by H. D. Gordon
Though it had been less than a sun cycle, it seemed to me that I had not been in the Midlands in ages. The landscape was so different from all the places I’d been since that fateful day when I’d been purchased by Reagan Ramsey, at the behest of his Head Hound, Ryker.
The sun was setting on another day, and the blue sky was dotted with white, fluffy clouds. The rolling hills of lavender wheat, their stalks waving gracefully in the wind, were broken only by the occasional green hill, where round-topped trees also swayed to the rhythm of the breeze.
I was just a pup when I’d been brought here in a Slavers’ wagon. Just a child.
Now, we’d set up camp in an old abandoned farmhouse far enough outside of Dogshead and away from anywhere else that we were not likely to be disturbed. Still, Akila and her Harpy daughters were on patrol, watching for anyone who should wander in on our little party.
Yarin and Yarik, Bakari, Goldie, Asha, and a couple dozen others, mostly Wolves from Mina, were all we had until Adriel removed the collars. As far as my best estimations went, there were likely a couple thousand Hounds in Dogshead at any given time… but there were more than four times that many Dogs. The rest of the Hounds were spread throughout the vast territory of the Midlands.
In other words, our ability to hold Dogshead would depend highly on how many Dogs we could convince to fight with us against the Pack Masters.
For now, I sat up in the hay loft of the old barn, my feet dangling out a hole in the roof, the stars staring down at me while the others strategized in the barn below.
I knew it was Goldie who’d joined me without having to turn and look. I’d know her scent anywhere. “You’re awfully quiet,” my oldest friend observed.
She claimed a spot beside me, swinging her legs out of the opening as well, and rested her red-gold head on my shoulder. “You okay?” she asked.
I sighed. “Are any of us okay?”
Goldie was silent for a little while. Then, she said, “Adriel will be fine.”
I smiled over at her, wondering at how she could always read me like a book. “He didn’t look so good when we left,” I admitted. “I wonder if he can withstand casting a spell so big… I don’t know much about magic, but I know that no matter what form it takes, it takes a toll on the user. He’s so willing to give so much of himself, and it makes falling…”
I trailed off, my throat going tight. I didn’t trust my voice not to crack while finishing the thought.
Goldie’s arm slipped around my waist. She pulled herself closer and lifted her head to look up at the vast night sky above. I’d forgotten how dark it got out in the countryside, how the lack of light pollution made every speck in the sky stand out in brilliant contrast.
“It makes falling in love with him terrifying,” Goldie finished for me. “But Adriel is strong,” Goldie added, snorting softly. “Hell, he may be the most powerful creature I’ve ever met. Any of us has ever met. If anyone can pull it off, it’s him.”
I knew this, of course, but it did nothing to ease the worry that had been swirling in me since I’d left him behind in Mina. Still, I leaned into the comfort Goldie’s presence offered. We sat in silence as time ticked by, comfortable in a way I’d only ever known with her before coming to Mina.
At some point, Asha called up to us from the barn floor below.
“Come on, ladies,” the Demon said, excitement coloring her tone. “It’s time.”
My blood thrummed hot in my veins and my head was held low, my sensitive ears swiveling on my head.
In the high stalks of lavender wheat around me, my comrades waited, armed to the teeth and fang.
A breeze from the south blew by, and my nose twitched. The kennels were in that direction, which was why the wind smelled of blood, piss, and shit. This only made my blood burn hotter.
No creature should have to live this way. I tried to let the thought steel me. My heart thumped quickly, nonetheless.
Straight ahead, Hounds roamed all around, whips and batons at their waists, confident struts and buzzed haircuts.
My eyes glowed Wolf-gold in the darkness.
“Come on,” Goldie urged in my head. She’d also taken Wolf form, and I could feel her presence close to my left. “The kennels,” she said. “We need to get to the kennels to help the pups before it happens.”
I stayed low and let her take the lead as we headed south through the high stalks of wheat, a three-quarter moon frowning down from above. To the northeast was Dogshead Square, and to the west, the Pack Master’s plantation.
The kennels were where the pups and Dogs were kept. When Adriel freed them of their collars, we needed to be there to gather the Dogs who would fight, and help those who were too weak to fight on their own.
Tilting my head up, I checked the old clock tower that sat in the center of the square, breaking my cover for a heartbeat to get a glimpse at the time. Adriel had promised to perform the spell at midnight, which was now only a handful of minutes away.
“Careful,” Goldie hissed in my head as I ducked back down into the stalks and continued on after her. “We don’t want them to know we’re here until it’s time.”
We reached the kennels with only a minute to spare, and memories of the past flooded me as my old stomping grounds came into sharp relief.
There was the old barn where I’d lost my virginity to a drunken dumbass with good hair and bad breath. And there was the tree where Goldie and I had sat together for the first time, two terrified girls trapped in a pack of Wolves. The squat structure to the right was where Aldera, the older working lady who’d taken a shine to me, had taught me how to read. Over there was where I’d been whipped for various infractions. Where we all were whipped. I could smell fresh blood on the post even now.
