by Marie Hall
He notched his knee, resting his elbow on it. His grin was faint, but there. “I can handle myself just fine, and besides, wasn’t it I that rescued you?”
Snapping her teeth at him, she snatched up another chunk of bread. Mother had packed four large rolls, just enough for her to make it through lunch. “You do vex me.”
His eyes sparkled but he didn’t say another word.
They settled into a somewhat soothing silence after that, eating the entire contents of the basket, which for humans may have lasted two to three days. She liked a man with an appetite; most creatures couldn’t keep up with the demands of the wolf. At least in that she could not mock him.
“What is that?” He pointed to her chest.
Glancing down, she noted that the amulet was now on full display. Clutching the cold glass, she wetted her lips. “Fairy charm. Good for one wish and one wish only. I suppose Mother thought we’d get into a scrape bad enough that we might need a little wishy magic on our side.”
“Well.” He brushed crumbs off his shirt and leaned back. “That is wise; there are dangers untold hidden in the wilds of Kingdom.”
“I travel with a poet—great wolf, save me.”
Giles took a final swig of her mother’s ale with a slight chuckle and she squelched the ghost of a smile playing upon her own lips at his reaction. The man was gorgeous and had a sense of humor, which was a very heady combination for her wolf.
Wolves were a notoriously cranky lot, until one got to know them well. It was why they rarely made friends with any creature outside of their own species. But Giles seemed determined not to let her quips faze him. It was both novel and refreshing and even slightly confusing.
Frowning, she shoved the last bite of bread into her mouth and then chased her meal down with an apple, a banana, and a bowl of diced pineapple before leaning back with a contented sigh and a slightly distended belly. “I suppose we should be off. The sun is just beyond the tree line now, and we want to reach the safe zone before it sets.”
His lips twitched.
“What? What did I say that was so funny?” She scrunched her nose.
“Nothing.” He shrugged, planting his hands on the grass before shoving to his feet. “Only that I could swear I heard a thread of fear in your tone just then.”
“Shut up.” She fluffed her hair and hopped to her feet. That meal would only last her an hour or two before she’d be combing the words for nuts and berries. This need to eat was obnoxious to say the least. “I did not. I simply don’t wish for the little man-boy to wet his trousers when the sun goes down. That’s when the bad ones come out to play.”
“Good gods,” he said, rolling his eyes, “you know very little of me if you think I’d fear anything that walks in Kingdom. I’ve seen terrors beyond imagining in my realm.”
She’d only been teasing him, but Lilith couldn’t help but wonder about the enigma that was this man. She knew very little of him, other than that Mother had apparently been expecting his arrival for days. Not only that, but she’d urged Lilith to trust him. Something that went against her wolfish nature.
Trust was earned through years and over time, never something blithely given. It unnerved her, the prospect of being alone with this man, but moreso that neither one of her parents had offered up any sort of rebuttal to his pronouncement of taking her on a perilous quest. They’d all but pushed her out of the den, and while she was in heat, too. Something generally considered taboo.
By their blithe manners, she knew they were keeping something from her. She only wished she knew what. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her parents; she did, implicitly. But that didn’t mean she liked being in the dark about things, either.
Frowning at the sudden, serious turn of her thoughts, she marched ahead. She smelled wolves everywhere, but she and the knight were keeping to the safety of the trails. They’d not be molested so long as they didn’t attempt to infringe upon a rival’s territory. Not even a she-wolf in heat could be molested upon the warded trails; it went against wolf law.
So for now, at least, she felt safe enough.
For a time they ran, and she was yet again impressed by his stamina. Lilith knew very little of the demone; she’d only witnessed them the one time she’d gone to Rumpel’s castle to beg his help.
Apart from the fact that they could alter their physical forms to become living, breathing shadow, she really knew no more. The first time she’d witnessed the metamorphosis, it’d unnerved her. Something so human shouldn’t become mist, and yet she’d been fascinated by them too. In a lot of ways they were like her people, of dual natures, and that was intriguing.
Giles glanced at her. “Are you bored?” he asked without a trace of exhaustion in his words.
“No.” She shook her head. “But I am curious.”
Dressed in jeans as he was, he shouldn’t have the ease of movement. But it was nothing for him to hop over fallen logs and boulders. Never once did he attempt to offer her his hand to help.
She liked that—it meant he saw her as an equal and fully capable.
“About?” he drawled.
The tone of it caused her body to tingle. Wetting her lips, she took two deep breaths, reminding herself that she did not wish to mate with this male; it was simply the heat manifesting.
“You.” She dug her nails, which were as tough as claws, into a sheer rock face, climbing it easily. They could have walked around the stone, but it went in either direction for at least a mile, so they’d lose precious and valuable time doing it.
She glanced down at him when he did not follow. “What’s the matter, knight? Afraid of heights?”
She laughed when his eyes narrowed. But stopped completely when a moment later he shifted into his ebony shadow, keeping pace with her.
Huffing a lank of hair out of her eyes, she smirked. “Show off.”
It was his turn to laugh. The sound of it was still as deep, but when he spoke it was with a sibilance he’d not had while in his physical form. “Sssooo says the rock-climbing wolf.”
