Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

There are two options: Plead or Run.

Evander makes the choice.

He surges forward and the trees blur around us. I grip his fur as Aurora and I are nearly thrown off in the rush. Aurora's arms squeeze my waist, causing me to hold on even tighter. I'm sure I'm hurting him, but I can't ease my grip. If I do, we're liable to be thrown. He's already snarling and barking—practically roaring—as he charges toward the men and women in the town.

"Fine. The hard way, then." Conri rolls his shoulders and lunges, changing into his wolf form as well. The other lykin that never abandoned their beastly forms charge in.

"Evander!" I can't help but shout, though I don't know what I'm asking him to do. The opportunity to try and make excuses—to spin this in our favor—left the moment he decided to run for the edge of the lykin's territory. But what is he thinking we're going to do? We're not safe just because we're out of lykin territory. With no king or queen controlling it, Conri will still give chase. We're not safe until we're in the land of the elves, and that could be an entire day, perhaps two.

Horror descends upon me with a sickening chill. This is futile .

"Faelyn!" Aurora shouts as well. I feel her head move, looking at the wolves closing in all around in a panic.

I have to do something. I release Evander's fur to take Aurora's hand, asking without words, apologizing with a squeeze. I'm going to need her power once more. The spirit was summoned too recently.

"Brundil!" I have no command. No etiquette or specific desire. But the spirit of earth comes anyway, manifesting as action, rather than a humanoid form, no doubt saving her power. The ground cracks and rumbles around us, stretching open save for a bridge of stone that Evander runs along. A bridge that connects us to the town.

Conri scrambles along with his knights, trying to find purchase on the slipping moss and soil. Leaves and dead underbrush sink like a waterfall, carrying the lykin with the tide. Many don't make it out, falling into the yawning abyss that has opened wide enough to consume whole trees. But Conri is able to scramble up. The wolf king bounces off those falling trees to solid land, angling himself toward us as we plunge into the ruins of the town.

There's no water around. I try and fumble for my bag. I can get Folost and then?—

Evander dodges. A wolf comes from the left, snarling and snapping. The movement has me reaching for his fur once more so I'm not thrown. At the cost of…

"Folost!" I scream, looking behind me at the brick shard that bounces among the grasses. It sparks, igniting a small fire, but does little more than that.

What else can I do? I close my eyes and rack my mind for spirits. I could try Brundil again, but she already expended so much energy.

But she's all we have.

I suck in a breath and it is forced out as Aurora and I are thrown off Evander's back. We tumble, cast apart. I dig my fingertips into the ground, trying to find purchase to slow my roll. Drawing my knees under me, I force myself to stand, ignoring the pain in my joints and the blood scattered across the ground from superficial wounds and scrapes.

Conri and Evander are a tumbleweed of fur and snarls. Just when one gets the upper hand, the other makes a snap. The flow changes. I notice other wolves—Conri's loyal knights—beginning to scramble out of the hole Brundil made. Aurora's hand closes around mine.

"Faelyn," she whispers, my name taut with pain and fear. There's a question in there, too. One I've been asking every second that's ticked on and don't have an answer for.

What are we going to do?

Evander is thrown. I almost let out a shout, grabbing for my chest, as if I could take my heart in my hands to protect it from what I'm seeing. From the images that flash before my mind at twice the speed of reality of Conri tearing out Evander's throat.

Evander twists midair, landing as a man on his hands and feet.

"Faelyn, run." He looks my way and I know what he's really saying. Leave me; I'll buy you time.

"No," I whisper.

"Run!" He changes back into his wolf form just in time to lock claws with Conri again.

"Faelyn?" Aurora says.

I can't. I can't leave him. I finally found him after all this time. My heart was just put back together and it's breaking again. There has to be a way for all three of us to make it out of here. Something I can do. A spirit? Something!

"Faelyn!" Aurora shouts, drawing close as the other wolves gather.

I let out a cry of pain, as if it's my flesh Conri's claws are sinking into. Squeezing Aurora's fingers with all my might, I turn.

I love him more than every spirit that walks the earth. I love him with all I am and all I could be. And it's because I love him that I will respect his wish, even if doing so inflicts a wound on my heart worse than any I have ever known before.

