Chapter Two

Meera

"Guys?" Elia's voice is weak as she speaks and she sways on her feet. Her eyes start to close.

"Elia!" I shout as Elia's eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses. Roan jumps from behind me and catches her before her head hits the rocks behind her. He lifts her into his arms and rushes out of the water. I race after him across the field in which our group settled down for a break this morning. He yells out to the others and I watch as they race to meet us in the middle of the field. Wilder, Elia's boyfriend and werewolf, reaches us first and he pulls Elia into his arms and kneels on the grass. Aiden and Akira follow closely behind and we surround Wilder and Elia.

"What happened?" Aiden asks, his amber eyes scanning the forest around us for danger, as a leader should.

"She collapsed. Everything was fine, we were laughing and she collapsed." I say, kneeling next to Wilder and placing my hand on Elia's pale and clammy forehead. I brush a strand of her long pale blonde hair behind her ear.

"Is she having a vision?" Akira asks from behind Wilder. Wilder shakes his head.

"I don't know. She has never had a vision that makes her collapse." His voice is shaky and full of worry as he gently rubs up and down her arm. She shivers and starts to tremble. Aiden squats and holds his hand out in front of us, palm upwards. A ball of flame sparks to life in his hand and he moves it closer to Elia. Her shivering subsides and he visibly relaxes. Elia is like a little sister to him. She was the last one to join us. He found her wandering alone in the woods as a ten-year-old after losing her entire family. We all feel protective of her, so Aiden's gesture helps us all relax. Elia's eyes fly open and she shoots up into the air and lands just outside our circle.

"We need to leave. We have to go. They're coming. He knew. He felt me. How? I-I don't know. We need to leave!" The words flood out of her mouth as her unfocused vibrant pink eyes jump around the group. I look at the group, asking them the silent question. What do we do? Wilder slowly gets up and takes a step towards her.

"Elia, love, it's me. Come here." He reaches for her. She stares at his outstretched arms and slowly reaches for him with trembling hands. The second that her fingers touch his, her shoulders relax and her eyes focus on him. She takes a shaky breath and Wilder pulls her to his chest. I turn to Aiden and nod my head in the direction of Wilder and Elia. He nods and walks towards them, with the rest of us hot on his heels.

"Elia?" He asks gently. She looks up at him with unshed tears in her eyes. "Are you okay? What did you see?"

"I'm fine." She says quickly as she blinks away the tears. "But, I saw a group of men in the woods. Not far from here. With guns. And the leader he-he knew about us. And he knew how to catch us. And...he knew I was there. He didn't have any magic and he wasn't supernatural...but he knew I was there. He talked to me."

"What did he say?" Akira asks as she steps up next to Aiden. Elia has untangled herself from Wilder, so I step next to her and place a hand on her shoulder. She looks at me with gratitude and turns to face our leader.

"He said:'I can't see you, Witch. But I have heard of you, and I know enough about magic to feel its presence. Take this warning, Witch. I am coming for you. For all of you.'" The tension in the group builds as the silence is prolonged. No one wants to say anything after Elia's vision. We all know that her visions have never been wrong.

"Okay, we have dealt with situations like this before, we know what to do," Aiden says, drawing our attention to him. "We gather our things and move on. Let's-"

"Too late," Wilder says. His head turned a little to the side. "They are too close, we can't outrun them." Roan nods and closes his eyes.

"I hear them too." We all turn to Aiden, questions in our eyes.

"Fine. We fight. Stay together." As soon as the words leave his mouth, a loud battle cry echoes from the forest around us. Within seconds, thirty men armed with guns and crossbows surround us. We turn our backs to each other and stand in a circle. A man steps forwards. He wears a tight black tank top and green camouflage pants with heavy black combat boots. He can't be older than twenty-five, but the long scar that stretches from his hairline, across his left eye, and stops at his top lip ages him and gives him a hard look. He wears a pair of dark sunglasses that hide his eyes, but I would bet that his left eye is blind. He wears a twisted smile as he gazes at us. Elia gasps beside me and his gaze fixes on her.

"Nice to meet you in person, little witch." He drawls. "However, I feel tricked, I thought that you were older by the amount of magic radiating off of you. But don't worry, I have nothing against killing even the young." Wilder growls at the man, who only scoffs in return. "Please, young man, I am not scared of you. One wave of my arm and my men will shoot you full of so much wolfsbane you won't survive the fall to the ground. Now-" He claps his hands. "Who is your leader? I do believe that we have terms of surrender to discuss."

"Who's to say we are surrendering? Who's to say that we have done anything that warrants surrender?" Aiden speaks up, and the man walks around our circle until he stands face to face with him.

"I say."