Wolfdark

by Isobel Robertson

  “We have important work here,” I told him. “Your opinions on what is proper or improper are, frankly, irrelevant. Please leave me be.”

  “Don’t speak to me like that,” Daniel warned. “You’re coming home with me right now. This place is a mess. It’s disgusting.”

  “Fine,” I said, pushing him out of the way so I could sweep past. “But don’t think this is over.”

  As I left Marcus’s house and the icy winter wind bit into my cheeks, my determination only grew. Daniel would not stop me; Delilah would not stop me. I still feared the witch hunters, of course, but not even that would stand in my way. I would work alongside them to defeat the wolf, magic or no magic. There was more at stake here than just my own secrets.

  Telling the Truth

  Once at home, I locked myself in my bedroom with only Hemlock for company. I had barely spoken a word to Daniel for the entire carriage ride home. It appeared that, suspicious of my behaviour, he had followed me and Theo to Marcus’s house. I had never before been made to feel like such a disobedient child, and I was furious. The memory of Theo’s stony silence as I left was certainly no comfort. Both my fiance and guardian were angry with me now. Worse, Daniel insisted that I should not leave the house alone any more. I hadn’t faced such rules since I was a child and yet here I was, almost twenty, and no more free to do as I chose.

  Hemlock miaowed up at me and I managed a smile for her. At least my little cat was still my friend.

  Shouts drifted up from the floor below. Lying on the fireside rug as I was, I heard the voices reasonably well. There was Daniel, shouting so loudly that I feared he would make himself hoarse. And there was another voice, softer, female. Alexandra?

  I remembered last time I had seen Daniel and Alexandra together. I thought of his terrible rage and suddenly I felt afraid. Clambering to my feet, I left the room and made my way downstairs.

  “Please keep your voices down,” I said as I opened the door. “I do not appreciate such noise in my house. Restrict your arguments to your own home, Daniel.”

  “Mind your own business, Lily,” he snapped.

  “Can you not manage a polite word for anyone?” Alexandra asked, and I could almost see the rage flowing through Daniel.

  “I’m sick of both of you!” he shouted. “Everything I do for you, all the sacrifices I’ve made, and this is the only gratitude I get? You should both be ashamed of yourselves!”

  “Daniel, please calm down,” I said.

  His glare was black as night, but at least he wasn’t shouting.

  I stared into his familiar eyes and felt a sudden pang of longing for simpler times. Once, Daniel and I had enjoyed a wonderful relationship. He read me stories before bed and stroked my hair out of my face. He tried to teach me to sing, and laughingly called me his little blackbird when I failed spectacularly. I had trusted him with my secrets, and he had shown me unconditional love. Why had things changed?

  I made a decision.

  “Can I speak to you alone?” I asked quietly.

  He blinked, the rage fading from his eyes.

  “Of course,” he said. I saw the confusion in his face, but he followed me as I took his arm and led him from the room. He didn’t so much as glance at Alexandra.

  I pulled Daniel into my study and slammed the door behind us.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said. “But you might think I’m mad. Or worse.”

  He watched me steadily.

  “Try me,” he said.

  “The witches I encountered in Yorkshire,” I began.

  Daniel frowned. “You know how I feel about that story,” he said. “It seems far too fantastical to be real.”

  “But it is real,” I said in a rush. “And it didn’t stop there. Daniel, I am not so different from them as I thought. I have powers of my own, although I do not know what they can do.”

  Daniel slowly sank into the chair by my desk.

  “This is a lot to take in,” he said, looking up to meet my eyes.

  “It’s been a lot, even for me,” I admitted. “I can’t tell Theo, not when he’s dedicated his entire life to hunting witches, and I have no one else to turn to.”

  I decided not to mention Gwyneth and her friends. Not yet.

  “So, your scientific skills. They are linked to these… powers?” Daniel asked.

  I almost laughed. What had I expected? There was the old Daniel, the one I missed. The Daniel who obsessed over science and new discoveries, who was always pushing me to achieve more. Since we finally abandoned our plans to raise our old master from the dead, Daniel had seemed a shell of his old self. But perhaps that eager scientist was still in there somewhere.