"Are you sure?" Aurora pants as we begin to sprint toward the center of town.

No. I'm not . I've never been less sure of anything in my life. I'm leaving my soulmate behind. How could I be sure about anything involving that?

"Stop." Conri's voice is chilling. He doesn't shout after us. It's not full of anger or rage. And that's why I skid to a halt.

The world blurs as I swing my head around, looking back. Everything comes into focus on Evander. I thought the other wolves would come after Aurora and me. But they didn't. They went for him. Two wolves have his arms. Conri has a fist of Evander's hair. His perfect, dark, silken hair that I ran my fingers through countless times…

Conri gives words to the threat that is already painfully clear. "Run and he dies."

Aurora's grip slackens on mine. In my periphery, I can see her looking between us.

"It's all right," she whispers, even though she's still slowly stepping backward, as if we might still run. "They were going to get us anyway." The words are an absolution. They're forgiveness for the pull of my heart despite my best efforts.

Conri chuckles, low and sinister. "I knew you'd stop. Just like I knew that if I let him go off on his own…he'd lead me right to you."

"What?" I breathe.

"You really take me for a fool, don't you?" Conri glares at me. "You think I didn't know? That I couldn't puzzle it out?" I open and close my mouth. He continues in the wake of my speechlessness. "A witch from that pathetic little corner of the Natural World I found him and his father rotting in. A place where witches have been for years. A woman that completely changed my knight's actions from the moment he laid eyes on her. Oh, I saw it from the start. And then when you smelled like nothing after being around him? Sweet Faelyn, no one smells like nothing ."

My spell worked far, far too well. Here I thought I was clever, and all the while it was the proof Conri needed.

"Actions of a woman who had everything to hide."

"Let them go," Evander snarls.

Conri jerks his fist up, like Evander is nothing more than a puppet. He's going to rip Evander's hair out by the roots. "You are in no place to negotiate," Conri growls into Evander's face. "And you must think I've lost my mind if I would let my moon spirit go."

"Don't hurt him, please." My request brings Conri's attention back to me.

"And what makes you think that you have any leverage to ask me anything?" He snarls. "Moreover, why would I keep the man you love alive?"

"Because of leverage. Keep him alive, chained, and I'll do as you want. I won't run. I won't fight. I'll be your bride." The words are hard to say. But I force myself to say them anyway. As long as we're breathing, there's a chance for us to be together . That's what Evander told me in the grove as we sat, professing love in ways we'd only ever once dreamed of. He endured years of pain, for me. I will keep breathing, for him. We will both endure with our only sustenance being hope.

"As long as you have her power, I have you under my control." Conri shrugs.

"Faelyn and I made a pact," Aurora speaks up. Her hand is still wrapped around mine. "Death is better than coming back with you."

"You wouldn't." Conri's grip slackens some with horror.

"I have lived a long, long time," Aurora whispers. Her voice is as cold as a winter's gale. As lifeless as bleached bone. "I have watched kings rise and fall. I have fought for freedom and lost. Now, for the first time, I have the opportunity to end it." She grabs me. In one motion she digs into my bag and pulls out the small knife I use for my threads. Aurora yanks me to her and presses the blade to my throat. I gasp as its point draws a bead of blood. It's a small blade, but it doesn't take much when pressed against the bulging vein of the neck. "What makes you think I wouldn't take it? With or without her willingness?"

"Aurora?" I hide her name in a gasp. Not daring to ask another question.

She says nothing.

"All right. All right." Conri releases Evander with a shove. Aurora's grip slackens on me. "Then here's what's going to happen. We're all going back to Den. We're all going to pretend this never happened, and things will go back to the way they were." He locks eyes with me. "Tomorrow, come moonrise, you and I will be wed."

"But the full moon—" one of his knights begins to object.

"Damn the moon! Enough waiting and excuses—I will have my power!" Conri roars, stomping over to me. Aurora's grip slackens. She backs away as he grows near, releasing me so Conri can yank me into his grasp. The wolf king looks down at me with rage. Hunger. Hate. "And let it never be uttered that I am not merciful. I am far more than the likes of you ever deserved."