11
SHADOWS IN THE DARK
Awave of dread washed over me. What was that? A wolf? I’d never seen the beasts in the human realm, but knew enough to stay away. They roamed the edges of the wood, but stayed far from our homes. What was one doing here in the center of the king’s garden?
Rafia’s warning rang through me. I should not have come out to the gardens alone, and especially at night. Adrenaline spiked. My heart pounded in my throat and my eyes darted left and right.
I felt its eyes on me, the eyes of a dangerous predator—but where?
A heartbeat later, shining black eyes glistened in the light of the lantern like orbs of dark oil. The gemstone light flickered along two rows of razor-sharp dagger-like teeth. Not any kind of wolf I’d ever imagined. The creature seemed to be wreathed in shadow—one that swirled and distorted its features. It was here a minute, then appeared yards away in a blink, the shadows twisting the creatures undulating shape.
It prowled only a few yards away.
With a sudden cold shock, I knew—I had no chance of survival.
Death gleamed in its inky black eyes.
I searched my surroundings for a weapon, but the king’s gardens were immaculate. Not a twig or branch out of place or in reach. I took the only option possible, and I turned my back on the dark creature and ran—all the while screaming as loud as I could.
“Help! Someone please help me!”
The grounds flew by, unfamiliar, dark, and haunting as I ran. I couldn’t think, could hardly see, though the gemlights flew by in a blur. The creature growled at my heels. It seemed to shift from one side to the other behind me with ease. I ran through the tall apricot tree orchards through the lilacs and oregano, all the while feeling a huff of hot breath and snap of teeth at my back.
My skirt caught on every bramble and vine, tearing to shreds and cutting lines down my legs.
Straight ahead, a large oak loomed in the shadows. I sprinted and jumped, scrambling up its gnarly branches as high as I could manage. My fingernails broke and bled, bark digging into my hands. I tore up my knees as I grasped desperately for purchase.
If this thing could run like it had, it could climb. I had a feeling it’d been toying with me.
It enjoyed the hunt.
Another clicking sound alerted me to the beast’s prowling presence right below me. The cool gemstone light lit upon a dark undulating figure wreathed in black shadow. The beast lunged for my leg and I pulled back, but not quickly enough.
The beast’s claws ripped into my leg, shredding four lines down my shin. A shrill scream sliced through my throat as it pulled me down the trunk by my own leg. I grasped onto thebranches, bark, twigs as they snapped beneath my grasping, desperate hands.
This was how I died.
A streak of white flew past, taking the beast with it in a whirl. My leg sprang free from the monster as it tumbled and smashed through the gardens with this new wolf. There were two of them? I gulped down breath after breath, adrenaline stealing away any pain from my leg for now. All I could do was focus on getting up as high as I could in this tree.
The white and black beasts blurred in the flashes of gemstone light sending fierce shadows throughout the gardens as they brawled. They crashed through the mandarin orchard, sending plump orange balls flying. A scuffle, a blur of white fur and shadows. Grass, herbs and branches shattered into splinters below. Growls and yelps echoed through the grove. Gnashing and churning.
I gripped the tree, my other hand bunched in my dress and pressed onto my wound. Blood seeped through the cloth, but I held it fast. Someone would come. Someone must be hearing this din.
I focused on breathing in for four seconds, holding, then breathing out for four. The same I’d seen my mother do when anxiety threatened to take her over. I pulled in breath after breath, shaking and trembling. The pain in my leg throbbed sharply.
The beasts collided with the trunk of my tree and I yelped, holding onto the large branch beneath me with both arms. A growl. A snap of jaws and a final cry. Then the shadow beast scuttled away into the night.
The bright white wolf lay in the clearing beneath my tree—fur bathed in the cold gemstone light. He shook his mane, breathing raggedly, then his intelligent eyes found me.
Sharp, brilliant gold piercing eyes.
The eyes of the Elf King.
I gasped, hand flying to my mouth, when I lost balance. I grasped desperately for the branch—for any purchase, but I fell from the gnarly oak, scraping my palm and arms all the way down as I screamed.
In a flash of light, two arms held me fast against a warm chest.
“I have you.” Rumbled a deep voice.
