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“They’re all your pack now. Bears and snakes too. Remember that. Please.”
With Yelena changed back to a woman, I take a moment to offer up a last request as the tent city disappears with the fleeing pack.
“Go tell your story, human,” she replies, heaving on a backpack. “Leave me to wrangle the animals. They don’t call me Yellfire for nothing. Hey, mage cat, it’s up to you and the human now. Don’t let us down or I’ll find you.”
Kit waves a paw, growling, “Thank you, sour faced wolf.”
“Yelena,” I whisper, jogging beside her as she strides. “I’ll get this done as fast as I can, but I need you to hide my family so far and deep that he’ll never find them.” My eyes flick in the direction of Dulcis. “Do you understand?”
“He’ll never find my granddaughter or her cub,” Yelena replies. “This I swear on my own teeth and tail. Neither will he be allowed to take the little serpent.”
We both glance at Sospa, who’s giving Kit’s face a thorough squishing, slotting herself between his sabre teeth.
“Come home and stay with me,” the child tells the cat. “We can run all day and come back in the nighttime and tell stories by the fire.”
From the teary eyed look on his face that sounds like heaven to Kit and me, both. She sticks out a skinny hand and the tigerlion gently covers it with his giant paw.
“Run along with the fiery wolf,” he tells her. “We shall return anon.”
“Bye, Edi,” she calls, stretching her arms wide. “Tell a biiiiiiiig story.”
Sospa races to Yelena and keeps marching pace with her nana wolf, two small steps to one giant stride. Not to be outdone, Beetus bounces up beside them both, all smiles and teeth. Accompanied by her sidekicks, Yellfire leads the exodus further into the valley and out of sight.
Anguis’s swift embrace engulfs me and is over as soon as it begins. He says nothing, simply nodding at Curt and stepping back. Our eyes briefly meet, saying far more than words ever could. Serpen holds out his hand for Curt to shake, before hugging me.
“Try not to let the mould touch your skin or breathe it in,” the former king advises, frowning as he wracks his brain for anything useful. “Flame. It hates fire, so use the torches, though I don’t know how it will act now it’s been allowed to spread out of control.”
“Serpen, it’s alright,” I tell him, although we both know it isn’t. “Kit will help us.”
“Go with our hearts, Edith Breaker-Smith and Curtus Furtletooth and noble cat with the unpronounceable name.”
“Be of good cheer, scaly reptiles,” Kit calls to the departing snakes.
Dashing out of the crowd of passing bears, Dulcis wraps her arms around me and pleads, “Please come back. I need you.”
“You can count on it,” I reply, with a fake smile.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Adamo asks, Ursid nodding beside him like his neck’s on a spring.
“No,” is my emphatic response. “You’ve done enough and the pack needs you. Protect my family.”
I hug the prince and ruffle his ginger hair. Ursid practically yanks me out of Adamo’s arms and into his own.
“I’ll be watching out for your return,” the general tells us, hauling Curt into a group hug. “Don’t make me wait long.”
“Bring them home, Uncle Wings,” Dulcis calls, her voice breaking as she leaves with the bears.
The eagle flaps both wings at her as Alpha looms up, slapping a palm on his feathery back. “Right. I’m trusting my brother to you, old man. All my family comes home, including you. You hear me?”
The nanny eagle smothers Alpha in a blanket of wings and I feel Curt’s arm tighten around my waist.
“Talk to your brother,” I tell my mate, pushing him in Alpha’s direction. “It’s time.”
Two equally uncomfortable wolves shuffle in the mud, barely looking at one another.
“Er, the pack is yours. Of course,” mutters Curt. “They were, long before I left, but I’m giving them all into your hands anyway. You always were a better Alpha than me.”
“We both know that’s not true,” Alpha replies. “Well, good luck with the mould and the magic book and the weird cat and your weirder mate. I always knew you’d be the one saving us.”
