a whine.
His family. It smelled like his family. But it couldn't be…could it? They'd escaped! He had watched them escape. He'd been searching for them out in the world for years. They couldn't have been here all along. The coven couldn't have…
"Kit?" Lorin called. "What's wrong?"
Kit couldn't hear him. His pulse was hammering in his ears, his eyes unfocused as he concentrated on the scent. He'd carried that scent on his skin for years before it was taken from him. Stolen. The scents he knew so well. The scents that made up the base of his own scent.
He broke into a sprint, following the trail with a closed throat, on the verge of breaking down.
"Kit!"
He yanked cages open, the metal doors banging into other cages, making so much noise the place was shaking with it.
"They're here. I know they're here. Please," he muttered to himself, continuing on his rampage until there were only a few cages left unopened in front of him.
He opened the second to last cage to let a small beaver shifter out before there was nothing left but a large metal crate about five feet tall tucked into the very corner of the dark room.
He felt sick with anxiety. With all the other shifters heading for the exit, Kit's senses could register things more clearly. And each breath in made his chest tighten and tears prick his eyes.
The soft florals of his mother, the sharp woods of his dad, the water and the spices and the herbs of his brothers and sister. Scents of home, of love and comfort drowned underneath layers of fear and pain.
They weren't supposed to be here. Not here.
He pushed the key into the lock with shaking hands that could barely function and turned it, hearing steps scrambling against the metal floor before the door flew open and he found himself face to face with his family.
After five years.
He fell to his knees.
"Kit?" His mother's voice travelled through the noise in his head, disbelieving and trembling, and he broke.
"Mom!" he cried out, voice breaking. And then he did the only thing he could think of. He tipped himself forward, not even looking at who he was throwing himself at.
He knew his family would catch him.
Arms closed around him. Multiple pairs. Some stronger, some gentler. But all of them familiar. All of them belonging to him just as much as Lorin's did.
He hugged back blindly. Folded into the circle of his family like he'd never been away for a single second. The ache in his heart and the hole of their absence was raw and stinging as they slotted back into place.
Kit finally allowed himself to look up, tears brimming in his eyes as he locked them with his family's.
His mom and dad looked older than the last time he'd seen them, both of them just slightly taller than Kit, bodies looking worn down and heavy. Their skin was sallow and dull from all the time spent underground. Kit had his mom's smile and white hair, but his eyes were his dad's, right down to the glint of sadness and regret in them.
His two brothers crouched on each side of his parents, like guards against the world that had been so cruel to them. Barely holding themselves upright, but stubborn and determined to the very end. Raff, the oldest, stoic and strong, and Toby, the youngest, restless and excited even in the face of all the pain and suffering.
And between them all, Kit's younger sister, Mara, looking up at him with tears in her eyes and shock written all over her face.
His skulk. In front of him. Alive and there. It was years overdue and there was so much to say between them, but he could touch them. Scent them. Press himself into their fold and be a part of it once more.
Kit's lip trembled, a sniffle broke out, and before he could stop himself he was crying, ugly and unabashed and loud. He couldn't have prevented it if he'd tried.
Years of solitude and fear came rolling off him. Months and weeks of uncertainty, of conviction that they were hurt, or even worse…gone. Days of being lost and scared with nobody to turn to. And even the happiness he felt with Lorin couldn't hold it back. It all came crashing against the dam he'd built inside himself to keep it all at bay. To help him function and survive.
He heard voices, felt shuffling around him, felt himself being moved, but he couldn't stop crying. He didn't think it would be possible to stop until everything he had to push out was finally released.
His head was pressed into a familiar chest, Lorin's heartbeat now just as familiar to Kit as his own. He heard the rumble of Lorin's voice under his cheek and the soft conversation happening around him as he did his best to come back to himself.
"We need to go, now," Ellis said, urging them into action. "I'm sorry but the shifters are getting too restless and some have already left. Whatever the elder witches and the coven are doing seems to be getting worse."
Kit felt Lorin nod. "I'd love to meet you all properly, but Ellis is right. We don't want to be trapped down here, we need to leave while we can."
"You're Kit's mate?" his father asked.
"Yes."
That's all they seemed to need as they began moving to follow him. Kit clutched Lorin tightly, trying to calm himself and think clearly. They weren't done yet. He couldn't fall down until it was finished.
Lorin urged them out and away from the secret clearing, rushing them toward the outskirts of the woods. The purple flames forced them along certain pathways, blocking others entirely. They were following dozens of footsteps in the snow—some human, some animal, but all of them found and finally free.
Lorin stooped down to grab a dwarf rabbit shifter that was limping along and struggling to keep up, tucking it into his pocket. Kit's family was tight on their heels, and he could feel a hand on the back of his coat.
In the distance there were flashes and fighting. Animalistic yowls and battle cries sounded in the air as what could only be shifters joined the attack against the coven. Kit was sure it was some of the ones that had already left the pathfinder room seeking revenge from the anger in their cries.
Kit felt the same resonation in his own chest.
"Some of our pack is waiting just outside the tree line. Those that didn't join the fight just in case it went badly," Ellis yelled to them above the noise, pointing in a direction past the purple and gray haze of smoke and magic. "We just need to make it through!"
A loud rumble tickled at their backs, making the hairs on Kit's neck stand up.
It crackled in the air, like a thunderstorm. Kit turned around, stumbling over his feet as he directed his gaze up. His eyes widened as he stared at the large purple pentagram drawn in flashing lights in the sky above them.
The pentagram in the sky pulsed, eclipsing all else, painting everything in its light and blocking out the sun. Kit held his breath at the sheer power woven through its corners. It descended, wild and uncontrollable, tightening more and more the closer it got to the ground.
It disappeared beneath the line of trees with a heavy crash and a burst of magic that exploded outward. The trees bowed, and all of them were knocked off their feet. He reached for Lorin and his family, fear eclipsing any injury to himself from registering until he knew they were fine.
Lorin found his hand first, interlocking their fingers and Kit spotted his family checking on one another.
The crackling finally subsided, the flames extinguished, until there was nothing left but deafening silence and the acrid coating of magic on all their skin.
"It worked," Lorin whispered, voice awed. "They bound them."
"It's over?" Kit asked in disbelief.
Lorin nodded, gifting him a smile Kit knew would always be just for him. Just his. "It's over," he said.
Kit felt like the breath he took at those words was the first real one he had taken in years. The first one where he was truly free.
The first of many.