Chapter 12
twelve
It was the heat inside me that let itself out—all at once, and hard, which was why I felt like every bit of me exploded. But I was intact, and the blinding light that came out of me rivaled the fucking sun, at least for all of us here in the forest.
Even so, I saw. It was like my eyes had been unveiled all of a sudden, and I saw the impact the light had on those men, how it picked them up and basically threw them back like they weighed no more than feathers, like they were made of paper, not all those pounds of pure muscle.
It wasn’t the same sensation as in the cavern, though. Back then I hadn’t seen anything, hadn’t even understood what the hell was happening around me, just that I let the heat out and I hoped with all my heart Rune would survive.
Now, I was fully aware of myself every second, saw the light as it came out, felt the way it exploded out of me, saw the men hitting the ground and the trees.
I saw my hands still raised, and the werewolf—Maera—as she landed on the same spot where that guy who’d been about to stab me with his knife was a second ago .
Meanwhile, he was some ten feet away now, on the ground, trying to make it to his feet.
The light blinked out of existence as fast as it had appeared.
My arms lowered, and though to a part of me that entire thing somehow made perfect sense, there was still a side of me that was terrified, that wanted nothing to do with whatever had taken over me just now.
The light or the way time moved or the way I heard the fucking leaves rustling.
The werewolf was a couple feet ahead of me.
The men were spread out in all directions, the closest one to my right at least ten feet away, trying to use a tree trunk for support to stand.
Meanwhile, the one with the longer hair already had, and he was breathing heavily, looking for his knife that must have fallen from his hands, touching his nose—no, the blood dripping out of his nostrils.
For the longest moment, everyone was silent, moving slowly, trying to understand what the hell just happened.
My knees shook, but I forced myself forward, closer to the werewolf, put my hand over her neck. My fingers slipped into her soft fur and I felt the air going down her throat as if it was mine when I said, “They’ll walk away now, I’m sure. Nobody’s going to hurt you again.”
I tried to say it loud enough so that the men heard it—and they did, even though I was breathless.
While they wiped the blood coming out of their noses—on all three of them—they heard, and they looked at me, stunned, uncertain of what to do next, two looking at the one in the middle, waiting for guidance.
“Noxavira,” the man whispered, throwing the word at me almost like an insult, but I couldn’t care less what it even meant.
And I was going to threaten him, tell him I’d do twice as much damage if he came for us again, even though I had no clue how long I could even stay on my feet.
That light drained me like nothing else.
It left me completely empty—but he didn’t know that. He never had to find out.
Taking in a deep breath, I raised my chin, held his eyes. “You have?—”
I never got the chance to finish.
It happened right before my eyes and that’s the only reason why I believed it. The werewolf howled, and this time it was different. I wasn’t sure how I could tell since it kind of sounded the same, but it was different. It wasn’t a call this time—it was a warning.
Then the men in front of me changed.
When I tell you that I passed out standing, then came to again, I’m not even joking.
The three men who were very much men began to change right in front of my eyes, teeth gritted, and eyes squeezed shut like they were in pain.
Their bones snapped—I heard the sound of them like it was all happening right next to my ear.
Their skins changed, became darker, began to sprout fur—and their heads, too.
The word shocked was an understatement. One moment they were men, human beings, and the next, they had fur and their clothes were torn off their bodies, and they had claws and sharp teeth and they were at least three times the size of the werewolf in the middle.
The one I thought was a dog. The one these men were here for.
Then she changed, too.
Fur shed off her all at once. Her bones snapped and rearranged themselves, her limbs grew, and her size shifted. Her skull changed, too.
Hair a deep brown over her shoulders, and three shades lighter around her face, long enough that it touched the small of her back. Her naked back .
Hands instead of paws, nails long but not sharp. Dirt all over her pale skin, but her shoulders were back and her head was raised.
I only saw her profile before she moved forward, turned her back to me all the way. Went closer to the three wolves who were howling and growling and barking as they moved restlessly in place.
