Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Isnuck out of Kaelric’s tent in the dead of night, smiling sweetly to the guard, who simply gave me a head nod.
The camp was quiet, breathing in slow, collective sleep. Cool night air clung to my skin, and the embers of nearby fires glowed faint orange beneath the shadows of the pines.
I walked in the direction of my tent so that I wouldn’t look suspicious, but then tiptoed past my tent next to where Godric slept and into the woods. The instant I crossed beneath the tree line, my pulse quickened, every shift of branch sounding far too loud.
From there, I found the stables where we’d stashed Star, her dark shape barely visible in the pale moonlight. She huffed a greeting, warm air brushing my wrist, and I pressed a kiss to her cheek before leading her out.
Instead of heading for Lunaria, I went the opposite way, back to Hildreth.
I rode long and hard, not stopping to sleep as I had with Godric.
Cold wind stung my cheeks, snapping my hair against my neck.
The forest eventually gave way to low rolling grassland, silvered under the moon, and still I pressed on.
I had to make it to Hildreth by the full moon and without Kaelric on my tail.
My legs ached in the saddle, and every hoofbeat felt like time sliding through my fingers. The night stretched on endlessly, the world reduced to darkness, horse, and prayer.
In the early morning light, Kaelric mentally hailed me.
‘Where are you? I woke up, and you were gone. Godric says he hasn’t seen you.’
My heart shattered for what I was about to do, but I knew it was the only way to get ahead of him and not have him chase after me.
‘I’m sorry… I’m going back to Hildreth. To be honest, the ring freaked me out, and I need time to think.’
I felt his shock through our bond and then his deep sorrow. His emotions crashed into me like a wave, thick and suffocating.
‘Oh… I… Brynn, really?’
He was in disbelief. I could feel his mind reaching for mine, frantic, trying to pull me back.
‘Yes. I just need a few days to think. I’m sorry. It’s a lot.’
Silence.
A long, aching silence.
‘Okay. I’m sending Godric to escort you.’
‘No need. I want to be alone.’
‘Brynn, you have no sword, you’re human, and—’
‘And you never stop reminding me of that. I want to be alone,’ I pressed, hating myself for starting a fight. The lie tasted like ash.
He went silent after that, and I prayed he didn’t send Godric after me.
By my guess, I had about a five-to-six-hour head start, but the wolfkin were fast in their wolf form. Faster than me on a horse.
I rode through the day without stopping but to rest my horse. My body felt shaken loose from my bones, muscles trembling with exhaustion. I rode without staying at the inn that Godric and I had.
I needed to get back by the full moon. I needed this to work.
‘Brynn,’ Val delicately pressed into my mind, but she felt far away, our bond still there but muffled, a thin thread instead of the bright cord I was used to.
Was it because I was getting farther away from her, too?
‘I don’t want to be talked out of it,’ I told her.
‘There is time, child. You can try it next full moon. This is something you must fully think about and not rush into.’
‘I have thought about it,’ I snapped.
The night swallowed my voice, leaving only the pounding of hooves.
‘Oh? And what if you are wrong? What if you die and never see your mother and siblings again?’
A shiver of unease ran through me. My breath faltered, chest tightening.
‘Why would the Creator allow me to wield you if I weren’t ever going to be able to truly use your power to save the people of Lunaria!’
‘I don’t know.’ Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper.
‘And why would the Creator have Kaelric be my mate if I was never going to be able to have children with him? It’s cruel.’ I had to fight back tears.
She was silent for a while. Her stillness felt like grief.
‘I asked myself the same thing on the long, lonely nights I lay in bed without Drake. I don’t know why the Creator does things the way he does.’
The road stretched on beneath us, a ribbon of pale dirt glowing faintly beneath the rising sun.
I knew.
I knew I was meant to be a wolfkin.
Maybe not at birth, because I also knew I was meant to be my mother’s daughter. But turning into a wolfkin now, I knew in the deepest parts of my soul that I was meant for this.
I would survive it.
This was the Creator’s plan for my life, just as it was for Valkaryn’s.
The thought settled heavy and certain, like a stone placed gently into my palms.
