Chapter Eighteen

Hunter

All talk of Cain stops as we get to the path; just inside the trees, Nate, Kyle, and I all transform into our animal halves. I instantly feel a wave of immense relief wash over me. It"s been far too long since I've been in my wolf form, and I've missed it greatly. There's a sense of pure joy that surrounds us as we run through the forest. Nate and Kyle will stretch their wings when we get further into the woods and where we're less likely to be seen by anyone else.

Jax is managing to keep up with us but not as well as he usually does, and as I glance back to look at him, I see that he's already out of breath.

He's in worse shape than he let on, and I'm going to be having a strong word with him later about allowing that to happen. Right now, I'm more worried about getting him into the natural water before he collapses. Nate and Kyle have clearly realised what I have because they slow their pace, not going full out like they would typically, as they both give me a worried look. Especially when Jax doesn't give us any shit for slowing down for him because he doesn't need us to, or at least usually doesn't.

I'm going to have to make sure that he gets to the lake a lot more often than he has been. I kind of thought that he was going, and I was just missing it. Clearly, that wasn't the case. Sage is going to be so mad if she figures out how long he must've gone without the water.

Maybe that's what he needs though to remind him that he has to take care of himself, and not just everyone else.

Thankfully, despite us slowing down, we get to the lake quickly. As soon as it comes into view, Jax puts on a burst of speed, moving faster than I thought he could, and dives into the bright blue depths. The rest of us pause on the banks and watch the water.

The wave of relief that came over me when he first went into the water starts to turn back into tension the longer that I stare at the water, and he doesn't come back up. I'm worried enough that I let the magic of my shift take over me, and I shift back into my human form, Kyle and Nate quickly doing the same.

"Is he okay?" Kyle asks worriedly.

"He's not normally under for this long," Nate says and then adds, "although he doesn't usually allow himself to get that weak before he gets in the water."

"Exactly," I say with a frown, "I mean, water is his thing, so in theory, he should be absolutely fine. He's most likely just absorbing as much power as he can from being surrounded by water. I mean, he's never got that low before, so it's probably going to take longer for him to replenish his stores."

"You sound worryingly unsure," Nate points out.

"That's because I am," I reply.

"Great," Kyle adds. "Well, I say we give him five more minutes if he doesn't resurface in that time, then we go in after him."

I nod, feeling relieved that he's come up with a plan, as I reply, "Yeah, that sounds good." I pause as I feel the bond link flare, "Ah shit, Sage is on the Bond Lines."

"Don't tell her, it could be nothing and you don't want to worry her unnecessarily," Nate suggests.

I nod, "Good point."

"Everything okay?" Sage asks via the Bond Lines. She sounds a lot more relaxed than she did when we first left, and I know that's thanks to Erin being there, and the other guys no doubt distracting her.

"Everything is fine. We just got to the lake, so Jax is taking his time refueling," I reply, and then I wonder why I didn't try to get to him through the Bond Linesto see if he's okay. However, there's always a slight chance that Sage could hear, if I don't block the other lines well enough or even because I've blocked the Bond Lines, I make her suspicious, and then she starts to worry anyway, and that's what we're trying to avoid.

She's got so much to worry about at the moment that I don't want to add to it unless we really have to, and there's no real sign that Jax is in trouble. He's just been under the water for slightly longer than he normally would be.

Okay, it"s a lot longer than he usually would be.

"Good, I'll leave you to it then. If anything seems hinky, let us know, or just get back here as soon as possible. I still haven't heard anything from Cain, and that's making me a bit nervous. Other than Maria and the guys, he's our only ally here, and we need him."

"We will, don't worry. I wouldn't worry about Cain, either. If we're right about what he means to Nyx, then I'm sure that she's making sure that he's absolutely okay before she sends him back, just like you would do with one of us." I reply, trying to reassure her while I keep my eyes on the water.

"Yeah, that's true. He must have been more affected than even we thought, and we knew that he was affected."

"Exactly," I reply.

"Thanks, Hunt. Love you."

"Love you, too," I reply, and the lines go silent again.

Once everything is back to normal and I'm alone in my head again, I turn to the other two and ask, "Did you see any movement?"

Nate shakes his head, "Nope, not yet."

"Shit," I curse and then start to toe off my shoes. "Looks like I'm going in."

I strip so that I'm just in my sweatpants and then move to the edge of the lake, preparing to jump in. Just as I'm about to jump, Jax's head breaks the surface of the water with a giant smile adorning his face.

