Thyra’s hunch might be right. The Scepter could lurk down here, a cold heart within the rock.I brushed close to my mate and shot her a glance to make sure she was well. She smiled smally back at me, her mind occupied.
Much to Thyra’s annoyance, Thantrel had insisted on walking beside his mate, as I did with Neve. Thyra only allowed it with the stipulation that he remained quiet. The sisters needed to concentrate on the constant warming of their Hallows and the rare whispers that Thyra heard. Neve, too, twice now.
“Stop,” Astril, the eldest vampire sister, spoke up from behind. “Something is coming.”
“Manythings,” Livia corrected. “Sprinting our way.”
Thantrel pulled his sword at the same time I did, and our mates’ magic flared. I cocked my head. As we’d trained often during our travels and with the rebels, I recognized what my mate’s magic felt like. Knew it almost as well as my own. But Neve’s power felt different here. Weaker?
I felt my own powers, and noticed the same, a faint weakness. Was it the cold? The night of no rest and hard travel?
The question materialized right as the thing that had been running for us appeared from the darkness.
“Direwolf!” I hissed.
“And pups!” Neve yelped.
The mother ran in front, and at the sight of us snapped her jaws. I pulled Neve to the side, protecting her body with mine. Thantrel did the same for Thyra, and Xillia pinned her small body to the top of the tunnel.
As the mother direwolf approached, I expected her to lunge at me or Thantrel. I heldSkelda, ready to defend. Others behind us had drawn their blades too.
The scent of wolf filled my nostrils as the wolves came closer, closer, closer . . .
The mother ran between Thantrel and me, not bothering to snap her jaws again. Not even as she wove through the others, who appeared as shocked as we were. Her pups followed, their attention never wavering from ahead.
I blinked. It was not natural for direwolves to act that way.
“What was that?” Neve asked, breathing hard. “I thought they’d attack!”
“As did I,” I admitted.
“The pups looked terrified,” Freyia whispered. “And the mother’s heart rate was so fast. Something might be chasing them.”
“We proceed with extreme caution.” I twisted to catch Caelo’s eye. “Watch your back.”
My best friend was taking up the rear with Livia and Ulfiel.
Caelo nodded. “There can’t be much food beneath this rock, and we’re fresh meat.”
In general, the wild mountains had that problem. The animal species of Winter’s Realm were acclimated to the climate, and those that ate plants usually ate wood or stole from the greenhouses fae used. Some remote villages and towns constructed greenhouses for wildlife to supplement their food. But the mountains had fewer fae and less food than other areas, making it harder for wildlife to survive.
We continued on, dragging our fingertips along the uneven, frozen walls and more alert than before. For a long while, nothing of note happened. Still, there were no turn offs. No other creatures, save for an occasional rat. Sometimes I’d hear a skittering noise but see nothing. More rats running through the tunnels, I assumed. Vermin survived everywhere.
We’d gone another half an hour when, finally, the wall fell away from my touch. We’d walked into an opening of sorts.
“Up Xillia,” Thyra instructed.
The pixie soared above, her light illuminating the high ceiling and tunnels far above our heads. At eye level, another dozen tunnels presented themselves. We weren’t at a simple turnoff but a juncture of many halls of stone.
“So many options,” Thyra mused. “Do you see anything in the tunnels up there, Xillia? Anything to help us choose? A sign or runes?”
“Nothing!” the pixie called, floating around a circular room. “Only lots of cobwebs and dirt!”
“Nothing obvious down here either,” Livia said, having already done a quick round. “I hear no sounds of creatures, big or small.”
“Me either,” her sister, Astril, assured the rest.
Fae hearing was keen, but vampire hearing was the best in the nine kingdoms. If they heard nothing, then nothing lurked nearby.
