Page 24 of Alpha's Magic

Holding to each other’s arms, we began to take quick but careful steps backward, but the wolves never slowed or changed their pace. I was terrified of the creatures, but I knew that if my nerve broke and I turned to run, Rory was right. They’d be on us in seconds.

“There’s an old house that’s deserted—just behind us down the road. We passed it on the way. If we can make it to the house and get inside…”

“We’ll never make it. They’re gaining on us. We have to slow them down.”

I got an idea and whispered it to him fiercely. “Call on your magic, Rory, and say, Dollicia! We can both say it at the same time and maybe it will slow them down long enough for us to get away.”

“But what is that? I don’t know that spell.”

“It’s like an ill-wish. Asher used it on me, and it froze my limbs. Just concentrate with all your might, and we’ll try to send it to the wolves.”

He nodded, turning his big green eyes toward me. “All right—I think I’m ready.”

I glared at the one in the lead, who by this time was only a few feet away. “Dollicia!” I yelled at him, and I could actually see it hit him. He shook his head and dropped down to his forelegs in the middle of the trail. Rory came up beside me and joined in, and then we said it again, trying to throw the spell at all the wolves, both of us at once. “Dollicia! Dollicia!”

Two of the smaller ones fell down as if they were dead, and the one in the lead, hit with it twice now, sagged all the way to the ground on its side, looking stunned and dazed. The wolves near the back of the pack, though, were unaffected and began to howl as I took Rory’s arm and pulled him urgently backward.

“We may only have seconds! Hurry!”

We reached the little gate at the front of the garden and wrenched it open, flinging ourselves inside. I turned and flung the word at them once more. “Dollicia!”

This time I may have put a little more of my fear and frustration into it, and more of my darker magic too. I saw the big wolf that had surged by the others to follow us and leading the pack freeze in his tracks like a stone statue. When one of the others brushed past him, he tipped over and fell down, looking dead. I wasn’t sorry in the least. I knew he would have gladly killed us both if he’d got the chance. The ones behind him stopped to sniff, and they growled and howled and a few to just nose suspiciously at his body.

Meanwhile, Rory was pulling at the front door of the little house, but it had a heavy wooden bar across it from inside, and it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard he tried. Breaking a window wouldn’t solve our problem, but only make it worse, so Rory turned and ran, pulling me with him over to a side building—a tiny tool shed that was standing open. We ducked inside and closed the door right in a wolf’s face, making it yip and snarl and snap at us behind the wood.

The door had a heavy bar that we were able to pull down across it and after it was down, we sighed with relief. But we weren’t out of the woods. We could hear the wolves outside, hurling themselves at the door, howling and whining. They were making a huge amount of noise, so I hoped the village would be alerted and the men would come with their pitchforks and axes. We both added our voices to the wolves’ howls, yelling for help with all our might.

I looked around wildly for some kind of weapon, but there was nothing but an old shovel with a broken handle. Outside the door, the wolves had grown in number, and they were clawing at the door, still howling and snapping their big teeth.

Then to my horror, I saw an open window, half hidden by old feed sacks hanging over it, that I hadn’t noticed before. The wolves had found it, and two of them were fighting each other to come through it, snapping viciously and howling to the others to leave the front door and come look.

I grabbed the broken shovel and thrust the axe in Rory’s hand. “I’ll use this and hold them off as long as I can while you run for help.”

“No,” he cried. “I won’t leave you!”

“You have to go now, while they’re distracted. It’s our only hope.”

“Get behind the table first.”

An old work table was in the middle of the floor, and we tipped it over and crouched down behind it with the wall at our backs, ready to make a last stand. I turned to Rory and said, “Now run! I’ll distract them and try to hold them here while you go for help.”

“I don’t want to abandon you!” he cried, but I shook my head.

“You have your baby to think about. I’ll hold them off you as long as I can. But run! Now!”

With one last heartbroken look at me, he turned and pulled up the bar across the door. All the wolves had gone around to the back of the shed and were fighting each other to get through the window, so there was at least a chance for Rory to get to the nearest village house.

I wracked my brain, trying to think of some spell I’d heard my father or Grimora use, but my mind was totally blank. One of the wolves was muscling his way through the window, though so many others were trying to that they didn’t all fit. I went over and swung the shovel at the first one’s head again and again, but that only served to make it madder. It went wild and snapped so hard, a tooth came out on the handle.

I tried frantically to think of what else I could do, but my mind was blank. I made it back behind the table, but then my time was up, and the wolf came crashing through with incredible speed and slammed into the table, knocking me violently backward to the ground with the tabletop falling over me. I scooted down beneath it and for a few moments, the wolf couldn’t figure out a way to get to me. I peeked up at it in horror and gasped. It was a massive black wolf, larger than the others had been, with those ferocious yellow eyes. It leaned over and sank its fangs into my shoulder, the only part of me it could reach and then pulled me out from under the table and shook me like a rag doll. The wolf’s huge head pivoted back and forth wildly, ripping my flesh and almost tearing off my arm.

The pain was shockingly bad, worse than I ever could have imagined. I was in agony and screamed, frantically, hopelessly, knowing I was about to die here in this filthy shed and knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it. I had tried instinctively to thrust up my arm in an effort to block the savage teeth as the creature kept lunging at me, but it was too fast and much too strong. It overpowered me easily and sank its teeth in all the way to the bone, ripping right through my shoulder. A gush of hot blood burst from the wound, and I felt the corrupted magic from the bite rushing into me at the same time, coursing through me like acid and making me writhe in agony. I had known these couldn’t be ordinary wolves, but this was proof. Not that I’d live long enough to tell the tale.

There was no escaping the beast. I screamed as it shook its head ferociously again, and I knew my arm was being completely ripped away from my shoulder. I was going to die here in pretty little village, just a short walk from the castle.

Then the door flew open beside me with a mighty kick, and Asher rushed in with his sword drawn and looking like the wrath of the gods, closely followed by Lex. The wolf relinquished its hold momentarily, taking a few quick steps backward, its breathing loud and harsh, saliva still dripping from its mouth. Afraid the attack would begin again, I curled over instinctively into a fetal position and missed the next part. I heard the wolf make a loud screaming noise, so some part of my brain was still functioning and assessing the situation. It told me I had to avoid exposing the vital parts of my body, like my soft belly and my throat. Another still reasoning part of my brain told me I had no chance at all to survive this attack, and it was becoming increasingly more evident. The damage had already been done, and it was devastating. Not only had my arm been ripped off, but I was pretty sure the thing had already clawed off half my face.

Beside me, as if from a long distance, I heard Asher singing out a long chant without pausing. In the background, I could hear the villagers shouting and attacking the wolves with their pitchforks. Meanwhile, Asher was calling out words that were harsh and deadly, and they literally hurt my ears. All the strength began to leave my body as the corruption from the wolf’s bite began to race through my veins. I lay on my side indifferently, knowing I was dying and almost past caring, feeling the blood gushing out of me.

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