Howl About It

by Donna McDonald

I return her life with your blessings… so mote it be.

  Moona felt the last enormous surge of magic being violently wrenched from the charm and her. The charm dissolved in her hand and she lifted it to stare at the white dust covering her palm.

  Looking up, she watched the last of the charm’s magic splinter into literal lightning that shot out of the room and the house in a hundred directions at once.

  Dizziness assailed her as she watched all the magic leave the dying Willa on the bed without making any change to her at all. Had she failed that totally?

  With real magic behind her intentions, the spell had felt natural and true—not like her half-hearted chanting over the mudwort. It was hard to believe all that magic had just dissipated into the ether with no results.

  She must have done something wrong. Too bad Willa hadn’t been there to help her. Now they were both in a mess.

  Feeling alone, abandoned, and an utter failure for not saving her sister, Moona fell to the floor with a final prayer of pleading to Gaia on her lips.

  17

  Her head felt too heavy to lift. Moona rolled a little but couldn’t go far with a giant muscle arm thrown over her. There was a leg thrown over her thighs as well.

  “How is yer wee wolf lass doing today?”

  “Coming around again finally,” Jared answered the musical speaker.

  Moona could hear the worry in her mate’s voice. She lifted a hand and tried to rub his arm to let him know she was okay, but it fell limply back to the bed without making it.

  “She keeps trying to move, but she’s too weak,” Jared reported.

  “Well, don’t worry yerself too much, Wolf. From what I’ve seen of Moona, yer mate’s too stubborn to give up. I’m brewing up something Nathaniel sent for her. It's a troll remedy from a new friend of his, but one of Gaia’s people said it would work on her.”

  “After this long, I would thank the Ancients for anything that wakes her up.”

  Moona moaned when Jared’s rumbling body shook hers with a chuckle. She wished she could roll over into his arms and hold him.

  “Are you telling me Gaia talks to trolls?” Jared asked.

  “Talks? No, I wouldn’t go that far. From what I understand of the matter, the Great Mother gave a couple of the smarter ones some talking books to help them out. They open the book to a topic and call up a helper to answer their questions. Don’t say I told ya about the books though. It’s apparently a secret that everyone knows, but no one is allowed to discuss. It’s not fecking polite to discuss such things, I hear.”

  “If trolls did agree to discuss their knowledge of healing, you’d have to rhyme the questions. That’s so annoying. I’ve had to do it once or twice. Makes my head hurt,” Jared reported.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t mind rhyming. It’s like singing. I’ve always appreciated the nice fit of words that were meant to be spoken together,” the speaker with the lilting voice said.

  The man had a pleasant voice to listen to, but with her mind still in a haze, Moona couldn’t really understand the meaning of his words.

  “Here we go now. The tea should be cool enough to pour a little down her. Lift her up so she doesn’t choke on it.”

  Moona felt her body being moved around until she was upright. She looked at the handsome male who was now holding a delicate teacup in his giant fingers. The sight of someone big like him holding a tiny little cup made her want to giggle.

  And all that red hair to his shoulders. If she wasn’t mated…

  Her mouth must have formed a smile or something over her thoughts because he winked at her and pushed the cup forward to her lips.

  “Open your mouth, Moona. There’s a good Wolf Witch lassie. This is supposed to fix you right up, but it’s got to go down yer gullet to work. The trolls said there was no other way.”

  Moona sighed but let a bit of the liquid into her mouth. She made a face and fought to escape drinking more. As the first sip slid reluctantly down, the cup tilted again and she got a bigger mouthful. A blast of lightning came out of nowhere and zipped into her gut.

  “Vile. Stop,” she said, rasping out the order.

  “Come on, lass. I know ya can do most anything because I saw the fecking statue ya made of yer enemy. Now, take one more good drink of this shit for yer liger’s sake. Cat’s been running all over like a mad creature looking for a cure for ya,” her cup tilter coaxed.

  Moona made herself take another sip just to get him to move the cup away. When he did, another streak of lightning appeared and pierced her gut like a well-aimed arrow.

