Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
ROSAMUND
He jumps to his feet and takes off running as if wolves are nipping at his heels.
Human expressions. And this one doesn’t work because he is the wolf and isn’t afraid of anything. At least, he doesn’t seem to be.
And his lack of fear, his calm confidence, it seems to transfer itself to me. Otherwise, how to explain the reckless things I do when I’m with him? It’s as if he’s given me permission to fly, because he’s right there, waiting to catch me if I falter and fall.
As if he trusts me to spread my wings and ride the wind.
In my life, everyone has been shielding me from my reality because of my past, and I’m grateful because I needed all that time to heal, but being trusted to live…
is almost as necessary. I never realized how much I needed it.
I need to prove to myself that I can take risks and face fear and pain, and this time…
this time I’m an adult, and I’m stronger, and nothing terrible will happen to me.
At least, that’s how it feels when I’m with Valen. He makes me feel stronger, more… myself.
Yet, as he lopes away with that easy grace born of strength, I feel a shiver travel down my spine. He has run with me on his back all morning and the day is bright, but I’m sitting alone in the middle of nowhere, nobody near me for miles.
Wild animals could be stalking me. Dark fae who aren’t kind like Valen could be watching me, waiting for him to move away so they can capture me.
That’s nonsense, I tell myself. He wouldn’t have left you here if he didn’t think you’d be okay. There to catch you if you fall, remember?
Yes, but he’s fallible. What if he’s so exhausted he didn’t think this through? I get up, casting uneasy looks around. I’m not running after him, screaming, so I can pat myself on the back for that, but should I hide?
The thicket is right there. I head toward it, trying to keep my steps short and steady, telling myself everything is fine. I’m only taking some precautions. I have some experience with the great outdoors now and I know I need to be careful.
That’s all.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Putting my experience into practice.
And everything goes well, until a loud screech comes from somewhere behind me and it has all the hairs on my body rising. I whirl about, scanning the meadows and fields we crossed to get here. What in all the Gods’ names was that? I don’t see anything, but something evidently is out there.
Silence follows. It’s somehow even worse because I haven’t been able to pin the direction from which the screech had come.
Before I work myself into a panic, Valen appears. He’s running toward me and he’s yelling something I can’t make out. He starts waving his arms about, and although I can’t make out the words he’s saying, I can tell one thing, which doesn’t really surprise me:
I should run.
I dash toward the trees, my shoes getting caught in muddy hollows and rocks. My heart is hammering against my ribs and echoing inside my head as I sprint toward safety.
My goal is to reach the thicket, and then… then climb a tree, I decide, although I’m not sure I can make it on my own. I have to try.
As I run, I glance over my shoulder from time to time, unprepared to see what horror is following me and yet unable to stop myself. But there’s nothing. A blur. Tall grasses, scraggly trees, rocky outcrops. Where is the animal?
I expect to hear Valen yelling at me to run, run faster, but he doesn’t, and that silence finally has me pausing at the edge of the thicket.
Where is he?
“Valen,” I whisper, suppressing the urge to scream for him because that would give away my position, and I still don’t know what’s out there. “Where are you?”
An eldritch scream jerks me backward, sending cold sweat down my back. What was that? Was that a wildcat scream or something else entirely?
Suddenly, a triangular head rises from the grasses, higher and higher. A huge head with horns and fangs.
A land dragon, a wyrm.
I almost choke on a gasp, still walking blindly backward, a primeval fear gripping me.
The sky may be teeming with winged dragons, but it’s the ones on the ground, cousins of the snakes, that scare me the most, slithering about, in the weeds, close to the ground, hidden from view.
Attacking without a sound, sinking venomous fangs into your body. Coiling around you and choking you.
They’ve always been my prime nightmare material, enduring even after the wolf attack, tangling in my dreams with furry bodies, claws and canines dripping blood.
And the nightmare becomes reality when a giant gray wolf leaps at the huge serpent, attaching himself below the triangular head and dragging it down.
A wolf with gray fur and a white tuft on his head.
Oh Gods… Valen.
His wolf form is as powerful as his humanoid one, a match for a dragon. Werewolves are bigger than normal wolves, but even by their standards, Valen is large, so large I bet I could straddle his back and ride him.
The wyrm writhes, throwing its body this way and that, trying to shake the wolf off. It’s shaking Valen like a ragdoll, but he holds on stubbornly until he loses grip and falls. I cry out in anguish as the wyrm’s head dives after him, and instead of entering the grove, I set off toward them.
“No! Let him go! Valen!”
I can’t see what’s going on. The grass sways, some taller thistles and golden sorghum cracking and falling as the wolf and the giant snake fight.
“Valen!”
The wolf growls, and I almost laugh out loud with relief. The wyrm screams again—I didn’t know they could produce such a sound, such a tortured, twisted sound that makes my head hurt—and snaps at the wolf.
They move apart, and Valen stands between me and the giant earth dragon, growling. Is it over? My gut tells me to run away, as far away as possible from the two monsters, but my feet are rooted to the ground and somehow… somehow I know Valen won’t let the wyrm get me.
The serpent lunges, the wolf jumps forward… and the serpent retreats. Heart in my throat, I watch it turn and head in the other direction, crashing through the undergrowth.
The wolf growls for a while longer, ears up, fairly bristling with aggression.
Not the best moment to approach an animal and yet… I approach him.
“Valen,” I whisper. “Are you all right?”
The giant wolf turns toward me and I take an involuntary step back. He’s taller than me, and I look straight into his golden, flecked eyes.
What am I doing? He’s a wolf. The same monster that abducted me as a child, tormented me, dragged me through thorns and rocks, and left scars on me.
That old terror grips me, panic sending my heart racing, and black dots dance in my eyes. I can’t breathe.
The wolf turns his massive head away, producing an odd sound—or maybe it’s only that my ears are buzzing. I’m feeling faint.
The wolf drops down on his haunches and his flesh… starts to melt. Bones crack, twisting, his muzzle contorts—and I turn around and run, promptly falling and rolling into darkness.