The loup-garou jumped the trunk, and all of a sudden, the beast was right there, a mouthful of teeth grinning down at Sage, separated from him only by a few brittle branches.
“Fuck.”
23
Will
Willdidn’tknowNewElvenswood all that well, but the amount of green space was surprising for a city that size.It sucked though, because it was apparently just the right amount of green to lure a witch away from safety.
“We’re definitely going in the right direction?”Carl asked.They’d come to what looked like the outskirts of this part of the city, although farther up the hill, Will could see the fancier Hillside houses.
“Yes.”
Carl clearly didn’t like following, but he did it.Beyond the last few houses, the woods quickly grew thicker; thick enough that Will thought he might enjoy running through them in his wolf form.
For a human, it was annoying, difficult to navigate thanks to the heavy growth and undergrowth everywhere.It was almost like Sage’s garden, except the garden at least seemed to tolerate the house’s human occupants.The woods grew as if they preferred to be left alone.
The smell of sunshine and smiles grew stronger, but it was mixed with something else.Will would’ve recognized the sharp and bitter tang of a loup-garou’s musk anywhere, and it made him sick to his stomach.The loup-garou had so clearly been excited, excited to cause pain, excited about the pleasure someone else’s pain would bring him.
“NowthisI smell.Don’t smell any blood,” Carl said.“Hey, you okay?”
Will was shaking all over.It was all there again, all those full moons he’d run, all those times he’d been prey.Every time they’d caught him, and everything after.The loneliness.The despair.The way they’d never stopped, not once.
But this wasn’t that.It was Will’s wolf, still close to the surface after the night of the full moon.The wolf had not forgotten the pain, not a bit of it, but the wolf held on to the present, to what it wanted.To what Will wanted.The wolf knew to be strong, even if Will wasn’t sure he could be.
“I’m good.”
Will knew his voice wasn’t steady, but he wanted Sage.Sage, who danced in the kitchen when he made pancakes and forgot half the things he needed when he went shopping.Will couldn’t change or erase any of the things he’d endured, but he had survived them, and he would do everything in his power to keep Sage from having to go through even a fraction of it.
“Right.This is easy enough to track.”Carl knelt and pulled his pant leg up to reveal a knife sheathed along his calf, the blade as long as the distance from Will’s fingertips to his wrist.“I assume you can competently do some magic to distract the fucker.I need an opening.I don’t see how we’re going to take this thing down with one strike, but we want to wound it as much as we can.They heal fast, but not that fast.Still have to be quick.”
Will blinked.“You’ve done this before.”
“Yes, I’ve done this before.How else do you think I got the job at Celeste’s?”
Will shrugged.“I just figured you were, you know, the pack enforcer.”
“There is no formal pack in New Elvenswood, and if you’re so happy to piss on pack tradition, how come you think of anyone as an enforcer, pup?I think the progressive packs deal with their issues in a different way.”
He moved, following the scent of the loup-garou, and Will hurried to catch up.
“All I meant was that you’re that enforcer type.I’ll need a few seconds to cast a spell.When we find the loup-garou.”
“I’m the type, huh?I’ll do what I can, but you better magic quick.These fuckers can be lethal if you let them.”
Will swallowed against the tightness in his throat.“I know.”
24
Sage
“Jawlock,jointlock,stop!”Sage yelled, weaving his spell out of sheer desperation at the sight of a string of drool trailing down to the forest floor right where his hand was.
The loup-garou’s eyes widened in surprise as the beast fought against the magic to move its jaws.He hadn’t bought himself much time, and he barely managed to scramble back to his feet before the massive body of the beast tumbled and fell on him.He went down, but neither claws nor teeth went into him, so that was good.Sage felt the loup-garou shift though, shifting back to his human form.
“Shit.”Sage got back to his feet and ran, though it could barely be called running at this point.The shift would make it easier for the loup-garou to shake off the magic, and then he could just shift back and attack all over again.
Over Sage’s right shoulder, he glimpsed another Elven marker, but there was no time to properly check the direction.Sage had to run, had to get away.He rounded a massive oak—and could have cried with relief.
