Chapter 14
My foot snagged on an upturned root, and I staggered forward. Throwing my hands out, I caught myself on Ace. He grunted and turned to grab hold of my arm before I teetered over. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t think we have the time to thoroughly address that question,” I said as my head spun.
His grip tightened on my arm—not enough to hurt me, just enough to keep my attention focused on him. “Tell me.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong.” I spotted a mint plant by the path and plucked some leaves to shove in my mouth.
They might not give me strength or emotionally heal me, but at least my mouth would no longer taste like vomit.
The mint would also help clear my senses.
“Either using my magic like that drained me, or it’s something to do with my bond to Nala.
She’s not well, and that means the bond is not well. ”
Ace swore and scanned the area. “They’re going to be after us soon. We need to make it to the forbidden forest.”
I nodded and lurched in the right direction.
Ace reached out and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”
I staggered after him as he pulled me along.
We weren’t going to outrun anyone while I was in this state. “You have to leave me.”
“No phaaning way,” Ace growled.
I shook my head, willing my legs to work. “If it comes down to it, save yourself and get out of here. My brother plans to kill you, but he won’t hurt me.”
“He’s done a piss-poor job protecting you so far. Or have you forgotten all those arrow wounds already?”
I ground my teeth. “I haven’t forgotten.”
His grip on my hand remained firm as he continued to pull me along. His expression turned severe, the moonlight carving sharp angles into his face. He clenched his jaw tightly, pressed his lips together in a grim line, and frowned so hard his brows angled low enough to look like twin blades.
How did I ever lose against him in card games?
“Come on,” he growled.
I stumbled after him, my breath catching as we plunged into the waiting shadows of the forest. The towering pines and cedars swallowed us whole, their low branches snagging on our clothes. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth.
A man’s shout echoed through the trees behind us.
My heart lurched.
They knew.
We hadn’t gotten far enough from the compound.
Ace threaded his fingers with mine and tightened his grip.
“Faster,” he hissed, his voice barely louder than my ragged breathing. “You can do this.”
More voices joined the first—closer now, angrier. The hunt had begun and we were the prey.
“We’re not going to make it,” I said. Besides, where would we go? Paul knew where we lived.
“So negative.” Ace kept his gaze trained forward.
“Should we hide?”
“There’s no way we can hide our tracks with them so close. We need to get to a stream or river and then we worry about hiding.”
We continued to jog through the forest. Every time I stumbled, Ace pulled me to my feet.
I didn’t know this section of the forest well.
It was beyond my normal route. Of course, my brother would set up his base beyond my range.
He knew all my movements. How far was the nearest stream?
Were we even heading in the right direction?
We staggered into a section of old growth forest. The tall trees reached for the sky and blocked out the sun with their dense canopy.
The forest floor was clear of small bushes and shrubs, the ground hard packed and littered with pine needles and patches of moss.
We wove around large tree trunks as the shouting of the men behind us grew louder.
“We’re not going to make it,” I hissed. “Leave me and get out of here.”
Ace frowned, his brow slashing down severely.
He scanned the forest ahead of us and pulled me toward a thicket of bushes where the old growth gave way to newer growth.
I knew this section of forest now. This part had burned during a forest fire a long time ago.
The charred evidence lay underneath the moss and brush and provided nutrients for the trees that grew from the destruction.
“Wait here,” he said.
Good. He was leaving me. I wasn’t the one with the looming execution order on my head.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said before shoving me into the bushes.
I bit back a strangled cry, flailed my arms to vainly catch myself, and crashed into the shrubs. Branches snapped, twigs scraped my exposed skin and leaves rustled all around me. There was nothing quiet or covert about me slamming to the ground.
I told him to leave me and run. It still sucked to get dumped in a patch of bushes.
More people shouted, their calls growing louder. If my brother had anything to do with their training, the loud shouts were a smoke screen or an attempt to corral us toward a certain location. There were more hunters out there, stalking us silently, and they were much closer.
I pulled my legs into the bushes. The daylight was fading and though they might follow our tracks in the right direction, they might miss my tracks disappearing into my hiding place.
They might miss the snapped branches and trampled leaves.
Unlikely.
But they might.
The hunters drew closer with every heartbeat, and the sound of each step striking the ground cracked like a whip across my nerves.
I crouched lower in the dense underbrush, my body coiled tight beneath the lush green leaves. The foliage pressed close, snagging at my clothes. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out all else. Could they hear how hard and fast my heart raced?
Somewhere deeper in the forest, voices drifted, more distant than before. The wind stirred again, brushing cool fingers along my sweat-damp skin.
Then… nothing.
Complete, suffocating silence.
Not even the chirp of insects or the rustle of leaves dared to break it. The birds stopped singing. Only the violent pounding of my heart and the rasp of my breath clawing through my throat remained. Had I always sounded like this?
