Page 20 of Wolfsbane

Even if I did slightly slow my pace to account for his legs being shorter than mine.

It was only when we arrived at the gate that I found the real problem. It wasn’t a simple bar lowered across the entry, that we could simply duck under. It was a huge wrought-iron gate. Even harder to climb than a brick wall, which had plenty of little toeholds.

I let out a grunt of frustration, turning back to Daire, ready to tell him he was damned well going to climb and like it. The witches were coming, though. I could see the first of them rounding the corner, less than a hundred yards away. We didn’t have time to chat.

We probably didn’t have time to climb the wall.

Then I heard a chittering noise to my right, coming from the guard house. Followed by a near ear-splitting squeal, and continuous grinding.

The door of the guardhouse popped open next to me, to emit one self-satisfied looking raccoon.

Drew.

Behind me, the gate was opening.

Daire was staring at the raccoon in shock, but again, we didn’t have time for this.

I turned, leaned down, and scooped Drew up in my arms. “Sorry for your dignity, but you can’t run as fast as we need to.”

He didn’t make a sound, let alone a protest.

I jerked my head in the direction of the gate, looking back at Daire. “Run. We have to get farther from your murderous friends.”

A strange near-defiance rippled over his face, like he was going to refute my calling his friends murderous, but he didn’t say a word. I ran, and so did he.

Drew worked his way up onto my shoulders, his little arms wrapped around my forehead. He made little chittering noises as we ran, like this was a fun new game and he was loving every minute of it. I was grateful, because I didn’t want to try to explain to Leo that I’d left his furry friend to die.

After five minutes of running, Daire’s breathing behind me went ragged, panting and gasping almost more than actual breathing. He tried to regulate it. Didn’t stop or complain, but continuing to run all the way home clearly wasn’t a real option, unless I was willing to leave him behind.

Strangely enough, I found that I was not.

My wolf hadn’t destroyed him. Had even helped him in our escape, and I didn’t think that had only been for my benefit.

When Drew’s little arm left my forehead and pointed off to our right, I nodded and turned to follow. He hadn’t led me wrong so far, and clearly, there was more to my brother’s little friend than met the eye.

If not for Drew the raccoon, I was reasonably sure Daire and I would be dead already.

It took another three minutes, and Daire’s steps had slowed so much they could barely be called running.

Yes, I’d slowed to match his pace. This wasn’t the first time I had escaped alongside people less able to run than myself.

Once again, Drew had been right. It was barely visible from the outside, but as I followed his little pointing hand, I found a crack in the rock face barely big enough for me to slide into, that seemed to be the mouth of a larger cave.

Maybe the witches would find us with ease, but also, maybe not.

Also, it was a defensible position. The cave mouth was a natural bottleneck where I could stand and fight. I would not hesitate again.

Maybe because I wouldn’t be facing Daire, with my wolf inside him.

It didn’t matter why, though.

What mattered was that we all squeezed into the cave, and Drew climbed down me like I was a tree, then set to pushing leaves in front of the cave door, to further camouflage it. Clever little raccoon.

Me? I turned to Daire.

I wanted to demand to know how he got my wolf, but somehow, I had a feeling that I knew as much about that as he did. Instead, I shook off that urge and asked him the more pressing question. “We need to escape your people. Why don’t you cast some spells to get us away?”

CHAPTER 10