He bowed again.
I howled into the night. I drew in the power of the moon and pulled as much down as I could. I howled until my lungs were sore and my throat raw. My wolf kept growing, increasing in power and ferocity.
Then I looked upon every wolf waiting for me, watching me.
There are no more packs or clans. There are no more wolves of the Warlands. There is only the pack of the Half-Moon. The Army of the Jebra. We are the ghosts in the night that will bring down Lady Skol. We are the wolves to leave the desert! Tonight is the last night that you are illegal!
A thousand cries went up in response.
I jumped down from the platform and began running after the lights headed for Lassig. Thousands of paws ran beside me and behind me. We were the sound of boiling thunder, of heart attack inducing fear, of tearing claws and unforgiving mercy. Anyone that had ever helped Lady Skol was going to die. For tonight was the night of death.
And I was going to killher.
Chapter 27
FEYRA
We were in the antechamber I’d dreamed of so many times before all this began. When life had been normal, when I’d been Aunt Teetee’s apprentice, when the only problems I had in my life were having odd dreams and wishing I was a shifter.
Now I was a shifter, and my dreams were portals to another world.
Melania had taught me a lot since leaving Malwreith.
But now I was watching the very woman I had to kill.
Lady Skol stood at a small table, looking at a crystal orb. She was swirling a mist that I couldn’t see into with claw like hands. Every few seconds the orb flashed a different color or began to hum, but now it was dormant. It had lain blank for minutes. The moon had gone behind a series of clouds, and the city had descended into darkness.
“You wolves are always so temperamental,” she said. “Need your moon.” She turned, smirking at me. “Well, I wasn’t wrong of you. I knew you were dormant because of your Aunt but I hadn’t expected such a wolf to erupt. How impressive.”
I was still unable to move. She hadn’t let me change my stance since she took me down in Moondaj. My body was cramping and sore from the unchanged position. The blood still bled from my stomach, but it had slowed now. A small puddle was below me.
Lady Skol stood over me, simpering now. “How tragic you’ll die after finding your fated mate.” She tittered. “Such mortal things. But me? I am immortal. I bet she didn’t tell you that, did she? Melania always thought she knew everything, saw everything. But she couldn’t see what wasbeforeher. I have been here since before the werewolves. Since before any of you were even possible to exist. I was in the wastelands before it was waste.”
She strode to the window. I could feel her reaching out, the same way that Dion did, trying to pry into my soul. But I was steeled against her.
She may have stopped my body but not my mind.
“He should be captured now. I’m sure they’re bringing him here as we speak. I knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore all those wolves out there.Your kind. Your brothers…How despicable. You were predators once. Well now–”
The moon came out from behind the clouds in the small orb. Lady Skol turned, her lips pursed. Then the real moon emerged and shone over the city. From where we were in her antechamber, it was as if thousands of lights were flooding across the city rooftops.
“What is this?” Lady Skol spat. “How?” She looked at me. “What is this?”
She shattered the glass orb, opened her window, and tasted the air. She put her hand out and sensed the winds, pulled at the power of each wolf below. She hissed and recoiled, briefly turning into the reptilian version of herself.
“The King’s Seal!”she hissed it in a different language, yet somehow, I’d understood.
The shock took away her guard, and my parent’s locket began to vibrate. It had been against my neck this whole time, and I’d never felt it until now.
But more than that,I could move.
I shifted immediately.
Lady Skol turned to me, unsurprised. The moon shone through the window and lit up my fur, my skin felt like diamond steel, I was as strong as I’d ever been.
“I should’ve killed you earlier!” she drawled, then threw a ball of green lighting.
I batted it away and the wall facing away from the city exploded. Lightning snapped outside like an angry snake. The thunder rolled like a million war drums. Howls sounded into the night from down in the city. Screeches of thousands of merls answered, and I could see them flying through the raining night. The haunting dirge of Siren Singers went up finally.