  Lifting a hand that finally obeyed, Moona held out a palm. “No more of that if you want to live,” she warned.

  Moona blinked her eyes. “Zenos?” She hadn’t seen him since she’d escorted him and the Jezibaba through the fairy veil.

  “Aye. It’s me in the flesh,” he said. “It was my turn to healer-sit ya today. Elenora had council business with the fairies and King Smart-ass Nathaniel had to help her get her way. They both ordered me to brew the fecking troll tea and see that ya drank it. Guess I’m fecking glad I did now that yer finally getting back to yer normal self. Ya had us all worried sick.”

  “Why? This is just a magic hangover.”

  “Magic hangover,” Zenos repeated with a laugh. “Guess ya could call it that, but I wouldn’t go so far myself.”

  Jared laughing at her joke and then squeezing her tight stole her breath. Damn the wolf. He’d always been able to do that to her. “I need air, Jared,” she croaked. Moona pushed against him until he freed her enough to breathe.

  Zenos laughed. “I’ll leave others that know more than I do to explain what happened to ya. Drink as much of that tea as ya can. I need to report yar awake and talking so everyone can stop their worrying. If ya will excuse me, I think I’ll pop over and see how Elenora’s deal is going with the fairies.”

  “Guess I should thank you for making the tea,” Moona asked.

  Grinning, Zenos shook his head. “No. Ya need to thank the trolls. Do it in a proper rhyme and ya’ll have true friends forever.”

  “Rhyming? Gaia has a weird sense of humor,” Moona grumbled.

  Chuckling, Zenos lifted a hand and disappeared.

  Moona turned and put her head against Jared’s shoulder. “Was I dying?”

  Jared kissed her forehead. “No. You just weren’t living. You were in some kind of stasis. Don’t ask me to explain it.”

  “How long?” Moona asked, lifting her gaze to Jared’s.

  “Going on three months now.”

  Moona’s heart nearly stopped at the news. “Three months?”

  “Everything’s as fine as it can be. The day everything happened, I discovered Harkin had killed my beta to keep him from fighting on my side. More of Harkin’s people were holding the beta’s family hostage. When the beta went to free his family, Harkin killed him.” Jared hung his head with renewed grief. “You were right, Moona. Harkin was pure evil.”

  Moona nodded, feeling numb. “Did you bury Willa? I wish I’d been here to tell you that she wanted to be burned and her ashes sprinkled over her herb garden.”

  “Is this another one of your ‘Wolf Witches are crazy’ moments?” Jared asked.

  Frowning, Moona glared at her mate. “No. And why would you tease me about my dead sister?”

  “Moona,” Jared said, clearing his throat. “Honey, Willa’s not dead. In fact, she… well, you probably need to see for yourself. She’s fine. She comes to check on you every day and then returns home to look for a cure for you. People have tried a lot of things to wake you. Nothing worked until today.”

  Moona sighed and pointed to where Zenos had set the cup. “I need to go see what I did to Willa, but I still feel like shit. Hand me that awful tea. Why does natural medicine always have to taste like ass? I’m going to dedicate my life to finding cures that taste like something you’d actually want to put into your mouth.”

  “Here,” Jared smiled widely when he handed her the half-full cup. “Al
l that healing talk of yours is making me horny. Maybe it was the idea of what you might want to put in your mouth that did it. I’m a pretty simple male when it comes to sex with you.”

  Snorting at her mate’s warped idea of flirting, Moona drank the tea until she’d drained every drop and the lightning had once more filled her with energy.

  18

  Moona walked the trail to Willa’s house with Sha in bobcat form trotting beside her.

  You’re walking really fast. I may have to shift to liger to keep up with those long legs of yours. Why are you in such a hurry? There is no cause for alarm. Your sister is where she usually is and doing the usual things she does.

  “Sorry,” Moona said, slowing her gait. “I’m nervous and anxious.”

  No need to be. You worked the best spell you could in the circumstances. Magic is always a bit unpredictable… or so I was taught. I think you did fine.

