“If you die, know that you have stood in a holy place. Very few are ever allowed to stand here and witness this. This holy land is protected by the goddesses’ magic, and they do not let anybody step here unless they are one of their chosen or blessed, as I am.”
Okay, I think he was looking at me that time. Does he actually believe that’s comforting?
“Your selected wards are already on the island and waiting for you. It is your job to hunt them down by scent and find them quickly before anyone else does. There will be dangers on the island that you should be aware of, creatures of old who have been exiled to the island for the safety of all wolfkind. It is important to watch your back not only for your fellow Folkland chosen but also for the ancient creatures that lurk in the forests. Scent hunting is taught to you as pups, and it should be easy for you.”
He purposely doesn’t look at me again. We both know my selected is doomed. I’m tempted to raise my hand and askwhether we could both be given whistles to make it fair. At least I can whistle to find her. But I don’t want to attract more attention to myself, so I stay quiet. I have to figure it out as I go along. “If your selected dies, you will struggle in the trials, but the goddesses will be judging you, so I would suggest doing everything in your power to keep them alive and not dead.”
He babbles on about more things, and I grow bored of listening, moving my gaze around the dome. Everyone has coats, thick ones, and I shiver harder. I meet the eyes of one of the female wolves. There are two, but this one, her eyes are kind as she meets mine. Her dark skin is perfect, and her long hair is braided with blue waves and blue streaks in it. She nods her head at me. I nod back. Maybe she might be an ally; women protect women, after all. She probably will still kill me, but for now, I’m going to pretend she’s my friend in all of this. I finally listen in to the priest again.
“The island will provide what is necessary for you to survive. Food, clothing, it will all be available to you as the goddesses see fit. If nothing appears, then the goddesses have decided you do not need it at this point. To walk the path is to walk in the belief that you have been guided to a higher cause. Now, come forward and leave a single drop of your blood on the stone, and you will be taken. The goddesses will separate you.” Blackfire tenses and glares down at me as I grin. Finally, some good news. “To make sure it’s fair.”
People move, but Blackfire steps forward, grabbing my arm, and his nasty growl is nothing short of a threat. Everyone freezes, including me. “We are first.” His eyes look around the dome with a challenging glint of fire in the depths of his eyes. When I don’t move, he swears under his breath and drags me with him towards the stone.
When we both stand in front of it, I smile up at him. “I’m going to hide from you, Blackfire. I hope we never see each other again.”
“I’ll find you first,” he snarls maliciously at me. I shiver, the smile dropping from my lips. I’m so dead. I don’t even see the dagger until he cuts it across my palm and, to my surprise, slides the dagger into the clip on my belt. My eyes lock on his as he leans forward, whispering low in my ear just as he slams my hand onto the bloodstone and everything disappears into darkness. His whisper haunts my mind. “I’ll find you, Hopeless. There is nowhere in existence you could hide from me.”
Chapter Nine
“Souls are made of more than strings, and when one part is taken, the soul will not rest until the parts are found. You are here to find yours and take them back in blood.”A strange female voice, just like the one I heard when I was marked, fills my mind. I can barely focus on what she said as my stomach turns, and I barely hold in the sickness that rises in my throat. All I know is that hearing voices is the first sign of madness—and really it is just proof of what I already knew. I’m not all with it. But I might keep the talking voice in my head to myself, especially when I apparently need to try to survive the next part of the shitshow that is my life.
The ground is covered in thick brown leaves, I notice as my blurry eyes blink open, my head pounding with the beginning of a headache. My ears are ringing as I manage to sit up and shake my head a few times, leaves falling out of my braided hair alongwith stray locks that blow in the wind. The air smells like damp leaves and something more, something that sends a chill down my spine. Magic. It’s not the same smoky smell that comes with wolves from the Crone Pack, but instead, it reminds me of the fresh air in the middle of the night, when there is nothing but the breeze and the open night sky.
It’s not snowing, I quickly realize, but my clothes are still stuck to me from the storm we were just in. It’s cold, like a brisk autumn, and I look up at the trees, which are huge. The trunks of the trees are big enough to be a house, and the tops of them stretch high into the skies, into the bright daytime sky. I can just about see the sun flickering through the sheer number of branches and leaves that look woven together with age. It looks like a forest that no one’s touched in a really long time, and it’s silent.
I don’t like the silence, not in a forest like this, where birds should be chirping. There are no birds, no sound other than the slight breeze picking up some of the less damp leaves and blowing them along. Tannith. I quickly twist my bag to my front and unzip it, relieved to see her eyes staring up at me. “Are you okay?” I ask her, my voice hoarse, and I clear my throat a few times to get rid of the feeling. “Your eyes remind me of the time we stole the drug pipe from the old orphanage matron, and we smoked it all night. That was a good night.”
