Page 74 of Infernal Bonds

“Probably back in Alonia. The assholes tranqed them.” Cyn shifted closer. “Tranqed me too, but I was in the car trying to get to you both when they got me. Probably why I ended up out here too.”

“They were after Rae,” Zeke said as if it were a fact and not speculation.

“What? Why me?”

“I don’t know, but they used Zeke to back you into the car.” When Zeke looked down, Cyn added, “It’s not your fault. They took advantage of your protection.”

“I still should have stopped it.”

“They probably would have hurt her trying to take her if you hadn’t provided a buffer.”

Zeke shrugged, unconvinced.

Cyn glanced around as if he were waiting for something to happen.

“What’s wrong?” I didn’t like the way he kept watching the treeline.

“Has anyone explained Feranzis to you?”

“Somewhat.”

I remembered Ash telling me about how his parents were killed in Feranzis and how he was almost killed as a child. Amra told me about the lesser infernals that inhabited the forest that surrounded Elyrdin’s walls. Many of them were banished Shyrlivi who’d succumbed to the dark magic living in the plant life and filtered into the air.

“The land here is cursed,” Zeke whispered.

“We don’t know exactly when, but something happened centuries ago that tainted the land. The biggest threat to Elyrdin used to come from Moicae, but as Feranzis fell to corruption, the number of lesser infernals increased. The cursed lands spread, and dangerous creatures began moving into populated areas, making it necessary to wall off Elyrdin.”

“So Feranzis was part of Elyrdin at one point?”

“No,” Cyn said. “Feranzis was its own forest land where a few towns existed, but those are long gone.”

“We need to stay quiet,” Zeke said.

Cyn continued to scan the treeline.

I’d never thought I’d find myself standing in the middle of the source of all my childhood nightmares.

After twenty-three years of being haunted by the infernals I mistook for mental illness, I now found myself in the heart of the cursed forest that birthed them. I wasn’t ready to see them again.

“They probably dumped you out here to get rid of you,” Cyn said, pulling off his formal jacket, vest, and tie and tossing them on the ground before undoing his top two buttons.

“Get rid of me? I don’t even know who kidnapped me.”

“Yeah, but if they don’t want you with us, this is the best way to get rid of you without leaving behind any evidence.”

“Ash and Ezra will say something,” Zeke said.

“Probably. Whoever took us wasn’t very smart—at least in executing their plan. This place is foolproof.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “So they expect something out here to eat me?”

Cyn rolled the sleeves of his shirt up his arms. “That, or they hope the dark magic of this place will change you.”

“They probably didn’t think she’d last long since she’s partially human.”

Cyn nodded. “That’s my theory, at least.”

I frowned. “So what do we do?”