Killian crept forward, Rose and Lars following with a faint rustle of footsteps. Unease tugged at his paws as they entered the empty clearing.
But something had happened there. He could almost smell the magic. He took a few tentative steps into the open space, searching for any scent or sound. Lars and Rose followed, step by cautious step.
Killian froze. Something lurked just beyond reach of his senses. A growl tickled his chest. As if in response, the wind picked up again, bringing the scent of unwashed human and danger. He whirled to warn the others. A click echoed, followed by a whining hiss, and then a pained grunt from Lars.
A crossbow bolt protruded from Lars’s left side above his hip. Rose screamed as if from the end of a long corridor as Lars’s left leg collapsed beneath him.
“Killi…” Lars’s voice jerked him back to the present.
He ran toward Lars, but gruff shouts startled him as men swarmed into the clearing. A flash of yellow snagged his attention to a man holding a crossbow with a satisfied smirk.
That’s the man who injured me!
Lars cried out as he struggled to rise. Rose drew her knife and dropped into a defensive crouch beside Lars as the strangers rushed in too close for her to use her bow. The tang of blood filled Killian’s nose as fresh red stained Lars’s tunic.
Killian bared his fangs with a feral growl. You’ll pay for that.
He leapt at the nearest man, bringing him down with claws and teeth. Killian lunged to the man in the yellow jerkin, but men ran forward with spears. He recoiled from the shining tips, snarling to find himself cut off from Lars.
Killian snapped at the spears, surging forward, but the sharp points drove him back.
“Lars!” A man approached his brother, and Rose engaged him with a cry.
A spearman prodded at his side. Killian swiveled away, and his hind paw hit metal. Searing pain clamped around his leg, driving all the way to the bone. A howl of agony burst forth as his hindquarters collapsed beneath him.
“Killi!” Lars redoubled his efforts to rise, but his face twisted in agony as the arrow shifted in his side.
The man in the yellow jerkin planted a foot against Lars and shoved him to the ground. The steel trap sliced deeper into Killian’s leg as he leapt forward. A rope snaked around his neck, cutting off further cries.
Shouts echoed as Killian gained a few lunging steps, but the soldiers dragged him backward. He choked against the rope, pain radiating up his leg as he lost ground. Lars feebly reached for his weapon.
Lars! He sprang again. Hands latched painfully into his scruff and another rope tightened around his muzzle, trapping his frantic howls. He tumbled backwards against the soldiers’ pull. He dug his paws into the ground, collapsing again as the trap latched deeper into his leg.
Another rope circled Killian’s neck, choking him. The might of three men overpowered him. He couldn’t resist their pull any longer as they retreated from the clearing, but he tried to bark one last warning as men advanced on Rose.
Chapter 25
Rose fought a losing battle and both she and her opponent knew it. He towered over her, wielding a short sword, and she had only a hunting knife. She jabbed and parried like her father had taught, struggling to hold her ground, trying to ignore Killian’s howls.
She drew her knife back for another pass, and someone grabbed her wrist with a vice-like grip. A man in a yellow jerkin held her prisoner, smiling as he twisted her arm behind her. Rose clamped down on a cry of pain as her knife dropped from a nerveless grasp.
The soldier she’d been fighting placed his sword at her throat and her gasp edged past the razor-sharp tip.
“Leave her. These two aren’t a threat to anyone anymore. The faeries are taken care of, and we have our wolf. These two are just dead weight.” Yellow Jerkin nodded down at Lars. He twisted Rose’s arm again, throwing her to the ground with stunning force. “Move out!”
Rose strove to pull air back into her shocked lungs as the sorcerer’s men disappeared, dragging a struggling Killian with them.
“Killian!” Lars’s cry brought her to his side.
“Hold still.” Her voice shook at the sight of the crossbow bolt puncturing his stomach just above his hip and angling toward his side. The last bits of her small breakfast threatened to come up at the glimmer of the bolt’s tip protruding from his back.