Blowing a raspberry, she wiggled right up the mountain face as though it were nothing. Though her biceps did tremble with fatigue by the time she’d finally crawled over its ledge. Bending over, she gazed down into the valley that made up the shifter’s homeland. It wasn’t that she’d never left it before, she had once, but she was no lone wolf and did not enjoy leaving the safety of her pack for long.
The verdant green valley that rolled with moss and sparkling blue waterfalls almost beckoned her back. Blowing out a puff of air, she stood and turned to Giles, who’d once again returned to corporeal form.
“Did I frighten you as my shadow?” he asked quietly.
She meant to laugh his question off, but then her nose caught his scent of smoked cherries and every nerve ending inside of her buzzed to life like sparks of lightning. Clenching her jaw, she forced herself to count to ten before answering.
“I’ve seen your kind before. Come, we still have a journey yet, and there’s a dragon to fight.”
“A dragon?” He frowned. “I read no mention of dragons in these lands.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “I can now see why Rumpel sent you to find me. Don’t worry, knight, I’ll keep you safe.”
The woman got under his skin.
But it wasn’t all bad, he supposed, though she seemed to delight in teasing him, she also never complained that the pace was too hard. He could move faster if he became his shadow, but he didn’t wish to press her too hard.
They were now descending. The cliff they’d scaled was actually part of a long chain of ragged mountains that veered toward a valley below full of sharp rock spires and dusty sand.
The sun was now at its zenith in the sky and blasting them full on.
Lilith slipped on a patch of loose slate. Grabbing her by the elbow to make sure she’d not slip again, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She jerked her arm loose and growled. “I’m fine.”
Tossing his h
ands up in a gesture of peace, he shrugged. “Okay, then.”
Rumpel had warned him that shifters, but especially the wolves, were a prideful bunch prone to quick bursts of fury that just as quickly could fizzle out. It wasn’t that Giles regretted journeying with a female, or even a shifter, more that she was a spitfire of emotions whereas a demone fought to maintain calm and control. To lose that peace could send his kind into a berserker rage that nothing but a mate could stop.
A wild demone was a monster unlike any other.
Sighing, he plastered on a determined face and kept his human form, though traveling in shadow would have been much easier. So long as she struggled, so would he.
The slate was so loose in places even he had a rough time of it, and eventually he knew if he didn’t shift he could very easily tumble down the still-steep edge.
Giles was just about to suggest they shift, when Lilith slipped, she’d very nearly dropped off the edge of a sharp overhang that dropped a good hundred feet to a bed of rock spires below.
“Bloody hell,” she growled and scrambled back, plopping down on her bottom and breathing several ragged breaths before turning to him. “This is bluidy steep.”
A trace of her father’s Gaelic accent could be heard in her exasperated voice just then, and it tugged a small grin to his face to hear it. It was rather cute.
“We must shift.” And so saying he became his shadow, breathing easier now that the threat of bodily harm was gone.
She sighed, almost as if she dreaded the thought of it.
“I could transssport you with me,” he held out an amorphous hand to her. Shifting her into his nebulous form would be unpleasant for her, and not safe to do to anyone longer than an hour without the very real possibility of doing permanent damage to their body, but to just get her down to the bottom of the mountain would be no problem.
For a moment he could have sworn she’d considered it. She’d nibbled on her bottom lip and had stared at his shadowy fingers with a trace of longing, but the look was fleeting.
Lilith shook her head. “No. And I know what you’re thinking. I’m being stubborn.”
He shrugged and wondered why she hadn’t already done it yet—surely four paws would give better traction than two feet—but he stayed his tongue.
“I know,” she sighed, “but shifting while I’m in heat isn’t fun. It makes my wolf frisky.”
He snorted but didn’t say anything else even when it was obvious she was manfully trying to bite back a chuckle of her own at her admission. The girl had no censure to her thoughts; he found he rather enjoyed the fact that she had no artifice.
But now was not the time for jokes—there was a dragon about, and he needed to remain focused.
“Where isss the dragon?” he asked, staring at the looming desert valley.
It was hot as Hades now; each step they’d taken had only seemed to strengthen the sun’s rays. Pushing a strand of sweaty hair out of her eyes she shook her head, peering into the gulch beneath. “Hard to say. The Valley of Shoal shifts its major landmarks frequently—it’s part of the magic of this place. She’ll be hidden within the sandbar, so long as we keep well outside of the waters, we should be fine.”
“There isss no water.”
Her smile was grim. “For now. Just make sure to stick to my side like glue, because the moment we step foot on the bottom the mirage will shift.”
Nodding, he floated back a pace and watched as she called her shift.
A brilliant amber light engulfed her, and flickering like glittering flames it licked at the burnished beauty of her flesh. Dropping to her knees, she whimpered as her bones shifted and reformed. Fur ripped outward, covering her in a silky screen of reddish fur. Her blue eyes were piercing as she licked her muzzle. She glanced behind them and then, with a flick of her tail, she trotted off.
She was a lovely creature in this form. Trim and slender, but with a raw innate magnetism that made it hard for him to look away, wondering what she thought when she saw him in his natural form.