My eyes scanned the dirt street, my pulse racing like a prize stallion.
And there it was. The mud hut I’d been assigned to crawl back to after the world beat me down day after day.
“You’re not a slave anymore, Rukiya dearest,” Adriel’s voice whispered in my head. “There is no collar around your neck.”
Slipping into the fray of Dogs and Hounds with little notice was easy for how packed the designated Dog areas always were. I’d sort of forgotten what a feral looking bunch the Dogs were, and wondered if I’d looked much the same way before coming to Mina. All lean muscle and sinew, scars and scowls and spirits turned cruel through necessity.
Would they rise up with us, I wondered.
We were almost at our destination, which was the platform in the middle of the Dogs’ area where I’d once been weighed and designated. From there, I’d be able to draw attention to myself enough to be heard by the majority of the Dogs here.
Ten feet from the platform, Goldie’s tight voice spoke into my head. “They know we’re here,” she said.
I locked eyes with the Hound who had spotted us.
Then I made the leap up onto the platform, drawing the attention of the crowd at the same time as an enormous explosion from the Pack Master’s main house—courtesy of Akila and her daughters—lit the night behind me.
The flames were bright enough to turn the moon into a bloody grin, as if the utter chaos about to erupt were somehow amusing.
7
Adriel
“Something is wrong,” Aysari said after taking one look at me.
I tugged at the collar of my shirt and waved off her observation.
“I’m fine,” I insisted.
The Fae female clicked her tongue and approached me where I stood over by the fireplace, trying to gather some warmth from the flames.
Aysari’s slanted eyes narrowed. “What happened in the Forest?” she asked.
Eryx floated over from where he’d been preparing me a mixture of vitamins and minerals that would give me a boost of energy for the spell I needed to complete at midnight.
He, too, waited for an answer to his mate’s question.
I saw no point in lying. The others were already in Dogshead. Rukiya was alread
y in Dogshead, and their plan depended on me breaking the collars, so we had to follow through with this spell either way.
I unbuttoned my shirt and laid it over the back of a chair, turning so that they could see the cut on my shoulder where the Fae Guardian’s arrow had nicked me.
Upon seeing the wound, the Fae coupled hissed and recoiled. The reaction made my stomach clench, but I was sure to keep my expression neutral.
“It’s not that bad,” I said.
“Wrong,” they said together.
I suppressed a sigh as Aysari approached and gingerly touched the skin where the arrow’s edge had sliced me. Sucking in air through my teeth at the contact, I earned a knowing look from the Fae female.
The wound was not healing, and the skin around the laceration was red and angry. Worse still, the veins beneath the skin around it had darkened to black, and the ebony seemed to be spreading further with every passing hour.
“You’ve been poisoned by Kahla,” Aysari said, meeting my gaze with deadly seriousness. “If you were a lesser being, you would be dead already.”
“You cannot perform the spell,” Eryx said.
I grabbed my shirt from the back of the chair and pulled it on, concealing the wound. “We all know that is not an option,” I replied.
The silence that followed was perhaps worse than any words they could have said.
“Adriel,” Aysari said gently, “the Kalha is the most powerful poison in the Fae Forest, the third most potent in all the known realms. If we don’t rid your body of it, and very soon, it will kill you, and completing the spell will only weaken you. Just attempting it could kill you.”
“How do we rid my body of it?” I asked.
The Fae couple exchanged a glance that said I would not love the answer.
“The Silver River,” Aysari said at last. “The waters can heal you.”
I shook my head, feeling the beginning of a headache. “I didn’t exactly leave the Forest on the best of terms last time,” I said. “And there’s no time, anyway.” I glanced at the old clock above one of the many fireplaces in the library. “I need to begin the spell in less than an hour if I’m going to meet the deadline.”
Eryx said something to Aysari in Faevian, and Aysari paused before responding in kind. Then the two Fae looked at me.
“We love you Adriel of mixed blood,” Aysari said. “You are our family, and so we will return to the Forest and retrieve the waters from the Silver River for you.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. As I did most of the people in Mina, I knew the Fae couple’s history, and this was no small thing they were offering. In fact, it was too big to let them do it.
I shook my head. “I love you both as well, which is why I can’t let you do that. I’ll complete the spell to free the Wolves, and then I’ll go back to the Forest myself and get the healing water.”
Aysari glanced at my arm, as if she could still see the wound beneath the fabric of my shirt. “There isn’t time, Adriel,” she said. “You should be dead already, and after the spell… if you even survive it...”
“I’m fine,” I repeated, but as if the Fates wanted to disagree with me, a bout of lightheadedness struck me, and I swallowed to keep sudden nausea from rising.
“We’re going,” Aysari said, her tone firm as she nodded to her mate.
I thought of the circumstances from which they’d left the world of the Fae behind forever, the reasons they’d had to abandon their home and attempt to make another here in Mina, and I shook my head.
“I can’t let you do that,” I insisted.
Aysari blinked, her head tilting in a birdlike way that was particular to the Fae. She gave me a smile that hid the fear I knew she had to face in order to return to the Fae Forest. “And what gave you the impression that we were asking for permission, master Adriel?” she asked.
