Chapter 82

Sherri
Her wings dipped to the left as she tried her best to keep up with the royals with Melissa on her back. Beside her, Raven was struggling even harder, having been an even fresher newly shifted dragon. Sherri groaned and let herself dip under her.
‘If you are tired, I can carry you,’ she told her through their link.
‘No. I can do this,’ she replied stubbornly.
‘Suit yourself. So, you know for as much as the men think they can handle this, they can’t. They don’t know Tursum the way we do. We need to rescue more than just our parents. We need to at least get the children. They shouldn’t die because of their parents.’
‘Agreed. So, we need to pull all of them under 15,’ Sherri said.
Raven’s dragon, Nikita, looked down at her. ‘Make it 14 and I’ll agree. 15 is old enough to know better.’
Sherri laughed. ‘You were always less accepting of their bullshit behavior. I’ll be okay with taking everyone under 14. The fewer people we have to rescue, the faster we can get to the men.’
Thalia rolled her body so that she was flying upside down over Nikita for a moment before flying right back up when Melissa hooked her legs tighter around her neck. Thalia and Nikita had formed a fast friendship as soon as they had met. Kalani had pushed them hard to get used to shifting and Ethan and Jo had been forcing them to practice everything dragon since they had started shifting.
‘Kita, I just want to say that you look stunning in the moonlight.’
‘So do you, you purple teletubby.’
Sherri laughed and for a moment the tension eased a little inside of her. Raven was always the comic relief. Teletubby. Hmph. She had been about to tell her that her iridescent, shimmering silver blue scales almost looked translucent this high up under the natural light, but she changed her mind. Teletubby indeed.
‘You just lost a compliment,’ Sherri teased.
Raven laughed. ‘Tell me after we kick that bitch’s ass and have our sisters home with us. All three of them.’
‘If I remember.’
‘Trust me, I’ll remind you.’
Aiden veered off from the rest of them and Thalia followed Gideon. They all landed and quickly shifted back. Melissa raised her eyebrows. “I’ll take south 33rd to south 74th.”
Raven sighed. “I’ll take South 75th to north 17th.”
Sherri rubbed her hands together. “Guess that leaves me with North 18th to south 32nd.”
Lukas growled. “How long is that gonna take?”
“About an hr. You are more than welcome to assist.”
The royals cursed. “What’s the plan?”
“Take anybody 14 and under.”
“And the rest? What do we do with the rest?,” Gregory asked.
“We kill them,” Jo hissed. “We leave no survivors. We let Tursum be a warning to those who would choose to defy and threaten our royals.”
Ethan grinned. “Oh, Miss Big Bad Beta, bring that to bed when we get home.”
He held out his hand as he looked at the other three girls. He pointed to Sherri.
“North 17th to south 15th. Raven, south 16th to south 40th. Melissa, south 40th to south 67th. Jo and I will handle the rest. Gregory, you are with Raven and Lukas, Sherri. Melissa, I have linked Chrys and Javier, you send them back through a portal and they will keep them under guard until we get back. Be quick everyone and meet in the town center when you're done. You remember where, ladies?”
“At our place?,” Melissa asked.
Ethan nodded as he put his hand in the middle. Everyone else followed suit, before they threw their hands into the air.
“Team Soma,” they whisper yelled.
Sherri turned around, giving no fucks if Lukas was following her or not. As soon as she got to the darker part of town, she took off sprinting. She quickly gathered the children from the houses, while Lukas murdered everyone she didn’t take. They flowed from house to house, moving in sync without ruckus. Lukas commanded everybody to stay quiet and they did. They were too afraid to do anything else. What would have taken her an hour and very careful maneuvering, ended up only taking half that time. Sherri led their group to the small shack off to the right of the town center that housed all of the torture weapons. Sherri began to load up while they waited. She picked up daggers and a whip, smirking to herself. If it came down to it, she was going to end someone with that damned whipped. Lukas watched her wearily.
“My sister really did train you guys, didn’t she?”
Sherri dipped her fingers into the witch’s bane and wiped it on her face. “Our sister did train us, yes.”
Ethan and Jo’s group was the second back, followed soon after by Raven and Gregory. They all waited impatiently for Melissa to arrive so they could send the innocents back to their clan, before they attacked. A portal opened and then closed behind Melissa. She smirked at them.
“Magic in its purest form, my ass,” she said.
She opened another portal and they quickly sent the kids through. Raven looked around at everyone.
“Are we ready?”
She pointedly glared at Gregory and Lukas, knowing that team Soma stayed ready when it came to their own. Everybody nodded. A scream rang out in the night and they all tensed. Ethan stepped in front of Gregory and Lukas as they charged at the door.
“You go out this door, we lose the element of surprise. Sasha can handle anything they throw at her. Follow me, I’ll take you to the tunnels we created.”
Sherri and Raven quickly cleaned the wood slab off and pulled it up to reveal a narrow tunnel. Ethan pointed down into it. "This leads you back into the forest. We can spread out and surround them better. Melissa, you need to protect Lily. That is who Sasha will be concerned about. Lani has Galina. Lily is unprotected. Let’s go.”
He dropped effortlessly into the tunnel as another scream rocked all of their hearts.
‘Hang on, Sash,’ Sherri told herself. ‘We’re coming.’