Page 11 of The Reign of Blood

There are wolves, and wolves, and wolves. Every color, every size, and all with their snarls snapping at my father. My father who is charging toward them.

The ground beneath us rumbles as he connects with his magic, and the air around us whips tighter and harsher. Nora moves beside me and I clutch her to my chest. She hasn’t had any magic training yet, it’s supposed to start in two weeks, so she’s going to need me to guide her.

Father said to run and hide; that’s what we have to do.

With my arms around Nora, I take tiptoe steps toward the outer tree line, away from the castle. Grunts and howls echo in the distance, but I refuse to look. My focus is protecting Nora, and Daddy’s magic is making it almost impossible to move with the wind going crazy around us.

The tree line slowly gets closer, my heart racing in my chest, and just when I’m certain I’ve completed my task, a snarl rumbles through the night, but this one is much closer than the others. My eyelids fall closed as panic clutches at my chest.

I tilt my head to the left to find a jet-black wolf with storming hazel eyes and deathly white teeth inching closer. He prowls toward us, his intention clear as he licks along his pearly whites and narrows his eyes.

Clutching at my own magic, I whisper into the wind and direct the little bubble of knowledge directly to my sister without concern that the wolf will hear. I don’t look at her, and I don’t wait for confirmation. We’ve talked like this many times before; it has to work in this moment, too.

My tummy twists, a sickly burn making its way up my throat, but I fight against it and release Nora’s hand. She takes off running, her feet padding along the grass in time with my thudding pulse in my ears. I’m so focused on her escape that I don’t react quickly enough when a giant paw comes flying toward me.

A scream threatens my lips, but it’s lodged in place as I’m pinned to the ground.

I can’t breathe with the weight of the paw against my neck. I can’t see with the tears quickly flooding my vision. I can’t do anything but lie frozen in shock and fear. The glint of a claw on the wolf’s free paw shines under the moon, looming over me, before I feel excruciating pain consume my left ear, then my right. Despite the claws framing my throat, an almighty scream of terror burns from my lips.

It’s too much.

It’s all just too much.

I’m certain the wolf is going to carve away at me until there’s nothing left, but something seems to distract them. He’s gone a second later, leaving me to curl into a ball, shielding myself from the high winds and pain consuming every ounce of me. The sobs rack my body, taking everything from me no matter how hard I try to wish it all away.

A scream fills my ears and I frown for a second, certain it’s not from my own lips. My heart stops, realization dawning over me as I fight past my own pain in search of the source.

Nora.

Scrambling to my feet, I blink a few times, clearing my vision to find the same wolf who hurt me looming over her, too.

Her legs are…

She screams again, the anguish thick, and despite my need to ease my own sorrows, I push my feet into the ground beneath me, letting my magic whip through my body, but when the time comes to harness it like Daddy always tells me, I don’t. I let it consume me, I let it take everything I am to protect my best friend, my sister, my everything.

My body stiffens as the air, earth, water, and fire magic warring inside of me tries to get out. They create a bright light from my palms as it illuminates the sky and stops the awful wails coming from Nora.

As quickly as the bright sky appears, it dissolves into darkness once more. My eyes land on Nora first, finding her cowering alone in the grass. My jaw tightens and my nostrils flare as I turn in search of my father.

There’s no wolf in sight.

Not as I take a relieved breath.

Not as Nora’s sobs slowly return.

Not as I watch my father’s golden crown fall to the ground.

Swaying, I mutter my three favorite words into the wind for Nora. “I love you.”

The world shifts beneath my feet and the darkness seeps in.

I jolt awake, my ears burning and my throat tight. I’m not sure if it’s from the memory or the fact that I may have been crying out. Sitting up, I lean back against the headboard before wiping a hand down my face. Tears stain my hands and cheeks as my heart continues to hammer in my chest, leaving me breathless.

Pain consumes me as it does every time I have the unfortunate pleasure of reliving that nightmare. It doesn’t matter if I gave Raiden a condensed version; the facts aren’t his concern. My nightmares still have a way of reminding me, it seems.

6

ADRIANNA

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