7. Wolf
Defiance blazed in every outburst from Emi’s lips, but no matter how much she denied it, she was a witch. Sure, she was scared too, but the way she couldn’t stop herself from challenging me was almost admirable.
She set her jaw and glared. “You’re not doing anything with me. Now how, exactly, would I manage to wish you dead? Because I”d like that very much.”
I continued to ignore the shine of righteous indignation in her eyes. She wasn’t fooling me. She knew more than she pretended. She had to.
But, blue skies, the confusion behind her anger looked startlingly genuine. And if she truly didn’t have her magic…
No, I wasn’t falling for her act. “That wasn”t a serious question, was it?”
“Which part? That I want you dead? Or that I could magically wish for it to come true? Because the first one is one hundred percent real.” She wasn’t faking her snarl.
If she hadn”t claimed her magic yet, then she absolutely could wish me dead. Easy as breathing. Everyone knew gemstone witches claimed their magic with a wish. Or at least, I thought everyone knew that.
No, of course she knew. Emi wasn”t just anyone. She was the infamous Ruby Witch’s granddaughter. Her green hood was a perfect twin of the scarlet one hanging beside the door. That swish of red fabric had struck terror through every one of us in Aglonbriar forest with each sighting, always fearing what Ruby might do next.
Would Emi—no, Emerald—do the same in her glorious green. Would the new color of fear be emerald green instead of ruby red?
“You”re scared of it, aren”t you?” I guessed.
She blinked, the defensive anger slipping. “Scared?”
The way her eyes darted to the door before settling back on me, it seemed the thing she was still most scared of was me. Which was a good thing, I reminded myself. That meant I stayed alive longer, so I definitely shouldn”t be having a weird urge to reassure her.
I”d been told my grin could be terrifying. Hawk and Robin once spent a whole afternoon bugging me about how it was my teeth that did it. ”No wonder you’re single,” Hawk had said while Robin giggled beside him. “It”s honestly creepy, Wolf, and I say that with love,” she’d teased. My canines were a little…toothier than most, even as a man. So I smiled, drawing on my memory of the version that made Robin shudder that day.
Emi shrank. “I’m not scared.”
“Sure you”re not, witchling. You”re the one with the power here, after all,” I said archly. “One little wish. That”s all it would take. But you”re not gonna do that, are you? You wish me dead, and then what? Imagine what death magic would cost. Everyone you love? Everything you touch dies? Wouldn”t want that. You”d be alone the rest of your life because all you can do is kill. Yeah, I thought Ruby”s curse magic was bad, but that…No matter how much you hate me, lil’ ol’ me isn’t worth that.”
She shook her head. At first, I thought she was in agreement, that maybe I”d scared her enough that she wouldn”t consider it.
Then she said, “I have no idea what you”re talking about.”
I stared. Where was the lie in her face? I was good at reading people. The enclave depended on that ability, because I could tell the ones who were going to turn from the ones we could save—or whatever you wanted to call the cursed half-life we lived.
But everything about Emi, from her bright eyes to her parted lips and the tension in her neck, to the energy barely contained in her ready posture, said that she really didn”t know what I was talking about.
“That”s not possible,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.
My time to contemplate was up because she launched from her seat, grabbing the fire poker while I was still dazed by her utterly impossible lack of knowledge. Fortunately, you didn”t survive in Aglonbriar forest without developing incredible reflexes. My body twisted away from the blackened metal. She was fast but not skilled, and it was nothing to duck under her sloppy attack. I came up beside her, grasped her arm and twisted it down, smashing her wrist against my thigh. It brought a satisfying clatter of iron falling to the floor. This time I didn’t let go.
I was willing to live as a murderer to end the curse, but I didn’t want to kill again unless I had to. Emi screamed and cussed as I turned her around and dropped her onto the plush carpet, pinning her wrist behind her back to hold her down.
This was ridiculous. While we struggled, there was still Mist curling up to the stone wall outside. There were still haunting sounds of beasts in the woods beyond these doors.
I was supposed to end it.
I grunted as she caught me in the shin again with one of those feisty little feet of hers. I was sick of that, too. “Enough.” I told her. “Just stop. I don”t want to hurt you.”
“Too bad, because I want to hurt you,” she spat back like an angry wildcat.
“Put your claws away, kitten. I might not want to hurt you, but I can’t die yet either, so that leaves us at a bit of an impasse.”
She fumed. Firelight reflected in her eyes and danced over her fair skin. Woodsmoke mixed with vanilla in the air, and the fire popped merrily in direct contrast with our tense conflict.
Done with this, I dropped her arm and strode to the window. A dark shadow flitted between tree trunks, low to the ground. Too small to be Bear. Lynx maybe? Or Fox? Whoever was checking on me, I wished they’d leave. Fenrir was still close, and I didn”t like the idea of my people in danger before we could deal with the uncontrolled fenriswulf. Curses and clouds, this was my responsibility.
Those witches had lied! Their prophecy was a farce!
With a heavy sigh, I faced the witch in the room with me. “Look, you can keep trying to kill me, witchling, but it”s not happening. If you”re not going to use magic, then you definitely don”t have the skills to end me.”
She glowered. I doubted she meant for it to be kind of cute. “You have to sleep sometime,” she threatened. “And it doesn”t look like we”re going anywhere soon.”
I could leave, of course. The wolf could roam these woods in the Mist without much concern. But despite Emi”s presence being a wrinkle I never expected, I still needed to figure out why Ruby”s death hadn’t worked, and I couldn”t do that if I tucked my tail and ran away.
If Emi kept denying any knowledge of magic, then I was back where I started, unless I wanted to try torture. I’d save that option for now. As a last resort, I could kill her, and see if the witch’s blood part of the prophecy extended to her blood relatives. That idea soured my stomach. I had no desire to kill again when I didn’t even know if it would do anything, especially when, for some stupid reason, applying that thought to Emi made me want to throw up.
Either I’d missed something, or those scheming witches neglected to tell me some part of the prophecy. They probably did, knowing witches and their secrets.
“I guess it”s a good thing I have the lock on my side of the bedroom door,” I told her with a smug flick of my eyebrows.
I would not feel bad for leaving her to the couch, that squirm in my belly notwithstanding. I had my reasons and they still stood, and that was that. And now I had one more reason to put a lock between us that I controlled. I needed safety and time to think over what to do about my feisty new problem.
“All this silly hand waving and handbags has made me want a nap,” I said, sauntering to the bedroom door.
My hand was on the doorknob when something whistled past my head. The knife from the kitchen counter quivered in the wood paneling on the wall beside the door frame. Slowly, I turned to face a trembling Emi, her cheeks as red as her hair, fury marking every line of her body. The sight sent an unexpected energy through me, like the crackle of a fire catching.
“Your aim needs work,” I said, ignoring the way my heart thumped and my body buzzed as I closed the door on her indignant scream.