But every wolf kept advancing. Their shining fur was becoming stronger.
I leaped at Lady Skol and tackled her to the ground. I smashed her face and blood flowed from her nose.
A forked tongue licked the blood away and she booted me across the room. I crashed into the wall and it caved. I bounded off of it before it fell away. She threw another, bigger, lighting ball and I roared at it.
It was held in midair.
Lady Skol looked surprised.
I roared again and it fractured, sending thousands of little balls of energy into the walls. The room began to vibrate, to hum and become electric. I felt the buzz in my fur. Lady Skol was screaming an incantation. I bounded at her and tackled her again. I scratched with both paws on her chest and then jumped, crushing her chest until I heard bones breaking.
The walls exploded, stones rained out into the night. Lightning began to strike and reel across the sky, cascading towards us in the antechamber. It struck Lady Skol’s desk. She brought down more and tried to fry me as I dashed away from her.
She hissed and jumped to her feet. She brought her hands out wide and then snapped them together. Millions of wires wound around my body. They squeezed the blood out of my muscles, out of my brain. I felt the oxygen choke on my mind. The panic rise…I flexed, breaking the wires and magic. I roared at the sky. The moon shone brighter and the thousands of shining wolves scurrying into the city below howled in unison.
My locket was humming against my throat.
A singular, extremely bright light was bounding towards me. I could feel a power…a connection.
I knew it was Dion.
A lightning ball struck my chest and I flew backwards, crashing into the last standing wall. I felt my ribs crack, and the breath escaped my lung from a puncture. I began to wheeze. I struggled to my pads and looked for Lady Skol, but she was gone.
I could smell Lady Skol’s fear. I sensed her fleeing up and away. I found a hidden stairwell behind a tapestry that had managed to hang despite no wall being there. I bounded up it without thinking of a trap. I just needed to follow the fear. The dark tunnel became smaller and smaller as I climbed though. It began to squeeze me, to crush me. The rib that had punctured my lung was sawing against the flesh.
I roared and the stairwell exploded.
I was on a roof.
It was pouring with rain and Lady Skol stood at the end of a rise. She beckoned me forward. I walked out onto the roof and began to slip and slide. I extended my claws and gripped in.
She laughed and ran. I chased after her, despite the wet. I ran along the spine of the roof, only slipping every few tiles. But soon I was catching up to her. We bounded across the many rooftops of the castle, jumping and climbing. Always rising, higher and higher. Closer to the moon, closer to my power. My body was surging and building with energy.
Lady Skol leaped off the roof and flew towards a platform. I saw her land safely and continue on.
My lung was screaming in pain. I couldn’t heal while it was in the wrong position. I didn’t have time. I ran at the roof ending, gripping harder against the tiles and jumped as hard as my legs could push. I flew through the air–
A force pulled me down suddenly and I crashed into the edge. My ribs were broken even more and the single one piercing my lung was joined by another two. I felt one exit my chest. I almost let go of the stones in agony. I clawed my way up with my feet, gaining a hold. I pulled myself, inch by inch, onto the platform.
Dion!I called in wolf sense.The highest tower!
I made it onto the platform, breathless. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I was ready to die. I couldn’t breathe in. I couldn’t heal. My bodywasdying.
I struggled to stay on my pads. I couldn’t let her get away.
I stumbled forward.
I couldn’t stay as a wolf—I shifted, standing there naked in the pouring rain. The locket stopped humming. It was boiling against my flesh though.
Lady Skol came through the darkness. Suddenly in front of me with gleaming victorious eyes. A knife was buried in my chest.
Dion…
Chapter 28
DION
We all skidded to a halt, blood drenching our fur and the taste of Lady Skol’s guardsmen still on our teeth. We’d come to the gates of Lassig only to be stopped by what we’d seen.