She rolled him over, pressing her hands around the wound. His bloodied hands slipped against hers as he tried to push her away.
“You have to go after him.” Color rapidly faded from his face.
“Lars, keep still!”
Little good that’ll do. I don’t know how to help you! She swallowed the fear.
“Rose, Noak will kill him.”
“If I go, you’ll die!” She pressed harder against the flow of blood.
He shuddered under her hands. “You have to find him. Please!”
She stared at the blood dribbling between her fingers. She could go after Killian, but what could she do against the sorcerer and all his men? And she couldn’t just leave the heir to her country’s throne to bleed out.
“I’m staying right here, Lars.”
He screamed through clenched teeth as he tried to sit up and throw her hands away. “Then he’ll die, and it will be your fault! Useless!”
She pinned him back down with an elbow. This is my fault. Every bit of it.
She reached for her fallen blade as footsteps pounded towards them, but Felix crashed to a halt beside her.
“What happened?” Blood streaked his face and bruises were beginning to form along his jaw.
She stopped herself before asking what stained his jerkin. I don’t want to know.
“Ambush.” Blood smeared across Rose’s forehead as she pushed escaped hair from her eyes. “Can you help him?” Her voice caught. Lars wasn’t struggling much anymore.
“Move.” Felix slid his hands alongside her. She relinquished her hold on Lars.
“Damian!” Felix shouted.
Six painful heartbeats later, Damian rushed into the clearing, dropping words she hadn’t expected the faery to use. He knelt by Lars, pressing a hand against his side and drawing another groan from Lars’s half-conscious form. Rose backed away, a helpless scream locking in her throat.
The beat of wings drew her gaze upward. Adela landed, stumbling in her haste. She dumped the satchel beside Damian as he and Felix rolled Lars onto his uninjured side.
“Hold him.” Damian took the shaft of the bolt and pushed.
The tip broke free with a shuddering cry from Lars, and Rose pressed the back of a hand to her mouth. Felix drew his knife and sliced the head from the shaft, and Damian pulled the bolt free. Lars’s eyes slid closed as Damian pulled bandages from the bag.
Rose stood, frozen, unable to look away as Felix and Damian closed and bandaged the wound. When they were done, they lifted the unconscious prince from the blood-stained grass and laid him on the blankets Adela spread out. She tucked another blanket over Lars as the men turned away.
“What happened?” Anger and worry warred on Damian’s features. Like Felix, he was covered in more than just Lars’s blood.
“Ambush,” she choked out, and the tears started falling. She swiped at them, but they only came faster.
Felix took her arm and helped her to a sitting position, taking a cloth from Adela and wiping the drying blood from her hands. Her sobs hiccupped to a halt, stray tears still escaping as she tried to find her voice. It didn’t take long to tell, even though the few horrifying minutes had seemed like hours.
“It’s—it’s my fault.” She stared at the bits of blood still staining her hands. “I thought I heard my father—I should have known—I might have killed them both.”
Saying the truth out loud only compounded the weight of her guilt.
Her gaze fell to Lars who lay on the makeshift bed, pale and listless.
“He’s right,” she murmured. “I’m completely useless. I couldn’t do anything t’ he
lp.”
Rough hands tugged a cloak about her shoulders. “It’s not your fault.” Felix gave her a small shake.
She pressed her face into the cloak to stop fresh tears. Saying it wouldn’t make it so.
“Get some rest.” Felix pressed a hand to her shoulder.
Her eyes drooped shut against her will. Rest, and then find Killian. I’m going to make this right.
Chapter 26
“Hold him still!”
Hands gripped Killian by the scruff, pinning him to the ground as they pried the trap off his leg. The rope tied around his muzzle suffocated the worst of his pained cries. The soldiers released him, and he tried to lunge away, but they yanked him back by the rope still about his neck.
“Come on!”
Killian choked against its pull as his captors dragged him further into the forest. His strength waned. They kicked him to the ground in a clearing and pulled the muzzle away.
