by Misty Kayn
In the eatery, this was why Arthur laughed. In a way, it was Clementine’s mother who’d prompted his madness. Clementine remembered when Arthur argued with Mother. Theirs must’ve been the coin she used to purchase new kitchens and servants. It wasn’t the first time her magic was bought. "The prophecies aren't clear even when she speaks them."
He paused, hand on her wrist. "Future is inevitable, and I'm following it as I walk. He will challenge me for the rights to...everything." He took a lock of her hair, threaded it between his fingers and there was so much more to what he wasn't saying with the way he regarded her. With remorse in his eyes.
"I confronted him about the seer," he continued, running a thumb across her bare shoulder. "He jumped me at dinner with a hall full of my wolves. We are," he cleared his throat, "we were like brothers. His parents and my parents, like us, alpha and second. When my mother, a submissive,” he paused for the effect, “kind of a wolf passed away, he was there for me. She was first, my father followed, Arthur's parents after him. I thought Arthur and I would go to the end." He chuckled. "In a way, we will."
"It's not your fault he went off the rails, Arthur is bitter and believes he'll betray you. If you spoke with him, calm and cool, unlike at the eatery," she added, "who knows, maybe he’s lucid."
"We are wolves."
"So?"
"We solve our differences as wolves, not men."
She suppressed an eye roll.
His eyes narrowed. "It doesn't matter what's happening with him or why, he can't control his animal.”
Arthur wasn't the only one. Knight, on the other hand, took the strength of his animal and owned him, not the other way around. "And you can't kill him yourself."
"I can and I will if I must." He brought her hair to his nose and inhaled. "I don't want to kill him. Could you kill your sister?"
She shook her head. It wasn’t only the man, the magic of the lands was indispensable.
Knight's head dipped, he swiped his tongue over the base of her neck, his hands landed on her hips. When his body molded to hers, and her back bent away from him, she keened like a bird. "Knight," she said softly wary of the powerful wolf at her jugular again.
"Mmmmm," he said at her skin and nipped.
She shivered and maybe not from fear. "Please stop that."
"I can’t," he said in a shallow voice, not even a whisper of a sound.
Perhaps she didn’t hear him right.
He licked a trail from her neck to her shoulder and back. "Mmmmm."
She gripped a fistful of his hair, and yanked, but only a little, to show him she didn't like him at her neck. Even if she did, a little. "What in the star are you doing?"
He didn't move. "What needs to be done will be done, one way or the other, he is going down and if I have to put him down because you refuse, his death will be on you."
He nipped her jaw. He wouldn't be the one under which rule the lands fell and if it took force than he would use it. She understood and resolved to play with deadly magic. But her resolve didn't mean she was happy about last night and the way Knight had seduced her into thinking he was even remotely interested in her. "We have to go."
"We do."
"What happens to the land if Arthur dies?"
"He won't die."
"I can force his cross then separate his wolf from his magic, be he might die. I’ve never ripped sources like this before, and Arthur is…well he’s megamagic.”
“Megamagic?”
“Very powerful and a predator at heart.”
"I’ll be there, I stand by what I set out to do and he will live and so will you, and I, and your sister, and thousands of other people. But you can’t doubt yourself."
“Crossbreeds can’t live without their animals and if his wolf gets hurt—.”
“We are not crossbreeds. We are Primes.”
Okay then, touchy there. "Maybe if you talk to him again, we could help—"
Her face between his hands, he said, "Don't feel sorry for him." He sighed. "I shouldn't have told you anything. Do not hesitate, when I get him, you take his wolf and do what you were born to do. Everyone plays their part. You ready to play yours?"
Doubt in her magic, her dove, and now even her looks reared their ugly head but she fought it, resolved against fear, even if predators around her circled. Knight was forcing her to see that if she didn't do her job, the lands would be destroyed.
Behind her, leaves rustled, wheezed. Clementine's spine went rigid. She turned around then backed from the tree, her body against Knight's chest. Bright red glowing roses hissed like snakes, and intertwined slowly about the tree, their leaves folded and unfolded, their sharp thorns as long as her forefinger. "What is that?"
