“We will have a wolf in our command, a guard dog to protect us. If the displacement should fail with Ana’s husband, then Matthias will be the one we control. Either way, I will have a wolf, whether it be Matthias or Ana’s husband.” Azalea kept her eyes locked on her young daughter, waiting for her reaction. Would she agree with keeping her older brother around to protect them when the hellions came?
But Juniper’s expression revealed nothing, and she went back to work without another word.
19
SILVANIA
THE YEAR OF THE MOON
RED
They were at an impasse. Red knew she couldn’t return to the town or her home. She knew this man before her did not want to harm her like she originally thought, but she was left dangling with her questions unanswered. The cold crept in around them as though it had forgotten until now. The darkness of the forest seemed even thicker than before, and Red yearned to be somewhere safe.
But nowhere was safe for her anymore.
“Do you have a name?” Red asked him, hoping humanity would thaw his frozen tongue.
He cocked his head to the side with a questioning look, making it clear he did not know it. Or perhaps he could not remember it after all these years. If Red recalled the stories correctly, the last time the Wolf had been summoned to kill a bloodline was over two hundred years ago.
Red had gone days without speaking, locked in her room, and fed meals twice a day; even in that short amount of time, the first words that came out of her mouth felt wrong. Without anyone around her, there was no need to talk. She understood the difficulty he experienced after hundreds of years.
“Alright, if you aren’t going to speak… Can you speak?” She changed direction.
He nodded slowly, his expression pinched as though he wasn’t certain of his answer. At the very least, he understood her. I can work with that, she thought.
“Is there somewhere warm we can go? It is the middle of the night and it is freezing,” she said.
I’m telling the Wolf what to do, she thought. She was unsure where her confidence came from, but she embraced it, nonetheless. Was it the powers of the earth, or was it her growing realization that she had the upper hand in this situation? She’d never held power before; the feeling tantalized her senses.
He glanced over his shoulder, then looked back at her and gestured with a head jerk. He turned and walked back through the fog he arrived in. Red quickly followed. His bare feet padded silently over the detritus lining the forest floor, his agile legs preventing him from tripping over the roots that reached up to grab at Red’s ankles. It seemed as though he owned this forest; it bowed down and made way for him.
They continued through the woods, far from the path Red had followed her entire life. Fear gripped her, a ghost of a hand that clamped around her throat, letting her struggle until the grip was so tight, she could no longer breathe. There are forces at play much darker than what the coven plays with, she thought. To calm herself, she took deep, even breaths.
Red followed the very man who was supposed to kill her, wondering if the daughters sacrificed before her never faced the horrible ends promised to them. She wondered what really happened to the girls in all the bedtime stories. What if parents just filled in the blanks to curb undesired behavior? she thought.
In the distance, a cabin appeared. Dead vines wrapped their skeleton bodies along the sides, snaking up around the roof, pulling the thatch away in places. Moss grew between the logs that made up the walls. Small and modest, the smell of rotting wood and old soot wafted out the moment he opened the door. Red felt the ancient energy inside, waiting to get out. It breathed them in as they entered. He crossed the threshold first, moving across creaking wood planks. She followed tentatively, eyeing the dusty cobwebs dancing in the corners. It was colder in the house than outside, but the Wolf quickly went to build a fire.
Red studied her surroundings, looking for a second exit, though she didn’t plan on running. The cabin was made entirely of smooth, well-crafted logs despite the vegetation that took over the exterior, giving it the appearance of nature reclaiming it. The small living area contained a fireplace and a few pieces of scarred wooden furniture, including a table that dominated the space. There was one other door that she guessed led to a bedroom. Otherwise, the place seemed abandoned.
She looked down at her hands, white from the cold, and watched color return to them as the fire grew. Red turned to face the man, clearing her throat to get his attention. It was time to take her life into her own hands once and for all.
He stood in the corner of the cabin, watching her curiously. A shadow danced along his figure, but his eyes still glowed with the flame.
“I don’t believe you mean to hurt me. Nor that you wish to, nor that you are meant to. Is this true?” she asked.
He looked up at her with a sideways glance, then nodded. His lips opened to speak and for the first time, he managed words. Words that sounded like he had a mouthful of gravel. “S…safe.”
“I am safe? With you?”
He shook his head, scowling at his inability to speak freely. His mouth opened, then clamped shut. A growl emitted from his throat, full of anger at his failings. His shoulders sunk down, and he exhaled a long breath before trying again. “You…sacri…ficed.”
“By my father, yes,” Red said bitterly.
“Broken.” His guttural words made Red cringe.
“The curse?” she asked, stepping forward quickly enough to make the man flinch further back into the corner. “It worked…” she mumbled to herself, thinking of the protection spell. Then she looked up at the man. “What do I call you?”
Once again, the man had no answer for her, and Red had to accept that he was either ashamed of it or he could no longer remember. She pursed her lips together while an idea brewed in her mind; if the curse had been enacted, but failed because she was protected from the Wolf, then perhaps the Wolf would protect her in return.