He’d barely scrambled to his feet when something slammed into him, tumbling him over. Killian rolled and glimpsed a bulky mastiff charging again, its beady eyes fixed on his throat.
Instinct took over as the mastiff went for his throat. Killian swiveled on his uninured hind paw and hurled his body at the mastiff’s shoulder. The mastiff crashed to the ground, and Killian sank his fangs into the soft flesh of the shoulder. The mastiff howled and twisted away, clawing at Killian’s stomach with forepaws, forcing him to release his grip.
Killian lunged again, biting and clawing with a savagery he didn’t know he possessed.
He snarled his own threats at the mastiff. The mastiff wanted his blood, but Killian swore he’d win the fight for his life.
“Get it off him!” The enraged voice barely rose above their battle.
Blood dripped from half a dozen more wounds by the time the mastiff was hauled off. Killian crouched, his right leg collapsing beneath him.
“Well, well, you don’t know how good it is to see you again, Prince Killian.”
Killian pulled his lips back from his fangs, flattening his ears. A furious growl thundered from his chest as Noak paused a few paces away, looking down at him.
“A little more intimidating than last time.” The sorcerer smiled. “You seemed to have settled in.”
Killian sprang forward, snapping his jaws at the hem of Noak’s dirt-stained robe. The rope cutting into Killian’s neck saved Noak immediate injury, but he took a few prudent and hasty steps back.
“Put him over by the Ranger. And keep that dog away from him. I need some of his blood left for the spell.”
The mastiff growled, sulking as the soldiers tied it up across the clearing, securing Killian to a stake on the opposite side. He pulled his mangled limb closer and hesitantly licked it. The human part of him revolted, but he gamely persisted. He had no other way to clean the seeping wound.
When he’d done what he could, Killian curled into a protective ball and closed his eyes, only to once more see the bolt protruding from Lars’s side.
I just want to see him again.
*
Killian opened his eyes to see the sun’s patterns dancing over the leaves had changed. His whole body throbbed, the fur around his wounds stiff. His hind limb burned with a fiery persistency and Killian whined as he shifted it and pain shot up his leg.
Movement behind him turned his whine into a defensive snarl. He whipped his head around to see a man crouching beside him, his hands bound in front of his body. The man’s red hair and blue eyes seemed familiar.
He’s Rose’s father!
The man opened his hands in a placating gesture.
“Easy, boy, I just want t’ help.” Killian recognized the rumble as the voice that had lured them into the sorcerer’s trap.
Killian’s growl deepened until he remembered he hadn’t seen the man there. He focused again on the ropes pinning the man’s hands.
So that’s why he hasn’t been seen in weeks.
He didn’t move as the man edged closer.
“Let me see your leg, eh?”
Killian rested his nose on his paws and let his injured leg extend towards the Ranger. He stiffened and choked the reflexive growl as the man poked at the wound.
“It true what Noak called you?” The man kept his voice low, glancing around as if afraid to be caught questioning a wolf.
No one in camp paid any attention, so Killian met the man’s gaze and growled. The Ranger caught his breath.
“Your Highness.” He inclined his head in a hurried bow.
Killian tipped his head from side to side. He wasn’t a prince anymore. He would most likely die a wolf.
“Noak, he—he mentioned my daughter. You know her?” Desperation showed in the man’s face.
Killian nudged his arm.
“She safe?”
Killian froze. His only focus had been on Lars.
She can take care of herself. I’m sure she’s fine. Well, reasonably sure. I hate Noak!
A look of frenzied desperation showed on the Ranger’s face, and he didn’t have the heart to remain silent. He placed a paw on the man’s arm and yipped.
The man released a sigh of pained relief. “Thank you.”
Killian rested his nose back onto his paws. You’re welcome. Though it’s not like I did anything to earn it. I’m about as helpful as I have been this whole stupid trip!