"He's here."
NINE
Knight upturned his nose and sniffed. He sneezed then searched the area, his knees bent, his body ready to pounce.
A single rose stem with the longest thorns extended from the covered tree and presented Clementine with a red rose as big as a melon. It glowed bright and opened its petals wide. Inside was a shell, shaped as a bird's beak. The beak opened, hissed, and showed her its tiny, pointy, sharp teeth. Leaves detached from the stem, traveled, and landed inside the rose. The beak opened wider and chewed on the leaves. The ground rumbled, the tree shook.
"Step back," Knight said, but Clementine stood there, locked in place, mesmerized by vicious nature that ate itself.
Branches rustled.
Thump.
A newborn tiny, grey pigeon fell from the nest and landed inside the rose.
"Oh no!" Clementine reached for the baby.
Knight grabbed her wrist. "Don't touch it."
"It's gonna kill the bird." She struggled against his hold. "Let me go."
The baby shrieked when the capsule closed on its tiny legs and chomped down. Bones cracked, tiny bald wings reached out. Small, painful shrieks pierced the forest.
"Noooo!"
The rose closed its petals and retracted fast up the tree trunk.
Beneath their feet, the land shook, and leaves lifted, hovered above the ground. Mud rose up her boots.
"Arthur!" Knight said. "Come out!"
Clementine tried to move, but the mud crawled to her knees. Knight seized her waist and wrenched. They fell down, mud stuck to his back. He threw her away from the tree and vaulted upright with a howl.
Arthur walked out of the trees.
He wore a smile, a loincloth, and black leather riding boots. His torso was covered in dirt, his blonde hair almost brown, the blue of his eyes swirled with wilderness. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, my dear Alpha, what brings you onto my lands?"
Rose stems lashed out from the trees, landed on their bodies, crawled up their legs as those beaks inside them nipped their flesh. Clementine kicked out, reached inside her bag and took out her knife. Frantic, she cut at the stems one after the other. Blood poured from her skin when she missed, stems like rope tightened around her body. She stood and tried running, but she sunk knee deep in the ground.
Arthur continued like he was taking a stroll. "I got you a cabin, any pups on the way? Wouldn't want to hurt your pups, so tell me, what's seer's daughter doing here?"
"Don't hurt the girl, I'm warning you, I will kill you where you stand."
Arthur laughed. "You forget my friend that I know you will not kill me, and I know because you care more about the lands and people than you do about your friends. Or girlfriends. You forget I know the burden you carry, and the guilt which rides you because of all this." He waived his hands about him. "It's all your fault."
"I loved you like a brother!"
"You exiled me!"
Roses wrapped around her wrists and squeezed. Knight took her knife and yanked her hand, but she couldn't move, stuck in the mud that was somehow swallowing her. Heavy, water drenched dirt coated her dress, and Clementine held tight onto Knight's hand.
He pulled, neck straining. "You can come back, we are here, but our clan is coming for you Arthur, we won�
�t let the people rise against us, I won't hold them off if you don't come back."
Arthur bent at the knees, his hands ready as if the wolf's claws grew instead of his fingernails. Clementine's dove shrieked inside her head, mud filled her mouth and she choked then spit it out. She dug her hand into the dirt and strained but sunk deeper, her legs numbed, as if detached from her body.
"Let go of her!" Knight said.
"You know what happens to lone wolves, and you did it anyway. What's with the girl Knight, tell me." Arthur lashed out, swiped a stem across Knight's face. Angry, red welts rose but Knight didn't let go of her hands. He pulled, merciless, not caring about his own wounds. She had to do something, leave, run. The ground would swallow them under.
Arthur knelt beside her while Knight struggled to get her out. She froze when he lifted a lock of her hair and sniffed then threw it in the mud. Oh star, but his eyes, that looked like pools of endless blue vortex, weren't of nature.
He tilted his head and examined her.
"I can help you," she said and spit dirt out of her mouth. Yak. "If you let me go, I can help."
