I feel the power stir, rising like mist from the soil?—
And then Tharuzel blasts me with some kind of pissed-off whammie, and the ancestors vanish.
Have you forgotten my mark on your bloodline or that I hold your blood contract? Shall I kill you and collect your sisters instead?
No! Leave them.
Then live up to our agreement.
What do you want?
Follow the wolf back to me, and you shall find out.
The wolf’s eyes lock on mine, then it turns, leading me deeper into the trees. I’m going to die. I’m alone and can’t fight without putting my sisters in danger.
My mind is spinning, but I can’t see any way out of this. He owns me, and he knows it.
A bolt whistles past my head and strikes the wolf in the front shoulder. It reels backward, twisting.
“Your Red Riding Hood moment is over, Poppy. Time to go back inside.”
The demon’s seduction call seems broken with the attack of the beast, and I manage to turn around.
Asher is standing in his Scooby-Doo onesie, hair mussed, and his compound bow raised. “That is one freakishly horrifying wolf.”
He releases another bolt, and relief and horror collide in my chest.
Asher, no!
He lunges forward, grabbing my arm. "Poppy, wake up. We need to get inside!"
The wolf snarls and launches between us, refusing to let me go.
"Back off, Cujo.” He fires another bolt, and it sinks into the wolf’s flesh with athwump. “I can do this all night. Prepare to become a beastly porcupine.”
It doesn’t seem to affect it, other than to piss it off more.
Is it even alive? Can it feel pain?If it’s a demon wolf, maybe it likes pain. Honestly, I have a sickening feeling that nothing we do will take it down.
A fourth metal bolt embeds into the wolf, and that seems to be the last straw. It lunges, and Asher is washed with wide-eyed panic.
No! Asher, run!But of course he can’t hear me, and even worse, I can’t help him.
The wolf attacks, teeth snapping, then it's on him.
Teeth sink into his shoulder, claws raking across his chest. He screams. The sound is raw, and cleaves my heart like a dagger.
I try to move.
Try to breathe.
But I'm frozen, watching as the wolf drags my best friend down into the dirt. Blood spreads across his shredded onesie, dark and wet.
“ASHER!”
No, this can’t happen. I can’tletthis happen. After all the sacrifices he’s made for me, I won’t let his life be the last.
Fuck you, Tharuzel!The darkness inside me rears its ugly head, but I don’t try to keep it locked in the jewelry box. Instead, I let it out.