“Now, I don’t have anything t’ bandage your leg with. Doubt they’ll give me anything.” The Ranger wiped his hands on the grass. “Keep it clean as you can. Anyone coming for you?”
Killian turned his head away. Lars was injured, maybe even—dead. Noak lured the faeries away.
If something had happened to them, Rose was on her own. Maybe no one would come for him. Maybe it was best they didn’t come for him.
Chapter 27
Rose curled under her blanket and stared up at the early evening sky, barely remembering falling asleep. She rubbed her eyes, still crusted with the remnants of tears, and dared herself to sit up.
A small fire crackled near the center of the clearing. Rose shoved the cloak away and stumbled over to the fire in search of food to placate her complaining stomach. Her gaze fell on the figure laying on the other side of the fire, and her steps faltered.
Lars still lay unconscious, his brown hair dark against his pale face. The blanket covering him hid the wound from sight. She stared hard until she saw the rise and fall of his chest, then exhaled a relieved sigh.
She spun in alarm at the faint rustle behind her. Adela gave her a small smile, hiding any surprise at Rose’s sudden movement.
“I was hoping you would wake up soon.” She moved past Rose to rest a hand on Lars’s forehead.
“How is he?” Rose’s voice wavered, and she blinked back new tears. Useless! She couldn’t even survive a fight without breaking down every five minutes.
“He’ll be all right. The arrow didn’t injure anything vital inside, we just have to worry about blood loss.”
“Has he woken up yet?”
Adela rose up to her feet. “No. Truthfully, I’m keeping him asleep right now to protect the wound. And—until we have any news of Killian.”
Rose glanced around the clearing, half hoping Killian would come loping back in.
“Damian and Felix?”
“Out scouting. They should be back soon. Here.” She picked up Rose’s hunting knife from the rocks piled around the fire. Rose accepted the knife, sheathing it again with murmured thanks.
A lot of good I did with it. Maybe I shouldn’t carry it. Stupid.
Her father’s solution would be more training, but—she didn’t know what had become of him.
It had been his voice. She knew it as sure as breathing, but there had been no sign of him at the ambush.
Adela tapped her arm. “Sit down, Rose.”
Rose complied and took the beaker Adela pressed into her hand. She blew away the faint wisps of steam curling from the dark liquid and took a cautious sip. A light bitterness coated her t
ongue, followed by the faint taste of blackberries.
“What is this?” She took a longer drink.
“A tea my mother always swore by. She said it would help her think after a long day.” Adela smiled as she sipped at her own mug.
Rose had to agree. The tightness behind her eyes began to dissipate, ushering in a sense of clarity.
“Wish I had something of my mother’s. I was barely old enough t’ remember her before she died.” Rose traced the rim of the mug.
“I was young enough to be counted as a child when my mother grew sick,” Adela said. “Not even faery magic could save her, so she and my father left to take the path to the stars.”
“And left you?” Rose’s voice pitched higher, incredulous.
Adela gave a light laugh. “For a faery to die is a terrible thing. I never could really blame them. Better to take the path to the Creator’s halls than wander forever in search of them after your six hundred years is up.”
Rose stared into her tea, swirling it against the sculpted walls of the mug. “I think sometimes my father wanted t’ die after my mother did. But no matter what, he’d always let me crawl into his arms and tell me we’d make it together. He looked after me, and when he disappeared, I suppose I thought I could do the same…”
“What happened here was not your fault,” Adela gently insisted.
Rose’s throat tightened, preventing a reply.
“She’s right.” Felix strode into the clearing. “You can’t change what happened, so focus on the future it created.”
Rose was a little taken aback by the gruffness in his abrupt statement. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary for him.
“Where’s Damian?” Adela’s eyes widened in concern.
“He went to report to King Borys.”
Adela’s shoulders relaxed only a fraction. “When will he be back?”
“A few hours. Don’t worry. I’ve already made him promise to be careful.” Felix added a small branch to the fire.
The Wolf Prince Page 16