"With illusions? You did help me dear, I’ve confiscated some terribly dirty goodness. Last night I ate dinner while a girl sucked my dick under the table. I should let you go just for getting me off, but I can't because of the dickhead you've paired with." He leaned in, forgetting about Knight. "He will dick you over if you get in his way. He will lie, cheat, and plow through anything to get what he wants. Look what he’s done to me." He pursed his lips. "If you tell me why he keeps you around, I'll release you and let you climb on my dick tonight. How does that sound?"
Knight punched him and in one fast move pinned Arthur's body underneath his. "Run, Clementine."
Run? But they fought only a step apart from her. Knight lay on top of Arthur's back and Arthur didn't struggle, a frown on his face made him almost sane as he minded the white mist that gathered on her palms. Her body half in mud, she extended her hands and cupped Arthur's face, probed for his wolf, hoped not all was lost.
Arthur smiled. His eyes, deep blue of a man, his wolf retreated. He blinked. “It can’t be. Imager, you lie!”
Her dove spread her wings.
Magic struck his face.
No!
His eyes flashed bright then swirled blue again.
Arthur's face wavered, his wolf came forth, lips peeled back, he snapped his teeth, angry, blood thirsty, out of control. Beneath her hands, his magic lashed out, warm, welcoming, a summer’s night breeze after a long night at work, and she wanted to soak in it.
He slipped from her hold.
Teeth nipped her arm. A warning.
He rolled and snapped his teeth in Knight’s face.
The mad wolf snarled, his fur rose as he wavered like an illusion and replaced Arthur's features while Knight held his shoulders away from his face. He threw Arthur to the side. A tree landed on the males, pinned their bodies to the ground. Howls of pain rung through the night.
Clementine sunk to her shoulders. "No! Let me go, I'll tell you what you want to know."
"Fly!" Knight shouted, his hands pressed and strained against the tree trunk. "Fly."
The land spit her out.
On the ground, covered with slime and wet dirt, she rose and faced the mad one next to Knight who couldn't move.
"Get out of here!"
Surrounded by land and wild flesh eating nature, Clementine dragged her feet to the fallen tree. With the tips of her fingers she touched the crusted trunk and waited, now familiar with his wolf.
"Fly!"
She ignored the snarling wolves pinned underneath. She sent a beacon of magic inside the tree, a sort of a probe. Magic traveled through the trunk, and as it did, the trunk turned brown, the branches straightened, and the gaping rose that hovered over it, closed its hungry mouth. Her magic wrapped around Arthur's and rushed back to Clementine. Struck, her back bent while her dove spread her wings, wanting to use more, wanting to take more.
Blinks apart the tree wavered between healthy and dead, finally crumbling over the wolves in a mass of shreds. Clementine stood grounded, white mist swirling about her, tendrils of it spread, hovered over the ground. She placed her hands on her beating heart and held her dove inside. A stomp of her foot and the forest might heal. But that wouldn't cure the entire land. The source was covered in shreds, a mad wolf who shook his head about him, a man who snarled in rage so profound that white foam gathered about his mouth and his face distorted. He didn't even know where he was anymore.
Before she lost her animal to the magic dove wanted to yield, Clementine sprinted away as fast as her legs carried her, batting the stems that whipped her face. She tripped over fallen branches and hoped she didn’t break her leg again. She got up and ran, cleared the road then stopped, heart in her heels. "Knight! Come on!"
Cold winds blew through the path, lifting her from the ground. Her dove batted her wings, pushed against Clementine’s skin, ready for flight.
Knight was hurt, his back bloody, he reached for Arthur when a white wolf sunk into the ground.
The winds threw her above the trees and spit out a dove into the clear night's skies. She flew back, fought the wild, swaying trees and the wind that forced her upright. She fought against the branches that cut into her wings, losing feathers as she went. For every forward wing beat she was thrown two beats back. She shrieked at the top of her lungs and rose higher but the higher she rose, the stronger the winds became.
They moved her in one direction. Away from Knight.