With this, Eryx grinned, coming over to clap me on the shoulder—the uninjured one. “Take if from me, brother, there’s no use in arguing.”
He pulled me into a hug that surprised me, and I laughed when Aysari also threw her arms around the both of us and rested her head on her mate’s shoulder.
“Just make sure you come back,” I told them, my heart too full with the sacrifice they were making to save me.
They stepped back and met my gaze, and the warning from the unbreakably stoic Eryx chilled me to my bones.
“You just make sure you’re alive when we do,” he said.
He tried not to sound doubtful, but did not quite succeed.
The ingredients were laid out before me, arranged in the manner that the spell had prescribed. Others had wandered into the library at various points, and now the tables and chairs were full of those who were too old or too young to fight with the others.
Amara and Freya were here, along with the other pups we’d been gathering for the last year and a half. Amara had walked up to me and placed a sweet kiss on my cheek before joining the others. None of them had to speak for me to know that they were worried.
The two healers among us had also gathered, and they hovered nearby, vials of herbs and instruments clutched at their sides. I wondered if Aysari and Eryx had asked the healers to stay close, or if the state of my condition was obvious.
I pushed this from my mind. Commanding magic was as much about what was in the user’s blood as it was about what was in their head. I needed to focus solely on the task at hand. I needed to gather and direct my energy at it.
With a deep breath, I began to mix the ingredients in a clay bowl. The Elderflower was last, and I felt the magical properties of the flower tickling my fingertips as I sprinkled it into the bowl. It drifted down into the mixture like fairy dust.
Outside the thick walls of the library, thunder clapped loud enough to rattle the stained glass windows of the second floor. Some of the gathered gasped, surely feeling the potency of the mixture.
They were much further away from the source, but I got the full force of it. I had to grip the edge of the table on which the bowl sat in order to maintain my feet.
Tazi and Appah, the two healers, shifted nervously at the corners of my vision. I gave them a small nod to assure them that I was all right.
And began the words to the spell.
As soon as the first syllable was out of me, the magic rose up in a cloud, rolling over me in a wave. An instant sweat broke over my brow, trickled down my back, and stung the throbbing wound in my shoulder.
I was used to wielding magic, had been using my own unique brand since I’d learned that I could, but I’d never felt anything as powerful as what flowed through me now. I’d never partaken in the substances, but from what I’d heard, it was similar to those psychedelic drugs one could find in the grittier parts of Sorcerer Territory.
A small part of me whispered to proceed with caution, but it was easy to ignore. Harder to ignore was the lulling sensation that was tugging at me, as if the magic itself had tethered to my soul, and wanted to take me on a journey to somewhere far away.
The words continued to pour out of me, my scarlet magic mingling with that of the spell. I swayed again on my feet, but caught myself, not pausing, not daring to stumble. Magic had to be ridden like a wave, or the undertow could suck you away.
My energy was waning, my jaw clenching with effort as I spoke the words to the spell through tight teeth. I just needed to hold on a little longer.
My knees buckled. There was nothing I could do to stop it, and I was sure that I was going to hit the ground before strong hands lifted me from behind. I did not glance back to see who had caught me; I didn’t have the energy. I knew only that my makeshift family surrounded me, lending me their strength, while other members of our family were spread out across the Realm of the Wolves.
Waiting to aid in rebellion.
They were counting on me…
But it was so hard to stand, to keep my eyes open, to keep riding the wave of magic that was the spell…
Just a little longer, urged a v
oice in my head. I gripped the sound of it like a drowning man grips a life preserver.
I felt it when the spell was complete, when the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The magic burst both through me and out of me in an explosion of power that sent me and the people holding me up flying back from the table.
My body struck another table behind me, the air whooshing out of me as I landed in a heap. I thought I heard someone ask, “Did it work?”
Then the world was lost to me.
8
Rook
The wave of magic that blasted over the land flowed up over the Rho Mountain Range, down through the Valley of the Suns, and rippled across the high stalks of lavender wheat dominating the countryside. It crossed the River Rea, and echoed out over the various oceans flanking the continent in all directions.
In the moments that followed, so many things happened all at once.
There was a collective gasp, a cosmic intake of breath… and the sound of something breaking. In the next heartbeat, thousands of collars that had been locked tight around the necks of the Dogs only seconds ago clattered to the dusty and bare earth that served as their home.
I was still on top of the platform in the middle of the Dogs’ area, and I used the precious seconds of shocked silence to the best of my ability.
I closed my eyes and gripped the charmed necklace Griselle had made me. The amulet would help to amplify my telepathic abilities among my kind, and the shock of the explosion and losing the collars meant that slipping into their minds to relay my message was even easier.
But, still, my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat.
I hoped Adriel was okay.
Don’t waste it.
In a voice that was calmer and cooler than I felt, I spoke into the heads of every Wolf in the vicinity.
“My name is Rukiya Moonborn,” I told them, and swallowed as hundreds of sets of eyes swiveled toward me where I stood above the crowd. There was recognition on their faces. They knew my name.
