*Maddy*
Wind whispers over us. Little flakes of silver ice bite into my cheeks despite the fact that it’s summer. Nothing here feels right. The long dead grass sways in a vicious breeze, the air so chilled it stings. The sky is pitch black and moonless, like the night came and refused to ease its grip on the world.
There’s magic in the air, and not the good kind.
The scent of death reaches my nose and causes me to shudder. Ella watches me, her eyes nearly black in the darkness. She pulls the tiniest bag I’ve ever seen out of her pocket, something so small she can hold it in the palm of her hand, and sets it on the ground at her feet. She starts removing her clothes. “Undress, Maddy. We need to get going. We’re not alone out here.”
As if in answer, howling reaches us on the wind. I bristle and start unclasping my belt. What will we do with our clothes? Carry them in our mouths?
I halt my progress, my shirt pulled up over my belly, as I watch reach down to stuff her boots into the impossibly small bag. They disappear inside of it.
My mouth drops open in shock. She looks up at me, a play smirk ghosting over her lips. “Isaac made it for me when we were kids. Don’t ask me how, I have no idea, but it’ll fit everything we’re wearing and then some. Kick your boots over here.”
I do just that, watching in awe as she shoves everything in her tiny little bag. The wind snakes up my naked body, and I hug myself to try to keep warm as she finishes storing our clothing and stands back, totally naked, nothing but the pendant still touching her skin. I’m not sure where she’s put the bag, but I’m sure she has it.
“Ready?”
I nod, but inside I’m flailing. Can I really do this?
I run my thumb over the locket, swallowing past the lump in my throat. Will the locket break if I shift?
Obviously, her pendant won’t snap. I’ve never seen her without it, but I’ve also never seen her as a wolf.
A muted flash of crimson light shines from her body before she disappears into the grass, emerging as a large black wolf. Her eyes are a rich silver compared to the sea-glass blue they normally are, which gives me a start.
“Ella?”
‘It’s me.’ Her voice booms through my head, ringing in my ears. Unaccustomed to the intrusion, I cover my ears, but then the realization strikes me.
‘Can you hear me?’ I ask through the mindlink.
‘Yes.’
Relief floods through me. It works. That part of it works, at least. My confidence grows as I take several steps away from her and close my eyes, stroking the locket and feeling it warm under my touch. Take me to him. Guide us. Whatever you are, and whatever you can see, and do… We need help. He needs our help.
I imagine the old woman in the market, Mystica, her ghost. Her ghost who’d visited me at my lowest, the same ghost who’d visited me in the temple, showing me I was on course.
Guide me now, I pray, before I feel a ripple of energy flutter over my skin and settle deep in my bones. Something breaks, a gentle snapping in every joint, but there’s no pain. If anything, a vibrating sense of freedom laces through every muscle, followed by a jolt of warmth that makes me finally open my eyes.
I look down, and see paws.
I lower my head in relief, looking down the length of my snout. I’m a deep red in the lightless sky. I remember this wolf, the color, and the power she once had.
Now, I need to put her to the ultimate test.
‘I tried mindlinking with Isaac, but there’s nothing there, I can’t feel him,’ Ella says as she walks a slow circle around me, inspecting me. ‘What do we do now?’
I sniff the air. Every sense is heightened. ‘He was looking for something past the woods, at the base of the mountains. An entrance to the mountains. He said in a letter he thought that’s how they were getting through. That’s where he’ll be.’ My words fill my head and dash away.
‘Can you lead us there?’
‘I can’t feel him here, Ella,’ I admit, the words hanging heavy in my mind. ‘Something’s wrong.’
‘I know, I feel it too. That’s why I wanted to come here, even if it meant showing you my powers.’ Her silver eyes glint as if phantom moonlight has somehow found us.
‘I’ll get us to the woods,’ I say, steeling my resolve. Maybe if we get closer to the base of the mountains, I’ll be able to sense him, to connect with him over mindlink.
Because I know he’s still alive. That tether holding us together is still there, wrapped around my heart.
* * *
The mountains loom above us, their snow covered peaks pointing like jagged teeth into the starless sky. Wherever we are is as close to the base of the mountains as we’re comfortable being right now. We need to rest, that’s obvious. While I feel more powerful as a wolf, it’s been years since I’ve been able to shift, and it was slow going at first. Ella is the only reason I kept going even when my paws began to ache, and the crisp, dry grass beneath our feet became jagged rock and splintered roots.
