Page 2 of Rejected By the Winter Wolf

The knowledge that this has happened before sings under my skin.

Except, her words don’t make sense. I’m not valuable. Not like her.

“They want a Seer. And he wants to break the curse.” Her voice sounds a million miles away, and her eyes are glazed. She’s seeing the future. “If you help him, in return, he’ll help you.”

“Who?”

She shakes off the vision and focuses on me. Her lips press tight, her expression sorry. She opens the door and ushers me outside. Through the enclosed porch, out the open screen door. She gives me a push once I’m on the damp grass.

“Run, Astra.”

The amethyst burns on my chest, seeming to echo her words.

She’s not coming with me. She motions again, eyes wide. The taste of blood blooms across my tongue, choking me.

I sprint across the clearing around our cottage and into the tree line. There’s no moon tonight. Even the stars are hiding. I fumble my way through the forest I was raised in, trying not to get tangled in brush and branches that reach for me. It’s familiar and strange all at once. Four years is long enough for the woods to remake themselves into something unrecognizable. I trip over roots and slide on fallen pine needles.

I don’t make it far at all when a crack splits the air behind me.

A sickly-sweet scent fills my nose, and my body goes still against my will. My heart pounds, threatening to burst out of my chest, but my every muscle locks.

I know this smell with a horrible intimacy.

Demon.

The veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest during a new moon. It’s enough for stronger creatures to force their way into our realm—or for someone to drag them through. I heard enough horror stories about it as a child to give me nightmares. And by the time I saw my first one…

The stone on my chest is so hot. It’s got to be burning a hole through my skin.

The pain makes me move again, and I turn back for my mother. I get to the edge of the clearing, and I don’t find the quiet, dark house I left. Every light inside blazes on. It’s a beacon, calling to… something. Not me. I’m supposed to be long gone.

Above the cottage is a roiling shadow, darker than the night. It plunges down, covering the house, seeping in through the cracks.

Light explodes out again, and I clutch the tree. The ground trembles.

My mother’s power is fierce, but it’s rarely put on such display.

The shadows coalesce into a solid shape at the front of the cottage. The doors blow outward, and something throws the demon backward. My mother strides out, her hair floating. Her gaze lifts. Even from this distance, she finds me with unerring accuracy, and she shakes her head like I’ve disappointed her.

“Run,” she mouths.

The demon rises. It’s huge, and the light seems to cower away from it. It slinks toward her again, then opens its jaws and screeches. I grab my head and cover my ears. The noise is indescribable, a piercing blade sliding into my eardrums. The ground seems to tremble under my feet—but my mother doesn’t flinch.

She stands off against the demon with nothing in her hands.

On the other side of the clearing, movement catches my attention. A wolf appears, stalking out of the darkness. I fight the urge to duck back for cover. There must be something I can do. My stomach churns, and the stone at my sternum burns in warning.

Wolves are dangerous to our kind. There’s a fifty-fifty chance it will kill my mother after it slays the demon. Or it may just go for my mother first.

Depends on its rage.

I’m going to be sick.

The wolf’s amber eyes catch the light from the house and refract it back. It’s a huge thing, even from this distance. Its muscles ripple under dark fur. I can’t tell who has its attention—the demon or my mother.

The demon pays no heed to the approaching wolf. It screams again, digging its clawed feet into the earth, then charging my mother. I scream along with it and fall to my knees. It’s all I can do to keep my eyes locked on my mother.

Instead of defending herself, she looks at me. Horror flashes across her expression.