“Yes, my king.”
I fall beside Evander, dealing with the awkwardness of the radiating tension from him. Is he upset I’m doing this? Is there a danger I don’t know of?
Within a few moments we’ve gathered with one woman and two other men. Bardulf I know already. Conri introduces the man as Weylyn, another alpha. The woman I’ve seen around camp, lingering in the same circles as Evander and Bardulf. Her name is Mell, another of Conri’s knights.
“I will lead,” Conri announces before taking on his wolf form.
Once more on Evander’s back, we speed across the grasslands, fanned in the shape of an arrow point. Conri is at the front. Evander and I over his right shoulder. Weylyn is at his left. Bardulf is behind Evander and me with Mell behind Weylyn. The pace is blisteringly fast and all I can focus on is clutching Evander as tightly as possible.
Conri veers, shifting course without warning. His muzzle lowers and lifts, shifting positions as he runs, smelling earth and air. He’s tracking something and I find out what over the slope of a nearby hill. The lykin’s eyes catch the movement before I do. Gnashing teeth and excited snarls have my attention locking on to what they are all already focused on—a depression in the grasses, racing away from us.
Conri is faster than the creature. He leaps, jaws open. They clamp around the small creature and a horrible whimper fills the air before being cut short. The wolf king lifts his head, a gray hare caught between his jaws. Red seeps into the poor creature’s fur around the fangs that have punctured its neck, killing it instantly. The wolf king’s eyes meet mine and he trots over, placing the hare at Evander’s side, by my foot, like an offering to me.
I force a beaming smile and nod my head for the sake of the others. I’m sure this is an important gesture in the lykin’s cultureand instinct tells me not to offend. Just as I’m sure Conri is looking for approval for his kill on my behalf.
It was an impressive feat, how he picked up the smell of the creature, found it, and killed it with such speed and accuracy. But in that dead hare I can’t help but see a subtle warning.See, the seeping blood seems to say,look at how easily a life can be ended.Look at how fast and efficient I am at hunting and killing. The message is clear. But what I do not know is if it was intentional.
Swinging down off Evander, I do as they had instructed me before we left. I take the knife from my satchel and make a careful slit at the creature’s throat. My larger hunting knife would’ve been more effective, if I still had it. But the small one does the trick. Then, I tie the hare upside-down to the strappings around Evander’s neck so it will bleed out as it swings against Evander’s side.
We repeat this process for three more hare and one fox. I am in the process of stringing up the last when Conri shifts out of his wolf form for the first time since we began the hunt. He helps me tie off the last of the knots, giving a hum of approval as his fingertips brush over mine.
“You’re rather skilled with managing the kills of hunting for someone who claims not to do it much.”
“I…” My hands still for a second as memories I’ve not thought of in a long, long time threaten to overwhelm me. For a flash, I am back in the forests. Another set of hands are on me as I clutch a bowstring. Two strong arms around me. The first time my heart fluttered.Deep breaths, Faelyn, easy, steady… I quickly recover, hoping Conri didn’t notice my brief departure from the present. “Not many humans lived near the edge of the woods. The only others that did were hunters. Growing up so secluded was lonely, so having a companion was a welcome friendship, even if our lives were very different.”
Liam. My first true love. My only love. The first day we ever met was one of the worst in my life: the day my mother died. But he was something good to come of all that grief. A shoulder to cry on. A new friendship blossomed out of trauma. And, eventually, something more…or so I had thought.
“You were close with this hunter,” Conri observes.
I glance in his direction, finishing the knot that affixes the fox to Evander’s side. The wolf knight glances over his shoulder at us. I wonder if he, too, is listening to this part of my history that I would sometimes rather forget. I’ve no doubt he is, given how little we’ve shared with each other about our origins.
Conri laughs, no doubt mistaking my hesitation. “I have had many lovers before you, my future queen. I assume the same to be true of you. So worry not for modesty and answer me true.”
“I did care for him,” I admit. “But then he left, and that was the end of it.” Such an oversimplification of what actually happened. But also…so accurate. Liam’s and my story isn’t more complicated than that. I had given Liam all my heart. I was ready to give him all my body, and every year that was left ahead of me.
And, without a word, he left me waiting alone in the dark night.
“A fool to leave a woman such as you.” Conri steps away from Evander. “Now, show me this foraging you so love.”
It takes no small amount of mental effort to shift my focus from those old wounds and bring my attention back to the present. I haven’t thought deeply of Liam for years. But it seems even a world away, there’s so much that makes me think of him. Briefly, for the first time in a long time, I wonder what he’s doing now. Did he find happiness separate from me?
“All right,” I say, and kneel, pushing my fingers into the ground. “But I’m going to ask for the help of a friend, as I am unfamiliar with the best places to do so in these lands.” I take a low, slow breath, and summon the magic that sleeps within me.It’s easier to find that latent power since working with Aurora. Or perhaps there’s just more of it to grasp at. “Mary, I seek your help.”
Small marigolds bud around my hand, the largest blooming in place of my palm when I pull my hand away. Tiny vines stretch up in impossible ways, forming a doll-like humanoid. Mary’s form is much smaller than I last saw her. But there’s a sturdiness to her magic that I have never sensed before. Having her leave was the best thing that could happen for her.
It causes me to briefly wonder, yet again, what the true depths of Aurora’s power might be, were she able to be free.
“Hello, Faelyn,” Mary says in her sweet, whispering voice. “It is good to see you again.”
All the wolves have gathered around us, even though they cannot understand the words. Conri looks on silently, a proud smile on his lips. I focus on Mary rather than the rest of them.
“And you as well. Do you think you have time and energy to help me forage? I don’t know where to look, or what to look for in these lands. But, based on the terrain, I’m hoping for perhaps some root vegetables?”
“It would be my honor.” Mary dips her chin and the vines sink back into the earth. Another marigold pops up a few steps away. And another beyond that.
“We’ll follow her,” I say to Conri in the common tongue. Shifting between the language of spirits and that of other mortals is instinctive and effortless.
Conri looks over his shoulder. “The rest of you, take the kills back to camp. They should be shared with the pack, sooner the better.”