‘I want to say one last thing, Brynn, and then I will drop it, as there is nothing I can do to stop you.’
‘What?’ I growled, almost angrily, as I rode Star harder and harder.
‘Be careful not to confuse your will with the Creator’s.’
What did that mean? That I wanted to be a wolfkin, and it wasn’t fate’s design? No. I couldn’t believe that.
I shut out the negative thoughts swirling in my mind and rode for Hildreth like my life depended on it.
The sun was setting as I reached Hildreth’s train station.
I’d barely been gone from the quaint little pumpkin-filled town, but upon seeing the rooftops and farm fields in the setting sun, a tear actually filled my eye.
The sky burned orange behind the windmills, washing everything in a honeyed glow that made the wooden storefronts look soft and familiar.
A cool breeze drifted up from the river, carrying the scent of crushed leaves and wood smoke.
This was home. I loved this place more than I’d ever loved any other land. The edges of my heart eased just being here.
“Greetings, Brynn!” Mr. Wheeler said.
I nodded to him, giving him a tight smile. “Have you seen Elia?” I asked.
“At home,” he answered, and I kicked my heels and headed for her house.
I found her out front picking wild onions. She looked up with a huge grin on her face as I approached. “Hey, friend, I missed you!”
I slipped off Star and ran to hug her. Her arms wrapped around me, warm and grounding, the familiar scent of herbs clinging to her cotton dress.
“You’re back. So is everything all good with Kaelric now?” she asked. Then her gaze went to the ring on my finger, and she gasped.
“We need to talk… privately,” I told her, chewing my lip, and her face sobered. I could hear her children and husband in the house beyond the open front door, voices drifting out with laughter and the clatter of dishes.
She nodded, setting the wild onions in a basket. “I’m going for a walk with Brynn,” she called to her husband. “I’ll be back in a few hours! Can you tend to her horse?”
“Brynn’s back? Okay. It’s a full moon tonight!” he reminded her.
She rolled her eyes to me with a smile. “I know that, darling. See you soon.”
There was always a lot of wolfish activity on the full moon.
It was kind of an unspoken rule that the humans didn’t go out after dark on the full moon while the wolves were running, howling, and hunting the night away.
Even now, as the last gold of daylight thinned, the fields felt suspended in quiet anticipation, waiting for the first distant cry.
The sun was still out, but it was setting, and I hoped Elia would hear me out. I didn’t want to upset her, but she needed to know the truth. When we walked deep into the pumpkin patch and were fully alone, she faced me.
“Why are you wearing an Aerlyn ring that I assume my cousin gave you, and yet you look like you’re mourning a death?”
I sighed. Elia had become my best friend in the whole world. I wouldn’t lie to her.
“Sit down.” I gestured to an open patch on the ground.
She frowned, sitting, and I sat cross-legged in front of her, pumpkin vines all around us. I grasped her hands and met her gaze. The night insects had begun their steady whisper around us.
“Your mother is alive inside Lunaria City.”
She gasped before I could even finish, tears spilling over her cheeks as she shook her head vigorously. “No. She died when the city was taken over.”
I reached out and grasped her hands. “No. Kaelric got word she’s alive. He didn’t want to tell you because it would stress you out to know that she’s… a captive of the king.”
Her mouth fell open, lip quivering, and I hated that I was the one to deliver this news.
“Don’t ask him about it. I had to sneak away from him and lie to be here,” I told her quickly, hoping she wouldn’t mentally check in with Kaelric.
“Why… why would you lie to leave? I don’t understand. Is Kaelric going to save her? I want to help.” She moved to stand up, and I gently pulled her back down.
Over the next few minutes, I told her about Mind Render and my journey into the city with Godric and leaving Valkaryn there.
I told her about my run-in with the imposter, King Harrow, and how his magic worked.
She listened in horror, clutching her chest as silent tears fell down her face.
As night fell, the moon climbed higher, sharpening every detail of her expression.
“So my mother is his plaything, and there’s nothing that can be done?” she growled. “I wish you hadn’t told me.” She turned away from me in anger, giving me her back.
