Chapter 3
Rowan
Talyn’s head cracks against the rock. His eyes widen, then narrow to slits of pure, undiluted rage.
Ellie smiles. Then, with a second stroke of genius level timing, my favorite aeromancer sends a whirlwind of dirt and debris right into the attacking fae.
I make a mental note, somewhere in the back of my adrenaline-flooded mind, to never underestimate my best friend’s appetite for calculated chaos.
Unfortunately, the element of surprise is a short lived alley and within moments the entire clearing erupts into melee. Blood snaking from his hairline, Talyn is back on his feet, cursing alongside the rest of his patrol as they set about cutting Ellie and me out of the pack.
The blue-haired fae breaks through first, his face set with hatred that should be reserved for monsters and tyrants, not for a mediocre alchemist who can barely finish a training run without passing out.
Which is exactly what I’m about to do. My heel catches on an exposed root—of course it does—and I go sprawling, dragging the still leg-shackled Ellie down with me in a heap of tangled limbs and embarrassment.
“Reece!” Talyn shouts, still struggling against Kai’s assault. “We take them alive!”
Reece snarls, a sound more animal than fae. His blade arcs toward my face.
A wall of fur and muscle collides with Reece a heartbeat before his blade can fillet me open. It’s Logan—the terrifying wolf Logan—slamming into the male in a nightmare of midnight fur and white-hot teeth, moving so fast he blurs at the edges.
Reece goes flying backward, a startled yelp escaping his lips as Logan's bulk sends him crashing into the underbrush.
I scramble back, dragging the still leg-shackled Ellie with me as leaves and twigs explode from the impact point.
There's a sickening crack—bone or branch, I can't tell—and then a flash that’s becoming familiar.
Where Reece had fallen, a russet wolf now crouches, lips pulled back over glistening teeth. He lunges forward, jaws snapping. Reece is smaller than Logan but quicker, darting in to tear at Logan's flank before dancing away.
The wolves circle each other, hackles raised, growls vibrating the air around us.
Logan feints left, then drives forward with shocking speed for something so massive.
Reece dodges, but not quite fast enough.
Logan's teeth graze his shoulder, drawing blood.
The wolves pull back for a heartbeat then rush at each other with renewed savagery.
Teeth snap. Claws rake. Blood spatters the forest floor in crimson droplets. I can't tell whose it is. They're moving too fast, a tornado of fur and fangs, rolling across the clearing with stomach churning violence.
My heart pounds against my ribs as I watch, only vaguely aware that Kai and Kyrian are holding the line with the others. Two against four. But they are the right two.
A heart stopping snarl yanks my attention back to the wolves. It happens so fast, I almost miss it. Logan feints right, pivots, and lunges—all in one impossibly precise movement. His weight crashes down, pinning Reece with a single, devastating strike.
Reece thrashes under Logan, once, twice, then just stops as Logan’s jaws clamp around his throat. Fangs press into fur and flesh, and blood starts to well around Logan’s mouth.
The clearing goes quiet. Too quiet.
“Logan,” Kai warns softly. “Don’t.”
The wolf pays his commander no mind. Logan’s eyes are wild and gold and burning with an intensity that, like Reece’s hate, is deathly personal.
"Call him off,” Talyn tells Kyrian. He is on his knees with the rest of the sentries, his jaw set in fury of defeat. Apparently, Kai and Kyrian have resolved that trouble efficiently enough. Talyn grips Kyrian’s gaze. “You do not want to start your homecoming with murder.”
“Debatable word choice,” Kyrian says.
“It’s the word choice your brother will use.”
Kyrian sighs. “Logan, let the piece of shit go before it gives you indigestion."
Talyn growls.
So does Logan. What he doesn’t do is let go. Reece’s legs twitch weakly.
Kyrian twists sharply to the wolf pair, alarm flashing in his blue gaze. He takes a step toward the wolves.
More blood wells around Logan’s canines.
Kyrian curses but stops. "Everyone, back away from Rowan,” he orders, his eyes never leaving Logan's rigid form. “Now. Move slowly.”
The others hesitate, but only for a moment. Even Ellie pulls backwards, her hand slipping from mine as she puts distance between us. I feel suddenly cold without her there, isolated in a clearing that's gone deathly silent except for the wet, ragged breathing of the pinned wolf.
Once they've all moved away, leaving me alone in a small circle of trampled grass and blood-speckled leaves, Kyrian turns to me. "Tell him you are safe and call him off,” Kyrian says quietly.
I stare at him, incredulous. "Why would he—"
"Just do it.”
I swallow hard, looking at the massive black wolf still holding Reece's throat between his jaws. Logan's eyes are wild, feral. Scary as hell.
Familiar.
