Page 22 of Moon Raven Rising
“Cano! Wait, your father, he’s looking for you!” One of the men calls out who recognizes me. I smile wildly as I stalk forward. Each boot fall crunching in the debris of the battle. Blood coats my teeth and fills my mouth with the taste of iron. I sink the blade into his stomach, angling the tip up at his heart, and he lets out a gurgled cry. I wrap my arm around him, as though I’m pulling him into a hug, and I whisper when my cheek rests on his head just above his ear.
“You can tell my father to rot in hell. He will be there with you in no time at all,” I growl, then thrust the blade up an inch further in a killing blow. Soren may have taught me to be the man I am today. Unfortunately for him, the man I am today also woke up the dayhecame back from the dead.
Trent runs up behind me, breathing just as hard as I am. We stand back to back as we become surrounded by four men. Dead bodies litter the ground, and I hear Ambriel fighting in the distance, using her air magic to pin men to trees, to the ground, anywhere she can. They scream out at the force, and she pushes harder, breaking bones and even serving killing blows. I knew she had fight in her, but I didn’t realize the extent.
“Ready for this?” Trent laughs, and I can’t help the smile that pulls to my lips.
“Do you think I’m ever not ready to rip some fucking heads off?”
“Just like old times,” Trent laughs again before jumping out of formation with a battle cry. I narrow my eyes on my target and lunge. The bastard is quick and lands a hit on my face. My nose cracks and blood gushes from it, trailing down my mouth and neck. Twigs and leaves crunch to my left, and I pivot, but my eyes don’t land on what I thought I would see.
A bald man hunched down, ready to jump, has his sights narrowed on Trent. I spin, pulling a dagger from my baldric, and sink it into the man’s temple approaching me before turning once more back to the other one who is zeroing in on Trent from behind.
Just as the man is going to attack, I lunge forward. I wrap my hands around him, covering his mouth, and ripping my other blade across his throat. The sound he makes as he chokes on his own blood catches Trent’s attention, and he silently thanks me with a dip of his chin before he begins to take on another opponent. They are everywhere we turn.
I hear the growl before I see the flash of white fur. The wolf flies right past my head in a long and fluid leap before slamming its massive claws into the soldier poised to swing his sword at my back. The impact knocks him to the ground, his blade clanging against rocks as he loses his grip on it.
The wolf bites down on him, ripping its head back with a snarl, and tears the soldier’s throat from his neck. Before the man’s head hits the ground, the wolf is on the move again. Teeth and claws shredding flesh and breaking bones.
Just as the last man falls, the wolf turns its blue eyes back on me. That’s when I notice the scars. Kait bares her teeth, the frigidness in her eyes not from just the color, but the icy hatredshe carries for me. I lift my chin, but I don’t drop her gaze. I know what was done to her by my men. She was once my friend, and I let the hunger for power and revenge for a man unworthy lead me to hurt her irrevocably. I know there will be no forgiveness for what I did, but I hope that perhaps she can understand.
She stalks forward, her heavy paws thudding into the ground with each step. Her white fur is matted with soil and now blood. Without her aid, we would have been much worse for wear. Trent steps out from behind some trees. Ambriel is right behind him when they notice our standoff, and Trent steps toward Kait to intervene.
“Stop,” I say, raising my hand at his advance. Surprising me, they do as I say. Kait and my eyes never leave each other as she prowls forward, stopping only a short foot from my face. She growls deeply, showing all her blood-covered teeth at eye level. Her hot breath puffs out in my face as she stares into my eyes. The threat is clear. The wolf in me wants to shift. Fight back at the challenge, but the man I was and the man I now want to be are different.Need to be different. I drop to my knees in front of her. Holding my arms out wide, I drop the dagger that is held in my grasp.
“I know you have no reason to trust me, but I am not who I was before. I was a pawn, and I did so many things that I wish I could take back. You deserve your cut of flesh. Do your damage. I will not fight you, but know this… I am on your side in this fight now. I will make up for the wrongs I’ve done, and only then will I be okay with losing my life—killing the man who started it all.” My voice is low for only her to hear, but her growl vibrates through the trees.
