Chapter 183: A forewarning
Ares was home.
For the first time in what felt like forever, he was home.
The sun was warm against his skin and the wind rushed past his face as his horse galloped across the open field.
In front of him was Ayla, her laughter carrying across the field as she urged her horse forward.
Ares smiled as he watched her race ahead of him.
He wanted to look at her and memorize the moment.
Ayla turned her head and looked back at him, her hair tumbling around her face as the wind pulled at it.
"You are too slow!" she called out.
Ares laughed. "I am letting you win."
"You always have an excuse." She rolled her eyes at him and stuck her tongue out.
He laughed again and urged his horse faster to meet up with her. Ayla saw what he had done and kicked hers into a run.
"Ayla, wait." Ares called out.
"Catch me!" she laughed, turning around the bend.
Ares urged his horse forward, taking the bend.
Just then he saw the tree trunk directly ahead of Ayla but she was looking back at him, laughing.
"Ayla! Watch out." he screamed.
She turned a little too late. Her horse slammed into the tree and Ayla was thrown forward. Her body hit the ground with a hard thud.
"Ayla!" Ares jumped from his moving horse. He barely felt himself hit the ground before he was running as fast as he could.
"Ayla!" he called out, dropping beside her.
She did not move.
"No."
His hands began shaking.
"Ayla, wake up." He grabbed her.
"Please...Please wake up."
...
"Ares."
A faint voice called out.
Ares froze.
"Ayla?" he looked at the unmoving girl in his arms.
"Ares." he felt a shove. "Ares, wake up."
He turned and suddenly everything changed.
"Ares!"
His eyes snapped open and his hands shot forward. He grabbed the person in front of him by the throat.
The figure gasped as Ares squeezed.
Hands flew to his wrists and began scratching frantically at his skin.
Pain from his wound shot through him, clearing his vision immediately.
His eyes widened as he stared into the fearful eyes of Willow, his hand still wrapped around her throat.
He released her immediately.
Willow stumbled backward, clutching her throat and coughing violently.
"I’m sorry," Ares rasped.
The hallucination still clung to him. He could still feel the mind numbing fear he had felt when Ayla slammed into that trunk.
He shook his head.
A dream, that is all it was.
He looked down at himself.
The wound had stopped bleeding, but the pain had worsened.
Lucius had been right, it was getting infected.
Ares could feel his wolf fighting desperately to heal him, but the infection was slowing everything down.
Every breath he took burned in his chest.
"What do you want?" Ares turned to Willow who was still staring at him, wide eyed. "How did you even get in here?"
"I bribed the guards." she neared him carefully. "I brought you something."
She placed a tray on the floor in front of him. There was bread on it and a gourd which he guessed contained water.
Ares stared at it then he looked at her.
"Where is Ayla?" he asked. "Have you seen her? How is she?"
"Ayla is fine but you need to eat...you need your strength."
She reached into the front of her dress and Ares immediately tensed but she pulled out a small herb.
"I brought this. Chew it and put the paste on the wound. It will help with the infection and the healing." Ares looked at the leaves in her palm, and then at her face.
"I do not want anything from you," he said. "It could be fucking poisoned for all I know."
"I would never poison you."
"Would you not?" he glared at her.
"I do not know how to make you believe me," Willow said. "But I am not that person anymore, Ares. I am trying to help you."
"You are right," he said. "I do not believe a word you say." He turned his face to the wall.
"Don’t be fucking stupid, Ares." The venom in her voice was so unexpected that he turned back around.
Willow was glaring at him.
"This is not the time or the place to be hard-headed," she said. "You need to eat and you need this." She shook the leaves at him. "We are going to send word to the boundary tonight to Cassian and Damon about what happened here. You are going to need your strength if you are going to break out of this place when they come."
Ares studied her.
He looked for the lie and could not find it. There was something subdued about her. Whatever had happened to her here, it had not left her the same.
He reached out and took the leaves from her hand. "Thank you," he said.
Willow blinked in surprise then nodded.
"I need to take this with me. No one can know I was here."
Ares grabbed the bread from the tray, tore a piece and shoved it into his mouth. It was hard and stale but he forced himself to swallow it anyway. Then he lifted the gourd and drank, and his parched throat thanked him for it.
Willow watched him.
When he finished, she took the gourd and picked up the tray, turning around to leave.
"You said we." Ares’ voice stopped her. "Who else would choose to help us here?"
She slowly turned around.
"Amara."
Ares frowned.
"Amara? The witch?" he asked.
"She has been helping Ayla master her powers."
"And you trust her."
"Not really." Willow said it without hesitation. "But she seems to have good intentions toward Ayla and that is all that matters to me."
"Me too," Ares said.
A look of understanding passed between them.
"For what it is worth, I am sorry," Willow said. "For my part in this."
"You did not know any better." Ares said softly.
Willow gave him a small smile then she left.
He slowly turned to the wall, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his side.
He looked down at the herb Willow had given him then he shoved it into his mouth and chewed until it became a thick paste then he reached to his side and carefully applied it on the infected wound.
...
Willow slipped through the servants’ entrance near the kitchen.
She kept her head lowered and she did not stop until she reached the narrow passage where Amara was waiting.
"Well?" Amara asked as soon as she approached.
"I did as you asked." She pulled the empty cloth she had used to carry the herb from her sleeve.
"Good." Amara nodded.
"Will he be okay?"
"He is going to be better before he knows it." Amara answered. "The herb was magic-infused."
"So what now?"
"Alistair. I need to get into his prison cell and get him out without anyone knowing about."
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"I am a witch." Amara turned and began walking. "With magic, of course."
Willow watched her disappear around the corner and a small tiny prickling sensation nagged at the back of her mind.
If Amara could use magic to get Alistair out? Why then did she not use the same magic to get Ares out? Or Ayla?