The scars on my face tingle.
I shake off the strange deja vu and do as Kyrian asks. "Logan?" I call uncertainly. Does the wolf form of Logan know its name? "Logan, let him go. Please?"
The wolf's ear twitches, but his jaws remain locked.
“If he finishes that kill, he will be put down,” Talyn says, though it sounds like he'd like to see that outcome whether Logan finishes the kill or not.
“Again,” Kyrian murmurs, ignoring Talyn. “Tell him you are safe.”
“Lie, you mean?”
“Wolves live in the now,” says Kyrian.
Well good for them. I take a deep breath, pushing aside the panic as I force myself to focus fully on the wolf, reminding myself that he did save me from Reece’s blade.
"Logan," I whisper, not just saying his name but reaching out from my soul.
Golden eyes swing toward me, pupils contracting sharply. His jaw tightens, and I wince as fresh blood trickles down Reece's neck.
"I'm safe now,” I say urgently, tugging at the thread of awareness that stretches between us. “You protected me. That's enough." I swallow, opening my hands and body to show my whole self to him. “See. I’m alright.”
He blinks.
"Please," I add softly. "Let him go."
For one terrible moment, nothing happens. Then Logan's jaws relax. He steps back from Reece's prone form, blood staining his muzzle. The russet wolf scrambles away like the smart creature he is.
I’d like to do much the same. But instead I’m riveted in place as Logan pads right toward me. He stops inches away, his massive head level with my chest. He's close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from his body, smell the iron tang of blood on his breath.
My scars burn again, a phantom sensation that makes sense given that it was a wolf who’d left me with those. A black wolf with golden eyes and fur matted in blood. One who I would have sworn I’d felt a pull toward—right up until he mauled my face.
"Holy shit," Ellie whispers from somewhere behind me.
I don't dare move as Logan's fur brushes against my leg, warm and terrifying. Still, my body starts shaking despite myself. The wolf takes that in, then spins around and lopes on into the woods.
I exhale a breath that had been stuck in my throat, my knees threatening to buckle beneath me. Despite having wanted nothing more than to get away from the wolf, the clearing feels suddenly emptier, colder without Logan's massive presence.
"What the actual hell was that?" I murmur, not expecting an answer. And not getting one.
Kyrian slides his blade back into its sheath and turns to the kneeling patrol, finding Talyn. “You've just been promoted from scout patrol to honor guard. You are welcome." He jerks his head toward the main camp. "You will escort us in.”
Talyn glares but complies, rising with the careful dignity of someone trying to hide both pain and humiliation. The other members of the patrol, at least the ones that can walk unassisted, do the same.
"It goes without saying,” Kyrian continues with irritating nonchalance, “no one touches the humans. No one harms them. No one so much as looks at the humans. That includes everyone we have the pleasure of meeting between here and the command tent. Clear?"
“Clear,” Talyn says through gritted teeth.
"Excuse me?” Ellie raises her hand. “Before we go, would anyone happen to have a spare set of shackle keys?” she waves toward the metal leg shackles the mercenaries had put on her.
"No," says Talyn.
"If I erode the metal enough to weaken it, can you break her chain the same as you'd done with mine?" I ask Kai. It’s what I had done with both our manacles back when we’d been the merc’s prisoners. The one thing my alchemical magic has proven good for in the field.
The entire clearing goes eerily silent for the second time in a quarter hour, all the fae’s faces whipping in my direction with varying degrees of shock, suspicion, and savage hostility.
And, in the case of Kai and Kyrian, a tense stillness that’s more alarming than any outburst.
"Alchemist," Talyn breathes, the word sounding like an accusation and a death sentence all at once. "You're an alchemist."
Shit. The word hangs in the air like an armed explosive. My heart stutters as I realize Kai and Kyrian hadn’t been planning on sharing this little fact about me with the rest of their kin. I’m not sure why not, given all the trouble they went to to kidnap me.
"I—I just meant—" I stammer, but there's no taking it back. Alchemist mages are extremely rare in Eryndor, but the auric alloy we create counteracts the fae’s immortal magic, giving the humans a fighting chance against the fae. Taking an alchemist out of action is catastrophic for Eryndor defense supply lines… but I imagine my being the daughter of Eryndor’s general is the bigger deal. And Talyn already knew that.
Talyn's eyes narrow to dangerous slits. "You protect this thing after everything that it's done to our kind?”
It? Seriously? "Oh, I'm sorry," I snap, exhaustion and stress finally cracking my self-control. "Weapons that render your magic inert right when you are trying to kill us with it must seem terribly unfair to you. Fair battles are quite the inconvenience."
“Yes,” Talyn says with a slow drawl that sends dread through me. “Quite the inconvenience."