Fuck, they were huge. They were almost eye to eye with the woman, who was just an inch or two shorter than me. My God, they could devour her in one bite—and me, too. They were massive, the one in the middle with golden brown fur, the others at his sides darker, mixed with a deep black.
I wanted to call out to her, to tell her to run, get away before they snapped their teeth and bit her head off, when…
The wolves howled one more time.
The woman said, “ Bow. ”
One word.
So much power it slipped down my throat and squeezed my lungs, made my limbs tremble, made the heat under my skin grow wild.
The wolves fell like their string were cut.
No longer howling, they actually bowed, stretched their front legs and touched their chins to the ground in front of the woman.
The tiny woman—compared to them—who was naked and covered in dirt and…
She turned her head and our eyes locked. Yellow on blue.
“Hello, Nilah,” she said.
Not to brag or anything, but I was still standing .
Deep breath, in and out, I repeated in my head over and over again.
And I wanted to believe that the air going down my throat was going to somehow make everything better—or even just make any amount of sense—but it didn’t.
I’d been focusing on breathing for at least ten minutes now, if my sense of time could even be trusted, and nothing had changed.
Nothing made any sense as I watched the woman, now wearing an oversized white shirt like a dress, looking ahead at the trees like she could see farther than a few feet.
Nothing made sense to remember how the wolves had actually bowed to her, those gigantic, monstrous creatures who had no business even knowing how to bow.
But they had and I had seen it. More than that—I had felt it. Whatever this place was doing to me, I’d felt those howls and heard those bones breaking and rearranging, and I’d felt the power of that word that had nearly brought me to my knees, too.
Bow, she’d said, and it was like a world was suddenly placed over my shoulders, pushing me to do just that, simply because she’d wanted me to.
Except she hadn’t, not really. And that’s why I had remained on my feet for a long time after, until I finally thought it was safe to sit near a tree and rest.
The wolves had gone somewhere—she’d waved a hand at them when they rose on all fours again, and they’d taken off running, each in a different direction.
She’d then gone through their backpacks that had ended up on the ground together with the pieces of their clothes, had found a shirt to put on, and a water bottle that she’d drank from, then had put near her feet.
I watched it now, considered asking if I could just have a sip because my insides might be turning into a desert, when…
She moved.
As if she heard the thoughts in my head, the woman leaned down and grabbed the bottle full of water, then turned to me.
My breath caught and my lids froze and even my heart hesitated to beat for a split second. No clue how to better put it in words, but it felt like she was someone I’d known my whole life. Trustworthy.
Which just added to my list of Things That Make Absolutely No Sense .
I analyzed her face as quickly as I could.
Her skin was still dirty, but she’d wiped her face clean, and she was beautiful in an exotic kind of way.
Big eyes that could have been made from yellow shimmer, thick brows like straight lines going up toward her temples, which gave her a pretty intimidating look.
Her hair, though. It was blonde around her face, then deepened into a dark brown on her back, and it was long and wavy and dirty, yet she made it look runway-worthy somehow.
When she stopped in front of me, she squatted down. Look at me, analyzed my face, too, and…
She offered me the water bottle. “Thirsty?”
Speaking was out of the question, but I did take the bottle. Unscrewed the cap. Drank.
Heaven, even if I was too distracted to appreciate the feeling properly.
“Thanks,” I managed, and I sounded much calmer than I felt.
“Thank you .” She pressed her lips together and stretched them into a small smile.
“You…” I shook my head, tried to find words that mi ght sound right for the moment, but there were none in my vocabulary. So, I just said, “I have so many questions.”
Again, that smile. She sat down in front of me, crossed her legs and pulled the shirt up her thighs. “I’m sure you’re wondering who I am and…well, what the hell is happening.”
Laughter burst out of me accidentally. “Yes, yes, very much yes! ” I said, way too loudly, but I couldn’t help myself.
There she was, a woman who had been a wolf just minutes ago, and she was older than me, I thought.
She looked well into her twenties if I had to guess, not because her skin was any different from mine but because of those eyes.
The way she looked. The way she held her shoulders.
“How about I tell you my story,” she told me. “It’s only fair, since you told me yours.”