Page 33 of Wilds of Wonder
Chapter Eighteen
EMORY
Ijolted awake in the middle of the night, a snarling sound infiltrating my dreams until it got so loud it woke me. My chest heaved, and I rubbed my eyes, trying to see in the dark expanse. The fire still crackled, and Leoni and Driscoll huddled together, both of them asleep.
A low growl floated through the air, and two red eyes peeked out of the inky black surrounding us. That didn’t bode well. I scrambled to my feet, summoning my frost magic into a long, icy sword.
“Leoni, Driscoll?” I said quietly. “You might want to wake up.”
“No thanks,” Driscoll mumbled before turning over.
“Wake up,” I whisper-yelled, sidling over and kicking him in the back.
He shot straight up. “Ow. What is wrong with you...” He trailed off as I pointed a shaking finger in the direction of the red eyes.
He swallowed thickly and nudged Leoni, who slowly sat up, her hair tumbling down past her shoulders, out of its usual bun. “I told you to stop waking me in the middle of the night to tell me about yourdreams,” she said, voice full of sleep. “I don’t care who you had sex with. Unless it’s real sex, stop telling me about it.”
Driscoll pulled her to a stand, both of them now next to me. Leoni stiffened when she noticed the growling.
“What kind of creatures did you say live in these mountains?” Driscoll’s throat bobbed. “Did you mention any nice ones that have red eyes and definitely don’t eat elementals like us?”
“No.” I swallowed. “No, I didn’t.”
A massive paw appeared from the dark, a beast emerging, its body covered in white fur, its snout as long as my arm. It bared razor-sharp teeth at us that were as long as my pointer finger.
“That is not any kind of wolf I’ve ever seen before,” Driscoll said.
Me neither.
Leoni summoned a swirling ball of water in her hand. “What do your history books say about that?”
I stared as the giant wolf took a thundering step toward us. “They’ve never mentioned anything like this. That is not a creature of this world.”
“Then what world is it from?” Driscoll asked. “Because it sure as spirits seems like it’s here in ours.”
The beast took another step, its large paw stomping out our fire, the only light now coming from the faint orange embers still glowing.
Driscoll whimpered again, louder this time. “It just snuffed out our fire with a single step.” He audibly gulped. “This is fine. This is fine. This is fine—Oh, it’s taking another step toward us!”
“Now is not the time to panic,” Leoni said.
“Really?” Driscoll whispered. “Because I think this is exactly the type of situation where one should panic.”
I was more inclined to agree with Driscoll. I’d never heard of a creature so large, save for a dragon, and I hadn’t seen any of those in my lifetime being from the frost court.
I thrust out my hand, a ball of jagged, spiked ice flying toward the wolf. The white of the ice lit the dark, the wolf rearing its head back and chomping it like it was a carrot. That magic would’ve knocked an elemental unconscious. But it was a snack for the wolf.
Driscoll cracked his neck from side to side, then summoned two vines that sprouted from the ground and shot toward the beast. Theywrapped around its legs, but the wolf simply stepped forward and the vines snapped like twigs.
Driscoll raised his hands. “I’m out.”
Leoni stepped forward, dragging her hands up through the air, a thick wall of water rising. “This should provide a barrier between us?” she said, but it was more like a question.
We all stood there, none of us moving, breaths frosting the air. The wolf crashed through the wall of water, making all of us jump back as it prowled forward, long, sharp canines bared.
“I think it’s time to run,” Leoni said, stumbling toward the edge of the ledge.
“You don’t think that thing can catch us?” Driscoll asked. “Because I’m betting it runs faster than we do.”