  “Does Willa think I did fine?”

  Sha yowled. I think she is still adjusting to the changes. They were not truly harmful, but they were extensive.

  “Damn it,” Moona said, stopping. “I should have waited for the Dragon Witch to guide me. Who did I think I was wielding magic that I didn’t understand? The spell was in my head, Sha. I thought… well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I thought. I only hope Willa can one day forgive me.”

  Sha chuffed as they started walking again. You really have to work on developing a positive attitude. That glass-half-empty life is behind you, Moona. You need to start seeing all challenges as glass-half-full situations instead. That shift in your thinking will determine the power of your magic.

  “Do you think I could ever have the level of magic that was in the charm?” Moona asked, glancing down at her lecturing familiar.

  “Of course, you can. You just have to want it really badly and work really hard to manifest it.”

  Moona looked up at the voice and saw a beautiful woman as tall as she was. “Gaia?”

  The woman chuckled at first and then laughed. “Not hardly, but thanks for the compliment. I’m not sure the Great Mother would be as pleased with it as I am.”

  “Who are you then?” She watched the woman’s mouth tilt at each corner to form a smirk Moona had seen many times but on a very different female. “Willa? Seriously? Is that really you?”

  The woman nodded and crossed her arms. “I’m Willa plus all the energy left behind by our ancestors. I heard you doing the spell but was too weak to respond. I think if you’d just left the word lineage out of the spell, you wouldn’t have knocked yourself unconscious for three months. Turns out we have lots of dead ancestors.”

  Moona thought about it and then smiled. “I get it. I’m family too. I accidentally gave you my energy along with all the energy our ancestors left behind when they died.”

  “And you’ve been taking back some of that energy all afternoon. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but I knew you were recovering when it started happening. What worked?”

  Moona walked closer to her youthful, glowing-with-life sister. She looked Willa up and down. It was so hard to believe that this was the result of some spell she’d cast. The thought was incredible to her. “What worked was some disgusting troll tea Zenos made for me.”

  “Zenos,” Willa sighed as she laughed softly. “Now there’s a male worth lusting over. I’ve never been with a dragon. I bet he’s a lot of fun in bed.”

  “He’s not an eligible dragon, Willa—he’s a mated one. And he’s supposed to be even more than a dragon, but I’m not sure I believe all the other rumors. Every time I see him he’s dragon,” Moona said, then she laughed at her rambling. She met her sister’s twinkling gaze. “Actually, I always think the same thing about him. He’s hot… and that’s not even a dragon pun.”

  They both ended up laughing at her awful joke.

  Moona reached out and lifted some of Willa’s silky brown hair in her fingers. “Your hair looks like mine, but you don’t look much like Mom. I didn’t recognize you until you smirked at me.”

  “I know. I don’t look like I used to look when I was younger either,” Willa said dryly. “It’s like I’m the same person on the inside, but outside I got a whole new look. How in the world did you know to do what you did?”

  “The Baba Yaga,” Moona said instantly. “When she gave me the charm, she gave me some advice right after I zapped Sha. She said our ancestors who passed on from the world have left energy behind as a gift to those still living. She said most people are never brave enough to ask for it. Well, I asked for it and sent it all to you.”

  Willa took Moona’s arm. “That explains a lot. People don’t ask for it because it brings a lot of change and if there’s one commonality among all creatures, it’s that everyone hates change. Come to the house, Moona. Let’s have some tea. I want to tell you all the things I felt I wasn’t able to for so long.”

  “First, tell me this. Are you really okay with what I did? I couldn’t let you die, Willa. I used two of my charm’s wishes to try and save you. Only one of them worked.”

  Willa nodded as she looked at her sister. “I completely understand what it’s like to be willing to help someone you love no matter the cost to you personally. In your shoes, I would have done the same thing for you.”

  “I know. You did it for Mom.”

