Page 42 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

Gasping, I crouched behind a thicket of wild brambles.The wolves wouldn't see me coming.Not this time.

My fingers ghosted over the broad, waxy leaves of the bush, my magic weaving through their veins, coaxing them to surrender their form to me.Their essence shivered beneath my touch, twisting, melding, until soft fabric wrapped around my skin, trousers spun from the forest's embrace.As I took from the earth, my veins darkened beneath my skin.To take from the earth without giving in return cost a steep price, but that was the unseelie way, and forher, I would doanything.

My sharpened gaze cut through the thicket, locking onto the clearing where the wolves had gathered.Where they held her.

Rosemary lay motionless at their feet, her brassy blond hair fanned over the crushed grass.Four wolves prowled around her, their hulking forms shifting with restless energy, their eyes sweeping the trees and sky in search of me.

I raised my fingers, tracing delicate patterns in the cool night air, calling on my illusion.The scent of damp earth and morning mist curled around me, masking my presence, dissolving me into the undergrowth.

Then, I saw him.The alpha in human form.A lone figure among the wolves.Broad-shouldered, bare-chested, his skin marked by the sharp lines of a claw tattoo.He didn't search the sky like the others.His gaze remained on her, on the fragile weight of Rosemary's unconscious form at his feet as he tucked something back into his pocket.

He bent without a word, lifting Rosemary's limp form as if she weighed nothing.Her hair tumbled over his bare shoulder, a golden river against his skin, and a deep growl rumbled in his chest as he adjusted her, settling her like a prize.

I followed.

A patch of wildflowers brushed against my fingertips, their petals trembling as I passed.I let my magic reach for them, coaxing their essence into something more.The softness of petals hardened, their delicate stems twisting into something stronger, weaving together until a scabbard formed against my hip, strapped tight around my waist.

A gnarled root jutted from the earth at my feet, twisted with age, rough with time.I stooped, curling my fingers around it.

My magic sank deep, whispering to the wood.Twist, sharpen, become.

The root pulsed in my grip, reshaping itself beneath my touch.The coarse bark peeled away, its hardened veins bending to my will until it gleamed, not as wood, but as bronze.A blade, born from the bones of the earth itself.

I held the blade up before me, studying the blackness of my irises in its reflection as the darkness in my veins consumed even more of me.Narrowing my gaze, I dropped the blade, turning my attention instead on the wolves ahead.

The lead wolf halted at the cliff's edge, where jagged rock gave way to the gaping maw of a narrow cave.One by one, his pack slipped inside, their hulking forms vanishing like phantoms into the abyss.

I watched, heart hammering against my ribs, as the last of them disappeared.Until only him.

He turned, blocking the path.Blocking her.

Rosemary was somewhere in that darkness, and this beast was the barrier between us.

A slow, seething heat unraveled in my chest, my grip tightening around the bronze blade still warm from the touch of my magic.I could end this creature, tear into him with the full, merciless force of my unseelie nature.But if I did, the queen would feel it.She would know.

My fingers twitched, the smallest motion, and the air around me shifted.A hush spread outward, swallowing sound, weaving a cocoon of silence around my form.

The wolf didn't hear me move.

Didn't see the way I gathered every ounce of strength.

Didn't sense the moment I lunged.

Until it was too late.

He snarled, a savage sound ripping through the air, and in a blur of motion, he reared back onto his hind legs.My blade swung wide, cutting through the space where his head had been just a moment before, the arc of bronze missing by inches.But before I could adjust, his form twisted.A violent shift, bones snapping and reshaping within a single blink of my eyes, as he dropped to the earth, now towering over me on two legs.In his hand, an axe gleamed, as though it had always belonged there.

How had he moved so fast?How had I lost my advantage so quickly?

We clashed beneath the pale light of dawn.His axe met my blade with a violent clang, sending sparks flying, bright as fireflies in the thick, cold air.

His grip was unyielding.One hand locked tight on the axe, parrying my every strike, while the other shifted.His fingers elongated into claws, sharp as shards of obsidian, slashing at me with the ferocity of a beast in the throes of rage.

I recoiled, my heart hammering as his claws raked across my sword arm, the force so powerful it almost made me lose my grip on the blade.Blood welled from the gash, slick and warm, dripping down my arm in rivulets, painting the earth beneath me.

The pain was white-hot, but I couldn't stop.I swung desperately, every movement frantic as I put distance between us, the fight becoming a blur of metal and fury.

"I just want the female back," I snarled, the words leaving my mouth like a promise of blood.The blade between us gleamed, my stance firm, every muscle coiled.