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But I wasn’t a child anymore. There were things I deserved to know, whether they were painful or not.

I opened the door and stepped out into the cool air, wondering if I needed to take a stand. Perhaps it was time I insisted on answers.

It was time I finally knew the truth.

Two

THE WOLF

Death drifted on the wind tonight. The wolf in me could scent it.

It smelled like rot and despair.

I inhaled deeply, my eyes closing as my magic swelled around me. Tavik, my wolf, growled within me, eager to be set loose.

“I can’t unleash you again,” I mentally told him. I had already let him out to hunt earlier. “If I shift, I won’t be able to communicate with Reid.” Reid was my second, and the best tracker in our tribe. When I tracked or hunted alone, I often let Tavik loose, but when I had a companion, it made things more difficult. As Wolven Mages, we could communicate with our inner wolves telepathically, but not each other. I could only speak to Reid in my human form.

“These tracks are different,” said Reid from my left. He crouched to the ground, running his tan fingers over an imprint in the soil. His eyes closed as he no doubt trusted the senses of his own wolf, Nell. For several moments, he remained silent, and I afforded him the privacy to discuss with his wolf.

We stood just outside the ruins of what had once been a lumber mill, a few miles from our lands. Rusted and broken saw blades littered the ground around us. The crushed machinery was so overcome with vines and roots that it looked like it was part of the foliage. The stench of rotting wood mingled with the brisk pine scent of the forest.

The place seemed abandoned, but there were fresh claw marks gouged into the walls. A sharp scent wafted in the air—something that reminded me of leather with a hint of garlic.

Reid’s eyes opened, and the gleam of gold in his irises flashed in the moonlight. “Human. But something… other.”

“Human?” I repeated with a frown. Before now, the tracks we had been following had belonged to a wolf. We had assumed we were tracking a feral Wolven Mage—a Rogue. “Are you sure?” Here in the Wind Court, humans were rare. The population was made up of magical beings: fae, witches, and Wolven Mages, and each had a distinct smell. Other courts had humans among their people, but not here.

I breathed in deeply, nostrils flaring as I tried to place the something other that Reid was referring to. But I couldn’t make out anything. “Could it be a fae?” I wondered aloud. Fae and humans had a similar scent, although the former generally smelled more woodsy.

“It’s hard to say,” Reid admitted. “The scent is powerfully cloaked by something else I can’t place.”

“Which means it’s likely fae,” I mused. “Humans aren’t able to use cloaking or glamour like the fae can.”

A twig snapped nearby, and I shot a quick glance through the darkened forest to ensure we weren’t being watched. We were technically on the fae lands, which meant we had to travel at night and use as few members of our tribe as possible. The fae folk despised the Wolven Mages. They believed us to be savage beasts who dabbled in dark magic and brought about plagues on their people.

Little did they know that we were responsible for hunting the very monsters they feared.

Monsters like this Rogue we had been tracking for days now. When a Wolven Mage went feral, he became uncontrollable, volatile, and dangerous. He couldn’t control himself.

“The scent of the wolf is strong here,” Reid went on, sniffing the air near an old rusted sign half-covered in moss. His shoulder-length brown hair stirred slightly in the chilled wind. The leaves of nearby trees rustled, making an eerie hissing sound.

Wrong, the wind seemed to say. Something is wrong here.

“Yes, there was definitely a wolf here,” Reid concluded. “And the human creature is magically tethered to it.”

“What does that mean?” I asked with a frown. If there was evidence of man and wolf together, the obvious answer was that it was a shifter like us.

“I don’t know. But I do not scent Wolven magic on them.”

“I can smell the wolf, too,” Tavik said. “It is quite distinct. Not our kind, though. That much is clear.”

I rubbed my chin, eyes narrowed. A wolf, but not a Wolven Mage? A human in a non-human court? None of this was making any sense.

I inhaled again, my eyes closing as I focused on the scents around me. The smell of Wolven magic often smelled of spice and rich loam. But Reid was right—this scent was unfamiliar. It was sharp, like garlic.

“So a wolf is traveling with a human-like creature?” I asked. This was strange indeed. Rogues often traveled alone; they were so wild that they killed anyone who got too close.

Reid didn’t answer immediately. His thick brows furrowed, and his lips tugged downward in a frown. “This is unlike any magic I’ve scented before, Alaric. It might not be one or two creatures, but several. We must be cautious.”