The creatures faltered and stumbled, lifting their strange clawed hands up to their eyes and yowling in rage—maybe in fear—but Florian could feel his tether to the shroud growing more strained, his magic split between so many targets. He winced. The sensation was not quite painful, but felt like stretching a muscle further than it was meant to go, and threatened to erupt into agony the moment it went too far. He couldn’t hold it for long.
But Kade was fast, not even stopping to consider the creatures that had tailed him, nor the others that were now noticing him. He was a gray streak as he dashed for the shrine, leaping once he reached the foot of it and clearing the shrine effortlessly. When he landed on the other side, the Arrow was between his teeth, and the noise around them had increased tenfold. It was as if every creature around them could sense that the Arrow had been moved, and they all came rushing from their homes to defend it.
Cursing, Florian let his tenuous hold on the blindness of the first two drop—no point in that when a dozen or more other monsters were about to join the fray. He couldn’t waste time counting: he needed to focus on getting to Kade before they did, but they were faster and had a head start.
“Get away from him!” he exclaimed, swinging his sword to clear a path as he ran down the hill. His slashing made a few fall to the ground, but their focus was completely on Kade. He was surrounded, snarling with his hackles raised; but with the Arrow in his mouth, he could only swipe and slash at them as they drew nearer—claws out and fangs bared.
Then one lunged at him, then the rest, and his growling turned to yelps of pain.
“Kade!” Florian exclaimed, driving his sword into the back of the creature nearest to him, shoving his way through. Still they paid him no attention—whatever these creatures were, they knew the Arrow was important and powerful. Their claws came away red from where they slashed through Kade’s fur.
Florian could see the golden flash of the Arrow as it fell from Kade’s mouth. He snarled and barked as he bit at the creatures; his fangs sank into their outstretched hands, sending them hissing and recoiling. But for each one that shrank away, another took its place; until finally one snatched the Arrow up from the ground where it had fallen and tried to slink away from the others.
“Drop it!” Florian commanded, magic surging from him as he spoke the command at the panther creature that had it. It dropped the Arrow, and whirled on Florian with a screech. He dodged its swinging claws by an inch, dropping to the ground to grab the Arrow. He could feel the magic of it swell and surge in his hand, could feel the creature lunging toward him where he had crouched down—
He whirled back around and drove the point of the Arrow toward the creature as it leapt toward him, all its teeth flashing in the light. The arrowhead plunged through its neck, blood pouring instantly down Florian’s arm like a fountain. Golden light burst from the Arrow, engulfing the panther creature; and when it faded, the figure reaching toward Florian looked like a human—a shifter. A woman with tan skin, black hair, and the same glowing green eyes of the panther creature that had just leapt at him. He saw now the fear, shock, and pain on her face all in equal measure. Her hand came up, a normal human hand with no claws at all, reaching for the wound in her neck, fingers closing around his wrist—
“W-What?!” Florian gasped, his heart leaping into his throat. The woman met his eyes, her lips moving wordlessly; but blood still gushed from the Arrow lodged in her neck, and she fell limp against him before she could speak.
They were shifters—all of them, they wereshifters. Panic exploded through his chest. Somehow they had survived in the Blight: some strange half-shifted form that let them survive so near to the Arrow. Hadn’t Kallik said that this had been a village of panther shifters? How had the Arrow changed her back?
But the rest of them seemed entirely unconcerned with the naked woman now dead at Florian’s feet, her skin already beginning to redden in the Blight. The Arrow was still in his hand, which trembled with sudden fear.
“Kade!” he cried, panic overtaking his voice. “Kade, they’re—they’re shifters?”
He swung wildly with his sword, clutching the Arrow closer to him in fear of striking any of the other creatures with it. The palpable magic roiling off him reminded him of how he had so easily commanded all the dog creatures to lay down and die when they had retrieved the first—but if these creatures were shifters, how could he kill them?
“Get away from us!” His voice came out like a plea rather than a command, but still the magic took hold. Their teeth remained bared, and their claws out, but they slowly began to step away from him, the confusion plain even on their feline faces. Kade shoved through the crowd that had surrounded him, growling and snarling at them; but just as they had first utterly ignored Florian, they seemed not to see Kade now that he no longer held the Arrow.
Were they truly Blighted creatures if they were shifters? Why didn’t they shift back—couldthey shift back? If Florian left with the Arrow now, would he be dooming them to a painful, rapid death, as the full brunt of the Blight bore down on them all at once? He felt like he might be sick. Was there any way to save them? Not taking the Arrow wasn’t an option—but if taking it meant killing all of them...
Kade slunk up toward him, blood soaking his face and dripping from the scruff of his neck. He pressed close to Florian, staining his clothes with blood, an urgent, expectant look in his eyes. But Florian couldn’t move—his eyes were locked on the dead shifter next to them, her skin starting to blister now. He had killed her. He might be killing all of them. His fingers were tingling around the Arrow, his breaths came in sharp, shallow bursts, and an uncomfortable numbness started to creep along his temples—
Kade whined, his ears pressing flat against his skull; and Florian saw fear and hurt and confusion all on his face. He bit back a sob, squeezing his eyes shut as he wrapped one arm around Kade’s form.
“We’re back in the wolf kingdom,” he choked out. There was a popping sensation in the back of his head; and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the snowy forest right near the edge of the Blight—their discarded winter coats, covered in a light dusting of snow, were no more than fifty feet away.
He felt Kade sigh with relief. He was going to be sick.
Florian shoved the wolf away and floundered to his feet, making it only a few steps to brace himself against one of the towering evergreen trees before doubling over and vomiting into the snow. Tears burned at his eyes and his skin prickled with heat despite the sudden drop in temperature. He had killed them—he had doomed them all to die.
“Florian,” Kade gasped, stumbling up to him. He hadn’t even realized that the other man had shifted back. His hand was warm on Florian’s back, but he could feel how wet it was with blood. “Are you okay?”
“They were shifters,” he repeated, shaking his head. He couldn’t look at him. “They were—I killed her. Sheshifted. I thought—all those monsters—were they all shifters?”
“Florian, breathe.” Kade’s voice was distant. He could barely breathe, and his heart thundered painfully in his chest—disoriented, he stumbled backward as Kade grabbed his shoulders and eased him to the ground. “Just breathe. It’s okay.”
“I killed her,” he sobbed—had he been crying? “She was—the Arrow—she was—”
“I know,” Kade murmured, squeezing him. Florian forced his eyes shut and focused on Kade’s strong arms around him. “It’s okay. You’re okay. You have to breathe.”
It felt like an eternity before Florian could control his breathing, forcing himself to inhale deeply and fill his lungs. Even when his breathing slowed, his heart still hammered against his ribs. A coppery smell filled his nostrils; when he could see again, pulling away to look up at Kade, the other man’s face and chest were still covered in blood.
“You’re hurt,” Florian croaked. His hands trembled as he reached out to touch him. “You’re really hurt.”
“I’m okay,” Kade said, shaking his head. His brows were furrowed—whether out of pain, worry, fear, or something else, Florian couldn’t tell. “I’m more worried about you.”
Florian laughed—he sounded hysterical—he had no idea where it was coming from. “I’m freaking out,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut again. “They were shifters, Kade. And we took the Arrow.”
