Chapter 27
FEYRA
We were in the antechamber I’d dreamed of so many times before all this began. When life had been normal, when I’d been Aunt Teetee’s apprentice, when the only problems I had in my life were having odd dreams and wishing I was a shifter.
Now I was a shifter, and my dreams were portals to another world.
Melania had taught me a lot since leaving Malwreith.
But now I was watching the very woman I had to kill.
Lady Skol stood at a small table, looking at a crystal orb.
She was swirling a mist that I couldn’t see into with claw like hands.
Every few seconds the orb flashed a different color or began to hum, but now it was dormant.
It had lain blank for minutes. The moon had gone behind a series of clouds, and the city had descended into darkness.
“You wolves are always so temperamental,” she said. “Need your moon.” She turned, smirking at me. “Well, I wasn’t wrong of you. I knew you were dormant because of your Aunt but I hadn’t expected such a wolf to erupt. How impressive.”
I was still unable to move. She hadn’t let me change my stance since she took me down in Moondaj. My body was cramping and sore from the unchanged position. The blood still bled from my stomach, but it had slowed now. A small puddle was below me.
Lady Skol stood over me, simpering now. “How tragic you’ll die after finding your fated mate.
” She tittered. “Such mortal things. But me? I am immortal. I bet she didn’t tell you that, did she?
Melania always thought she knew everything, saw everything.
But she couldn’t see what was before her.
I have been here since before the werewolves.
Since before any of you were even possible to exist. I was in the wastelands before it was waste. ”
She strode to the window. I could feel her reaching out, the same way that Dion did, trying to pry into my soul. But I was steeled against her.
She may have stopped my body but not my mind.
“He should be captured now. I’m sure they’re bringing him here as we speak. I knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore all those wolves out there. Your kind. Your brothers… How despicable. You were predators once. Well now–”
The moon came out from behind the clouds in the small orb. Lady Skol turned, her lips pursed. Then the real moon emerged and shone over the city. From where we were in her antechamber, it was as if thousands of lights were flooding across the city rooftops.
“What is this?” Lady Skol spat. “How?” She looked at me. “What is this?”
She shattered the glass orb, opened her window, and tasted the air. She put her hand out and sensed the winds, pulled at the power of each wolf below. She hissed and recoiled, briefly turning into the reptilian version of herself.
“The King’s Seal!” she hissed it in a different language, yet somehow, I’d understood.
The shock took away her guard, and my parent’s locket began to vibrate. It had been against my neck this whole time, and I’d never felt it until now.
But more than that, I could move.
I shifted immediately.
Lady Skol turned to me, unsurprised. The moon shone through the window and lit up my fur, my skin felt like diamond steel, I was as strong as I’d ever been.
“I should’ve killed you earlier!” she drawled, then threw a ball of green lighting.
I batted it away and the wall facing away from the city exploded.
Lightning snapped outside like an angry snake.
The thunder rolled like a million war drums. Howls sounded into the night from down in the city.
Screeches of thousands of merls answered, and I could see them flying through the raining night.
The haunting dirge of Siren Singers went up finally.
But every wolf kept advancing. Their shining fur was becoming stronger.
I leaped at Lady Skol and tackled her to the ground. I smashed her face and blood flowed from her nose.
A forked tongue licked the blood away and she booted me across the room. I crashed into the wall and it caved. I bounded off of it before it fell away. She threw another, bigger, lighting ball and I roared at it.
It was held in midair.
Lady Skol looked surprised.
I roared again and it fractured, sending thousands of little balls of energy into the walls.
The room began to vibrate, to hum and become electric.
I felt the buzz in my fur. Lady Skol was screaming an incantation.
I bounded at her and tackled her again. I scratched with both paws on her chest and then jumped, crushing her chest until I heard bones breaking.
The walls exploded, stones rained out into the night. Lightning began to strike and reel across the sky, cascading towards us in the antechamber. It struck Lady Skol’s desk. She brought down more and tried to fry me as I dashed away from her.
She hissed and jumped to her feet. She brought her hands out wide and then snapped them together.
Millions of wires wound around my body. They squeezed the blood out of my muscles, out of my brain.
I felt the oxygen choke on my mind. The panic rise…
I flexed, breaking the wires and magic. I roared at the sky.
The moon shone brighter and the thousands of shining wolves scurrying into the city below howled in unison.
My locket was humming against my throat.
A singular, extremely bright light was bounding towards me. I could feel a power…a connection.
I knew it was Dion.
A lightning ball struck my chest and I flew backwards, crashing into the last standing wall. I felt my ribs crack, and the breath escaped my lung from a puncture. I began to wheeze. I struggled to my pads and looked for Lady Skol, but she was gone.
I could smell Lady Skol’s fear. I sensed her fleeing up and away.
I found a hidden stairwell behind a tapestry that had managed to hang despite no wall being there.
I bounded up it without thinking of a trap.
I just needed to follow the fear. The dark tunnel became smaller and smaller as I climbed though.
It began to squeeze me, to crush me. The rib that had punctured my lung was sawing against the flesh.
I roared and the stairwell exploded.
I was on a roof.
It was pouring with rain and Lady Skol stood at the end of a rise. She beckoned me forward. I walked out onto the roof and began to slip and slide. I extended my claws and gripped in.
She laughed and ran. I chased after her, despite the wet.
I ran along the spine of the roof, only slipping every few tiles.
But soon I was catching up to her. We bounded across the many rooftops of the castle, jumping and climbing.
Always rising, higher and higher. Closer to the moon, closer to my power.
My body was surging and building with energy.
Lady Skol leaped off the roof and flew towards a platform. I saw her land safely and continue on.
My lung was screaming in pain. I couldn’t heal while it was in the wrong position. I didn’t have time. I ran at the roof ending, gripping harder against the tiles and jumped as hard as my legs could push. I flew through the air–
A force pulled me down suddenly and I crashed into the edge.
My ribs were broken even more and the single one piercing my lung was joined by another two.
I felt one exit my chest. I almost let go of the stones in agony.
I clawed my way up with my feet, gaining a hold.
I pulled myself, inch by inch, onto the platform.
Dion! I called in wolf sense. The highest tower!
I made it onto the platform, breathless. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I was ready to die. I couldn’t breathe in. I couldn’t heal. My body was dying.
I struggled to stay on my pads. I couldn’t let her get away.
I stumbled forward.
I couldn’t stay as a wolf—I shifted, standing there naked in the pouring rain. The locket stopped humming. It was boiling against my flesh though.
Lady Skol came through the darkness. Suddenly in front of me with gleaming victorious eyes. A knife was buried in my chest.
Dion…