Another growl, and then another.
Aw, fae.Did all animals travel in freaking packs here?
I edged closer to the embankment right as enormous, four-legged animals materialized from the entrails of the tunnel. I released a breath when I realized they werelupa.Neverrian wolves were harmless. Well, as long as you didn’t pet them, because petting them opened a mind-link, and all they thought about was hunting small game and running. Something I’d learned first-hand.
Alupapup had gotten dragged into the Pink Sea, and since fae wolves didn’t know how to paddle to save their lives, I’d jumped in and saved the floundering fur ball. For the next two years, every time the animal was near, I was privy to its inner musings. It had been strange, at first, receiving thoughts that weren’t mine, but then I’d gotten used to the strange little broadcasts and the day they stopped coming—my wolf had met an untimely death at the fangs of atigri—I felt a twinge of loss.
I counted seven wolves. They were much larger than the ones back home but scrawnier, which confirmed the scarcity of food. Their ribcages poked against their white coats, which resembled their habitat—scant and filthy. Large patches of fur were missing on some; others were covered in so much grime, they looked like they belonged to another species.
One of them raised its head as though to sniff the air. As it leveled its face back on me, its tail came up, and then its fellow packmates’ tails straightened too, poking out from their skeletal bodies. I held my breath, expecting them to start wagging.
“Amara!” My name was like a bucket of ice water waking me from a doze. “Get away from them!” Remo was moving down the platform in slow but long strides, as though worried that going any faster would spook the wolves.
“Is thegolwinimscared of a few littlelupa?”
A chorus of low growls reverberated over the corroded tracks, over every rock in the mountain and every brick in the station.Good doggies.I assumed they were growling at Remo and his palpable hostility.
Still moving fast, Remo growled louder than the wolves, his frustration traveling down the trench.
I turned back toward the pack, intent on proving I wasn’t scared, that these creatures, although almost as tall as I was, were as sweet as creampuffs, but then a growl turned into a bark, which turned into a snarl.
I frowned. “Stop running, Remo.” I spoke gently so as not to freak the animals out any more than they already were. “You’re scaring them.”
“I stop running, and you’re a chew toy.”
“Don’t be ridi—”
The wolf, which stood slightly in front of the others—the Alpha, I surmised—let out a piercing howl before bounding forward. The others followed, their great paws pounding the trench. This wasn’t normallupabehavior. The wolves back home weren’t aggressive. If anything they were skittish around fae.
“Amara! Get off the fucking tracks! Now!”
My body temperature dropped as fear flooded my veins. I backed up and then I spun and ran at the embankment, my legs not shuffling like they did back home. I launched myself at the steep wall, attempting to clamber up, but my foothold skidded, and dirt rained down. I landed on my ass but bounced right back onto my feet and jumped at the packed earth, attempting to claw my way up as the wolves galloped closer. Remo crouched and stretched an arm out. I slapped my palm into his, and he swung me up just as one of the beasts launched itself at where I’d been a second earlier, scuttling like an uncoordinated spider.
I shut my eyes as the force of Remo’s pull had us both tumbling into the hard-packed soil of the platform. The ground shook, and I thought it was from our fall until it shook again and again aslupaafterlupaslammed into the dirt wall, trying to reach us. The creatures snarled, the sound bloodcurdling.
I sat up, my head swimming, my blood thrashing. A wolf jumped at the embankment, its curved claws finding purchase on the ledge. For the longest second of my entire life, I thought it would manage to pull itself up. And probably so did Remo, because he shot to his feet and grabbed my arm, almost dislocating my shoulder in the process.
The wolf tumbled onto its haunches but got back up in the blink of an eye and snapped, globs of saliva dripping into the trampled dirt at his feet. The rest of his pack snarled and barked, scratching at the wall as though to bring it down.
Remo still clutched my arm. I was too terrified to shake him off, and he was too transfixed by the predatory beasts to realize he was still holding me. Unless he did realize it and had decided I couldn’t be trusted with my own life.
“My apple,” I said, suddenly realizing I’d dropped it.
Remo breathed hard but glared harder. “Seriously, Amara?”
The wolves growled and prowled and leaped but didn’t manage to reach us. One of them sniffed the fruit, knocking it with its muzzle. The Alpha took interest in it next and shoved its packmate. After a long sniff, the mammoth wolf huffed and turned away.
“If that doesn’t tell you there’s something wrong with it, then I don’t know what will,” Remo said.
“Maybe they’re fruitphobic,” I blurted out because I didn’t want to agree with him.
Remo stared at me, his jaw working.
The Alpha howled, its yellow eyes glowing. Tail and ears still erect, it galloped away, and I thought we were safe. Well, as safe as two powerless fae could be in a supernatural jail. But then the enormous wolf flipped around and sprinted down the tracks, gaining velocity. It was going for the platform at the end of the trench.
My heart held still as the animal lurched into the air, managing to dock the top half of its body. As its massive hindlegs kicked and pushed, Remo yelled, “We need to get to higher ground!”
My heart whizzed, hurtling against my ribs. “The train.”