Taking her time, she wasn’t nearly as clumsy as she made her way down the steep side of the mountain. Maintaining a steady speed, they made it into the valley in no time.
The moment she stepped onto the sand, she stopped, nose scenting the air and ears shifting as she listened.
“Can you hear it?” he whispered, floating before her.
Her eyes narrowed and then the amber light engulfed her once again. The cloak she’d worn before the shift was back on her when she returned to human form. It must have been spelled; most shifters couldn’t turn with the clothes still on.
“Yes. I heard a slinking about forty klicks due west. If we stay to the east we should be—”
Suddenly the ground pitched, tossing them both in separate directions. Giles reached out for Lilith, who was scrambling to her feet as a heat wave blanketed the area. Sharp, rocky spires ripped out of the ground, one of them shoving between his legs. He had just enough time to shift to shadow before the next one tore through his middle.
A killing blow if he’d been in physical form.
Breathing hard and disoriented by the chaos, he screamed Lilith’s name. Her fingers were clawing at the loose rock, scrabbling for purchase as her section of earth suddenly punched an easy sixty feet into the sky. Sending her flying upwards as she dangled by little more than a toehold. Her black hair whipped like charmed cobras behind her as a blast of heated air ripped through the canyon.
“I’m coming, Lilith, hold on!” he cried, rushing to her side.
He wasn’t sure if she heard him or not, but she was shaking her head and kicking her foot over the cliff’s edge toward more solid ground.
He was no more than ten feet into the air when his shadowed form felt like it’d suddenly been sucked into something gelatinous, and he was unable to push forward even another inch.
Heart racing, he reached out for Lilith, who was now standing. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she screamed, “You can’t come get me. I’ll come get you. Stay out of the water!”
He shook his head, still attempting to push beyond the boundary of whatever invisible barrier had him netted. But she was no longer looking at him, and turning on her heels she raced for a reddish-colored cave behind her.
Giles had heard of dragons. In fact, the land of the demone had been rife with the fire-breathing variety. Dragons were a nasty, hot-tempered bunch of creatures. Of all the tales in fairy, the dragon legend was the most accurate.
Obsessed with jewels and all things beautiful, they’d kill anything stupid enough to venture too far into their territory. Scanning the modified landscape, he noted that where it had been dry before there now seemed to be miles and miles of water spread out to either side.
Lilith seemed somewhat familiar with this place and the dragon, though it bothered Giles that they’d been separated. He’d meant what he’d said when he’d promised to keep her safe, and he could only hope that the water serpent had a network of tunnels dug through the cave system and that somehow she knew how to find her way out.
As a shadow he should be able to move freely through any object, but whatever spell the dragon had activated prevented him from sailing beyond the ten-foot mark. The canyon looked no wider than half a mile, if that. If he couldn’t go up, then he’d float across the open expanse to the other side and hopefully meet up with Lilith there. He’d just have to keep above the water as best he could.
Decided, he turned and headed north. He was almost to the halfway point when the calm waters suddenly began to froth and churn, whipping into violent rolling waves. Giles sailed higher into the sky to try and avoid it touching him, but whatever barrier had been in place when he’d been closer to land was still in effect. He’d move up and the waves would seem to grow exponentially until finally he had nowhere else he could move.
Zigging and zagging through breaks in the water, he was now less than a hundred yards from shore. But pressed against the gelatinous wall, the waves grew and grew un
til finally one single, solitary drop brushed against his cheek.
Eyes wide, he brushed it off. Pulse thundering in his ears as he waited with bated breath for the dragon to somehow magically manifest. After a minute of hearing nothing but the sound of his breathing, he assumed he’d somehow managed a fortunate stroke of luck, but just as he was about to sail the last few feet to land, the waters erupted in a geyser of heat and thick, cloying white smoke.
A creature unlike any he’d ever seen cut through the waters with the power of a graceful predator. Rows of glinting blue and green scales winked in the heat of the sun. Giles tried to move, but he was trapped. The barrier that’d only been above him was now a box all around him.
He tried moving to the sides, but he couldn’t. When he tried to go down, into the water itself, he couldn’t even do that. He was trapped and staring wide-eyed at a creature that seemed to have no end lift its broad, serpentine heads up from the waters.
It was both terrifying and breathtaking.
There were three heads, each unique. The left most head had a thin, oval-shaped face that hissed with a black forked tongue out at him, its glowing, gold-colored eyes never swerving from his face. The center most head was broad and had a round-faced inset with mother of pearl scales that gleamed from refracted rays of sunlight bouncing off them. That head glared at him with aquamarine eyes that seemed to him to be full of fury and brimstone, and on its head were two horns that curved delicately upward like a crown of ebony.
The right head gave him a lazy, sensual smirk.
The third head was no creature, but a woman’s head. A beautiful, bronze-skinned woman with one eye as blue as the deep ocean and the other eye as pale and green as a shallow lagoon. Her hair wasn’t hair at all, but a wriggling mass of black and teal banded sea snakes that hissed and snapped in his direction.
The woman spoke with a mouth full of shark teeth, “What have we here, sisters?”
