50. CHAPTER FIFTY
“Go, help San!”
Alena unsheathed her dagger. In the next beat, a grey wolf leapt on Leukos with a snarl, flattening him to the ground again.
“Leukos!”
Before she could move, another arrow whizzed past, missing her face by an inch. She whirled around and spotted a Rasennan tracker hidden among the bushes, ready to release another arrow.
Nik appeared behind him in a blur and cut him down. “Alena, watch out!”
A black wolf with raised hackles lunged at her. It crushed her to the ground, knocking the air from her lungs and scraping her skin with sharp claws. Searing pain shot up her arm, but there was no time to waste. With trembling hands, she pushed through thick fur and plunged her dagger into the beast’s side, again and again, ignoring its pitiful whimpers. Tears stung her eyes, and warm blood poured down her hand, but she didn’t stop until the beast went still.
With a guttural cry, she shoved the dead wolf aside. Across the clearing, more wolves converged on San and Kaixo by the horses, who pulled on their tethers in fright and stomped the ground.
Alena pushed to her feet. “San!”
An arrow grazed her thigh, and she stumbled, her shoulder smacking the ground hard. A wave of pain followed, all-consuming, and she heaved, a cry tearing from her throat.
“Alena!”
Her heart pounded in her ears, deafening the voices all around. She needed to get up and stop the bleeding in her thigh. She needed to do something, but all strength had left her, and she could only lie in the soft grass, her breath coming in painful gasps.
A tall shadow fell over her.
The Blood Wolf looked even more formidable clad in steel armour beneath his fur coat. Shaggy black hair fell into his face, framing bright tawny eyes that drank her in.
Her mind spiralled into panic, and she searched the clearing for Leukos. He lay on his side, spattered with blood, with wolves at his throat and legs.
His dark gaze met hers and held her steady. She never wanted to look away, but a sudden glimmer in the sunlight revealed the Blood Wolf’s blade poised above her chest.
“Well, well, well.” The tracker cocked his head, a slash of a smile creeping through his dark beard. “Isn’t this a surprise?”
The bushes bristled, and a dazed Nik appeared, blood streaming from his brow. Another Rasennan tracker shoved him to his knees and held a knife to his throat.
“Looks like you picked up a few companions along the way,” the Blood Wolf mused, motioning to Nik and the Non-Humans. Snarling wolves surrounded the clearing, trapping them in. “And where might the brother and sister be travelling to this time?”
The tone in his voice left no doubt. He knew their previous encounter had all been a lie.
Alena’s mouth turned dry.
“What, no words? No more pleas or stories to share?” The tracker’s blade traced a line up to her throat. “Are you really from the Freefolk camps, or was that also a lie?”
“Don’t touch her!” Leukos pushed back against the wolves holding him to the ground, and got halfway to his feet before the Blood Wolf whirled on him and kicked him in the face.
“Keep him down!” He kicked the wolf closest to him. It whined, then sank its teeth into Leukos’ shoulder.
Pain contorted his face, and a suppressed grunt broke through his teeth. “Let them go… They have nothing to do with all this… it’s me you want.”
“The situation has changed, Megarian boy. A great uprising began in Bruna—slaves rebelling against their masters, warriors from the pits daring to oppose our soldiers.”
With the Blood Wolf’s attention on Leukos, Alena slipped her dagger behind her back.
“The Emperor sent the Ninth Legion to crush them,” the tracker went on, unaware, “but still, he was most concerned by the one name the slaves repeated again and again. The instigator of the rebellion: Alena.”
She froze.
Leukos paled.
The Blood Wolf retrieved a linen bandage from behind his breastplate, spotted with dried blood. “The Gifted warrior’s sister who came to Bruna and burned the arena to the ground. A large sum of gold was offered to whoever brought back her head, and it seems the gods are in my favour today for I have found you both again.”
In one swift movement, he grabbed the front of Alena’s tunic and dragged her up to her feet. Her thigh ached in protest, and she stifled a scream.
“However, one question remains. Who are you?” The Blood Wolf studied her as if trying to piece together a puzzle. “The Megarians are fighting for their homeland, but you have no obvious reason to oppose the Emperor. Your sister is blessed by Laran and has sworn her loyalty to the Sixth Legion.”
Nik’s eyebrows knitted in response to the unsettling claim, his mouth twisting.
Alena glared at the Blood Wolf and thrashed against his iron grip.
Sworn her loyalty? Lies! She refused to believe anything the wretched man said.
“Perhaps this is the answer,” the tracker went on and withdrew a glinting object from his coat.
Her mother’s golden torc.
