Page 63 of Resurgence of the Pack

Then hush and let me concentrate. He’s a wily prick and he needs my full attention.

I refocused on the man in front of me. ‘Do you have any animals here?’ I asked briskly.

He raised an eyebrow at the odd question but went to the door, opened it and peered out. ‘Get me Aristotle,’ he ordered gruffly to whoever was on the other side.

We waited for Aristotle’s arrival in uncomfortable silence but luckily we weren’t kept waiting long. There was a quiet knock on the door. ‘Come,’ Krieg called gruffly. The door opened hesitantly and in came a male servant with the green skin of a dryad carrying a white bird in a large, ornate metal cage.

‘Hello, fuckers,’ the bird said then made a rude noise. The servant blanched, like he might be held responsible for the bird’s uncouth language.

I blinked in surprise. I hadn’t used my piping skills, the servant had clearly heard the bird swearing and, by the exasperation on his face, so had Timmy. Whatever Aristotle was, he was magical. ‘Hello,’ I said finally. ‘Nice to meet you, Aristotle.’

‘Nice to meet your ass, too,’ the bird squawked back, hopping to and fro on his perch. ‘Let me out of the cage?’ Histone was entreating and a little pathetic. My heart twanged.

‘No,’ Timmy said firmly. ‘As you can see, he’s a caladrius.’

I had no idea what a caladrius was but I did my best to hide my ignorance. ‘I didn’t anticipate you bringing a creature that can talk out loud,’ I admitted.

‘Does it matter?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I said finally. ‘We’ll find out, I guess.’

I closed my eyes and concentrated, reaching into the well of piping magic that existed within me, pulling it upwards until it filled my every cell and vibrated with magic. Then I reached out to Timmy and did my best to pass him my magic, to tie him not just to the caladrius but to all animals.

I was trying to give him my ability to pipe – butnotto allow him to pipe humans. I didn’t want him to be able to take away people’s free will; he was a crime lord so I couldn’t exactly rely on him to exercise his moral code. Or maybe I could, but his moral code would be vastly different to mine.

It was the only thing that I could think of that would result in him releasing us. We were literally running against the clock because the theft would happen tomorrow and I had to be there to stop it. If Krieg needed to speakto his damned horse, I’d make sure he could. Maybe then he’d let us go and we could stop the thief from taking the orb.

I accepted that the werewolves had lost their air powers for a couple of centuries – that couldn’t be undone – but if I could grab the orb from the past and bring it back to the present, voilà. Air powers for all wolves, the restoration of the link to the Great Pack for Nina and proper access to the Great Pack without werewolves’ souls being sacrificed.

Was I nervous about giving Krieganyextra power? Yes. Could I think of something else to do? No. So Krieg was going to learn piping but I’d keep it to animals, if I could.

When I was done with the complex magic, I was exhausted and not even sure if I’d done it properly – or at all. I’d fumbled through the whole thing and besides, I’d never heard of people passing on their piping skills even temporarily. But I’d been made into a piper by a freaking magical elven dagger called Glimmer so the normal rules didn’t seem to apply to me.

I opened my eyes. ‘Try and speak to the bird but in your head, not with words out loud. You might need to hum a little tune first to get the power working.’

Timmy Krieg was staring at me wide-eyed. ‘What have you done to me? Did you make me a piper?’

I shook my head. ‘Not a full one. I gave you the ability to speak to animals, but I don’t know whether it will bepermanent or not. It might only be temporary. If it is, you need to get to your estate pronto to speak to your horse.’

Timmy licked his lips and hummed a soft ditty that I didn’t recognise. As the song fell silent on his lips, his eyes widened even more and he stared at his magical, dove-like bird with his mouth hanging open.

He closed it with a snap and turned to me. ‘Fine. You can go, but you’ll take my man Langston with you. If your magics are gone by the time I reach the estate, Langston will bring you back to me kicking and screaming. Are we clear, Your Majesty?’

‘As crystal,’ I replied. ‘We’re done here?’

‘We’re done.’

I hesitated. ‘Can I ask a question?’ I figured I might as well; after all, this Krieg was dead and gone in my time so if I offended him it wouldn’t really matter.

He raised an eyebrow, reaching up a hand and tugged on one of his horns. ‘Ask. I might not answer.’

There was humour in his voice so I decided to go for it. ‘Have you heard of an organisation called the Domini?’

He grimaced. ‘Well, that’s a damned shame. I hoped that the bastards would be disbanded in the future, but if you’re here sniffing after them then I guess The Order is still going.’

‘The Order?’I asked. The name tugged at something in my memory: I’d heard the phrase before and it was important, but I couldn’t for the life of me rememberwhereI’d heard it.

‘That’s what we call ourselves,’ he explained.

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