TEN
Left without choices, Clementine flew above the ruins of the upper gardens. Families, some in carriages, some on foot, migrated towards the towns and villages in the valley and carried their own lamps because the flowers that lit up the paths were destroyed. They couldn't see anything down there. Livestock trotted beside their owners while dogs ran and barked trying to keep the stray animals in tight groups. Despite the dogs, they strode frightened. A flock of sheep ran aimlessly and sunk into the ground, their wails of despair echoed in the skies.
Tears accumulated in her eyes at the damage to the lands, for the people, for the tiny little bird the rose ate, and for Knight whose winds she couldn't feel. He couldn't be dead she thought, he couldn't because the air they breathed was his. Why did he ask her to run? He had said to get him when he had him down and he had him.
She circled and circled for a long while, lost in devastation. Right before the star dimmed well into the night, she saw a meadow towards the top of one of the mountains peaks. The only patch of red meadow her bird’s eyes spotted. She flew fast then paused mid flight, sunned at the site.
A large private garden with a huge lake stretched over the top of the peak. A five story stone castle painted soft yellow sat on top of the lake. Was it propped up on stilts of a sort? Rich gardens with flowers and trees circled the lake, and gardeners worked, gathered the glowing nature, walked back and forth over the drawn wooden bridge which connected the ground to the front entrance. An oasis in the midst of black mud.
Descending, she perched on the roof of the castle, and fluffed up her feathers. In the back of the castle, on the lake’s edge, a tower-like hill of about seven stories rose in the air. Waterfalls ran down the length of the tower, over the large rock platform underneath, and onto about twenty nude men and women swimming in the lake. On both sides of the largest waterfall, on the red grass, couples or more intertwined their bodies as they made love to each other. Clementine hopped one step higher on the stone roof when a man strolled under the waterfall and onto a platform above the lake level. A tall, tanned wolf in all his naked glory.
Her feathers rose, she puffed up her chest. She must look like a mad turkey, not a dove. While he lounged in the oasis in the midst of a crisis having a bath and a woman, she worried about him, got lost in the skies searching for a grey wolf below. Granted the woman was a healer since there were only fait purple bruises over his chest and stomach where the tree landed on h
im. Cuts from tree shreds when it exploded, didn’t show.
A nude brunette with long wavy hair approached, and tapped him on the shoulder. He lowered his head so she could whisper in his ear. He nodded and she left.
Knight's hands intertwined on the back of his head, his wet hair slid behind his shoulder, and he stretched all of his height, broad chest, and muscle. Clementine tip-clawed away from the edge so she wouldn’t fall from the roof at the site of him.
Green eyes searched the skies for her. Winds ruffled up her feathers. He upturned his nose, his wolf surfaced. She cooed softly, telling him she arrived. He leapt onto grass and picked up a white towel. Down the roof, she hopped from stone to stone, balcony to balcony, peeping angry bird noises, arguing with herself that Knight was the kind of male who was all about his job. She reasoned he had a solid purpose for lounging about, cooling his balls. Balls. She shook her head to clear it.
By the time she made it to the first balcony, she'd hopped five stories of balconies, her beak, again, open, tongue to the side to breathe more air. At the entrance, on a cobblestone front, Knight stood barefoot, white towel around his waist. He extended his hand. She unfurled her wings and landed on his palm, her claws digging into his skin when she moved and circled them around his forefinger. "Peep."
"I worried. What took you so long?" He brought her to his face, inhaled, his wolf growling softly in his chest. He placed her on his shoulder and climbed the seven stone steps to the black metal door of a very busy house. Hand on the round metal door handle he said, voice near a whisper, "Cole is water and this is her home and business. She doesn't know of you and I want to keep it that way."
One wing lifted, she brushed his jaw, told him she understood.
"It is a nudist palace," Knight continued. "I'd like you to keep in your rooms or find me if you need something."
She didn't brush his jaw this time.
He leaned his face to the side, his stubble on her wing. "I will take that as 'Yes, Knight'." He pushed open the door.