  “I think that's the case,” I said. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding my laboratory. I don’t want to use my powers any more.”

  “But that’s ridiculous,” Daniel argued. “Those powers have made you a genius, Lily! They enable you to achieve things no one else could dream of. It’s a crime not to use them! We need to get you back into the lab immediately.”

  “No!” I said, recoiling in horror. “Daniel, these powers are dark and terrible. I saw what those witches did. I won’t risk becoming like them.”

  “Don’t be silly,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “You’re nothing like them. And this will be different. You’ll have a controlled, scientific setting. You’ve done it all your life. What’s changed?”

  “Everything has changed,” I said, sick bile rising in my throat. “Don’t ask me to do this, Daniel. I can’t. I won’t.”

  He sighed and shook his head. Disappointment was written all over his face.

  “I can hardly force you, Lily. But I do hope that you reconsider. Your gifts are far too considerable to waste like this. Don’t let your fear control you.”

  I stared at him. This was not what I had expected. Why was he not trying to help me? A nasty suspicion tickled at the corner of my mind. Monsieur Lavelle had known about my powers, and taken advantage of them for his own benefit. What if Daniel had also known? I didn’t want to believe it; I didn’t even want to consider it. But now the possibility had arisen in my mind, I could not forget it. Might Daniel want to use me, and my powers, in exactly the same way?

  A knock sounded on the door. Daniel and I both turned at the same time.

  “Who is it?” I called.

  “A message from Lord Amberson,” came the reply, delivered in the voice of a footman.

  I couldn’t stop my eyes flickering to Daniel. He sighed.

  “Theo’s your fiance, Lily. I won’t keep you from him, no matter how angry I am with your behaviour. Although, in light of what you’ve told me about your own abilities, perhaps you should reconsider your relationship with Theo. It seems doomed to a bad end.”

  I turned away from Daniel.

  “Enter,” I called.

  The footman stepped in, bowed, then handed me a small silver platter containing a folded note. I opened up the little piece of paper and read it, my brow creasing even more.

  My dearest Lily. You are warmly invited to a small dinner tomorrow. Close childhood friends only. Meeting at mine for a venue near Hyde Park. Wear your best. Yours, Theo.

  A dinner invitation? After everything that had just happened, he wanted me to attend a dinner with him?

  Then my brain caught up with my eyes, and I realised the true meaning of his words.

  Close childhood friends - that meant Delilah and Marcus. This was no dinner invitation. This was a coded message, disguised to look innocent in case Daniel should intercept it.

  I was going on a wolf hunt.

  Hyde Park

  A full day (and a few additional hours) later, it was midnight. I stood alongside the witch hunters as we gazed up at the fence that surrounded Hyde Park.

  “You go to all the trouble of weapons and secret messages, yet you can’t even work out how to climb a fence?” I whispered. I didn’t bother to hide my disdain.

  “Just keep your stupid mou
th shut,” Delilah hissed back.

  “We need to make sure there are no magical wards on the fence,” Theo explained softly. “The wolf may be watching for anyone approaching its den.”

  Hyde Park had been judged the most likely location for the beast’s den. Delilah had, apparently, been taking magical readings from all over the city, and noted that the wolf returned again and again to this park. That made sense; with its woodland and hidden corners, it was as good a place as any for a vicious, shape-changing wolf to hide.

  “All clear,” Jules said, appearing out of the shadows so quietly that I jumped. Dressed all in black, the man seemed half-shadow himself.

  Theo gave me a leg up, helping me to scramble over the fence. It was topped with sharp points, which posed a challenge, but I scrambled between them. Thank goodness I had worn breeches underneath the fine evening dress that now lay discarded at Theo’s house. There was a wonderful sense of freedom in roaming nighttime London dressed in men’s clothing, although I noted with resentment that Delilah looked far more comfortable in her breeches than I did. No doubt she wore such clothes often in her line of work.

