Chapter 17
FEYRA
I watched Dion walk away. His naked body golden in the morning light. The stench of death wove its way up from the plains, copper already being carried on the winds. My best friend had just been carried away, and all I could do was think that I was destined to be his love.
I was giddy, excited, joyous…but wary that the one I love will cause my death.
I took a tentative step forward, sniffing after Dion.
So he also had a destiny then. Things weren’t as anyone guessed.
I was using them, but the whole time they’d been using me.
Was this what Agatha had overheard? Had she misinterpreted Dion and Roman’s intentions?
Or had she lied? But what about her wounds? What about the poison they’d given me?
My fur prickled. I growled deep in my throat and let the anger leave my body.
I began following them, as much as I didn’t like it, if I was going to get Agatha back, then a plan was needed.
I shifted back to my human form when I caught up to them.
They were traveling quickly, as we’d already reached the gap in the mountain.
“What are we going to do about Agatha?” I asked.
“First we must make camp,” Dion said. He looked sideways at me though, looking at my body.
I grunted, and despite not wanting to, blushed. This wasn’t the time, and he knew it.
“No, we must discuss Agatha.” I grabbed onto Roman’s arm and he stopped.
He stared at me with level eyes, I could feel the emotions rolling through him even now as a human. “We will look for her,” he said. “But first, we must go back to the camp.”
“Why?”
He rolled his eyes and pulled his arm free.
The winds began to pick up as we headed into the gap.
“Because there may be nothing left. If the merls were tempted to kill a squadron of men, they may have been tempted to kill six horses too. If that’s the case, and our camp is destroyed, then it’s not just Agatha who will need saving. But us too.”
I went cold. I felt stupid. I hadn’t thought of that.
Neither of the men spoke to me as we walked through the gap.
Not that they’d really been able to, the wind was stronger than it was this morning.
All of us, even Roman, struggled against the wind to gain the middle.
I had felt a slight pang of happiness that even he had struggled.
But then felt guilty for the thought. My feelings for these two kept changing.
One minute I’d felt happy around them, the next I was bound and drugged.
We passed the gap and emerged back on the covered side of the mountain.
Out of the morning sun, and having just been buffeted by strong winds, I was freezing.
We were all still completely naked and I suddenly felt self-conscious.
It was like the winds had cleansed thoughts from my mind and body, making me aware of myself without my wolf.
I wanted to cover up but had no clothes. I hung back slightly, just a few steps.
But when Dion turned back to check on me, he caught me staring at his ass. I tried to say something—but he only smiled and turned away. I went the darkest shade of red my face could go. What was I doing? This wasn’t the time.
We came to the formation Agatha and I had forked from. Roman didn’t like what he sniffed on the wind, and we began running down the descent. All of that effort overnight had made it seem like we’d traveled for ages in the dark. But in truth, I could already spot the camp from our vantage point.
I thought again about Dion’s words, not the destined lovers part, but that I was a part of his prophecy.
What did it mean? What was his? Had they read mine in my letter?
Did all shifters have a prophecy? Had I been thinking I was special, when in reality everyone outside of Lassig was like this? I asked them.
Roman, for the first time that morning, smiled. Then shook his head. “No, we didn’t read your letter. I used a method of copying that marks the imprints, it is done backwards. Your secrets are yours, and yours alone. Only you can make that decision to tell us.”
He said it matter-of-factly. He wasn’t offended or intrigued now that I was admitting the existence of the letter. Dion however, piqued his ears towards me.
“It is not normal, however,” Roman went on.
“You two, or anyone involved with you it seems, become special.” He paused, watching the camp from a closer height.
There didn’t appear to be any signs of damage as we came closer.
His nose twisted like he’d smelled something off.
“Back when Jebra was alive and not just a myth, people had their prophecies told all the time. It was commonplace. Then it may have been normal, but it was normal in an extraordinary world. But now? Lassig has become different… since I visited.”
“You’ve been to Lassig?” I asked, awe in my voice.
“We have,” he gestured at both he and Dion.
“But we avoid it if we can. It’s too risky for our kind.
Precautions have to be made, communications with those inside—oftentimes, one can only go as a child.
