The flagpole and cabins came up on their right. Sage pointed out the road to the passageway, but Canyon pointed out a small blue flag stuck to a tree just past it.
“That’s a police marker. Let’s follow it.”
He drove on, taking the next right, following blue markers like breadcrumbs. Sage craned her neck, not certain where this road went. It ended, but they drove on over recent tire tracks. Soon they would be above Abigail’s cavern, Sage realized. She scentedvodfrom the open window, and saw floodlights, andharnesses tied to trees, along with a hole in the ground, showing flashes of the cavern below. Canyon drove through carefully and parked next to an SPD truck.
To their right, a door lay on the ground, where it had been flung open, and an opening in the ground led to concrete steps. Sage recognized it from when she’d fought Abigail inside the cavern. The fake boulder had been cut away and moved to the side.
Movement in the cavern caught her eye. Avodin dress uniform came up the steps, his eyes on her, his lip curling.Wade Lombard.
“You don’t belong here,” he snarled. “This is police business.”
Sage moved away from him, closer to the harnesses and the new hole in the ground.
“Now hold on,” Canyon said on hand up, heading Wade off. “Are you paying attention, old wolf?”
“It’s ok, mate,” Sage said, moving sideways, heading for a boulder. “He’ll see soon enough.” She scrambled to the top of the boulder, using the height to get a different vantage inside the cavern. The metal box still hung mid-air, exactly as she’d last seen it. What was inside called to her steadily.
Sage shot Wade a look, then thrust her arm above her head and shouted, “COME TO ME, WHAT IS MINE!”
Canyon moved away from Wade and to the boulder, grabbing hold of her slack hand. From inside the templum, lights flashed, and the smell of scorched metal wafted out of the hole, bisected by something small and gold, moving at high speed. It was her pendant, angel on one side, wolf on the other—with a gold chain dangling from it. It zipped out the hole and flew right into Sage’s hand. She smiled and laughed in triumph, turning to Wade with wild eyes. Canyon helped her jump off the boulder, her arm still above her head, the chain dangling.
“It’s fine if you don’t trust me!” she yelled to Wade. “I’ve got my mate, and his brother, and now I’ve got my pendant, and that’s all Ineed!”
She turned back to the boulder, whipping her pendant out to hold it by the very end of its long chain, and at the same time, flipping over the boulder. She landed and slammed the pendant to the ground where it glanced off the boulder, then ripped through the forest floor. Ancient rock sheared and fused with metal and dirt, exploding—creating a cacophony of light and sound which shot upward into the sky, exploding into metal fireworks, then falling to the ground like smoke. A nucleus of white and orange puffed up like a mushroom bomb, sending smoke in all directions.
Sage only stared, dust and dirt falling all around her. Through the clouds of smoke, Sage could see her male standing strong, shielding his eyes against the blast.
Timber swore. “Are you kidding me? I'm fucking blind again!”
Sage waved the smoke away, realizing… the boulder was gone, and in its place stood—
“The bofox,” Sage whispered.
A fox statue sat proudly, its tail wrapped around its feet, bigger than a normal fox. It was seemingly made from orange-hued rock, with twists of dark gemstone lining the eyes, ears, nose, and shadowed areas.
Sage touched the statue with confident fingers. A chime sounded and a gold hue shimmered across the rock for just a moment.
A voice rang through the forest:
‘I am the Bofox, the newest meadow guardian. Never again shall the demon Khain enslave our kind. I decree it! I break the Tether forever and for ALL. We are FREE.’
Sage’s body jerked as her Tether released with a painful SNAP. She put her hands out for balance, then stood on her tiptoes and balanced on one foot, feeling as light as a sparrow.
‘Well-done, my grandniece. Well-done, my sister. Well-done, myfoxren. Well-met,wolvenof Serenity. We have much work yet to do.’
Tingles danced over Sage’s scalp as the words faded away to nothing. She turned to look at Wade, and he was staring into the sky, his mouth open. He realized she was looking and composed himself, then stared at her, no longer challenging, but not welcoming either. He crossed the grass, got into a vehicle, and drove away through the trees.
Sage watched him go, then turned to Canyon, unable to give Wade another thought, because her heart was bursting with joy. Canyon smiled widely, reaching for her hands.
Trucks and SPD vehicles flooded the small lane. An oldervodstuck his head out of one of the trucks yelling, “What was that ruckus!?”
Timber pointed at the statue. “Meet the Bofox, the newest meadow guardian.”
Smiling, Sage moved closer to the forest, scenting fox andfoxenbut seeing no one. They were hiding. “Come out,” she whispered. “The Bofox is here and we’re all free.”
Foxes chittered and laughed and jumped over each other in the shadows, but none made a move to leave the trees. Sage moved closer to Canyon’s truck as more vehicles and morevodfilled the area. She rubbed what was left of her pendant between her thumb and forefinger.It felt so small.
She looked at it, her breath hitching in her throat. It was sheared away to nothing! Well, almost nothing. She ran her fingers over the small gold piece that was left—just a bit of an ear and wolf’s head on one side, and a bit of angel wing and face onthe other. It looked like a wolf’s head silhouette, which jogged a memory of something she hadn’t thought of in forever.