But now, we sit in wait, back in our human forms, huddled against the chill. Ella pulls a large woolen blanket and some food from her tiny, magical bag, and we sit with our backs against a large, gnarled tree in total silence for what feels like several hours, neither of us willing to close our eyes and rest. We’re both afraid. I can feel it; I can taste that fear.
“We haven’t seen a single wolf, friend or foe,” Ella whispers, breaking the silence between us.
“I know. Do you know what happened in Moorn?”
She nods, her eyes glassy as she stares out into the woods all around us. “When I led Hannah out of Cassian’s room, I asked around about my dad. He was in Moorn. Some of the servants were saying once the enemy army pushed our army back to Moorn, they just disappeared, but the sun failed to rise over Moorn. It’s several hours away from the capital, you know. The sun would rise there first, and it didn’t. Just like here–” she waved a hand in the air. “We ran for a full day today, Maddy. The sun never came up.”
I swallow hard, remembering the book and what it had said about the war either ushering in the moon again, returning things back to the way they were, or the beginning of an endless night where the old gods reigned.
I take a breath and tell Ella everything I learned from the book. She listens without speaking, her eyes locked on everything and nothing at the same time.
“So Isaac is meant to end this,” she whispers.
“Yeah, that’s what he believes, and unfortunately, after everything that happened, I think so too.”
“You're both wrong,” she whispers, and I turn to her–confused.
“What?”
Her eyes meet mine in the dark, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “I’ve always been different, Maddy,” she begins, her voice hollow. “For as long as I can remember, something about me–my powers–didn’t fit in my kingdom or my family. Where my mother and brother brought forth light, I absorbed it, turning it to ash. I don't know how else to explain it. I’ve never had a vision that wasn’t painful. I’ve never felt light prickle in my fingertips or been able to heal. But when I paint… I feel it, that power, and it’s dark, Maddy. It comes from somewhere deep, black, and endless.”
She chokes on the words.
“I am not meant to be here.”
“What are you saying? Of course you are–”
She shakes her head slowly. “No, Maddy, it’s true. I don’t belong here. This kingdom… it has never been my home. I never felt like I fit in with my family. It goes beyond being a black sheep–” A soft, strained chuckle leaves her lips. “I wasn’t meant to be born into a family that harnesses the powers of light, of the moon, of the Goddess. I’ve always known. And this place, this dark and endless wasteland… it calls to me.”
“Ella, stop–”
“That man in my dreams is evil, and he’s my mate. The King of Darkness. I am the reason this war is happening. He’s calling me home, and unless I go, everyone will die. My birth threw off the balance of power here–”
I grab her shoulders, shaking her. “That’s not what any of this means.”
She shoves me away, hard, and my back hits the ground as she stands. “I’m so sorry. Please know that I love you, and I’m doing this for you and Isaac. For my parents. For my kingdom.” She starts to back away. “They’re coming. They’ll take you to him soon. Don’t come after me.”
Ella turns, shifting so abruptly her clothes rip from her body and her pendant, the one always around her neck, snaps.
It shouldn’t have. My locket, and her pendant, had simply been covered by our fur the first time.
I try to stand. My legs are weak and sore. “ELLA!”
But the forest is quiet, and she’s gone.
She planned this all along. She took me here so I could find my mate and return–but without her. She brought me here so I’d listen, and know what to say to her parents when their princess failed to come home.
Isaac thought he was the one that had to sacrifice himself to save his kingdom.
But it was Ella all along.
I scream her name over and over until my throat is hoarse and dry. The forest whispers to me, telling me to run.
Run where? To her, or far away from this place?
“ISAAC!” I scream, using all the air that’s left in my lungs as tears stream down my face.
My vision clears as I blink the tears away, desperation gripping every muscle, paralyzing me…
A group enters the clearing dressed in black robes and hoods, flanked by wolves with red, glowing eyes.
One of the figures stoops and picks up Ella’s pendant, curling it in his fist.
I can’t see his face beneath his hood. He says nothing as his companions approach me. I don’t try to fight. I have very little to give at this point. Pain, grief, and desperation blur my senses as I kneel before this man, this king.
“Where is my mate?” I say, my words breaking.
“Where is mine?” he asks, and I recognize his voice.
Ryatt Kane. The Alpha King of Eastonia. The man from the ball. The man from the garden.
The man Isaac must kill if we’re to save his sister’s life.