  The other hunters thudded down around me and I was forced to return to the task at hand.

  “Split up into two groups,” Marcus instructed. “Theo and Lily, you’re with me. We’ll go east. Delilah and Jules, go west. If you encounter the wolf, try to take it down fast, before you lose the element of surprise. Call for help if you need it, but only if there’s no other resort. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Understood?”

  “Understood,” the others echoed. I nodded, then realised that Marcus could not see me in the dark.

  “Understood,” I said, an unfortunate length of time after the others. Delilah snickered at me, of course. Insufferable woman.

  Theo and Marcus moved off across the parkland, leaving me to trot behind them in a rather undignified way. But goodness, it really was easier to move in breeches than in skirts.

  It was a cloudy night, with only the odd star peeking through the trees. The air was so cold that my breath gathered in a faint silver mist, although I felt snug beneath all my fur-lined layers. Even my breeches were lined with a soft lamb’s wool layer.

  “Let’s try the woods,” Theo murmured to me. He turned to whisper the same to Marcus.

  “How will we see anything in the dark?” I said. My voice rose to an undignified squeak as I tried to keep quiet.

  Theo pressed a small lantern into my hand. It was covered in thick storm shutters, so that only a narrow beam of light would show.

  “Close it off if you hear anything,” he ordered. “And please keep quiet.”

  We headed into the woods.

  Now, I was certainly no woodswoman, but I knew straight away that something felt wrong. The leaves were too still, the woods too quiet. Yes, it was night, so I should not expect lilting birdsong. And yes, this was parkland, not the wild woods of the lands far from London. But something still felt wrong. I paused for a second, turning slowly to scan the trees around me with the beam of my lantern. I saw nothing stirring amongst the dark leaves, and no bright eyes stared back at me. Still, I could not shake the sense that we were far from alone in these woods.

  When I turned back to where Theo and Marcus should have been standing, I cursed myself softly. They were gone. I could not even see the beams of their lanterns. Had they dimmed their lights in response to some threat? Or had they moved away without noticing my absence? I hesitated, unsure how to act.

  A rustle in the trees pinned me to the spot. All my hunches had been correct; I was not alone beneath the dark leafy canopy of these trees. Someone - or something - else stalked through the undergrowth. I dimmed my lantern, abruptly shutting off the beam of light, and crept backwards, moving in tiny steps as I tried to keep silent. My every footstep scraped on dry leaves and twigs, and even my breath seemed far too loud as it rasped in my throat.

  I was now sure that my imagination had not conjured this movement. A faint sliver of moonlight filtered through the branches, illuminating the darkness enough for me to see a shape moving in the trees. It was coming straight towards me, proceeding slowly and silently through the undergrowth, its silhouette still indistinct. Was this the wolf?

  My terrified body took over from my mind. I staggered backwards for a few more steps until my back hit the reassuringly firm trunk of a tree. I reached back to grip it, the rough bark scraping at my palms as I tried to edge away from the creature.

  Rising up from the depths of my body, swooping out from whatever corner of my soul it usually occupied, my magic came rushing to my rescue. I sank against the tree, fading and relaxing as I slowly vanished from view. The figure moved closer, then paused, as if realising that I had gone. It moved on, passing me by. I craned my head to watch it go - and then the moonlight brightened for a second. I almost laughed in relief. This was no wolf - it was Theo.

  I waited a little longer, allowing the magic to dissipate and return my body to its usual state. One day, I would learn how to control this wild magic. I sucked in a deep breath, then set off in the direction Theo had taken. But he had already vanished into the darkness. What a terrible idea this entire hunt had been. Delilah’s, no doubt.

  Was there even a wolf in this park? It seemed increasingly unlikely. We were just stumbling around, tripping over each other in the darkness. And for all that, I still had no idea where the others were. All in all, this was shaping out to be an utter disaster of a night.

  Then I heard a scream, from back the way I had just come. It was undeniably female, and utterly terrified. Delilah?

