Page 79 of The Last One
I try to catch his eyes to make sure he’s okay.
“Kai, watch out!” Olivia yells.
But Zigzag’s paw has already slapped at my forehead, bringing me back to the fight.
I roll away from the wolf before he swipes again. My leg—and now the left side of my face—burst with pain.
Zigzag growls and slaps at me a third time.
And I roll away again. A bead of blood plops from my brow onto my eyelashes, and now I’m seeing red.
My hands burn, but that’s not because they’re ready to whip wind. They burn because I’m using them to roll, to push up and roll some more.Please come. Now, sweet wind. Please come.Anger more than fear starts to bubble deep inside me.
The third wolf howls, tired of watching his breakfast roll around in the meadow. By the way my limbs are tiring, though, his breakfast won’t be fighting much longer.
Jadon, sword in hand, grapples with the second wolf.
A rock hits the side of Zigzag’s head, and both the beast and I turn to see Philia and Olivia throwing stones. The wolf snarls in their direction, giving me enough time to grab a jagged stick from the dirt. This twig feels small and insignificant in my hand, andIfeel as small and insignificant as the twig.
I am just a mosquito—a woman with no flag, no power, no sword, no armor.
Zigzag lifts his head and howls to the nightstar.
The other wolves lift their heads and throw their howls to the nightstar, too. Are they reveling in this hunt?
I squeeze my eyes shut and open them again, dread’s icy fingers scraping my spine.
No. Something else is happening. Something far more terrible than howls. The wolves’ hair is turning grayer and redder.
“Kai,” Jadon murmurs, “do you see this?”
The wolves’ front legs have become muscled arms. Their torsos lengthen as they rear back onto two legs, and then the wolves…stand on two feet.
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“What is happening?” Olivia whispers.
“Burnu,” I mutter, the name pushing through my fuzzy memory.
I drop the twig. My breath becomes a brick in my belly.
“But whatarethey?” Philia wonders.
“Something worse than a wolf,” Jadon says. His eyes flicker to his sword, and the muscles in his jaw flex. Evenhedoesn’t think his sword stands a chance against these creatures.
The wolves, still mid-transformation, roar. But this is no wolf roar. This roar is fire and thunder.
Olivia whimpers, and her fear cracks something open in me. A burning fuzziness fills my blood, and warmth radiates from my chest and through my arms and down my legs. My amulet pulses in time with my heart, and that dark stone comes alive with soft light.
I have no memories of it but know without a doubt that I’ve met beasts like this before. I’veslainbeasts like this before. And I can do it again.
My amulet pulses as fog rises and swirls across the glen like glossy white ribbons.
“Phily, Olivia,” Jadon whispers, “Kai and I will fight. When I say so, run to the first tree you see and climb as high as possible.”
“Climb?” Olivia repeats. “But wolves—”
“Can’t climb trees,” Philia says.
