Page 89 of In the Light of the Moon

I sent a silent apology to Orion, to Granna, and readied myself for Graham who was stalking forward with his much larger weapon. Why the tree monster wasn’t just finishing me off, I didn’t know, but just as I readied my body and all the power I could muster, my ears picked up the steady beat of feet running through snow. My mark warmed, and my heart picked up even more, adrenaline pumping and hope rising.

Graham raised the dagger, and I swore I almost saw my reflection in the gilded blade before his body was thrown to the side by a white blur. An arc of blood danced in the air, and my own shout of surprise was drowned by the thud of bodies hitting the snow. My hand shook with unplaced rage and fear, but it felt like I couldn’t move.

Snarls rang out in the dead of the night, and I tried to keep my eyes on the three different spots of chaos.

A large, lean Wolf with reddish-brown fur stood before Josie, baring its fangs and snapping at Graham’s Wolves who were doing the same.

To my right, Graham’s pink flesh grappled with the white Wolf that I knew and loved so much.

And directly across the snow-covered ground stood the being that gave Graham the dagger. Presumably, the one who wanted me dead. They looked on the whole scene with detached, disappointed eyes and didn’t move at all to help the ‘loyal pups’ that’d brought me to them.

A deep bellow followed by a piercing yelp brought my attention back to where Orion fought Graham, and my feet finally moved me forward. They kept going at each other, crimson blood and snarls flying up from the scuffle of teeth and golden blade.

I didn’t know how to get in the middle without accidentally injuring Orion, and as far as I knew, my powers required me to touch to do anything useful.

Graham’s two Wolves, Ana and Jasper, were still facing off with… Dr. Vanders. A cold breeze brought a flurry of snowflakes and their familiar scent over to me, and tears spilled down my cheeks. They stood over my friend, protecting her, and my mate was protecting me while I was standing and doing nothing.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady the buzzing of my awareness that had only grown in intensity, but before I could exhale, an agonized whine shattered all clearing of my mind.

Another spatter of blood curled in the frigid air, painting the snow and side of my face red. Two bodies sank into the snow, and a phantom, stabbing pain in my chest made tears spring to my eyes.

The gold-hilted blade was still in Graham’s half-shifted grip while he lay on the ground, gasping up toward the sky like a fish out of water. Transparent steam trailed up from a gaping wound in his throat, but I barely registered it as I sank to my knees beside Orion.

Air whistled out of his black nose, and his snout was covered in red and tissue. He struggled for a moment to get his legs under him, but he collapsed again, sending up tufts of bloody snow.

I dropped my knife at the sight of the blooming wound at his chest. There were scrapes and slashes elsewhere, but this one was darkening so fast, the red spreading across his fur with every breath. My hands hovered over the wound, and I… I could feel it. The cold lethality of the dagger’s strike.

My mate was dying.

Even as I pressed my hands to the stab wound, trying to stop the bleeding, I knew that it was doing nothing. His bright green eye blinked up at me, and through a flood of tears and blubbering and pleas, I sent calm through my hands. Because it was all I knew how to consciously do that could help, and I hated myself, even cursed Granna for never teaching me substantial healing magic.

Orion’s eyelids were taking longer pauses, blinking more slowly while watching me all the way. “I can’t do this baby, I can’t do this, please don’t leave me, please.”

He huffed a gust of air through his nose and just looked. His body relaxed under my touch, but the blood kept coming.

It wasn’t fair, it wasbullshit, and I raised my gaze to see the being still watching us with those detached eyes and distorted body. I felt like I could breathe flames, that I could decimate entire cities with how much rage I had, but it all just came out in one long, agonized scream. The veins at my temples bulged with my cry, cursing this being for doing this in the only language I could muster.

They had no reaction to my outburst, of course. Just looked down at Graham in disappointment and then back at me like I was a mere annoyance. They weren’t even trying to get me. Dr. Vanders was doing their best to take snaps of their teeth at Anaand Jasper who were even more aggressive now that Graham was down.

I looked back down at Orion and blinked the tears out of my eyes while his blood squelched under my hands that were pressing, pressing to no avail. We’d barely had any time together, and all I kept thinking about were his promises to keep me safe and the life Josie said she’d seen for us.

He’d kept his promise, saved me from Graham, but it seemed as though our future was going to be cut short. I started hyperventilating, feeling the life within my mate dim like it was my own, and I was so preoccupied with holding his stare for as long as I could that I didn’t notice the heavy, crunching footsteps until they were right on me.

“Amnes,” a new, deeper voice boomed through the trees and rattled my bones in a soothing way. I flinched when the earth literally shook beneath me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others startle and face the other being that charged from the darkness.

They were like the one who’d given Graham the dagger, but their bark skin was a deep brown. Their hair, instead of red and brown, hung in blacks and greens.

Whoever they were, instead of disappointed or indifferent, their sharp teeth were drawn in outrage. They charged at the other whose face broke to reveal true fear before trying to retreat.

The other was already on them, though, and I struggled to focus when they started to move faster than my eyes were physically capable of tracking. Their long fingers were tipped in claws that swiped, and their fight sent them crashing into trees, breaking them like twigs. Luckily, none landed on any of us, but I curled over Orion, keeping my calming touch on him and trying to protect him from any more pain.

A loud, wet ripping followed by a thudding crack rang through the air before the ground shook again.

The red-haired being was lying face up in the snow, mouth sneering as they stared up at the other. Held in their dripping, dark hand was an unnaturally red heart.

The second monster spoke in a language that at first sounded unfamiliar, but I then felt the meaning of the words in my blood. Like that of the fungi and spiders.

“Your attempts at hurting her are pathetic, Amnes. Drawing sacrifices to come outside of this day that nature allows us. Toying with the mortals of this world and tricking our own descendants to do what you were too cowardly to do, lest I be able to smell your hand on the killing blow. You die a fool, cousin.”The black- and green-haired monster sank its long, sharp teeth into the beating heart in their hand and… ate it while making the other one watch.

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