Page 78 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

Hey, beaut. Are you ok?

I’m fine, sister. They didn’t harm me beyond the catching.

My knees weakened, even as I stared down at the book in my hand. This changed everything. Not only were we working off a false set of code, we were doing a disservice to all who had come before. To the sacrifices made of the Reds in the past generations.

We had lost all honor.

I needed to protect this book with my life. It was the only thing tying us to the old ways. The people needed to know.

A cheer rose from behind me.

I spun around the corner to find Grandma had returned. And she bore a leaf. It was gold-hued and striking. It changed, turning a bright red before browning. Then it greened up, unfurling. I had only seen such a thing from one place: the Isle of Galah, an island no one returned from. It was an isle where the seasons changed without warning and even the terrain could become desert one moment and mountainous the next. How didshe get that? The Isle was too far to travel. She must have had it on hand to grab at a moment’s notice.

My shoulders dropped.

So that was what the change meant.

I took a deep, cleansing breath and emerged from the shadows of my hidden corner. If I had lost, then I had lost. I would face it with dignity.

“I return!” Grandma said.

The people stomped their feet and chanted, “Magnum Reginea Victoria!”

I stopped beside my grandmother, holding my head high.

“You had no chance, child. But you will be commended for your bravery to face me, even unto death,” Grandma said.

The scroll zipped from Elder Pulma’s fingers. He stared at it with wide eyes, trying to grab it from the air. The scroll easily evaded him, flapping its paper wings like some abstract bird to come sniff the leaf in Grandma’s hand. It sneezed—not joking, the force threw it back about three feet—and then it came to me. It alighted on my tunic, its wings moving gently like a butterfly on a flower. I watched it as if it were a roach near my bed, tempted to shoo it off but unsure what that would make the thing do.

“What do you have there?” Elder Pulma asked.

“Nothing,” I said, leaning away from the scroll’s wings. No way was I handing over this book. I’d protect it with my life.

The flying scroll thingy detached some letters from the inside of its pages and used them to latch onto the book in my pocket. How something so light and tiny could hold something so weighty with mere ink was beyond me. I suppose it wasn’t mere ink. Based on what I’d found in the pages of the book, it was likely a magic scroll spelled by mages, just as I’d suspected.

How did Jacob find this? Why did he find it? Andhowdid he know I’d need it?

It almost… could the book be the answer to the riddle and not the changing of seasons of the Isle of Galah?

The butterfly scroll slowly flapped its way to Pulma and the other elders, putting the book in Elder Pulma’s hands before alighting on a pedestal. Like a bird tucking its wings back in after flight, it slowly folded back into a regular scroll and went still.

Elder Pulma opened the book. His eyes grew wide. “W-Where did you find this?” he asked, his voice breaking like a boy going through puberty.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

Elder Pulma slowly shook his head. “No. No, it does not. The scroll has spoken. You—you are the winner of the first trial."

Everything stopped. My people, my grandma. Heck, it even felt like the woods themselves ceased rustling.

Grandma slowly turned. Her face was so expressionless it was a bit terrifying.

A bit?Ran said.

She was right. It was alotterrifying.

"The second trial will be told by the sword. The life of the matriarch is rife with terrible decisions. Bring them forth."

Two enforcers brought out two beings. They sagged in the grip of their captors, their skin red and peeling. I sucked in a breath. Nymphs. The one on the right raised his eyes. A part of me sagged. They were not the nymphs I had met, but it was terrible to see the two, who looked like nothing more than children, brought before us, shackled and tortured. My heart ached at theirneedfor water, for freedom, and for family.

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