Alena’s breath caught in her throat. “You… you kept it?”
He twirled the torc in one large hand. “Do you even know who this belonged to, girl? Tell me, where did you find it?”
She clamped her mouth shut.
“Don’t play games with me. My patience runs thin.” With one glance from him, the wolves closed in on the Non-Humans. San pushed Kaixo behind her, dagger in one hand, wide eyes darting from one wolf to the next. “My wolves haven’t eaten in days. And they do so love the taste of human flesh.”
The grey beasts snapped their jaws at Kaixo, who growled back at them.
Alena pinned the tracker with a hard stare. “You’re a monster.”
He let out a bone-cold laugh, devoid of humanity, and the gold necklace disappeared inside his coat again. “Oh, I think the Huntress would agree with you.”
The mention of the maiden goddess irked her. “The Huntress doesn’t Gift men. Every child knows this.”
“And yet I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.” Unstable violence raged in his eyes, rendering him more animal than human. Chills ran down her spine. “Have you ever seen the Amazons fight, girl? They can sweep through an army and bring even the strongest men to their knees. They fight like the wind, dancing around their enemies and leaving broken bodies in their wake. Their Gifted eyes make them deadly. When I was ordered by the Emperor to track the Amazons, I once came across a group that included a priestess. It was my chance to receive a Gift no other man had sought, and I seized it.”
The arrogance in his gruff voice stoked her anger. How many Amazons had the monster killed?
“I tortured the priestess first and then cut the others piece by piece until she finally caved and revealed her precious secret—the Huntress’ true name. And then I carried out the sacrifice. A deer, wolf cubs, and my firstborn son.”
Alena shuddered, her blood running cold.
“I killed them all and then slit the priestess’ throat ear to ear, calling to the goddess by her true name. I forced her to watch as the blood of her precious Amazons drenched her altar. The pact was sealed, and the Huntress had no choice but to Gift me.”
No. It made no sense.
The Huntress was the protector of maidens and mothers. She was no friend to men; it was known.
Could the goddess’ true name really be enough to force her hand?
Alena shook her head. “You’re lying.”
He pulled her closer, his hand tightening around her neck. “You must truly be from the Freefolk camps to show no fear in front of a Gifted.”
Leukos resisted the wolves’ hold. “Alena!”
The Blood Wolf’s silver Mark shimmered around his left eye in the distinct shape of a bow and arrow—the Huntress’ signature weapon. The goddess couldn’t have chosen a better place to mark a monster hungry for power.
Her gaze met his tawny one. “You’re not Gifted, though. The Huntress didn’t choose you. You forced her hand.”
He squeezed tighter.
She wheezed, “You’re an imposter.”
“Silence!” He shook her, his ragged hair spilling over his enraged face. “I outsmarted a goddess. I sacrificed everything for this Gift. And everyone will continue to fear my name while you will be fed to my wolves.”
With gritted teeth, Alena attacked, thrusting her dagger at his neck with a fierce cry. He intercepted her wrist in time and squeezed until the agony became unbearable.
She dropped the blade with a hiss, and the Blood Wolf barked a laugh.
Still, he squeezed her throat.
Panic flooded her senses, her lungs desperate for air. He was going to kill her. She thrashed in his grip with everything she had, tearing at the muscled arm holding her.
“You don’t… deserve…” Black spots specked her vision.
The shouts, the wolves” snarls, the Blood Wolf’s cackling… They all faded against the beat of her racing heart.
A cold blast of air chilled her skin, and through her blurred vision, Leukos’ ice-blue magic burst forth like a cascade of frozen flames. It spilled from his hand, freezing the ground beneath him as he fought the wolves. Even in his injured state, he was fighting. A fierce warrior straight out of an Achaean myth from her father’s scrolls.
But the grey wolves were too fast. Too many.
Their gazes locked from a distance, and the torment in his obsidian eyes pierced through her hazy mind.
She couldn’t give up.
The Blood Wolf couldn’t win. Not this man. Not after what he’d done.
But she couldn’t breathe.
Through her tears, the silver lines of the Blood Wolf’s Mark flared, and the roaring in her mind gave way to a whispering voice.
A voice clear as a bell.
The Mark… it seemed to be… calling to her.
Gathering every last scrap of strength, Alena reached for the symbol etched around the tracker’s eye.
The Achaean goddess didn’t want to be bound to this man; Alena knew it in her bones. She would scratch the Mark from this killer’s face even if it was the last thing she did.
The Blood Wolf’s whole body went taut.
But it was too late.
When Alena’s fingertips brushed the silver curved bow, blinding white light erupted from her hand.