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13
ADDIE
Oh shit. Oh no.
As soon as I recovered from my embarrassment, I turned and ran after Maddox. Behind me, I heard Vi exclaim. She’d finally realized where I’d gone. They must have been looking for me. I twisted as I ran to call back to her.
“Don’t worry about us!”
Who—or what—was Maddox hunting?
My human feet weren’t fast enough to keep up with a shifter. If Maddox was way ahead of me, that meant that whoever he was tracking also had inhuman speed. How were they both moving so fast in public? No one paid them any attention, as if they weren’t there.
A thought occurred to me. If Hel could show me the threads of the world, and I had her blood in my veins, that likely meant that I could look upon the threads all by myself. I didn’t know how to reach out for them, though. I’d spent my life neck-deep in the world of the dead. The threads of the world were something entirely new to me.
Fool, Hel said in my head.
“Well, if you’re watching, would you mind giving me a hand here?”
The world flashed with ethereal threads, each of them glittering with the pale blue light that I’d grown to associate with death. It was Hel’s power, I realized. Here and there, threads flapped in an imaginary wind as if they’d been broken and left untethered.
The pockets of snapped threads created a trail that I dashed through. I found myself in an abandoned parking lot. The space was filled with makeshift tents for the homeless of the city, but it seemed devoid of life. My stomach dropped an inch. Nervous anticipation crawled up my spine as I continued forward.
Commotion ahead made me pause. A tent went flying. It arched through the air and descended in pieces that scattered across the asphalt. A snarl ripped through the silence. Out from the mess stalked a giant white wolf with eyes made of pale blue fire.
“Maddox?” I asked.
It was him but also not him. The wolf had taken over, and it was pissed. The beast’s head whipped back and forth in search of something—no, in search of someone. The man must have gotten away.
I scanned the threads of the world for more broken cords, but there were none. It was like the man had vanished. He couldn’t walk through portals to the afterlife, could he? Was there another undead shifter in our midst?
That didn’t matter right now. Maddox dove into another empty tent and tore it to bits. If I didn’t stop him, I knew this rampage would spread. Maddox would hate himself if his anger got the best of him.
Summoning my arcana, I shoved it into my words so that it could reach Maddox’s mind.
“Sit,” I commanded.
I felt the way my arcana slammed into his body and bent his bones into a sitting position against his will. His head twisted towards me. When his lips pulled away from his muzzle in a snarl, I understood. Maddox wouldn’t hurt me, but he could still be mad at me.
“Calm down.” I tried to keep my hands from shaking.
When had the wordscalm downever helped anyone? Every time I’d heard it said to me, it’d only made matters worse. However, Maddox’s shoulders slumped. His mouth hung open, tongue lolling out the side.
Still, blue fire burned in his eyes. I continued to close the distance between us. He would hate me after this, but I didn’t know what else to do. If he couldn’t control his beast, then I would have to do it for him. Hopefully he would make a greater effort to get in touch with his wolf side after this.
I doubted it. Maddox was stubborn to a fault. He could be so smart, but the world had to work the way he wanted it to, or else he would stop working. Over and over, I had tried to give him the resources he needed to become one with himself. I sent him to Ryder; I begged him to shift more often.
Gripping the sides of the white wolf’s face, I said, “You need to listen to me more often.”
He jerked away from me and growled low. I sighed and shook my head. Couldn’t he tell that I only wanted the best for him? I wasn’t trying to hurt him. If anything, I wanted to save him, so the gods didn’t pass judgement on him.
Hel was still watching. I could feel her watching. It was an interesting sensation. Less like being watched, and more like knowing that a parent was standing nearby. I should have been trying to figure out how I was tied to her, but I had to help Maddox first. Everything in my life came second to him until he could get his shit together.
Already, I could see him struggling against my arcana. I had a grip on his bones, but I was afraid to hold on too tight. I didn’t want to hurt him. Quite the opposite, actually.
“I just want to help,” I pleaded.
I wasn’t talking to the wolf anymore, though. Maddox’s consciousness had taken over again, and he was staring me down with a furious glare.
