Chapter 45

KNOX RAKED A HAND OVERhis head and stared at the village as the blackness began to grow closer. He hoped he could remember what he"d read in the book when talking with Leopol.

He lifted his hands and vines and trees began to grow thick from either side of him. A few more people stumbled toward him, and he kept a break in the living wall to let them through.

He pictured the living wall and extended it in his mind along the forest"s edge to the north and south. He wasn"t sure how far the curse would extend, so in the north, he took it all the way to the sea, past the mountains.

In the opposite direction, he stopped at the Southern Road, just in case others in the kingdom tried to flee into Glathen. He wanted them to have a way out if necessary.

His arms began to shake as the magic wove through him. The trees grew into massive monoliths, extending four times higher than before and the trunks growing so wide they were as big as houses. He wove vines in the gaps, then pulled up the helrose hedges too.

When there were no more movements in the village and the inky blackness was just a few feet away, he pushed the helroses toward the black sand. The blackness stopped and receded.

He tested more of it with vines, and just before the inky blackness crept toward his feet, he stepped into the gap behind him and closed the magical wall.

A sigh of relief echoed through the quiet of the forest, and he turned to see Eirwyn leaning against a tree. She smiled tightly and then bit her lip.

"I was worried about you," she said with a shrug.

Knox smiled, his shoulders relaxing somewhere. "Where"s everyone at?"

She nodded along the road. "I"ve walled off the road on both sides, and we"ve decided to camp on the road for the night. It"ll be safer to travel to Vidrland tomorrow during the day according to your Robins."

Knox sighed in relief and took a few steps along the road. Not many people had stayed near the edge of the forest, but he could see down the road as people began to congregate into groups. Some were setting fires in the middle of the road, and Knox waved his fingers, pushing the overhanging foliage back so nothing accidentally caught on fire.

"I need to warn you about something," she said, walking up to him and linking their fingers.

He wiped his sweaty brow and walked on shaky legs beside her.

She looked up at him with a frown. "Are you alright? Did you use too much magic?"

He shook his head. "No, pushed myself but I"m alright. Are you?"

He"d gotten a surge of energy when they"d finished the mating rituals earlier. He pulled her to his side and wrapped an arm around her waist.

She bit her lip and hesitated, then led him off the Lone Road and parallel to the edge of the forest. "Yeah, I"m fine."

He squeezed her hip. "Come on. Out with it. It doesn"t sound like you"re fine. What"s bothering you?"

She sighed as they neared a familiar glen. She waved a hand at the sight before them. Lailant stood next to the secret entrance to the castle, the grate open as Ashur helped pull people up the ladder.

Knox frowned. "I thought all the prisoners would"ve been out of there by now. What"s going on?"

Ashur looked up. He looked like he"d aged in the hours since they"d been separated. He turned back to help someone else up through the grate.

Knox blinked. It wasn"t really a person though, was it?

The heavyset man heaved through, another voice grumbling behind him. But the man had clock hands for a mustache. His hair looked like the curling wood of a grandfather clock. He stepped to the side and opened his jacket, popping the buttons on his shirt.

"Hobbs!" Eirwyn gasped, running to the man and touching his arm in comfort.

He began to curse. "Hells, your majesty, what am I supposed to do with this?"

Knox rubbed his head but before Eirwyn could answer, the next person came through the grate.

"You"re a clock. That"s not so bad. Look at me, for drake"s sake."

"Miere! Oh thank the gods, I was worried about you two. Cookie is safe. Did you see her come up? She"s just gone through to the Lone Road where we"ve set up camp."

Knox looked at the thin man, his hair dripping wax as a flame flickered from the top of his head. Two more flames rose from his shoulders, and he turned and blew one out.

It relit itself, and the two men began arguing over whose curse was worse, each seeking Eirwyn"s counsel as she led them to the road. She smiled and nodded, but just let the men talk. She handed them off neatly to a large woman with an apron.

Lailant stood to the side of the glen, and Eirwyn walked back to her with a frown as she whispered. Knox wanted to wrap an arm around her waist, needed to touch her.

He looked back at Ashur as he handed someone else up from the ladder, but he didn"t appear to need any help. So he followed his heart and stepped over to Eirwyn, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Eirwyn asked Lailant, "They were caught in Bella"s curse? Did it change all the people in the castle into something else?"

Lailant nodded. "Yes, the poor girl"s gone quite mad in her grief. She"s mixed her illusions with transmutation and who knows what else."

Eirwyn"s voice shook as she asked, "Did she really love my brother, then?"

Lailant looked at them both. "She thought she loved him, mostly because of that awful mirror."

At the mention of the mirror, Knox" mind whirled. What was so important about that? It nagged at him, but he was too tired to remember what was so familiar. He raked a hand down his face.

Ashur began to close the grate, but Lailant stabbed the ground with her cane.

"Wait, gargoyle. There"s one more."

Ashur rubbed his head, and his hair didn"t move. Knox blinked, but Eirwyn snapped her fingers. "That"s it. That"s why you look so familiar."

His friend had been cursed too. His skin was as marble, and his brown hair now looked to be chiseled in stone. Wings hung heavy behind him.