She shakes her head a few times like she’s as disoriented as I am. “I couldn’t even feel the beating she gave us.” She laughs, which sounds more like a hiss. “But then you threw up on her, and that was funny. My head hurts, but I’m alive. What about you?”
“Same. I think we’re in the Folkland now,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes, Blackfire’s warning echoing in my ears. “I’m going to die. Painfully. There goes my hope of dying peacefully, drugged up, and feeling nothing.” Nervousness works its way into myvoice, and I can’t hide it. I’m terrified. How could I not be? I lie back on the floor, looking up at the trees. “At least it’s pretty here. I’ve never seen trees like this.”
“I was absolutely certain that you were going to run your mouth at the wrong wolf and get burnt at the stake. I even had a bet going with our boss, and I doubt the greedy fucker will pay me now,” she jokes. I think. To be fair, I don’t blame her for betting on my life; I should have done the same for her. She would have gotten killed by sleeping with the wrong person. “But it’s depressing to think you’re going to die a virgin.”
“Hey, you could at least pray for me to have an easy death. Burning at the stake is not nice,” I mutter. “And I don’t think a dick is going to make a difference now.”
“Please. I heard you ask Mistress repeatedly if the stake was still an option. By the, like, seventh time you asked her, she looked like she wanted to cry,” Tannith reminds me. That was an embarrassing moment for us all.
“Well, that’s just on her. She’s obviously never met someone with as many problems as I have. Really, it should be a blessing that she’s met me.” I sniff. “Any suggestions on which way I should run and hide?”
“Nope.” She drawls out the word. “I’m going back to nap because you’re probably going to get killed, and then I’ll die soon afterwards. Yay us.”
“Honestly, your belief in us is spot on. I do not foresee this getting much better. That Blackfire psychopath said he’s going to hunt me down, so I probably should focus on finding that hiding place that was part of my perfect plan that had a zero percent chance of survival.” I sit up, pulling more leaves off my clothes.
“Kinky,” Tannith mutters. “He really is something, that Blackfire. I wonder what he looks like under his mask.”
I roll my eyes at her. “We have completely different kinks because a wolf like him hunting me down is not something I’mgoing to find remotely attractive. He’s a complete psychopath. In fact, all the wolves I’ve met so far are psychopaths. I wonder if they’re just born like that, and I bet he is ugly under the mask.” I know it’s a lie the moment I say it. His jawline and impressive build make me think he is anything but ugly under the cruel wolf mask he wears at all times.
I reluctantly climb to my feet and look around. There’s nothing but huge tree trunks in every direction. A few bushes here and there, but I can hear water. I start walking towards it. Maybe a drink will help with how dizzy and overall crap I feel. I go to tell Tannith my plan, but to my annoyance, she’s already asleep and I can hear her light snores echoing to me. Shaking my head, I zip up the bag and begin to jog through the forest.
Eventually, I come upon the water I heard. It’s a massive river stretching as far as I can see in both directions, splitting the huge forest in half like a crack. The water’s moving fast, way too fast as it crashes onto the sharp rocks sticking up out of it, and there are no riverbanks to climb down into. I can’t get close without risking falling off the steep edges and right into it. I look around, wondering what I possibly could do for a hiding place. The river, hopefully, should mask some of my scent, from what I’ve gathered about wolves. Water does that, but it’s not like I can jump in it.
I turn around, ready to leave and walk down the river to find something better, only to freeze. My eyes widen as I come face to face with a wolf that is giant, similar in height to me, with blue paws that look like he stepped into dyed water.
“Hey, wolf,” I whisper. His mouth opens, revealing a row of sharp teeth, and two massive pointed ones at the front of his mouth. He roars into my face, and I scream on instinct.
He snarls once before he leaps my way. I barely manage to jump, crawling across the ground as the wolf nearly falls into the river. Damn, that would have been good luck. But hecatches himself with his claws, digging into the dirt, and he turns around, jumping for me with one leap. I know I’m done for as his weight lands on my legs, and he bites me. I scream in pain as he rips through my skin, not pausing as he continues to bite me harder, pulling me along the forest as I desperately try to grab something to defend myself.
He yanks me through the air, dragging me with him, and I cry, scream, and kick with my other leg. I don’t know why I’m fighting so hard when I know I’m dead. Nothing works; his teeth stay locked around my leg as he yanks me like a toy across leaves and mud. For a second, everything blurs, and I see something strange. Strings of four colours fill the air, dancing like light bouncing off a diamond ring that has hit the sunlight. I go to reach for the grey string, the one nearest me, just as my back slams into a tree, and I cry out in pain.
