Page 7 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

Either Ran trusted me a heck of a lot more than I think—which was unlikely—or she knows this was the best plan we have and is too scared to pause.

This better work, grungy Two-Legs.

Ran’s hooves hit the lean-to and one slipped. She almost flipped over backwards, but I threw my weight forward, righting us. A low neigh rumbled in her lungs and she used the lean-to as a springboard to leap to the one-story roof behind us. I grabbed fistfuls of mane and closed my eyes as the snarl of the white werewolf and the snap of teeth sounded from just beneath us.

That blasted rotten breath nearly took my tail,Ran grumbled.

Her hooves hit the roof, clicking over the moss and dirt wedged in the tiles of the slightly slanted, A-framed tavern. I could tell because loud, off-key singing rumbled through the planks beneath Ran’s hooves. But Ran didn’t pause long. Once she pranced a few steps, she leapt forward with enough momentum that she nearly dislodged me from her back.

RAN!I shouted.

No need to shout, Two-Legs. I’m right here.The smugness in her voice suggested she’d done that on purpose.

Idiotic, bloodthirsty?—

Careful. It’s a long way to the ground,she said.

I gulped and shut up.

My kidnapee moaned, his head thwacking against Ran’s shoulder. I reached for the wolfsbane, but as soon as my fingers closed around the extra vials in my saddlebags, Ran leapt. I heard screaming and was unsure if it were the few people on the streets below or if it was me. My mouth closed with a clack of my teeth. The screaming stopped.Nice.

The vial was jostled from my fingers when we landed, and I released a curse Mom would cut my hair for.

Oops,Ran said.

Oops? What oop—I looked over and saw a horse barreling down the street at a breakneck gallop. His eyes were wild as all heck, and he looked as if he’d seen a dragon. Or a unicorn.

Oops indeed. And he was heading right for a bunch of late-night revelers who I knew didn’t have a lick of sense left in their brains. Poppycock.

I tugged on Ran’s halter—she wouldn’t deign to wear a bit—and she glanced back at me with squinted eyes.Really?

YES, REALLY!

No need to yell,she grumbled, but she turned and leapt over an alley. I left my eyes open this time—had to in order to figure out a way down—and my soul nearly fled my body. I’d done a few daring things in my life, but we were currently three stories high with a long drop into the abyss of death.

Better not fall, then,Ran said, a twinkle in her eye when we landed on another roof.

You are enjoying this way too much,I hissed.Aren’t unicorns supposed to be afraid of heights?

She flicked me in the back with her tail, simultaneously slapping the face of the werewolf who woke up just as we were in the air again. His face was staring down into the blackness from three stories up.

“Is this some sort of odd torture?” he asked, his voice laced with a hint of amusement. He grunted when we landed, his body wiggling a bit. His blood stained Ran’s shoulder red.

We got just ahead of the horse frothing at the bit. The pathway down was looking… sketchy.

I don’t think that’s going to hold—RAN!

She released a tiny sound that was halfway between a grunt and a shrill scream and landed on an awning over a second-story balcony. The awning cracked and then gave. I screamed.

A piece of wood smacked the werewolf on the head. The metal balcony caught us, and Ran used it as a spring to leap below. Her hind hoof clipped the metal balcony railing, but we made it. She tossed her head, coming to a stop inches from the drunk men.

One guy, a beefy dude with arms the size of Ran’s hooves and black ink trailing up his arms, released a shrill scream.

His buddy looked up. There was something little and white and fluffy between them. I groaned. It was a puppy. A white puppy with eyes as wide as saucers and teeth bared in a snarl. What were two drunks doing with that?

They stole it,Ran hissed. The horse reared to a stop behind us, snorting and pawing, but Ran paid zero attention to the sweaty chestnut. Her attention was on the two men.

My kidnapee shifted to get a better look. “Is that?—”

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