  I ran to help before I even knew what I was doing. One-handed, I fumbled with the lantern, casting a narrow beam of light on my path. Roots and twigs rose up before me, catching at my ankles, but I kept my steps steady and pushed on. With my other hand, I reached into the pocket of my coat.

  I burst into a small clearing to find Delilah pinned against a tree in a pose very similar to mine from a few moments earlier. The wolf stood between us, its focus all on her. I conceded that her scream had been an entirely acceptable reaction, given the circumstances.

  But I had caught the wolf’s attention. It began to turn, that huge head swivelling towards me. No time. I pulled my hand from my pocket and shot.

  The wolf screamed. A sound of utter agony, it was so high and harsh that I wanted to clap my hands over my ears. But I held firm, reaching down to reload my weapon. One more shot from my tiny crossbow should do it. After all, I had built this weapon for the specific purpose of killing werewolves.

  Aim, brace, fire.

  This bolt caught the beast square in the chest as it turned to face me full-on. It screamed again. And this time, the impossible happened. Its shape wavered, becoming a man right before my eyes. The moonlight highlighted naked flesh and black blood where my crossbow bolt protruded from his chest. Then he turned and ran. There was silence except for my harsh breathing and Delilah’s soft sobbing.

  Wolf in the Night

  “It’s too much to hope for,” Theo said flatly.

  We were clustered around the fire in my study; with Daniel in his own home for the night, I had judged it safe to smuggle the entire group into my house. I could only pray that none of the staff came to check on us. We certainly looked guilty of unsavoury activities. Mud and leaves covered the men, tears streaked Delilah's face, and the wolf's blood spattered my breeches.

  I had optimistically suggested that perhaps my crossbow bolts had finished the wolf off for good, but the other hunters seemed far less positive.

  “It’s too tough for that,” Marcus agreed. We all gazed into the fire, and silence fell for a moment.

  It was broken by a distant noise. Was that someone hammering on my door? I rose out of my chair, but Theo grabbed my arm before I could move towards the door.

  “Let’s wait and find out what it is,” he said, his voice suddenly low.

  I stood there for a second, perfectly still, listening as my butle
r opened the door and greeted the person beyond. I recognised a familiar voice. Alexandra.

  Theo released my arm, and I shot out into the hallway. My governess stood there, dripping water all over the marble floor. Her face was utterly miserable, and I wrapped her in my arms, ignoring the water that soaked through to my skin. If she thought my outfit odd, she said nothing.

  “What’s happened?” I asked her, looking into her eyes.

  She sniffed slightly and broke the eye contact. Had she been crying?

  “It’s finally over,” she said, her voice unsteady. “I know I can't stay here, but I had nowhere else to go tonight. I’m sorry.”

  “Alexandra, tell me what’s happened,” I demanded. I felt as if I were the governess and she the young student.

  “Daniel told me to leave,” Alexandra said, her voice empty of all hope. “I understand if you don’t want me here either, but I really don’t have anywhere else to go until I can leave for my sister’s house.”

  “You’re always welcome here,” I said, embracing her again. “But truly, what happened?”

  Alexandra shrugged.

  “He’s just been so unpredictable lately. And tonight, when he returned home from wherever he’d been, he was in even more foul a mood than usual. I asked why he was out so late, and he lost his temper. He told me to get out and never come back. So here I am.”

  She burst into fresh tears. “I don’t even have my bags,” she sobbed into my shoulder as I tried my best to comfort her.

  “This is not acceptable,” I said, surprised at the fury in my voice. “He’s wrong to treat you like this, and I’ll make sure he knows.”

  Alexandra pulled away and looked up at me in trepidation.

  “Come with me,” I told her firmly. “We’re going to see Daniel.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, but my mind was set and I would not be dissuaded. I seized a large overcoat, long enough to disguise my lack of skirts, and ordered the butler to bring me an umbrella. His eyes flickered over my stained legs, but he thankfully said nothing. I still glared at him though; I disliked staff expressing their opinions even through non-verbal means. Then I grabbed Alexandra, despite her protests, and marched her back out into the street.