"Oh, are you coming in?" Jax asks.

"Dude, if you worry me like that again I'm going to kick your ass on fucking principle," I snap back.

"What he said," Kyle adds.

"I'll help," Nate adds.

Jax's eyes go wide as he stares at us, looking confused about why I'm yelling at him, "What happened? What did I do?"

"You've been under for an hour," I explain, and then because I feel bad, I add, "Sorry for yelling, you scared the fucking shit out of me. I was just about to come in after you."

"We thought something had happened to you," Nate adds.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry, guys. I thought I'd only been under for like twenty minutes maximum like I usually am," he replies, looking genuinely sorry.

"It's not your fault, dude. You obviously needed it, and you were clearly weaker than we've seen you before," Kyle replies with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I honestly hadn't realised just how bad it was. I mean, I knew that I was getting pretty desperate and that I'd pushed it a lot further than I should've done by not coming to the lake sooner, but it wasn't until I was struggling to keep up with you three, which never happens that I realised that I was in trouble," Jax replies honestly as he moves towards the banks of the lake.

"Have you had long enough in there?" I ask, and then add because I know Jax so well, "Be honest."

Jax smiles as he nods, "Yeah, I'm feeling amazing. Let's get you guys on your run."

He dries himself as he walks out of the lake so that by the time he's standing next to me with a massive grin on his face, he's dry, even his hair. He must sense that we're still feeling a bit apprehensive since he really worried us because his smile drops and his expression becomes serious.

"Seriously guys, I'm okay. I just took too long to come back to the water. It's my own fault, and I won"t let it happen again," he tells us sincerely.

I nod, "Okay, make sure that you don't, or I'm going to make good on my words before."

Jax laughs and nods, "Got it. Bet I can beat you back."

With that, he takes off further into the woods, following the path that we usually take and moving with so as fluidly as water itself. It"s pretty fucking mesmerizing to watch, that is, until he turns the corner, and I realise I'm still standing staring after him.

Within a couple of seconds, Nate, Kyle and I are back in our shifted forms and racing after Jax. We catch up, but it takes us running our fastest to do so. That hour in the water has seriously rejuvenated Jax. Nate and Kyle launch themselves into the air, where they're fastest as they soar above us. Thankfully, this area of the woods has a wide path, and the trees are so tall that the two griffins can fly easily above Jax and me.

I howl with happiness, as Jax throws his head back and laughs, I have to admit that I certainly haven't felt this free for far too long, and it"s an amazing feeling and one that I have missed. Eventually, the two griffins decide to run again and land, racing after Jax and me, and we spend a while trying to see if we can out-race each other.

It"s incredible until something tickles my nose, a scent that is familiar and screams danger. I immediately stop with a low growl, warning the others and making them come to a stop too, as I shift back, and so do they.

"What's wrong?" Jax asks, his expression concerned.

"I can smell something that smells suspiciously like something dead," I explain, on high alert, and lifting my nose to the air to see if I can locate the exact location it"s coming from. I turn to Nate and Kyle, "Can you guys not smell it?"

They both shake their heads as Nate replies, "No, but your sense of smell is on a level far above ours."

"Dead?" Jax questions, "That's really not good."

"Come on, it's this way," I say as I head further up the path that we were already traveling on.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we're going to check it out. We can't just leave whatever it is out here. I have a fair idea of what it is, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong.

"Shit," Jax curses.

As we round a corner and find a supe spread out on the floor in much the same way as the teacher was pinned to the wall, even down to the stakes through his eyes and one in his stomach. The way that he's been killed tells me two things. The first thing is it was done by the same people who killed the teacher, and we know that the Order did that. The other thing that it tells me is that the way he and the teacher were killed might not necessarily be for dramatic effect as we thought with the teacher, but possibly had something to do with a spell of some kind, an incredibly dark one.

It"s something that I need to bring up with the others once we've cleared the area.

"Spread out and check the area, but do not go out of each other"s sight at the moment, we can't risk that," I order and the others all nod, going into work mode, all of us were agents before the supernatural thing happened, and that's how we all work best. It's where we feel most comfortable.

Everyone does what I've suggested, and we all start to comb the area, trying to find any clues that could lead us to exactly who did it. There is clearly someone willing to kill for the Order here and I don't know whether the object has that kind of power although we do know that it"s ridiculously powerful, so I suppose it's possible. Either way, though, we still need to find out exactly who is committing these murders so that we can bring them to justice.

