Chapter 22 #2
“What if running makes it chase us?” Sophie hissed.
A howl broke the night, and Sophie shrieked, leaping into the air and grabbing my arm.
“Oh my God. Look!” Sophie pointed and there, just up the hill, I could make out a pack of wolves, their heads thrown back as they bellowed to the moon.
It was their distraction that proved to be our mistake.
One we might pay for dearly.
Another shriek split the night sky, and this time we both whirled to face the loch.
But it was too fast.
We had no time to react.
In seconds the Kelpies were bearing down on us, thundering up the shoreline, their eyes blazing red, their mouths opened in a scream.
“Fuck,” Sophie said, but before we could do anything, another howl ripped across the loch and a wolf peeled off from the pack, thundering down the road to meet the Kelpies.
The water horses reared, finding a new perceived threat, and changed direction, meeting the wolf head-on in the street.
“No,” I breathed, terror racing through me. “He helped me. That night. He helped. We can’t let him—”
The wolf snarled and leapt onto the back of one horse, claws raking down its kelp-slicked hide. The creature screamed—an unearthly, watery shriek that rattled the windows behind us—and twisted, trying to buck him off. The other Kelpies swarmed, hooves pounding the tarmac like war drums.
The wolf was a blur of muscle and instinct. He moved with terrifying precision, lunging low to tear at tendons, springing up to latch his jaws onto throats that should’ve been made of flesh but looked more like shifting seaweed and bone.
Sophie grabbed my hand. “We have to help him.”
“I don’t know how!” I cried, heart pounding, watching as he clawed his way across the flank of one Kelpie, blood—black as ink—spurting from the gash. The beast screamed, staggering, and the wolf launched from its back to meet the next head-on.
There were three of them. Maybe more. It was hard to see under the light of the moon and with the blur of motion. Each one a monstrous blend of horse and nightmare, their bodies dripping with lakeweed and rot, their mouths full of jagged, mismatched teeth.
The wolf didn’t hesitate. He threw himself into their midst, biting and tearing, fur flying as they reared and slammed hooves down with the force of boulders.
A hoof caught his side and sent him flying.
He landed hard, rolling across the ground in a blur of fur and dirt before he staggered to his feet again, breath heaving, blood soaking his flank.
“No!” I screamed, but he charged again.
One Kelpie tried to retreat into the loch. He chased it, snarling, forcing it back, but the others converged—two at once slamming into him. There was a crunching snap—a sound I’ll never forget. And then a scream—his this time—cut short as one Kelpie bit down on his hind leg and pulled.
The rip of flesh was sickening.
He collapsed, howling in agony, dragging himself forward with only his forelegs, blood pooling beneath him in a thick, dark smear. He turned his head, snarling through the pain, baring his teeth even as one Kelpie lifted a hoof—
Sophie stepped forward.
“No more,” she said, voice shaking with something deeper than fear. Her hands lifted, fingers splayed wide. “Stop, at once. You weren’t summoned, and I banish you back to the deep.”
The wind shifted. The loch behind us churned, and the air itself seemed to tighten as she spoke.
“Return to the water,” she cried, louder now, voice ringing like a bell. “Return to the depths that bore you!”
The Kelpies faltered. One screamed, a high, distorted wail as it whipped its head toward her. But Sophie stood firm, her whole body trembling with something ancient and electric.
Other voices rose at our backs.
The Order.
They were here now, circling us, voices raised to the Kelpies.
“Back to the depths. Now.”
And they went.
Not all at once—but like the tide pulling back. They shrieked, they thrashed, but their forms began to unravel, seawater spilling from their eyes and mouths as their shapes twisted, collapsed, and finally scattered like smoke across the surface of the loch.
Silence fell.
Holy fuck. Oh God, that was terrifying. The Kelpies—
“What—”
“Faelan—”
I turned, heart clenching, as the wolf lay trembling in the road. His body convulsed once, then again—and then began to shift.
A gasp.
Bones cracked and lengthened, fur melted away, limbs rearranged. He arched off the ground with a final cry and then collapsed, naked and bloodied, onto the stones.
A man.
I ran.
I didn’t think. I didn’t breathe. I just ran to him, skidding to my knees in the pool of blood that spread beneath his side.
“Sophie, help!” I cried, pressing my hands to his wound. Bloody hell, but this was serious. His thigh had been ripped open, the flesh torn to the bone. He was barely conscious, his skin cold and clammy, blood smeared across his face like war paint.
He looked up at me.
Tawny-green eyes. Midnight-black hair. His expression was of agony and terror.
Luch.
He’s …
“Oh, Luch,” I whispered. How did I not know?
The wolf. The one who had saved me the other time. Of course. Luch’s lashes fluttered against his cheeks, but his eyes remained closed.
“Luch … no,” I gasped out, fear and confusion making me freeze.
He tried to speak, but only blood came.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, choking on a sob. “You saved me. Again. Don’t you dare die on me now.”
Sophie dropped beside us, eyes wide with terror. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” I said, pressing harder, tears blurring my vision. “But I’m not losing him.”
And under the full moon, I whispered the only thing I could think of—the only truth I knew, “Oban needs you. I need you. Don’t you dare leave us.”
The other wolves drew near, whimpering, and when they saw Luch, they turned to me with a growl, trying to push me back. Fear made me bold, and I stood up, pulling my scalpel from the sheath in my coat pocket.
The wolves bared their teeth, their growls growing louder.
“Stop them. Please, Sophie. Help me. Make them stay back. We’ll lose him.” I knew, instinctively, that this was Luch’s family, and they would do everything in their power to stop me from healing Luch, simply because they didn’t trust healers.
“You heard the ladies. Let’s go to work, lads.” A group of men stepped forward, the husbands and boyfriends of my friends, Lachlan at their head, and formed a wall between me and the pack of wolves.
Dropping back to my knees, I bent my face, pressing my lips to Luch’s forehead.
“You don’t get to leave me. I won’t allow it.”
And then I reached for my magick.