38. Ash
Ash
Iwake up rocking in the wagon. We must be moving.
My blurry vision prevents me from seeing my surroundings. I try to focus on the shapes on the ceiling. Old werewolf writing catches my attention. It reads like a prayer to the Moon.
There’s only one Moon. It shines above us. Yet, for werewolves like Belda Kissimore, ones loyal to no pack, the belief that the Moon is more than a physical satellite justifies the practice of dark alchemy.
Belda believes she draws energy from the Moon, even though that isn’t possible. Werewolves command either fire, water, or air. Humans manipulate earth. Alchemy is of earth.
Dark alchemy is something inverted. Unnatural. It shouldn’t be practiced.
I sit up and groan as my head swims. My bladder might explode. I haven’t taken a piss all day. I was busy not dying. The world will be disappointed.
I slide off the bed and step onto the marked runes the healer placed on the floor all around me.
The wagon stops. Just as well. I hop off, but my knees give out, and I tumble, unable to land on my feet.
With hard ground under me, I stare into the sky and just lie there on my back, gazing at the moon.
Blade’s face comes into view again. “What are you doing down there?” he asks.
“Having a bit of a rest.” I’m not about to tell him I fell from a height of two feet.
“There’s a bed in the wagon for that purpose.”
I sit up, then rest my elbows on my bent knees. The dent made by the missing flesh on my arm worries me. I lost half my arm muscles, which will take months to regrow.
“We’ve made slow progress,” Blade says. “The horses are old and tired.”
“Maybe they’ll collapse and die, and we can finally stop moving away from Stormcrest.” I shake my head. “If something happens to Runa, I’ll kill you.”
Blade offers me a hand, and I take it so he can pull me up. My head swims, but that’s just from sudden movements and lying down too long. A day spent in bed purging poison is a long time for me.
I sway on my feet, nearly losing my footing, but Blade catches me and draws my arm over his shoulders, then helps me walk.
“Are you able to piss, or do you want me to hold it for you?” he asks.
“How do you know I have to go?”
“I’m a mind reader.”
Some days, I want to slap him. “I’m not going to piss with you attached to my hip.”
Blade walks me back to the wagon. I lean my shoulder against it when Blade lets go so I can release my bladder.
“Where are we?” I ask when I return to where Blade and Belda are camping. I unfold the offered chair and sit down.
“We’re near my village,” the healer says. “What’s left of it after the volcano erupted.”
“Are we still in Stormcrest territory?”
She nods.
Great. “Let’s eat something, turn around, and head back.”
“No can do,” Blade says, stretching his arms.
“Not asking for permission.” My arm throbs. “Do you have anything for pain?”
The healer sets up a charcoal firepit. She blows into the fire.
“Maybe. You should know that the humans are becoming very good at inventing poisons for you. That’s your fault.
If they had no access to your fire, they’d have learned nothing of it.
But you let those Regulators study your element and medicate you.
” The healer smiles and looks up. “But the moon knows. The moon always knows.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say.
“It’s all nonsense,” Blade says. “Except one thing. She wants you to suffer because she believes you caused the volcanic eruption that destroyed her village, so she won’t give you pain meds.”
“I had nothing to do with the eruption. It was a natural occurrence.”
“I don’t believe you,” the healer says, then pulls her dark, curly hair away from her face into a bun.
“Believe what you want.” I focus on my chest, where there’s a tug toward the Stormcrest castle. It’s where Runa is. The tugging won’t leave me alone. I have to go back. I can’t return home without her. “Can we sneak into the castle without being noticed?” I ask Blade.
“Maybe. I can retrace our steps, but it’s not going to be easy. We sailed partway.”
“Of course we did.” Another option is to return with fire, but I don’t think Runa would appreciate me burning down her entire pack. I would like to marry her someday, and she loves her pack and her family.
The healer preps a rat for dinner by skinning it, then staking it.
“You have no alchemy vials on you,” she says as she turns the rodent over the fire. “Not a single vial. Blade has a box of them. I want the box and any other alchemy supplies you might carry as payment for my services.”
