Page 128 of Wilds of Wonder
“Emory!” Maverick screamed.
“Driscoll believes in you,” I said, ignoring Maverick. “And that’s good enough for me.”
The white wolf’s eyes dimmed. My heart hammered as the magic continued to split the ground far ahead. Something had to happen, and soon.
The white wolf blinked, and when his eyelids lifted, his eyes had changed... to blue.
Relief flooded me, and I collapsed onto the edge of the cliff while Driscoll, Annalee, and Maverick cheered from the other side. I dug my hands into the snow, trying to ground myself, to remind myself that this fight was far from over. We still had to stop the damage this weapon could do. I glanced behind me at the canyon, wondering how far the magic would stretch. Right now I could still see the land cracking andsplitting in the distance, trees, mushrooms, entire hills disappearing in its wake.
“Emory?” a voice asked.
My head snapped forward, the white wolf gone and Aron standing over me, completely naked.
“The axe!” I pointed to it. “Can you grab it? Can you tell it stop or... something?”
It sounded so stupid when I said it out loud, but Aron turned his head, a slight frown to his lips. He marched over to the axe and pulled it from the ground. The blue dust didn’t fight him, didn’t attack. Instead it swirled around Aron like it was part of him.
He stared at the axe, then looked at the canyon separating us from the others, down to the splitting land far ahead. His gaze moved to the chain I held, the iron chain, and he ran to me, grabbing it from my hand and wrapping it around the axe with swift, tight loops.
The rumbling came to a stop, and the ground quit shaking beneath me. In the distance, the land gave a final quake, then stilled. The magic had been stopped. Everything had stopped. But the damage was done, and Bellamy had an equally dangerous weapon that she was taking to the shadow court.
We’d stopped the threat for now. But I feared at this point it no longer mattered.
Chapter Sixty
MAVERICK
Afire crackled in the middle of the small hut we’d found nearby. Abandoned and likely built in the Old World if the triangular shape was any indication. Driscoll had used his magic to make a tree fall over the large canyon. We’d taken a painstakingly long time to cross the tree and get to the other side to reunite with Emory and Aron.
Now we sat around the fire, the logs of the structure peaking over us so that the little dwelling resembled a cone. Old mattresses lay around the edges, full of dust and who knew what else. But none of that mattered. We’d needed a space where we could process everything that just happened.
Aron was now dressed. Thank the spirits because Driscoll had a hard time functioning when the wolf man was naked.
“So the frost queen was responsible for the Wilds?” Aron asked, blond brows pinched together.
“Yes and no,” I said, bobbing my head back and forth while Annalee sat next to me, chewing on some of the rabbit meat Aron had caught and cooked for us. “She intended to trap you in there. That was it. That was what she commanded Spirit Frost’s axe to do—create a canyonaround the court. But the magic warped. It did something far greater, far more unpredictable.” Emory sat on my other side, leaning her head on my shoulder.
When I’d thought she was going to die, nothing else had mattered. Not my job. Not my future. Not the world literally splitting in two. I’d just wanted to get to her and make sure she was safe. It had been the most terrifying experience of my life and made me want to hold her tight and never let go.
Driscoll frowned across the fire. “But I’ve seen another spirit’s weapon in use, and it didn’t do that.”
We all looked at him.
“Spirit Water’s trident. The seafolk used it right in front of me.” He waved a hand. “Okay, well, technically not right in front of me since I was hiding out in the pirate lord’s cabin—” He stopped. “It’s a long story. The point is, they used it and it didn’t do what that axe did. It did what they wanted it to. The magic worked.”
Aron grabbed a chunk of rabbit off the spit that now lay on the ground, popping it in his mouth and chewing while he mulled over Driscoll’s words. “The seafolk are said to have been created by Spirit Water’s magic. I’m a product of Spirit Frost’s magic. Maybe you cannot wield those weapons or use their magic unless you are somehow tied to the spirits who made them.”
I stroked my jaw, now bearded more than stubbled. “That makes sense, actually.”
Emory lifted her head from my shoulder. “And that means Bellamy won’t be able to use the lightning bolt to kill Spirit Shadow. She’s going to unleash dangerous magic just like the frost queen did. She’s going to get herself and her brothers killed.”
“Unless Spirit Shadow gets the bolt from her,” Annalee said.
I felt the shiver that rolled through Emory at my sister’s words. I didn’t actually know which of those scenarios would be worse.
“Speaking of the frost queen, what are we going to do?” Aron folded his hands together in front of him. “From what I saw, she was nothing but a pile of blood and guts.”
I still couldn’t believe how those beetles had devoured her. The same beetles who played at our wedding, for spirits’ sake.
