Page 193 of Wolf Caged
On a vicious snarl, I tore through the air, sweeping around behind the lich who had hurt my little wolf, nothing more than mist and stars. The lich moved with me, trying to keep me in his sight, but I was faster, and grinned as I materialised behind him, shoving my inch-long claws into his back. Jagged vines tore at my leather armour as I plunged my hand deep into his robe to grip rotten flesh and bone, and the unearthly howl that tore from his teeth as I pulled sent satisfaction rolling down my spine.
He turned, bringing the staff around with him, and slammed the bottom of the shaft into the side of my head. Pain splintered across my skull but I did not relinquish my hold.
I pulled harder, ripping at his putrid organs.
Saphira snarled and I looked at her, freezing right down to my marrow.
Skeletons surrounded her, at least a dozen of them, forming a ring with their fiery blue swords, and she snapped at them, trying to drive them back, but they continued to close in on her.
Saphira.
I became shadow, a violent seething mass of it that shot towards the skeletons and wrenched them apart using tendrils of night, and then my bare hands as I materialised. I shattered the femur bone of one, and shoved it into the eye socket of the one beside it, before pulling it out and bringing it around in a fast arc to knock the head off a third.
Saphira rallied, attacking two more at the same time, nimbly leaping between them to snap their bones.
And then she screamed.
Screamed so loud that my heart stopped.
A blue ghostly blade protruded from her right shoulder, holding her high in the air even as she shifted back, returning to her human form.
Blood spilled down her chest.
The lich hurled her away from him, sending her tumbling across the sand, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
No.
I launched at the male, all the rage I felt condensing to overwhelm me, to shadow my vision and my mind, and roared as I tore at him, as I weathered his blows and those of his army, uncaring of my own fate.
All that mattered was vengeance. Bloody vengeance.
The darkness caged me in my own body as I ripped at the lich, as I funnelled it all into him, pouring shadows around us to steal the light as the Wastes shook, trembling so fiercely it rattled my bones as they ached, as they hummed with power I could not contain.
And then there were soft hands on my shoulders.
Warm hands.
Trying to pull me off the male.
Trying to stop me from serving him justice, from sending him to his maker, and ensuring he never returned again.
“Kael!”
My name on her lips, yelled so desperately, so fearfully, shattered the hold the darkness had on me and light poured in, pooling within me, so bright it blinded me.
“It’s over. It’s over,” she chanted, her hands gripping my shoulders, holding me tightly, as if she feared I might disappear.
I stared at my hands, more shadow than flesh and bone, talons tipped with razor sharp claws.
And perhaps she had a reason to hold me so tightly to keep me with her.
The shadows slowly shrank, transforming back into my hands, into black-tipped fingers that were bloodied and aching.
Beyond them, the lich was little more than shreds of cloth and scattered pieces of bone.
“It’s over,” she whispered.
I turned and pulled her into my arms, and her gasp ripped at me, a reminder of what had happened to her that threatened to unleash the darkness again. I eased her away from me, gaze falling to her bleeding shoulder.
