“But why–”
“Just do it!” he yelled.
My body was already tired, incredibly sore from the shifting and walking, now I had to swim and play games? I held my breath however and then let myself go underwater. I looked to the darkness.
Can you see the bottom? reverberated Roman’s words. It was his wolf sense.
I stared at the darkness. The blue descending into black, the darkness stretching into infinity. I couldn’t see–
Focus! echoed his voice.
I kept looking, straining. My lungs were beginning to tickle with emptiness. I needed to breathe. I needed oxygen. Panic was starting to rise. My wolf was getting nervous, it would shift without my permission. I became afraid.
Focus!
The black became darker. The darkness absolute. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t–
Focus!
I squeezed my eyes shut. I tried to ignore the panic like Roman had taught me. I tried to open myself up to my true senses, my wolf senses. But the water was too overwhelming. The pressure of it. The weight pulling my body down. My muscles were screaming for oxygen now. My lungs were about to explode. I needed air. My wolf needed air. My wolf needed–
Look!
I opened my eyes and saw the bottom. Through the darkness, through the infinite black and shapeless sides. I saw the seal of the wolf’s paw on the bottom. The seal of the Half-Moon pack.
I watched the men gathered and leashed in the cages. My blood was boiling. I held the talisman of the Half-Moon that Roman had given me all those years ago in my hands. He’d given it to me when I emerged from the water. It had been passed down throughout the ages, always ready for whoever would become the wearer.
But none had been worthy of it until me. Until I saw the seal at the bottom of the pool. Until I saw the seal that King Elex had placed there before his death, knowing that the wolf that would have the ability to see it would be the one to bring down Lady Skol.
Roman said that Queen Diora’s locket had been lost to the ages as well. It provided an extra healing to the wearer, but it only worked on female wolves. I wished that Feyra had been the one to hold it, it was the only thing I could think that might help her from my nightmares. But wishing was pointless now.
I looked at my talisman of King Elex. Roman had asked me to keep it hidden until after his passing. It had struck me as odd, seeing as I’d just swam into a lake and won the right to wear it, but then I hadn’t known about his foresight. He must’ve already known what his end would be then.
I put it on. I felt the pull of the full moon strengthen. It was as if it shone purely in my veins. A shiver ran through me and I wanted to do nothing more than shift into the biggest wolf I’d ever been.
It was time to save the men.
The area the men had been caged in was like an animal pen. Thousands of them were being kept prisoner by a platform of four Siren Singers. It was heartbreaking. Four monsters were all it took to contain us. I growled.
But not for long.
By now Zani would be singing her anti-melody, and Feyra would be taking Agatha hostage. Then, once we had our army we could storm Lassig. I just had to kill the Singers.
There were merls perched everywhere. On each corner and halfway down every line. All up, there must’ve been one hundred of them. I just had to get to the singers quickly, I’d need all the help I could get once they were gone. If not, my death would be a spectacle for thousands of men that could only watch.
The clouds parted and the moon came out. The talisman began to hum. I felt my body vibrate.What was this thing?
I snuck further along the trail directly across from the cages. I was searching for the straightest track down to the platform. All I had to do was sprint down and kill four Siren Singers.
Easy.
I closed my eyes and thought of Feyra. I thought of her as she’d been at the Pools, when we’d made love. I thought of her laughing and of the months we’d spent together. I didn’tthink of the dream I’d been having. Over and over. The dream of her death. Of her lying pale and bloody, the great shadow looming. And the man that knelt over her.
I thought of her and remembered her words.
I love you.
I shifted.
