Sadie
WE MOVED BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON, NAVIN DRIVING THE oxen while I hopped off the wagon every few minutes to clear the path northward.
We had three days to be in Highwick and ready to battle.
Every night was filled with those hypnotic songs.
Navin and Ora had begun teaching them to the others, but still, Navin refused to let anyone control me but him.
And I, for one, didn’t mind. He and I had always made the most sense when we were tangled up in bed together.
A human and a Wolf. A magician and his song.
And oh the songs he made me sing when our bodies were intertwined.
Our love existed in this singular moment, the future not promised.
And if we did survive the next three days, what then?
Would I spend my life traveling, never planting down roots?
Would I even be able to grow those roots in Olmdere, bored and idle?
The training for this battle provided a much-needed reprieve from such questions.
“Those humans,” I said to the moonlight, shaking my head. The words hung in the cool night’s air. Navin’s chin bobbed from where he sat on the wagon bench beside me.
We’d had to quicken our pace northward after taking the humans to the temple of knowledge, but doubling back for them had been the right thing to do.
They were so shaken up; they needed our guidance and the soothing songs sung around campfires that healed them of wounds we could not see and lulled them to sleep.
“I know,” Navin murmured. “I won’t forget the looks on their faces for a long, long time.”
When we arrived at the temple, they were all so relieved, some even burst into tears. Others just warily surveyed the place, too broken and hollow to ever trust they’d be safe again.
“I’m going to gut Nero myself,” I hissed. “You sing him still and I’ll plunge my knife into his belly.”
“Not your teeth?”
“No. I don’t want him to die like a Wolf.”
Navin nodded. “Deal.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and stared down at my shadowed boots. “Do you think the Songkeepers are ready?”
I knew the weight of leading his people into battle was heavy on him. So few Songkeepers existed, and now they were battling between themselves, along with the Wolves, the humans collateral between them. No beings in Aotreas were safe anymore.
“They know the songs.”
“Why does that not actually comfort me?” I muttered. “If they manage to control the Wolves to our advantage, great, but what if one of them goes rogue and decides to join with Rasil? Or decades from now decides they want to use that magic for their own gains? Wolves could be ended forever.”
“Not ended,” Navin countered. “Maybe they’d have to stay in their human forms more often, though. Even with all of my force behind it, you cannot be easily controlled by my magic in your human form—well, not unless you want to be,” he added ruefully.
“And oh how I want to be.” I released a sultry chuckle.
Navin’s hand landed on my knee and slid up to the top of my thigh before squeezing it.
The oxen stopped, and I sighed, wishing we could have a little more time to let Navin’s hand explore up my leg and down into the waistband of my trousers. But our life was nothing but a constant string of interruptions.
I grabbed the sword from under the bench seat and prepared to hack away at the vines and underbrush blocking the trail. But when I climbed off the wagon, I found there was nothing in our path.
I searched the darkness, sword aloft. “What is it?”
The oxen seemed firmly planted where they stood.
I blinked, trying to hone my vision to make out shapes in the shadows.
To our right was the dense forests of northeastern Damrienn and to our left was the rocky cliffside that dropped to the ocean far below.
The moon glinted off the rolling sea, but I saw nothing along the cliff’s edge.
“Is everything okay?” Navin called.
I strained my ears, attuning to the nighttime sounds. “I don’t know.”
I heard a twig snap and then rustling leaves. Could be a deer, or maybe a bear, judging by how spooked the oxen were?
A black shadow shot out across the path and a set of luminous eyes reflected the moonlight back at me. My stomach dropped to my boots.
Shit.
“Wolves!” I screamed. “We’re under attack!”
The last word died on my lips as I shifted.
I shot forward, plowing into the first Wolf as howls rent the air.
The Wolf yelped and dashed back into the forest before I could get a good look at him.
My fight training took control as I assessed the attackers and terrain.
I circled, searching the darkness. How many of them were there? Gods, I scented at least a dozen.
Fuck. A dozen? That wouldn’t be good.
I heard Navin scramble back into the wagon behind me, shouting and waking the other Songkeepers.
“Well, you wanted to practice your song on Wolves, Kian,” Navin barked as he and his brother emerged out the back of the wagon. “Now’s your chance.”
Another Wolf flashed past me, and I launched forward, bowling into it and sinking my teeth into its side.
A chorus of instruments—string and brass and wood—all rose up from behind me as I dug my teeth into the scruff of the Wolf underneath me, shaking my maw and tearing fur from flesh. The Wolf yowled as my mouth filled with the metallic tang of his blood.
The song rose in volume, echoing through the night. The pull of the magic was a familiar tug to me now. I had strengthened my resolve against it, but still, the power of so many Songkeepers pulled me under.
“Jump off the cliffs,” it sang to me.
I looked to the left, to the jagged cliffs that dove down, down, down to the sea. The smallest Wolf stood no chance, immediately bolting over the side while others dug their paws into the earth and tried to resist the command.
“Jump off the cliffs,” it urged me.
I started to rise on shaking legs before catching myself and shifting back to my human form. The relief was instant. I rose, returning to where my shredded clothes were on the path. But I wasn’t in search of modesty.
I was in search of my knives.
Another Wolf, then another, jumped over the side like bolting deer running straight into the jaws of a waiting lion.
But eventually some had the instinct to shift.
Except when they did, I was there. Bringing my knives down on them, I didn’t give them a chance to get their whereabouts before I slit their throats.
Blood sprayed the air, the night filled with violent song.
Unfortunately there were too many Wolves, and even with the powerful song, it was clear I was soon going to be overrun.
Navin’s song broke from the others. He dropped his lastar to the ground and ran out to join me in the fray.