We work by spreading out as far as we can while still staying in each other"s eyesight and then slowly working our way in and toward the body. When we do finally reach him, having found nothing in our thorough search, I study the supe closely, trying to see if I recognize him from somewhere.

"Do any of you recognize him?" I ask the others when I come up blank.

Nate shakes his head, "No, I don't remember seeing him around."

"He doesn't even look vaguely familiar to me," Kyle says with a frown as he crouches down next to the body to get a closer look.

"I don't either, but then it's not really that surprising that none of us recognize him. We don't hang out with the other students; we don't even eat lunch with them and haven't for a long time. It's unlikely that we'd recognize someone." Jax replies.

"Yeah, that's a really good point," I reply.

"Guys, I think I've found something," Kyle says and I watch curiously as he picks up a nearby stick and moves the guy"s shirt away from his neck and down slightly; sure enough, just visible on his chest is a tattoo of sorts. It's not an Imprint Tattoo; at least, I'd be surprised if it was, but it"s certainly unique.

"Is that the mark of the Order?" Nate asks surprise in his tone.

I nod, "Certainly looks like it. Although I have no idea why they'd be killing their own now."

"Do you think it"s an Imprint Tattoo?" Kyle asks as he steps back and wipes his prints off the stick before discarding it in the forest.

"I have no idea, it would be a pretty fucking unique one and I say that knowing that those who get Imprint Tattoos have one of a kind ones," Jax replies. "Wait, do supes get Imprint Tattoos? Is it just an Earth Realm thing?"

"Fuck, I think you're right, I'm fairly sure that only humans in the Earth Realm get them, so it's not an Imprint Tattoo," Nate says.

"Guys," Sage's panicked voice comes through the Bond lines, "you need to get out of there and away from the body right fucking now."

"How did you know?" Jax questions.

"Now!" Sage replies, the panic even more pronounced.

"Okay, we're leaving," I reassure her.

"Through the woods, take a circular route back to the entrance. Do not follow the path, and do not stop for any reason." She orders.

"Got it," I reply. Out loud, I turn to the guys, "We need to leave right now; Sage had a vision."

The others don't even hesitate as they follow Jax and me into the woods. We stay silent, moving as quietly and quickly as we can as we head further into the woods. I'm using pure instinct to guide me back to the entrance to the woods, and I hope that it's not going to steer me wrong. The Bond Lines and Sage have gone quiet, and I'm presuming it's because they don't want to distract us, which could cause us to make a silly mistake and get caught.

Sage wasn't exactly very clear about why we needed to leave, but when she tells us to do something as urgently as she just did then I know that we need to listen with no questions asked. I'm sure that she will fill us in when we get back to the room, although I imagine that we're going to have to be careful about how we get back to the room as well.

Every little noise in the woods has me on high alert and wondering whether we're about to get caught. I have no doubt that if we were found out here where a dead body is, we would be accused of having a hand in his death, and actually, now that I think about it, that might be the Order's intention. They can"t after all, control everyone in the Fae Realm and get them to agree with them and their desire to rule, so if they started to paint the Centres and their Bonded, the only people that are really capable of standing in their way, as a danger and prove that by having them caught up and accused of murder then the wider population will gradually start to distrust and turn against the Centres and their Bonded, leaving it much easier for the Order of Kronos to gain their trust and support.

If that is the overall plan, then it would make sense to test it and see if it works in a smaller area. This academy would be an ideal place to test it. They could take over the teachers and then gradually sow distrust in the students about us, increasing how much of a threat we are until we're caught red-handed with a body, and they can say that they told us so.

"That's an interesting idea, I'll fill the others in on it now so you don't need to repeat it when you get back," Sage surprises me by saying.

"Shit, I had no idea that I had the Bond Lines open," I reply.

"Oh, sorry, do you not want me to say anything?" she replies, sounding a lot less on edge than she did when we first spoke, which I'm assuming is a good thing and means we're out of immediate danger.

I chuckle, "No, it's okay. Tell them, like you said, it would be easier."

"Okay. I love you. You need to pay attention again," she replies, and then the lines go silent again.

We're just coming up to the edge of the woods and not too far from where we went in. I make everyone pause at the edge, and it's a good job that I do because someone strides down the path that we took earlier this evening. It's too dark to work out who it is though.