Page 84 of Forgotten Arcane

“There’s a place that moves around the country. It’s like a traveling store for she-wolves. You can either buy or sell to them. The owner is called Patrick. The next sale is in Lakerton.”

River’s face is full of disgust as once again he uses his alpha voice, “Is what you just told me true?”

Derek tries to nod again, “Yes.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Neith

“Can you ask him where the beta is?” Logan says, sounding nervous.

The other wolves shift nervously, clearly expecting something to happen.

River glances over at Logan and smiles. The smile is such a contrast to what he’s currently doing to the alpha, that it possibly makes this whole situation even more threatening.

“Good shout,” River replies, turning back to Derek.

The other wolves all freeze in what I can only be described as shock, and I know that it’s because Logan was listened to and not attacked for speaking to the shifter in charge.

“Where is the beta?” River asks Derek, using his alpha voice again, any sign of a smile or kindness gone from his expression.

“With the women and pups, if he’s still alive,” Derek growls. “Now let me go. You said that you wouldn’t kill me.”

River’s smile turns feral as his eyes switch to his kitsune's, and in one smooth move, he closes his fist and rips out Derek’s throat.

The Voices rise up into a frenzy, and my vision doubles. I try not to freak out. It has to be another vision, like the one that I got when River was in trouble.

The world seems to pause.

Everything around River and I stops moving, and I watch as River shifts, his Kitsune looks more like Senka than it does his normal solid form, and all nine of his tails are on show, one of them is completely black, and I can’t remember him having a black tail the last time that I saw all nine of them.

I start to panic that all of these wolves are going to see that he has nine tails, but then I look around and realize that we’re in some kind of alternative reality, or in-between world.

I can see both River and I standing behind me, as if we are frozen in time. The world around me is hazy with a blue hue tainting everything, and there are things here that aren’t there back in true reality, where our bodies are. I instinctively know that these things are no less real than we are.

Turning back around, I see that Derek is in this in-between reality as well, in his wolf form, his body looking like smoke. He’s a spirit, but his spirit doesn’t look how it should, it’s marked with what look like dark and rotting spots, and when he turns to snarl at River and me, half of his face looks like it's rotting off.

It’s disgusting and incredibly disturbing.

River seems to be running on some sort of instinct because he launches himself towards Derek’s spirit and catches him around the back of his neck, and as he bites down, a blinding white light consumes Derek’s spirit, and it completely disappears.

River steps back, shifting back into his human form.

He immediately moves over to me, “Are you okay?”

His voice has an echoey quality to it that must be caused by whatever in-between that we’ve found ourselves in.

I nod, “I’m okay. What just happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure, I’m just following my instincts. I think this is my death magic. When I had my hand on his neck, I could feel how truly evil he was. I couldn’t allow him to live, but I also didn’t want to taint the Spirit Realm with him. When I killed him, I felt new magic that was definitely mine, but nothing that I had ever felt before, and it brought me and apparently you, here. After that, everything was pure instinct. I knew that if I bit him, then his soul would be unmade and his energy would return back to the universe, he wouldn’t be able to taint anything else with his evil,” River explains.

I stare at him in awed shock, before I pull him down and kiss him.

“You are fucking amazing, River, I hope you know that,” I tell him, muttering against his lips, before I kiss him again. When I pull back, I add, “How do we get back?”

River’s eyes widen slightly as he looks around, “I’m hoping that my instincts will kick in again. Take my hand and don’t let go.”

I nod.

---