Shadowed bodies converged on us as we tried to battle them backward.
I swiped one’s side as a fist collided with my jaw.
I staggered back, my leg sweeping out. There were too many of them.
Someone in the group must’ve spoken into their minds, must’ve warned them to shift.
The sharp trill of Navin’s whistle cut above the chaos, desperately calling for Haestas, but as a press of bodies towered over me, I heard Navin cry out in pain.
I screamed as a bare foot stomped hard on my chest, knocking the air out of me.
Blinding pain shot through me as my rib cracked and ligaments snapped.
If I shifted to heal, I’d be overcome with the Songkeepers’ commands.
I curled onto my side, trying to find a less vulnerable position from the ceaseless onslaught of blows.
Get up. Get up. Get up!
Arrows whizzed by me and I knew Asha had moved from her lute to her bow and arrow.
My attackers paused at the deluge of arrows.
I managed to get one arm under me, unable to breathe with the crushing pain lancing through my sternum.
Then I heard Asha’s high-pitched scream, and the arrows stopped flying.
I took in a stabbing breath, trying to shield my face from the renewed attack of pummeling fists. The world spun as I clung to consciousness . . .
A fireball erupted in front of me, snapping me back into reality. My skin sizzled, the heat whooshing over my bloodied bare skin. The light was so bright I couldn’t see. I held up a hand against the flaring illumination as all of a sudden the night was engulfed in flames.
And then I heard her.
Haestas screeched overhead, burning a protective circle of fire around us. Navin rushed to me, one limp arm hanging grotesquely by his side. With his good hand, he hauled me to my feet. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, holding a pained hand to my side. “Nothing shifting won’t fix. You?”
“I think I broke my arm,” he said, wincing as he held the limp appendage. There was no thinking about it; it was a clean break.
Navin looked up into the night sky and I followed his line of sight to where Haestas circled overhead. Her ferocious golden eyes glowed like violent stars as they tracked the carnage below.
“One got away,” Navin gritted out.
He whistled to Haestas, the tune unfamiliar to my ears, and she let out a rumble, seemingly wanting to disobey his command. He whistled again, and with a final chuff of curling smoke, she flew out over the forest in the direction of the fleeing Wolf.
My eyes dropped to the ebbing wall of flames, and I searched the destruction all around us. So many charred bodies, the trees and brambles still ablaze . . .
“Only a single Silver Wolf survived,” I whispered.
“Those aren’t Silver Wolves,” Navin replied.
I gasped, studying the bodies more keenly, the tatters of inky black fur. “Those are Onyx Wolves. In the middle of Damrienn.” My mouth fell open as I surveyed the carnage. “That explains why they didn’t keep to any formation. If they had been Silver Wolves, I don’t think we would’ve won so easily.”
“Easily?” Navin groaned, holding his arm.
I turned back to Galen den’ Mora. The Songkeepers all stood gaping at the destruction Haestas had wrought. If she hadn’t come . . .
Finally Kian’s eyes drifted from the bodies to me, and he let out a low whistle.
Navin instantly stepped in front of me, blocking my naked body from view. I rolled my eyes. I was so covered in dirt and gore there was barely anything to see.
The wind whipped up around us as Navin craned his neck skyward. “Look out!”
With his good arm, he shoved me out of the way as Haestas arced back across the sky. A giant form plummeted from the spot where Navin shoved me: the last Onyx Wolf.
He collided in a heap of brambles, moaning and clutching his side. His face was contorted in pain, blood trailing from his mouth and nose. I knew the look in his eyes, knew he was on the precipice of death.
He screwed his face up. “Just kill me,” he begged.
“Why are you here?”
He didn’t answer, shifting into his Wolf form to try to heal. With a groan of frustration, I shifted right along with him. The relief was instantaneous, my wounds healing along with the change. Not so for the Onyx Wolf in front of me, scrambling legs and twitching maw battling the throes of death.
“What is an Onyx Wolf doing in Valta?” I pushed again, towering over him and snarling.
“King Tadei commanded us.” His eyes shot frantically to and fro. “We were on our way to Highwick when we caught your scent.”
My pulse raced. “Why has Tadei sent you to Highwick?”
“To join King Nero’s army,” the Wolf whined.
“I don’t know why he did it. He’s terrified of Nero.
Tadei feeds us to the hungry beast that sits atop the Highwick throne.
” His frantic movements slowed; his eyes stopped searching.
“I knew when I stepped foot in this haunted place, I’d never see my homeland again.
This place is covered in a pall of dark magic.
I never thought I’d see a dragon . . . never thought I’d die under these strange skies . . .”
The life faded from his eyes before he could finish the thought. Reeling, I shifted back to my human form. Confusion clouded my thoughts as Navin pulled me into his side, hiding me once more from view.
Haestas screeched overhead before flying back out toward the sea.
“You figured out the command,” I murmured, staring as her shadow disappeared beyond the clouds.
“I didn’t.” Navin’s voice was strained. “It just came to me.”
“Well, we know the songs work,” Svenja called, glancing out at the cliffs.
“But we still needed the dragon,” Timon countered. “The songs aren’t enough on their own.”
Navin wrapped his coat around me, and I shrugged it on, stepping out from behind him.
“And what if something happens to the dragon?” Kian cut in. “What if all the Silver Wolves stay in their human forms and Haestas decides she’d rather hunt for deer than turn our enemies to ashes? What then?”
Ora worried their lip, looking out to sea. “We need both,” they said, distracted as they repeated what was already said. “And we need all of our songs . . .” Their words died off as they looked at each of us in turn.
“What is it?”
They whirled, searching more frantically. “Where is Asha?”
And then I remembered her scream.