“That’s fine,” Blade says.
“Tell me, Fireborn,” Belda says before biting into the side of the rodent. The fact that she’s serving herself first speaks of her displeasure with me. She talks while she chews. “Do the alchemists know you’ve met your moon?”
“With that moon stuff again.” Blade folds into the chair, expelling a long breath.
“You boys should hear me out and not ignore an old woman. Wisdom comes after the trials of youth. You’re still young.”
Blade and I are thirty-three.
Blade rolls his eyes. “She thinks Runa is your moon.”
“Is that the name of the female who marked you?” Belda asks.
I rear back. “Marked me?”
Two other rodents join the roast over the firepit. “The moon marks the wolf. Your mark is on your palm.”
I show her the pearlescent stain. “This?”
Belda nods and tosses a rodent to Blade. I guess I’m eating last. My belly rumbles.
“How can the moon mark anything when it’s above us?” Blade asks before he crushes the rodent’s bones between his powerful jaws. I guess he’s as starved as I am. Zero manners.
“How does grass grow?” she counters.
“Fertile ground. Seeds. Water,” I answer her, trying not to drool.
“The ground is of the earth element. Air is Skyrender. Fire destroys.”
“Fire resets. The patch of grass I see over there will grow into a lush forest,” I say. “It wouldn’t have had an opportunity to grow if fire hadn’t burned through this region.”
“I’d rather have my family than grass,” she counters.
“Me too, Belda, but here we are, alone. I already said I’m sorry for your losses. You don’t have to forgive me.” I rise and attempt to walk, but stars play over my eyes.
Blade hands me a rat. I’m not hungry anymore.
“You have to regain your strength,” he says.
“I have to get Runa.”
“How? By crawling back to her?” Blade asks.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Eat the food, Fireborn. If the humans know about your moon, they’ll take her, and you will never see her again.”
Blade rolls his eyes. “Don’t listen to her. Just eat her food and let’s move on. I have to get us away from the open sky. I can hear the buzzing of the drones.”
“That’s not a drone,” the healer says. “That’s the train returning to the human territory from Stormcrest territory.”
A familiar feeling stirs in my chest. Warm. Fuzzy. Feminine. Mine. “I think Runa is on that train.”
“You think?” Blade asks and offers me food again.
I reject it. “We have to go.” I start walking in the direction I feel Runa, letting my internal compass guide me to her.
“Wait.” The healer rounds me and puts her hands on my chest, then yelps when she burns her palms. “You must bond your moon. When you get her to safety, you say these words: Surrender your moon to that which owns it.”
“Such horseshit,” Blade says.
Belda ignores him. “Tell her. She will know. The moon always knows.”
“Fine. I’ll bite. What does the moon know?”
“She knows about fated mates.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Blade walks away.
Fated mates don’t exist. It’s a fairy tale. “If she knows, why hasn’t she said anything?”
“For the same reason you didn’t. She thinks it’s make-believe. And if you don’t believe in fairy tales, the moon will reject you. Maybe mark that one instead.” She points at Blade’s back.
I watch him for a bit, then glance at the healer and try to cross my arms over my chest, but I wince when pain from my injured arm signals I should keep it straight. “Then we’re not fated. If she can mark another male, the mating isn’t fated.”
The woman smirks. “Ah, now you believe that you’re marked?”
I show her my palm. “She imprinted on me, not him, didn’t she?”
“You can’t stand the thought of another male having her.
This is good. Healthy for your ego. Lean into that.
Just know that those who are fated for each other are tested against all odds.
Others will get in the way of your mating.
It would all be much easier if the alchemists let us keep this part of our history, but they stole our stories.
Destroyed the belief in our moon itself.
” She sighs. “The world wants you to fail. You’re the villain everyone wants dead.
Except for one girl. She wants you to live.
If you don’t believe in fated mates, you’ll be just another villain who lost the girl he should’ve kept. ”