Please, let Ace’s plan work.
Please, let him come back.
But doubt slithered in. I was alone. Weaponless. Familiarless. Partnerless. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me.
I was Artemis, Guardian of the Forbidden Forest and protector of familiars. I didn’t fear. I didn’t falter. And I certainly didn’t wallow in self pity.
Or at least I didn’t used to.
My overconfidence had hidden my many faults. I saw that. And now I was a mere shadow of myself, curled beneath the branches, hoping the hunters stalking through the trees weren’t the kind that could smell fear or hear racing heartbeats.
They’d find me, eventually. I could feel it in the way I felt the forest whisper to me. They’d find me and drag me back to my traitor of a twin brother.
Maybe Paul’s honeyed lies held a sliver of truth. Perhaps he didn’t want me dead. He only wanted me broken, caged, and accused of crimes I didn’t commit.
I clenched my fists into the damp soil, the ache in my chest growing tighter. I squeezed my eyes shut. Memories from our childhood threatened to surge up and play in my mind on repeat.
No, thank you.
I didn’t need a walk down memory lane. I needed to know how my brother betrayed me so severely. How could he turn his back on me and lead this entire operation without letting on a thing?
How could he steal supplies from his own community? From me?
I squeezed my eyes shut.
A deep growl rumbled through the trees. Paws padded along the forest floor as the whisper of a large animal brushed past the bush.
“What the ph–” A man’s voice was cut off with a snarl.
Boots pounded the forest floor, quick and panicked, followed by screams that tore through the trees like thunder. Male, human. People were dying violently. The sounds melded into a grotesque symphony of terror and chaos, and each note sliced through me like a blade.
Was my brother one of the dead?
Was Ace?
Curled in the prickly embrace of the bush, I took a deep breath and parted the leaves with my trembling hands. Shadows flickered in the last light of day, and though dusk softened the edges, it didn’t hide enough.
I wished it had.
The clearing beyond was painted in blood. Bodies lay strewn like broken dolls—limbs twisted, armour shredded, throats gaping open where they’d been torn apart. The air stank of iron and smoke and something far more primal.
A massacre.
And at the heart of all the blood, stood a beast.
A massive wolf heaved with exertion. Blood soaked its fur. Slick and gleaming in the fading light, blood dripped from the wolf’s snout. But as I stared, my stomach twisted with a new kind of dread.
None of that blood belonged to the beast.
The wolf’s gaze swept the clearing like a predator searching for the next threat. I stumbled from the bush. A branch snapped beneath my foot, and the wolf turned.
Its entire body tensed. Those eyes, blazing gold and as bright as wildfire, locked on mine.
Recognition hit me like lightning.
“All black,” I whispered, barely breathing. “With golden eyes…”
My heart thundered. My mouth went dry.
I’d met this wolf before.
“Seems I owe you more than one thank you,” I whispered.
This wasn’t the first time this beast had saved my life.
The first had been a failed assassination, barely a fortnight ago. It felt like another life entirely, but as the killer had drawn back the string on his bow, this wolf had stood between me and possible death. I was immortal, yes. But if the arrow had been poisoned and if it struck my heart…
That night had been the beginning of everything.
A violent shudder rippled under the wolf’s blood-drenched fur.
I leaned forward. Was it injured or was the light playing tricks on me?
No. The light was fine and so were my eyes. My mental state, on the other hand, was questionable, because the only explanation for what the wolf was doing made no sense.
The wolf was shifting.
Not stepping forward. Not bristling with tension.
Changing. Metamorphosizing.
My breath caught in my throat as the air thickened around me. The world narrowed, every sound vanishing but the snap and grind of shifting bones.
The wolf’s spine arched in a violent bow, vertebrae jutting beneath fur as a deep, guttural snarl tore from the wolf’s throat. Limbs stretched and twisted. Muscle stretched, rippled and contorted in sickening motions. The creature was being remade from the inside out.
The wet sound of breaking bones and ripping flesh was unbearable. The smell of blood, fur, and something darker, something old and wild, clung to the air.
Fur receded like waves retreating from a shore, vanishing in patches to reveal olive-toned skin beneath, damp with sweat and streaked in crimson.
Claws gave way to fingers, tipped with dark crescents of blood.
The creature’s face contorted, muzzle shortening and the jaw snapping as the bones realigned with a final, echoing crack.
Silence settled over the forest once again.
Where the beast had crouched moments before, a naked man now knelt in the shadows. His shoulders rose and fell in labored breaths. Steam curled from his bare skin. Blood clung to him like paint, streaked across his chest and hair.
He braced his hands on the forest floor and slowly lifted his head until his golden gaze met mine. His eyes were no longer fully wolf, yet not fully human, either.
Golden eyes now fading to dark brown.
Ace.