He thrusts out a hand and Curt shakes it, wolf to wolf, before hauling his brother into a full on manhug that makes me sniffle.
“You lot bring my big brother home,” Alpha orders and calls to Kit. “That means you too, toothache.”
Kit’s too busy bouncing up and down and letting off sparks to pay much attention to sentimental goodbyes.
Alpha hugs me and whispers in my ear. “I knew you’d be trouble, the first time I saw you. You’re a true Furtletooth.” He walks away and doesn’t look back, his shadowy form merging into the glare of the lowering sun.
“Bumbly bum bum dee, fumbly dum dum dee, biddle diddle bubble diddle doo doo doo,” sings a tigerlion dancing the salsa, surrounded by a halo of pink sparks. “True magic time,” he booms and points a heavily clawed paw at the wide-eyed eagles. “Time to fly. Rolly polly over we go.” Doing a bouncy little leap on tiptoe, he rolls onto his back, sticks four legs straight up in the air with a childlike “whooo,” and splays out his toes.
The eagles peer at him and each other before glaring over their shoulders at me.
“Well, go on,” I say, waving my arms in encouragement. “The sun’s going down. We have to get to the castle before the serpents come after everyone. Gulid, place him gently on the roof terrace where you dropped me from a great height.”
Wings whistles at Gulid and they take off, circling around to grab a furry leg in each claw.
“I’m upside down again,” sings Kit, dangling from their grasp. “Bye bye, fluffy friends. See you at the mouldy castle.”
I watch the circus act fly into the distance in stunned silence.
“You know he’s not running with a full pack, right?” says Curt.
Laughter morphs into tears in a maelstrom of emotion. Scrambling to get control of myself, I grab a stick and scratch a message into the mud, now the rest of my pack can’t see me.
Curt peers over my shoulder and reads, “I’m not with the others. Come find me. Edi. That’s good. The serpents will search for you, but they won’t look in the castle.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whisper, dropping the muddy stick and entwining my fingers in his wispy grey locks.
“It’s about time,” he replies. “I was worried you were trying to get rid of me.”
He covers my lips with his and if I could stop time, right at this moment, I would.
“Do you believe in the mad cat and your magic book?” he asks, sliding his lips across my eyelids. “That he can do what he says? Send the serpents away?”
“I do. Don’t you?”
His smile melts my heart. “I believe in you, Big Bum. That’s all I need.”
“I love you, Mangy One.”
“I love you too. And I don’t have mange.”
He sits on Kit’s fallen branch and pulls me onto his lap. Wrapped in each other’s arms we gently rock back and forth in silence as the sun sinks into the valley. All too soon, a returning eagle soars in the wind, silhouetted against the molten sky. Forgotten words return in a flood of panicked necessity.
“Do not leave my side at any point. Promise me,” Curt says, crushing me against his chest.
“I promise. No more flying off without you. I’m sorry I brought this on everyone. As the Storyteller, I think this is all my fault.”
“Oh well, it’s exciting with you,” Curt replies, his palm cradling the back of my head. “Being on my own in that lodge for all those years was deadly dull.”
“It’s you and me ‘til the end, which better be a long, long time,” I tell him, watching as Wings drops ever closer.
“Don’t do anything to save us, not at the expense of yourself,” he insists, drilling his gaze into mine. “Promise me.”
“I can’t, Curt. But I’m not planning on dying. I want to spend the rest of my long life driving you mad.”
Wings is almost here, sunlight shining on his feathers.
I want to run away with my mate. I don’t want to be the Storyteller or the Chosen One. I just want to love and be free.
We both hold our arms out wide, fingertips touching. My heart beats wildly, fear rushing in like a scalding flood.
“Listen to me now, my mate,” Curt says. “If it comes to it, we both go together. Live together or die together. Understand?”
“I understand.”
A giant claw fills the horizon. I close my eyes as it wraps around me and my feet leave the ground.
