Page 19 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
Turning my tail to the familiar track, I flew across the woods in the opposite direction. Dinner was a plump squirrel while I wandered to nowhere in particular. Hopefully, all this running would tire me enough to keep my wits about me again, without a cursed beast clawing his way through me from the inside. I had to stop letting my thoughts be fogged by Emi’s presence.
It had been a relief to see her eyes closed when I peeked out. I was already tired of the hatred they held when that jewel-bright gaze fixed on me. My gut twisted at how her slow breaths had fluttered a lock of her hair when I tucked the blanket over her. She was peaceful asleep, like she’d finally set down the weights from her shoulders.
It was a conundrum. Logically, I should hate her and want her dead as much as she did me. She was the blood of the woman who’d caused all my troubles and was stubbornly determined not to see all the damage granny dearest had caused. But seeing her like that, it made me think she was just another victim, which was easier to reconcile when she wasn’t hurling fists and insults at me like a red-headed hailstorm.
I’d heard Emi’s stories and read the despair beneath them. She had no one. No support. So maybe it made sense that she’d believed whatever lies the Ruby Witch had fed her. Emi had depended on those carefully doled out scraps of attention fromthe person who deserved her trust the least. It was manipulative and disgusting, made worse by the fact that Emi had considered it love.
As pitiful as it was, I’d taken that from her. Guilt churned. I focused on the scents and sounds around me.
My paw-falls settled into a rhythm that thumped with my heartbeats. Steady. Sure. For a while, I let go of the worry and the guilt and justexisted.
Not until woodsmoke tickled my nostrils did I come back to myself enough to circle around to the cottage. I still had a job to do, and for the sake of the people I’d left behind to do this, I would go back and finish it. Somehow.
The little clearing was quiet as I donned my trousers again, my body still buzzing from the transformation, but my spirit was more still now that the wolf had claimed his time in the Mist. The first hints of daylight were still elusive in the gloom. Levering myself back through the small bedroom window was more difficult than jumping out, but I managed, and I collapsed onto the bed after a quick check to make sure the door was still secure.
My muscles were pleasantly sore from my night's activities, and I stretched lazily and scrubbed the sleep from my eyes before swinging my legs off the bed.
Guilt flashed, knowing Emi slept the whole night on the couch again, but I put an immediate stop to that. A witch didn’t deserve my regret on top of my protection, not when she’d kill me in my sleep given the chance. Let her think the worst of me. What did I care?
I didn’t need her appreciation for keeping us both safe, but I did need a way elicit her help. If I was going to untangle the reason for the Mist’s persistence, who better to assist me than the curse-caster’s own kin? But convincing that little spitfire to set down her sad weapons and listen to me…that would be difficult.
Now that I thought of it, it was eerily quiet in the cottage. Emi had been asleep long before me, so she must be awake. She wouldn't have gone out into the Mist, would she? She’d been attacked by a fenriswulf and heard the signs of other beasts out there. Naive, vengeful, in denial…she might be all of those, but I didn’t believe Emi was stupid.
After moving the dresser blocking the door, I hesitated with my hand on the knob. Awareness prickled up my neck.
I opened the door and stepped out, letting my heightened senses direct me. Instinct had me turning to the flash of movement as Emi lunged off the wall beside the door.
The knife flashed in a plunging arc, but it was in her left hand, and she stood to the left of the door. That meant she had to turn her whole body to bring it across to stab me, which gave me all the time I needed to drop my shoulder into her solar plexus and catch her arm with both hands. My follow-through swept her feet off the ground, draping her body across my back. From there, it was all too easy to flip her around me so her arm twisted behind her back where it pressed to my chest.
I plucked the knife from her grasp. “I’m impressed, witchling. You almost had a chance for a heartbeat there.”
She gasped for breath. A shoulder to the sternum would do that. “How...did you...know?”
“That you would be there? It wasn't much of a stretch.” I still held her left arm behind her back, and my hand holding the knife looped around her middle, squeezing her back against me. “I was worried you left me, kitten,” I said low and rough, with mylips beside her ear, “but then I remembered that adorable little scream yesterday and figured you'd be back for more.”
Her screech this time came with a wrenching motion. She was so surprised when I allowed her to twist away from me that she momentarily forgot to attack, a look of pure shock overtaking her face. I rather enjoyed surprising her.
Wanting to prolong it, I pushed her back to the wall and pinned her trapped wrist up beside her head, boxing her in gently but firmly. Then I held up the knife still clutched in my other hand. I mostly wanted to see the flash of determined fury in her lovely green eyes, and she didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, there was also fear underlying her bright glare, and I liked that…less.
“Calm down, witchling. I said I wouldn’t kill you. I probably should, but I have other plans for you.”
“The only plans you should be making are your own funeral arrangements,” she hissed.
“Ouch, honey bunny. Don’t hurt my feelings like that. Now, let's talk about where you went wrong, shall we? Then you can use this knife for something better, like making us both some breakfast.”
“It's midday,” she spat out, anger returning.
Drat, I'd lost her shock.
Luckily, I was about to surprise her again.
“Fine, supper. But first…” I stepped into her body, pressing us together at the hips to restrain her from a further attack, and then I reached across and placed the knife back into her hand. Gently, I closed her fingers around the handle. “Ah, ah, ah. Not so hard. Let it rest in your palm and close your whole hand around it. Don't grip with just your fingers.”
She stared in utter confusion.
“What? I believe you, okay. If you had magic, you'd have used it by now.”
My mind flashed to Ruby, blackness in her eyes when I leaped at her, a curse already falling from her lips before I cut it off with a slash of claws across her throat. I also remembered how my instincts had howled at me to run or attack while I forced myself to listen to the three witches give me the prophecy.
