In truth, Annelise did not desire much more than Rolfe himself. She smiled in anticipation of Rolfe’s return as she packed his belongings into his saddlebags and saddled the steeds. She would be prepared for them to rideimmediately.
Mephistopheles lifted his head when she was tightening the cinch on his saddle and stared over her shoulder. His ears twitched, and Annelise guessed that her spouse wasreturned.
“Rolfe!” She spun with asmile.
A lone wolf stood at the perimeter of the forest, his gaze fixed uponher.
Annelise’s heart sank to her toes. “No,” she whispered. “No, it cannot bethus.”
But the wolf began to walk toward her, and Annelise’s heart filled with a dreadful certainty. The wolf was so dejected that Annelise knew it could only be Rolfe, and her fear could only beright.
She hadfailed.
But how and why? Annelise could not have been too late, could she? Surely, Rolfe could not be trapped forever in wolf form? No, he could not have changed fully to a wolf, for he recognized her and his disappointment was clear. There must be another explanation, though she could not think of what it mightbe.
She had missed some key detail and the djinn’s malice had triumphed afterall.
“Rolfe!” His name fell from her lips in awhisper.
The wolf slowed even more until he paused a dozen paces away. Annelise stepped closer to him, a part of her still insisting that this could not be her spouse. Perhaps she only hoped it was not Rolfe. The wolf held her gaze, as if daring her to see thetruth.
He had one blue eye and one silver-gray.
Annelise had assumed that trapping Leila would make her spells void, but she had clearly been wrong. Should she have trapped the djinn at night, when Rolfe was a man? Did Rolfe even become a man anymore? Curse these djinn and theirspells!
No. It was Rolfe who was cursed. Annelise wondered how she would bear to see her beloved like this for every day of their lives, yet be unable to do anything to aid him. She fell to her knees in the snow beside him, feeling foolish. “We will remain together,” she told him, even as her tears fell. “We will find away...”
But there was no way and her voice lost its conviction before she completed herpromise.
He sat down before her, understanding gleaming in his eyes, understanding that made her ache with the burden of responsibility. It was so much worse to think that he knew the fate ahead of him. She held him close, savoring his warmth, and wished she was not so cursed withimpulsiveness.
She should have waited until the night, when Rolfe was a man, before she trapped the djinn. The logic was obvious to her at far too late a point to makeamends.
“Oh, Rolfe,” she whispered as her tears began to fall. “I amsorry.”
The wolf that was her spouse pushed his dark muzzle under her hand. Annelise sank her fingers into his thick fur andwept.
Rolfe licked hercheek.
It tickled and she pushed him away, but he persisted. He wriggled his nose against her neck and tickled her again while tears ran down hercheeks.
“Rolfe! This is nojest.”
But her spouse evidently could not bear to see her weep and was determined to court her smile. Rolfe licked her ear and that tickled even more. Annelise pushed him away, but he pursued her, his tail wagging, his tonguemischievous.
She smiled just a little, despite herself. “You look more like a pup than a wolf,” she accused and he barked. He ran a circle around her, then bowed, his tail wagging in invitation for her toplay.
“You make a jest of something beyond serious!” She formed a snowball and cast it at Rolfe in frustration. He leaped and caught it in his mouth, then brought it back toher.
He dropped the snowball into her lap and wagged his tail anew. Annelise realized he was trying to encourage her, and she reached out to scratch his ears. “Do you think that we might find a waytogether?”
He wagged his tail andbarked.
“Every puzzle has a key,” she whispered and he howled in approval of that sentiment. Annelise felt her spirits rise. “We will go together to Viandin,” she said and he barked again, his eyes alight. Then he ran in a circle around Annelise, and she spun to watch him. Mephistopheles eyed the pair of them, while the palfrey that had been attacked by the other wolf appeared to be nervous. When Rolfe licked Annelise’s face, she laughedaloud.
She took a deep breath and framed Rolfe’s furry face in her hands. She looked deeply into his eyes. “We will find another djinn,” she told him. “We will convince that djinn to aid us, or we will find a magician in the hills. It is said there is an old witch near Tulley, and she might be able to cast a spell....” she caught her breath, her doubt rearing again, but she pushed it away. “If you believe, then so shall I,” shevowed.
The wolf that was Rolfe seemed togrin.
