Evander says nothing to him and turns away, focusing instead on Aurora and me. “You convinced a human to help you and now she’ll pay the price for it.” His eyes shift to meet mine and there’s a brief pause. His lips part slightly and then twist into a harder line. As if he is disgusted by the mere sight of me. “You shouldn’t be here, witch. You have already lost your home tonight. Go before you lose your life, too.”
It’s these men’s fault I nearly lost everything dear to me. Hatred has me pushing off the ground. “I’m not leaving without Aurora.”
“Faelyn, don’t,” Aurora cautions.
“She’s bonded with me, and me alone. Your king can’t have her power any longer,” I declare. “So let us leave. And when you both return to him, tell him to stop hunting us. It’s over.”
The words seem to echo through the woods. The two lykin go perfectly still. Like statues cast in an artist’s rendering of pure shock.
“You…cannot bind yourself with any but the wolf king,” Bardulf stammers at Aurora. “It’s impossible.”
“I assure you, it’s not.” Aurora doesn’t sound nearly as pleased as I would’ve thought. Is this not her opportunity to finally rid herself of those who would be her captors? Shouldn’t she delight in telling them she can no longer be used?
“Where is the ring? Take us to it. Now!” Spittle flies from Bardulf’s mouth as he stomps toward her.
“I already told you, I don’t have it.” Aurora is perfectly calm in the face of his rage.
Bardulf moves faster than I’m able to process. He’s behind me, an arm around my neck. Hooked tightly. I wheeze. My shoulders hurt too much to put up much of a fight. With every movement I make, more blood leaves me.
“Don’t!” Aurora shouts.
“Let her go.” Evander steps forward. “She’s not our concern.” He grinds out every word.
“She made her our concern when she stole the ring.” Bardulf squeezes even tighter. I gasp like a fish on land. “Where is it?” he snarls in my ear.
I can’t answer.
“She doesn’t have it! I destroyed it!” Aurora says quickly. “When the ring broke, my power went into her. Not me. She’s the one who has the other half of my essence now. She…She is the ring.”
Both of them go still for a second time. The words and their meaning dawn on them as it does on me. Her power is withinme, the power the wolf king coveted, and hunted. Aurora told me that he would be after her now…but I didn’t take the danger seriously enough. I couldn’t comprehend it. Nor did I think hard enough on what this power could’ve meant.
Why did I think some barriers would keep the wolf king himself from getting what he wanted? We should have left last night. Why didn’t I press her harder for the truth, details, something?
Shock slackens Bardulf’s arm around my throat. He releases me and I collapse, wheezing.
“Undo it,” Bardulf says quickly. He looks genuinely panicked.
I look to Aurora, but she’s focused on the men. She said she was sworn to be bonded to the wolf king…but instead, she and I are. And I know as well as I presume Bardulf does that…
“The power cannot be properly transferred by mortal hands,” Aurora says solemnly. “To remove it from her, we would have to stand before the old gods in the siren’s Eversea and beseech them for aid, as I did ages ago. Take me there and perhaps?—”
“You really think we will take you to the old gods? Where you can just ask to be restored to your original form and leave the lykin forever?” Bardulf scoffs. There’s a crazed, panicked look in his eyes. He takes another step back toward me. “I say we just kill her. Put the power back that way.”
Evander stops him with an arm. “Didn’t you hear Aurora? We can’t.”
“Exactly. If you kill her, who knows what will happen,” Aurora cautions solemnly. “The magic already didn’t act as I thought it would—seeking out another, more temporary physical form, rather than my own. If you kill her, maybe it’ll transfer again, maybe not. Do you really want to risk half my essence being lost, forever, to all of us?”
Bardulf seems to really consider this. “But we can’t… We…” He looks to Evander. “What do we do?”
“We take them both to Conri,” Evander declares. “It will be up to the king of the wolves, alpha of all packs, to decide what is to be done. He will want to meet the human that stole the spirit of the moon.”
CHAPTER 6
Spirit of the moon…Ancient. Primordial. One of the oldest and most powerful spirits in legend. And, if the stories are to be believed, the spirit that fuels the powers of both the lykin and the vampir with her shifting shape and constant pull.
I look to Aurora in shock, and awe. Her eyes are drawn to mine as if she senses my attention.
“Sorry I didn’t have a moment to tell you yet,” she says softly. There’s genuine apology in her voice. “At first I wasn’t sure about…”You. The word is left hanging as pain and guilt flash through her eyes. “I vowed I was going to tell you everything while you were gone.”