"Did you say gargoyle?" Knox asked, his brows high.

Ashur glared at him, then reached a hand inside the hole in the ground. "Don"t start, mate," Ashur growled.

Eirwyn said, "You look just like the gargoyle"s that were on the roof of the castle. I used to pretend they were my friends when I was a child, before I learned to escape."

Ashur shook his head with a sigh and pulled a woman up. Knox was tired and still trying to comprehend the change that had come over Ashur.

Eirwyn gasped, stepping out of his arms. He immediately went on alert, needing to protect her. He battled with his possessiveness.

"Scarlet, are you alright?" Eirwyn pulled her forward, grabbing her forearms to check her over.

Knox jerked, his eyes shifting to Scarlet in shock at seeing her in a one shoulder dress made out of one long piece of cloth. Apprehension washed over him, clawing at his stomach as his eyes met hers. She had been changed too, and she was not happy about it.

Antlers stuck up on top of her head between two long floppy ears. She had white freckles on her cheeks along with her regular freckles, whiskers, and a pale pink nose. When she turned slightly to hug Eirwyn, he saw a wolf"s tail poking through her awkward dress.

Knox stepped over. "Red," he said softly, a knot in his throat. "I thought you"d gotten out with the prisoners."

He pulled her into a hug, lifting her feet off the ground. She stiffened, then slapped his back and rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh.

"I took a healing potion, then jumped into the rebellion. What the king tried to do with Eirwyn–it wasn"t right."

"But are you alright?" he asked, gently setting her on her feet.

"I"ll be fine, Knox," she whispered, not letting him go. That"s when he knew she was more upset than she was letting on. She never accepted physical affection or comfort, not since her dad died.

She only allowed herself a few moments of comfort, then she was pulling back. She stiffened her spine and lifted her fist, glaring at him. She punched him in the bicep.

He grunted out of instinct, but his skin was tougher now from the shifting scales so he barely felt it. "Hey, what"s that for?"

She put her hands on her hips. "You"re the leader of the Robins? This whole time, and you didn"t tell me?"

He shrugged and ran a hand over the side of his head sheepishly. "You"re a Hunter, Scarlet, and you"ve stayed away from the forest for a long time. I wasn"t sure where your loyalties lay, so I thought it was better to leave you in the dark."

She glared at him and crossed her arms. "Pa would"ve joined the Robins long ago. Maybe I would"ve too if you"d have shared about it. We"ll never know, will we?"

She shook her head and crossed her arms, cocking a hip and wiggling her nose and whiskers as she glared at him. "I knew there was something going on with you, but it took a nationwide rebellion for me to find out."

He shrugged. "I"m sorry, Scarlet. But are you chewing me out so we avoid talking about your–ahem..."

He trailed off, and Scarlet"s cheeks flushed. It"d been years since he"d seen her blush that brightly. His brows rose.

"I"m not going to talk about it," she said, tilting her head up and stomping through the glen to the Lone Road.

Eirwyn walked beside Scarlet, chattering and trying to comfort her. Lailant looked at him and said, "She"s going to need you a lot more in the coming months. We all will. Seal that hole up to stop the spread of the curse, then start leading your people, your majesty."

She nodded, then turned and walked away.

Knox raked a hand over his head and stretched his neck with a sigh. He had so many questions. He shook his head, his mind fuzzy from the use of so much magic.

Ashur closed the grate with a bang, making him wince.

Knox shook his head, dizziness swarming him. He straightened his shoulders and waved his hands, weaving vines over it and then growing a tree from seed over it for good measure. His hands shook with the effort, then dropped to his side.

Ashur slapped him on the back when he was finished, and Knox almost went sprawling. Ashur jerked him upright and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, mate. Don"t realize my own new found strength. You going to the Edge?"

"No, I just need some food and good night"s rest. We might need to hunt for some of these people. If any of them pushed themselves in using their magic like I did, they"ll need something warm and hearty. They"re safe for tonight, but we"ll need to set up patrols anyway. It"s still Growlers mating season, after all."

Ashur grinned and crossed his stony arms.

Knox raised his brows. "What?"

Ashur shook his head. "Nothing. It"s just... you"re going to make a great king."

Knox stiffened but didn"t argue as they went back to camp, his mind trying to organize and plan what their next steps needed to be.

"Will"s dead," Ashur said quietly.

Knox stumbled, and Ashur grabbed his arm. He straightened and turned at the entrance to the camp. He watched Eirwyn move among the people, smiling tiredly. She made sure those who needed a hand were paired with someone strong who could help. Her eyes met his, and she frowned. He felt a wave of concern, and he shook his head.

She went back to helping the people. John sat on his horse, probably taking inventory with his strange writing tablet. The former prisoners talking animatedly with the refugees from town.

Perhaps it wouldn"t be so bad being the leader of all these people, since he had his mate with him. They loved her, and so did he. He swallowed hard past the lump of emotions in his throat.

"Tell me what happened," Knox demanded. Ashur explained how they"d stormed the castle, found the king and queen, and Will"s last mission.

"So he killed the king like he always wanted," Knox said softly.

Ashur nodded, and they both stood in silence as they honored their fallen friend.