“There is something that can be done. That’s why I’m here. It’s why I lied to Kaelric and left, even though I love him and he put this ring on my finger.”
She turned back to me with a curiosity that I prayed was enough to get her to agree to my plan. As we sat in the moonlight, the distant howls of wolfkin rose into the crisp air. They echoed across the fields, lonely and wild.
“I want you to bite me forty-six times and turn me into a wolfkin like Valkaryn,” I said.
Elia’s face was completely blank for a full five seconds before she burst into laughter. “Have you gone mad, Brynn?”
“No, I’m dead serious.” I stuck my chin up. “Valkaryn needs a stronger vessel, my body. And the only way she can pull herself up out of that well and defeat King Harrow is if I’m a wolfkin. So I need you to make me one.”
Compassion filtered across her face, and she grasped my hands. “Brynn, that’s very sweet of you to want to sacrifice yourself to help Valkaryn, and to be with Kaelric.” She touched my ring, knowing that it was part of the reason I wanted this as well.
“But what happened to my aunt was a freak accident. It isn’t a baker’s recipe to be recrafted, expecting the same result. You will surely die if you attempt that.”
Defeat settled into my spirit, and I felt Val stir there, not an I-told-you-so, but just a comfort.
I stared into my best friend’s eyes. The pumpkins around us glowed almost like small burning embers beneath the rising moon.
“Elia, sometimes there are no words to explain things. You might think I’ve gone crazy, but I need you to trust me.
I know in my heart that the Creator made me to be able to withstand this.
I know this is his plan and that I will survive and save Val, and your mother, and be with Kaelric. I know it.”
Her throat bobbed, uncertainty flickering in her green eyes. The wind curled through the patch, rustling the vines as if the world itself held its breath.
She shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “Brynn, I can’t. If I were to kill you, I’d never forgive myself—Kaelric would never forgive me.”
“You won’t kill me. I wield Valkaryn! I am not weak. Stop treating me like a fragile human! I can do this, and I can save your mother.”
My voice trembled, but the conviction beneath it was iron. A cold breeze rustled over the pumpkin leaves around us, stirring the scent of soil and crushed vine.
Hope bloomed in her gaze, and Elia bit her lip.
Her golden eyes flicked to the moonlight trembling across the fields.
“You don’t understand. Once my wolf tastes blood and flesh, even human, it will want to kill.
The predator instinct will take over. It’s hard to explain to a human.
We won’t be Elia and Brynn. We will be a wolf and an injured human. I might not be able to stop.”
I chewed my lip, my heart rattling in my ribs.
“What if I had someone powerful enough to stop you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to do this. Please don’t make me do this.” But it sounded like she was on board. Her voice carried the strain of someone arguing against her own desire to help.
“Don’t you want your mother to be free of that monster?” I asked, and regretted it instantly. The words tasted bitter the moment they left me.
Her face crumbled into a mask of pain, lip shaking. “Not if it means losing you,” she managed over a sob.
I rushed forward, pulling her into my arms. The night seemed to stretch around us, quiet and listening. The cool air wrapped around us while the soft earth pressed beneath my knees.
“I need you to trust me. I am strong enough to survive this, and when I do, nothing will stop me from storming the gates of Lunaria, freeing your mother, and killing that imposter king.”
She pulled back, and there was confidence in her eyes. The moonlight carved silver lines across her cheeks, drying the tears there.
“Does Val think you can?”
“If I make my vessel stronger…” I pounded my human chest. “…I can do anything.”
‘Brynn, that’s not what she means,’ Val interrupted, but I ignored her. A hum of disapproval flickered at the edges of my consciousness, like distant thunder.
Determination slid over her features as Elia peered up at the moon. “Okay. But we have to hurry. Kaelric is right behind you. He’s been talking in my head this whole time. He didn’t believe your story.”
I gasped. He didn’t? Of course, he didn’t. He’d probably been running all night. I imagined him tearing through forests and fields, desperate to find me.
“Who is this person who will be strong enough to stop me from killing you?” she asked.
I sighed. My pulse stuttered with dread.
Cassian was never going to forgive me.