Page 11 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
Its stain upon them guilt, washed clean by love.
No love could wash me clean from this. What a farce.
I’d argued. I had no confidence in the Diamond Witch’s words. I’d wished for another way, hoped I could convince the Ruby Witch to lift the curse herself. Surely if she knew the damage she had caused…But the prophecy was clear. It was Ruby or the rest of us.
Once I accepted that, I couldn’t let anyone else pay the price. It had to be me.
I’d argued inside myself all the way here, me and the wolf, butting heads. Reason.Destruction. Empathy.Protection. Deliberation.Death.
In the end, the Ruby Witch gave me no choice, and the monster got what he wanted. She nearly unleashed a fresh curse on me before I could silence her, even though I’d been careful to approach with all the stealth of the hunting wolf. Her black eyes had filled with hatred and conviction, and I’d known there was no other way to end it.
I couldn’t regret it, and guilt was just the price I had to pay. It was supposed to be worth it. Instead, the Mist hadn’t cleared. It was worse than ever, and I was nothing but a failure doomed to succumb to the monster like the fenriswulf who’d chased Emi here. Those witches promised I’d gain the power to end this, but I felt no different. The wolf still bristled under my skin, leaping forward to face Emi as realization crashed over her, and her face twisted in anguish.
“You—You knew! This whole time, you knew she was dead?” Emi yelled.
Branches snapped. Thudding paws drew closer, and Emi jerked at a loud snarl.
“Yes. Now get out of the Mist,” I urged, although I had no idea why I was trying to save her again. Another growl erupted, deep and warning. The fenriswulf was back. “Trust me, there are worse monsters than me out there.”
“You did this? You killed her?”
Her shriek gave the fenriswulf a direction, and his sound shifted when he burst forth again. I could smell him now. Too close. “If you don’t want to join her in the ground, I’d suggest getting back in the clearing. Now!”
Clouded idiot! I should let the Mist claim me for the wolf I was and eliminate the threat in front of me. I should join the fenriswulf in destroying her.
Instead, I stayed halfway between the cottage and the trees, halfway between man and monster.
“Murderer!” Emi shouted, finally moving from the grave. Mist billowed around her ankles.
Any witch worth her gemstone could surely kill me, but why wasn’t she using her powers?
Before I could process, Mist surged above a rushing shadow. It burst between the trees, the same sloping back and elongated head I’d recognized before. Teeth gnashed as the fenriswulf’s hind legs bunched to launch at Emi. Her scream cut to my bones.
Without thinking, I dove toward her. The fenriswulf slammed into her with too much speed to stop, sending her crashing to the forest floor while he rolled past, thudding into a tree trunk.
Coppery blood scented the air.
My skin burned at the first brush of Mist. It pulled at me, tugging at my insides, feeling like it was turning my flesh inside out. The compulsion was intimately familiar, but that didn’t make it any easier to resist. Fire filled my veins. I rushed through blinding pain to the heap that was Emi just as she scrambled to her knees.
Beyond her, the fenriswulf righted himself with a mighty shake.
“Get up!” I growled.
My fist tightened on cool fabric. Tugging at her skirt, I hauled Emi to her feet.
“Get off me.” She slapped at my hand.
I didn’t let go. Instead I dragged her with me. My bones were molten, burning. Everything inside of me clawed its way toward the deeper shadows and banks of white, but the fenriswulf was up again. His jaw opened on a snarl. He rocked back to lunge, and I threw us as hard as I could in the opposite direction from the ravenous fire inside me.
We tumbled from the trees onto dirt and clumps of grass but I didn’t stop. Claws tore down my ankle—or maybe they were teeth, I didn’t know. My own blood added to the metallic bite already permeating the air. There was no time to look back as I shoved and rolled Emi further from the trees and the Mist and the danger of snapping teeth.
We tumbled to a stop as a wailing howl rent the clearing. The keening loss and frustration in that sound froze us in place. Branches cracked, teeth clashed, claws scraped…but nothing touched us.
We’d made it.
My body covered hers. Her skirts were strewn every which way but her legs were pinned beneath mine and my arm was flung over her head, sheltering her face in the crook of my neck. Far too aware of our positions and her breath hot against my throat, I stayed put long enough to check where the fenriswulf had gone.
Gleaming yellow eyes fixed on us from the gloom, but he wouldn’t leave the clutches of the Mist to enter the clearing. He was too far gone to come back. Strings of saliva swung from a maw of glistening teeth as he prowled the edge. It was hard to believe that creature was Fenrir, the man with whom I’d shared more meals than I could count back before…well, before he was this.
