My stomach sank as he opened his mouth, showcasing glistening pointed teeth, and started to shove me inside like he was eating a very large burrito.
I blinked and suddenly I was watching the fight from my human perspective. Terror ripped through me as I saw that Walsh was locked in battle with the redheaded troll and my wolf was about to be eaten. Pressure built between my shoulders and inside my chest until I felt like I might burst.
“No!” I shouted and thrust my hands out. An unseen force flew from my palms. I willed it to slam into the troll, to force him to drop my wolf.
And it did.
The troll’s eyes went wide as he was thrown back into the wall of the cage. One by one, his fingers lifted away from my wolf slowly as if he were fighting it. He grunted against the force, until finally my wolf was free and dropped to the ground. The air felt thick with my power, and I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Sage looked at me wide-eyed as the crowd started to murmur and look around for the cause of the magical force.
Just then, Walsh, who had been in a ground grapple with Red, slipped away from the troll, and the crowd seemed to shrug off the magical incident.
I was back in my wolf’s perspective, looking through her eyes and up at a very angry Mr. Mohawk. Rolling to avoid his kick, I decided to help out Walsh and avoid Mohawk as long as I could. Turning, I scrambled across the cage and wiggled under Red. His hand came down, about to grab Walsh, and I bit into his wrist, pinning it down with the move Walsh told me about. Walsh reacted with the lithe grace of a cheetah. Springing from his position on the ground, he leapt and attached himself to Red’s jugular with his teeth. With one yank, Walsh came away with his jugular and the crowd went insane.
The redheaded troll-fey’s hand that I held in my jaw went completely limp as he bled out, sticky green-black blood pooling around him in a rapidly growing puddle.
The cheers of the crowd reached a crescendo while I spun to keep my eye on Mr. Mohawk troll. He stood right behind me, grinning, holding a twelve-inch hunting knife in one hand, and my heart dropped into my stomach like a stone.
No weapons were allowed. Someone must have handed it to him and no one said a thing.
Awesome.
‘He’s got a knife, I’m shifting to human,’Walsh said.‘I’ll grapple him to the ground and you finish him.’
My wolf nodded as Walsh started to shift.
Suddenly Sage was there, tossing him sweatpants, which he slipped on quickly. The troll-fey waited patiently, grinning at us the entire time. He looked like he was going to enjoy this part and it made me sick.
I inhaled, the scent of hot wires reaching my nose.
‘I don’t like this. It smells wrong… the blade isn’t normal,’I told Walsh.
He didn’t say anything, and it took me too long to realize it was because he was human now and could no longer hear my wolf.
Shit.
Mohawk held the knife like he knew what he was doing, and my heart jumped into my throat with panic. I didn’t like the sickly green color that shimmered on the edge of the blade.
Magic.
‘Tell him it’s a magic blade,’my wolf said to my human half.
I forgot that I had a human half that could speak. Just as the troll lunged for Walsh, I screamed, “Magic blade!” as my wolf bared her teeth and growled inside of the cage. The knife skated past Walsh’s skin as he arched his back to dodge it. Pivoting, he then pulled up his fists and rained blow after blow onto the troll-fey’s face and chest, wherever Walsh could reach. It was like watching a tortured pit bull backed into a corner. Walsh was attacking like a madman completely gone berserk, and caught the troll off guard. But I knew that wouldn’t last long.
My wolf crouched and then sprang, aiming for the troll's throat. He saw me coming, briefly taking his eyes off of Walsh, and lunged for me, knife drawn high. It was like time stopped. I could tell he was going to stab me in the ribcage. But I was going too fast, with too much momentum, to slow down at this point. All I could do was brace for impact.
But the slice of pain never came. In a blur a motion, Walsh leapt in front of my wolf, knocking her to the side and out of harm’s way. His shoulder jammed so hard into my ribs, I lost my breath as I was thrown to the ground. The troll’s knife slid into Walsh’s stomach like he was cutting butter, and a howl ripped from my wolf’s throat at the same time that my human half screamed.
“Walsh!” Sage tore across the dirt-packed floor and gripped the iron cage with her fingers.
Walsh let out a strangled cry, crumpling to the ground with a look of absolute agony on his face, holding an open wound that was slowly trickling crimson.
The troll-fey grinned, adjusting his grip on the knife as he looked at Walsh like he was a rare steak about to be carved.
Over my dead fucking body.
Sage’s head whipped back to my human half. “Dosomething.”
My wolf stood, shaking herself as unbridled rage consumed the both of us. Mohawk bent, ignoring my wolf, and hovered over Walsh, giving me a nice view of his lumpy ass. Two lumps of flesh bulged out between his legs, straining under the fabric of his pants.