I went then along with Dion’s father. And even then, the banishment was spoken of ending soon.
But how long has it been? How many of our kind remain in there?
Double agents who restricted their own life, ability to shift, in hopes that the next generation may be the one to overthrow her? ”
A bird wheeled into the air from cover over on the right. We all traced its line of flight across the sky. Roman smiled. “A kite this far out can only mean good or bad. I choose good.”
Roman’s words rebounded into my body. Shifters chose dormancy to stay inside Lassig, to be undercover in hopes to birth a revolution. Aunt Teetee… my parents… was I connected to that world?
I felt Dion looking at me, his eyes tracing the scar on my chest. A brand, left by the burning beam that killed my aunt.
It seemed so long ago now, yet my flesh was still raw and healing.
My heart too, but I couldn’t let it split open now that Agatha needed saving.
My heart heaved. There was no way she’d misheard them. No way she was lying–
But then, what was the truth?
I believed all of them.
“Can a prophecy be wrong?” I asked. A small ache of dread had been building in my chest. What if I wasn’t this destined girl?
What if there was no real prophecy, no second prophecy…
what if I was a mistake that had been given a crown?
I looked at Dion’s naked body, glancing without him seeing. What if I could love him too?
No! I shook my head. I had to think of Agatha.
“A prophecy is rarely wrong,” Roman said, now looking up and down the ranges.
“It can be misheard or never lived, but rarely is it wrong. A prophecy comes from foresight. And the power of foresight is seeing true. Often it is people that do not want to see or hear the truth, which causes the prophecy to be wrong,” Roman said.
We came into camp and everything was normal. Everything was as it had been, but in truth, nothing was normal anymore. I had killed something—I buckled at the knees and fell.
“Are you alright?” Dion came quickly.
“I’m fine,” I lied. I had killed something.
That part had hidden itself away in my mind.
When I was a wolf… when I’d lost my best-friend.
.. I had killed something as easily as I put on clothes.
And now I was back with two men I didn’t know what to make of, but who killed just as easily.
Would they kill me? He left reluctantly.
The men checked over the camp, made sure that the horses were fine, before beginning to pack up. Dion brought me clothes and laid them on a rock before me, departing with a comforting smile. He and Roman finished packing up before dressing themselves.
I’d wanted to ask more questions as we packed, but I felt a tension in the air. Roman was thinking, and occasionally, he would look at both of us before nodding to himself and carrying on.
I wanted to mistrust them, I wanted to listen to Agatha’s words. But I found myself doubting everything. They seemed so genuine, yet, so had she…I was being double played by all sides.
I would have to remain wary of everyone.
When all was done, we saddled up and Roman finally spoke.
“I have been going over it in my mind this whole morning, and it seems there’s no other answer.
I was already wary of the potential of this happening when we had to change course to come to Jebra.
And it now seems we were fated in stronger forces.
I believe you needed us brought here,” he said to me.
“Which means we were meant to save Agatha too.” He adjusted in the saddle and took a deep breath, nodding and reassuring himself.
“For that many merl to come that quickly, they would have to be nearby. That, and merls never carry people away. Which leaves us only one option. Which is the option I did not want.”
Dion had been nodding to himself, and now looked down at his saddle, then up at the crisp sky. It was like he was praying.
“What option? Where do we need to go?” I asked.
Roman too looked to the skies now, before looking at me.
“We chase another myth. We are headed to Mograaw’s Keep.
The supposed breeding ground where Lady Skol keeps her merls.
It is in this mountain range, in a crevice similar to the one we passed through.
It can be the only reason why Lady Skol’s men were here too.
And if the merls have taken Agatha? Surely it is the only place?
” He looked me dead in the eye then. “But if it is trust that you still need from us, then heading to Mograaw’s Keep is no better example.
For it is heading towards certain death.
” The last words were a snarl. Then he squeezed his horse’s ribs and moved forward.
Dion followed too, giving me a nod with no expression on his face. But I smelled his fear.
Mograaw’s Keep. The name echoed around my mind, drove a sliver of ice down my spine and made me shiver. I felt that I’d heard that name before… despite never having heard it at all.
The dreams I’d been having as of late, returned to my mind.