Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

A scream escapes me as claws sink into my shoulders and I am crushed into the ground. Folost flies away, knocked from my grip by force and surprise. I try to twist, landing as best I can so Mary isn't crushed. The lykin lands atop me and I am gouged further by back paws on my thighs. Hot breath glazes over my cheeks with a snarl as a maw of sharp teeth shine in Folost's tiny light.

"Get off of her!" Aurora shouts, kicking at the wolf's side. It does little good.

The wolf swings his head, snapping at Aurora with his deadly maw. She snarls back, baring her teeth. I'm helpless to do anything other than be pinned under the wolf's weight, feeling every claw sink deeper and deeper into my muscle. Waves of pain leave me gasping.

There's another rustling of leaves. A second wolf emerges, but it takes me a second to see from where. This beast is as black as midnight and seems to absorb what little light there is.

The second beast shakes his coat, as if emerging from water. In the process, the fur ripples away like mist and shadow. Paw turns to boot in a single step. Black fur becomes black trousers, fitted to the waist. Evander straightens, as though he was just crawling on all fours. A man in place of where a wolf once was.

"We're not here to hunt humans," he cautions Bardulf. "She is not our concern."

Another snap from the wolf atop me. Bardulf glares up at Evander and they lock eyes. Possibly speaking with senses alone.

"I said, get off!" Aurora kicks Bardulf again, this time in the side of his face, breaking the silent communication between the two wolf knights.

I need to get up. But all I can see is stars dotting the heavy canopy above, floating through my vision, my temples splitting. Hot blood seeps and pools around me, steaming against the cool night air. My body is going numb. Shock, likely. That's probably what's happening…I'm going into shock. If I understand what I'm feeling, then I can push through it.

"Enough of this!" Evander grabs Bardulf by the back of his neck, like a mother wolf grabbing her cub, and throws him away. Bardulf changes his shape midair, a string of curses erupting from him as he lands heavily.

"You think you can manhandle me, you packless orphan?" Bardulf recovers and thrusts his chest out, almost meeting Evander's.

Evander says nothing to him and turns away, focusing instead on Aurora and me. "You convinced a human to help you and now she'll pay the price for it." His eyes shift to meet mine and there's a brief pause. His lips part slightly and then twist into a harder line. As if he is disgusted by the mere sight of me. "You shouldn't be here, witch. You have already lost your home tonight. Go before you lose your life, too."

It's these men's fault I nearly lost everything dear to me. Hatred has me pushing off the ground. "I'm not leaving without Aurora."

"Faelyn, don't," Aurora cautions.

"She's bonded with me, and me alone. Your king can't have her power any longer," I declare. "So let us leave. And when you both return to him, tell him to stop hunting us. It's over."

The words seem to echo through the woods. The two lykin go perfectly still. Like statues cast in an artist's rendering of pure shock.

"You…cannot bind yourself with any but the wolf king," Bardulf stammers at Aurora. "It's impossible."

"I assure you, it's not." Aurora doesn't sound nearly as pleased as I would've thought. Is this not her opportunity to finally rid herself of those who would be her captors? Shouldn't she delight in telling them she can no longer be used?

"Where is the ring? Take us to it. Now!" Spittle flies from Bardulf's mouth as he stomps toward her.

"I already told you, I don't have it." Aurora is perfectly calm in the face of his rage.

Bardulf moves faster than I'm able to process. He's behind me, an arm around my neck. Hooked tightly. I wheeze. My shoulders hurt too much to put up much of a fight. With every movement I make, more blood leaves me.

"Don't!" Aurora shouts.

"Let her go." Evander steps forward. "She's not our concern." He grinds out every word.

"She made her our concern when she stole the ring." Bardulf squeezes even tighter. I gasp like a fish on land. "Where is it?" he snarls in my ear.

I can't answer.

"She doesn't have it! I destroyed it!" Aurora says quickly. "When the ring broke, my power went into her. Not me. She's the one who has the other half of my essence now. She… She is the ring ."

Both of them go still for a second time. The words and their meaning dawn on them as it does on me. Her power is within me, the power the wolf king coveted, and hunted. Aurora told me that he would be after her now…but I didn't take the danger seriously enough. I couldn't comprehend it. Nor did I think hard enough on what this power could've meant.

Why did I think some barriers would keep the wolf king himself from getting what he wanted? We should have left last night. Why didn't I press her harder for the truth, details, something?

Shock slackens Bardulf's arm around my throat. He releases me and I collapse, wheezing.

"Undo it," Bardulf says quickly. He looks genuinely panicked.

I look to Aurora, but she's focused on the men. She said she was sworn to be bonded to the wolf king…but instead, she and I are. And I know as well as I presume Bardulf does that…

"The power cannot be properly transferred by mortal hands," Aurora says solemnly. "To remove it from her, we would have to stand before the old gods in the siren's Eversea and beseech them for aid, as I did ages ago. Take me there and perhaps?—"

"You really think we will take you to the old gods? Where you can just ask to be restored to your original form and leave the lykin forever?" Bardulf scoffs. There's a crazed, panicked look in his eyes. He takes another step back toward me. "I say we just kill her. Put the power back that way."

Evander stops him with an arm. "Didn't you hear Aurora? We can't."

"Exactly. If you kill her, who knows what will happen," Aurora cautions solemnly. "The magic already didn't act as I thought it would—seeking out another, more temporary physical form, rather than my own. If you kill her, maybe it'll transfer again, maybe not. Do you really want to risk half my essence being lost, forever, to all of us?"

Bardulf seems to really consider this. "But we can't… We…" He looks to Evander. "What do we do?"

"We take them both to Conri," Evander declares. "It will be up to the king of the wolves, alpha of all packs, to decide what is to be done. He will want to meet the human that stole the spirit of the moon."