Page 62 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
My protector.
They tumbled away, and magic surged with my relief. But it was short-lived because a brand new fear quickly filled the space. Between swirls of thick white, I saw Wolf get slammed into the ground with a yelp.
“Wolf!”
Amber tightened her grip to jerk me back. “Hold on!”
“No. I have to—”
“I see it!”
Ivy ripped from the closest tree trunk and lashed toward the pair. Wolf was back on four feet, but he was limping as he lunged at one of the spider’s legs. Amber’s ivy looped around two more legs and the monster went crashing to the forest floor as she squeezed the lasso closed. Tawny fur blurred through the air after it.
Then Mist tore the scene from my view and the temperature plummeted. A tearing wind ripped through the forest, the likes of which I’d never felt. I’d only read of wind like this in books from back when Anterra had weather that wasn’t constant Mist. It felt like the whole world had been summoned to the fight.
My lungs seized as if the gust had sucked all the air away, and I gasped while hair tore free from my braid to whip across my face. My cloak was a force of its own, jailing my legs and snapping in the wind. Trees lashed back and forth above us, sending seasons worth of dead leaves and needles raining down on us. Mist swirled, trying desperately to hang on while Amber and I sent everything we had out through our linked magic, urging the forest to shake off the clutches of the curse. It burned like fire in my veins.
Fear clenched my heart, knowing Wolf was out there, battling monsters in a fierce tempest, protecting us as we worked. I had to help him.
The howl could have been the wind, but I knew at the core of myself that it was him, letting me know he was still there. Letting me know he believed in me. If he could trust in me, then I had to trust in myself.
Help them, I pushed at my magic.
In this swirling chaos, I couldn't be certain if I could see anything at all, or if my vision had been engulfed entirely and theimages I saw were no more than the dying shadows of the curse. Shapes blurred past me. The sounds of the forest faded into distant echoes as fatigue threatened to pull me under. I knew, then, what I had to do.
I am Emerald Brightbane. The blood of the witch courses in my veins.
I was Ruby’s granddaughter, I shared her blood, and I was the one who would end her curse.
Drawing my dagger with my left hand, I dug the tip into my right elbow above the hand that still clutched Amber’s. Blood dripped through the white tendrils wound around me. As the crimson touched it, the Mist began to disperse like tendrils of smoke.
The forest quaked, the roars of the beasts deafening again in their fury. But within the tempest of chaos, a flicker of change stirred. The curse trembled under the onslaught.
All around me, as red drops fell, the clouds cleared. Mist peeled away with the wind.
Soon, Amber and I stood in a rapidly expanding clearing. The menacing figures and feral growls receded with the Mist. Beasts and monsters too far gone to live outside the curse fled with it. Hot blood dripped down my arm to the forest floor, where it vanished into parched dirt. My body trembled, until I realized it was the ground trembling, not me. I’d held on to the feeling of the dark magic, just like Amber said, and now I pried its last fingers loose from around my throat and cast it away.
The scream that tore out of me was primal, and I made no effort to silence it. I bellowed against my timidness and anxiety in the past, released every old effort at propriety and every envious need to be wanted. I screamed my own fervent want to the skies.
It became a battle between light and darkness, hope and despair.
The wind abated. The forest stilled.
Warm sunshine hit my face as if I’d stepped through a gate to Zocere again and found myself in an afternoon sunbeam. My lungs drew oxygen like a greedy flame.
Above me, Robin and Hawk circled and dove for the safety of the ground, and then…they changed. Feathers and wings became skin and arms. The forest beyond their bleary forms was transformed, bathed in light that shone through the canopy. Around us, it was reawakened, vibrant and renewed. We weren’t done, though. We had to finish it; break the curse once and for all.
Magic cascaded from my blood to the veins of the forest. Amber amplified my efforts, spreading it through the plants, ensuring it coursed from root to root and branch to branch, to the farthest corners of Aglonbriar, prying every last grasp of darkness from the land. Tendrils of healing power replaced the embrace of the Mist around ancient trees, reviving their strength, coaxing life into their weary forms.
Every ounce of energy within me channeled into the task, flowing with my blood into the forest’s fabric. I found untapped reservoirs of power to spread to every reach of the forest. Mist coiled and writhed far from us, resisting our efforts with its dying gasp. It lashed out, attempting to snuff out my flickering hope. I refused to yield.
My heart raced, hopeful for the end, terrified to learn the cost…
This time, I was desperate to be enough. Together, all of us…It had to be enough.
Then the world began to darken again, my vision clouding over, and I feared the worst. Had we come this close only to fail at the last? I tried to keep going, but I couldn’t feel my body anymore. My magic ached with a hollow pain, then faded away entirely. “No.” It came out as a whispered plea.
I had to be enough.