  Willa nodded. “Yes. I never regretted that decision. I used one of the wishes of my own charm from Gaia to evoke something called the metamorphosis spell. It cost me fifty years of my human life to make it work, but I never cared. Leah and Rick were very happy together. Every time I saw them, it was like a validation that I had been right. If I hadn’t already been a healer-witch-in-training, I would have become one just because of that.”

  “But big magic like I did with you and like you did with Mom always comes with a cost, right?”

  “Always,” Willa agreed.

  “What cost do you think I paid?”

  Willa turned and took both of her sister’s hands in hers. “You lost the first child you and Jared created. That child was part of our lineage too, Moona. Without her tiny spark of life energy, your daughter couldn’t survive. When I woke, you were on the floor by the bed in a pool of blood from miscarrying. Jared almost went insane when he saw you. I couldn’t prevent your loss.”

  “Oh,” Moona said, sadness moving through her. “So Jared knows?”

  “He only knows that you lost a child. He blames Harkin and Beth, and all they put you through. Truly, you might not have carried a child to term after that trauma anyway. The reason for the loss doesn’t matter to Jared because he knows you will create more together. He loves you so much that I’m sure he would understand if you told him what went wrong in the spell. But that’s your choice to make, Moona. I will say nothing of it to anyone. I only know because that tiny spark now lives on through me.”

  “It’s a lot to take in, but I get my mistake. I’m sorry I got it so wrong.”

  Willa shook her head. “Mistake is too strong a word. You did nothing except the best you could to try and save my life. I could have chosen not to tell you any of this sadness, but I didn’t want my old witch’s ass kicked for keeping more secrets. Plus, the loss is your first child is a hard life lesson about magic.”

  “Big magic comes with a cost to the wielder,” Moona repeated.

  “Yes. I’m glad it was not anything greater. I’m glad it was not a small child already born. I have honored your daughter and planted rosemary in remembrance of her sacrifice. Her soul has moved on now.”

  Moona nodded. She let Willa seat her at the table they shared many times. Willa snapped her fingers and a full tea service appeared on it. “Wow,” Moona said, mouth gaping at the amount of magic her sister now had access to. “That’s new, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. I’ve done a lot of thinking while you were unconscious. I think you and I come from far more witches than Mom ever told us about, or maybe she didn’t know either. I can also magically transport. And I can…” Willa stopped,
shook her head. “We have time for me to show you everything. Let’s drink some cinnamon tea and celebrate your life as well as mine.”

  Moona lifted a cup and sipped. She looked at her sister over it. “What happens next, Willa?”

  Willa shrugged. “I suppose you and Jared get to live some sort of happily ever after as the most politically connected werewolf pack on Gaia’s planet.”

  “I’ll pass on the political connections,” Moona said with a laugh. “But I will take a happily ever after if I can have it.”

  Willa’s laughter over her comments brought out Moona’s own smile. She could not undo any of what had happened. Gaia had warned that the effects of the magic once used were permanent.

  But everything she’d done—all three things—were more like accidents than true intentions.

  She had a lot to learn.

  Willa smiled. “I think a person can have whatever they’re willing to change enough to get. Who knows? Maybe I can find my own happiness before old age and death catch up with me again. My sister gave me a chance to live nearly my whole life over. I don’t want to waste a minute of it.”

  “Me neither,” Moona said, deciding her only choice was to fully accept what she’d done.

  Epilogue

  Nine months later…

  * * *

  “I’m all about this peace conference but do we have to ride a dragon up there? Is there no other way?”

  Moona pulled the loose dress she’d chosen to wear over her head and chuckled at Jared’s complaining. “The Dragon Council’s lair is a cave near the top of a mountain. How do you suggest we get there? Wolves don’t climb, and as humans it would take us days to scale it, providing we didn’t fall off the side. It’s a straight cliff for the most part.”

  “How are Nathaniel and Leelu getting there?”

  They’d had the new Fairy Queen and King over for dinner a couple times. Jared was enamored with both of them. Nathaniel and Leelu had helped the wolves plant trees around the village parameters which had grown nearly overnight with their help. Protection of the pack had never been easier than it was through the dense growth that now hid them from the world.