Page 93 of Moon Cursed

“What do I do with them when I get in there?” he asked. “There’s no way anyone’s going to eat a donut with that mushroom thing sprinkled on top. Doubly so for the forest wolves. You can taste the wrongness coming off of it.”

“Not when it’s boiled down and mixed into something with a stronger flavor.” Nyx helped me over a log—ever the gentleman. “That’s why I want you to put it in the beer. One mushroom gives us thirty-two doses. Any more and it’s too diluted to work and their cords will heal. Any less and it’s too strong and their throats will burn up and they’ll die.”

“Hmm. Are you sure you want me to handle this part of the plan? Because whenever I think about what those bastards did to you, burning their throats sounds pretty tempting.”

“I...” I trailed off, a scent hitting my nose. “Burn...”

“They fucking deserve it, Daze, so all these vicious, sadistic revenge plots you’ve got cooking in your head, you let them out and—”

“No, Nyx!” I seized his arm. “Burn! Something’s burning!”

He grasped my shoulders, handsome face stricken. “You don’t think—”

“—the cord killer!”

We ran all the way—me slower than him, but as fast as my burning lungs and jelly knees would carry me. We got as close as we could to the clearing until the flames stopped us.

Fire engulfed the wood—greedily consuming the bark, burning and blistering the leaves, feeding on the brush to grow, climb, and spread even higher. Heat assaulted our faces, warning us to go no further.

“But we have to get through,” I shouted. “It’s burning! It’s all burning!”

“Daze, we can’t! We have to go back. That horrible stuff is in the air, we can’t breathe it in!”

I barely heard him. Rage built in my chest, but it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming and corrosive as my sorrow. How could this happen? I needed the cord killer. Hope needed the cord killer! She needed an army that could fight for her without sitting, staying, and begging at the first alpha’s command.

“I don’t understand,” I croaked, falling to my knees. “The only weapon we have against the alphas and it’s just... gone.”

“Thanks for confirming you don’t have any more.”

Nyx and I whipped around—his claws ripping out of him and a growl tearing out of me.

A manure-covered monster slinked out of the wood and smoke, his grin starkly white through the gloom. “Surprised, Nyx?” Badr made a show of flexing his healed jaw. “Next time, you should leave the twigs and sticks at home and fight for real.”

Nyx snarled, lips peeling back from his teeth. “Good idea.” He raised his hands, readying to—

“Ugh!” Nyx dropped to his knees and fell flat in the dirt.

“Hey!” I cried. “What—”

Pain exploded in the back of my skull. I was out before I hit the ground.

---