She springs forward, teeth closing down on air with a snap, and I fall on my back. My heart pounds furiously in my chest at what just happened. She was going to kill me; above me, the wolfhovers, thrashing against the magic that holds her back, but it’s no use. Ambriel pulls Kait away from me with her air magic, and I sag into the dirt, letting out a heavy breath. Mother fuck.
“You two are going to have to hash it out sooner or later. You know that’s not the end of it.” Trent says, standing over me. When I open my eyes, I see that he is offering me a hand. I take it, and he pulls me to my feet. “Look, I’m not going to hold a grudge against you, Cano. I’ve thought long and hard about how I want to deal with…” He gestures to me, his hand sweeping my body. “This… but I do know what you had to go through as a child with that monster—I guess it’s bound to damage someone.”
“I don’t want your pity.” I growl as I angrily rub my hands across my face.
“And you don’t have it. All I am saying is that I’ve accepted what happened in the past, and I’m going to move past it. Melani didn’t deserve what happened to her…”
“Trent,” I try to say something… anything… Saying sorry about being responsible for the death of his and Dax’s sister, or Kait’s scars, or anything that they have gone through at my order feels asinine to even put words to. Nothing I can say can make any of it better.
“Just don’t make me regret letting you live, you bastard.” He punches me in the chest, forcing me to cough out my breath. “Now, I can’t say Dax will have the same thoughts.” He laughs as he says it, turning away and heading to where Ambriel is wrapping a cloak around the now-shifted Kait. Her eyes trained square on me. I don’t know if or how Dax and I will ever move past what’s happened between us, but as long as I get to kill the bastard who caused it all to happen in the first place, I can die a satisfied man.
Picking my sword from the ground, I wipe the blood off on the dead asshole at my feet, then sheath it at my hip. My eyes neverleave Kait’s glacial stare. Her eyes are narrowed to slits. Her face promises my death, but being the asshole I am,and I know I shouldn’t, I wink just to rile her further.
Chapter twenty
Alaric and I enterthe glittering blue-hued cave slowly, as though something will jump out and attack at any moment. Now that he pointed out the magic, I can feel its heaviness lingering here. This has to be the place we are meant to be. Where we will find whatever it is we are looking for.
The further we walk through the illuminated archways that seem to be breathing with magic. Though I am no stranger to shadows, the eerie darkness hiding behind rocks and dents in the walls seems to watch our every move.
“Do you feel that?” Alaric whispers at my side.
“Yes,” I say back, matching his tone. We aren’t alone. I keep my chin dipped and my eyes focused, sweeping the area in front of us. I can sense something is going on, but I can’t figure outwhatit is. Water drips from the stalactites, and each drop echoes as though they are right next to us every time. Our feet struggleto carry us over the uneven ground, and though we don’t know where it is we are going, we never falter.
As we turn yet another corner in the catacomb under the land, a vibration starts in my feet, and I look back to see the shock on Alaric’s face as he braces himself on a stalagmite that juts up beside him. Tiny pebbles begin to roll from the walls and shake at our feet in the layer of water on the ground.
“This has happened before, and the land opened, swallowing me into a sinkhole—I was trapped in.” I tell him, but before he can respond, an unnatural wind picks up and magic so strong, it , comes crashing into us, nearly taking my breath away.
It sends us both sliding across the rough terrain, and we slam side by side into the cave wall before one of the huge lava drips falls from the cave ceiling and crashes, shattering where we just stood. Through one of the many pathways, a bright light begins getting brighter, like a globe of starlight caught in a bubble floating toward us. As it gets closer to the opening, the glow expands and takes up the whole space. Blinding white light floods the cavern. Bats that cling to the ceiling and rock walls take flight and are soon joined by glowing white birds. The sound of wings flapping fills my ears like a thousand hands clapping all around me.
In the chaos, I close my eyes momentarily, and my hands come up to cover my ears. Alaric does the same, unable to handle the onslaught of sound and light. When I finally open them, my gaze lands on the figure before us. Draped in white fabric, a woman, her face hidden by the gauzy veil, tilts her head as she looks down on Alaric and me.
