The warrior wiggled his fucking fingers before I turned away.
“I don’t like this either,” Oscri said. “Look at them.”
He pointed straight ahead. I couldn’t make out who they were, but all around us in the darkness, lingering by the tree line, stood other initiates in pairs.
Heads turned in all directions, and the wind died down, leaving us all in a pressing silence. The blades of the grass whistled softly, almost invitingly, as if the most monstrous wolves I’d ever seen hadn’t recently stalked through them.
“There aren’t enough of them for all of you.”
Darcke’s voice rattled my bones.
“I’m surprised so many of you made it.” He threw his hand out to where more initiates stepped into the little light there was. “We underestimated you.” He clicked his tongue. “Too bad…”
“We need to go,” I said urgently.
“Wait.” Kilia slammed a strong arm into my chest, and I had to pretend it didn’t hurt like Hel. “We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
“Ottoh got there somehow,” Oscri said. “We need those to move on to the next trial.”
My nerves felt like they were on fire. I swept my hands over the tall grass. “Kilia is right. Just… wait one moment.”
A whisper of a smile took the silver-haired man’s features before he locked it down. Something warm clawed itself into my chest when the back of his hand brushed mine, and not in a demanding way.
“I think we’ve saved each other’s lives enough times today for you to be allowed to smile at me, you know.” I elbowed him as a pair of initiates hesitantly started walking into the glen. “Your brother has.”
“I won’t smile at a Sweengard,” Kilia responded.
I gave a short, wet laugh that tasted of iron. “Even though I’ve been so kind? Both you and your brother would be in Valhalla if it wasn’t for me.”
Oscri hushed us. “Stop fighting. Something is wrong.”
The hair on my neck stood like a hound’s hackles when the air went hot. The damp forest bed beneath our feet shivered, and a rhythmic thudding, faint as a heartbeat, vibrated through the grass.
“What—” Kilia started, but I interrupted him.
“The wolves,” I whispered.
The onyx and silver wolf appeared as if they’d been conjured by a shaman. As they stalked the towering wall of interlocked ash and oak, where the trunks were so tightly woven that not even a blade could find a gap between the bark, several initiates gasped.
“Do you think they eat humans?” Oscri asked.
“Amongst other things,” I replied.
The vibrations running along the ground intensified, each beat hammering like a breaking heart driving againsta rib cage. Another howl pierced the night, and we froze when the two initiates continued their way toward the stone even as the wolves prowled the area around them.
There were several paths to Darcke and the arm rings, the tall grass already cleaved by boots, but on either side the gray and the black wolf pranced, their maws lifted in menacing smiles.
A scream split the night. I stepped into Kilia when the two shadows began running to the stone, their feet hammering against the ground and their faces hard and determined as they tore at the tall grass.
It was a fool’s errand. It took only seconds for the wolves to catch up with them in a blur of fur and muscle. I swallowed back bile when the black animal threw a man into the air before jumping and ripping his head off his body.
Another silence settled over us before terrified whispers beat against the trees.
“I don’t want to die.”
“You go first.”
“Let’s wait and see.”
