AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Okay. This is weird."
The tongue found a tear that escaped her eye at the same time another wet nose nudged her shoulder and a third snuffled at her injured wing.
"Gross."
That probably wasn't the normal response when a three-headed wolf had just licked someone's face—was running and screaming more appropriate?—but Maia was rattled by pain.
"Hey!" she complained when the head near her wing poked out a tongue, like the sicko wanted to taste her poisoned blood. But at least they weren't killing her…? Unless they were seasoning her, making her extra tasty with the salt in their saliva…
"Don't eventhinkabout making me into a steak," she mumbled, and inhaled sharply when she heard a distant murmur. Oh thank fuck, her hearing was returning. And with it came a low, thready whine, layered three times over.
"What are you whining at? And why aren't you attacking me?"
Maia lifted her hand, only vaguely able to see what she was looking at, and let it fall on the wolf's shoulder. Its whine cut off immediately, all three heads butting her shoulder, chest, and face. She wasn't an expert, but that seemed more affectionate than murderous.
Testing her luck, she urged a few inches of space between her and the creature and pushed shakily to her feet, casting a wide-eyed stare around the clearing. She couldn't see everything, but what she could was a damn mess, with trees torn out of the ground, snaking vines everywhere, and gaping pits in the ground.
"Where are my mates?" she asked in a voice that dropped an octave and several degrees. She gave the three wolf heads a steely look, and they gave her matching thready whines. "Where are they?"
This time the wolf’s whines were matched by hundreds of canine voices, and Maia jumped in surprise, her hearing almost back to full power.
Shit. She stared in frozen shock as the whole damn pack slinked forward, their heads ducked low and eyes rolled up to give her pitiful stares. Okay. Okay, this was normal. This was fine.
Her heart slammed against her ribs, but they weren't attacking. They looked scared that she was mad with them, which was ridiculous.
You're their queen,a welcome voice said in her mind.
"Sephanae," Maia breathed. "You have to help me.Please. Where are my mates?"
If you look for them, you'll find them all,she replied, and then the warmth of her presence lifted.
"You're not fucking helpful!" Maia shouted at the sky. Well, the dark tree canopy. What the hell had she done, sealing them in with her magic?
The wolf beside her nudged her knee with a head, a sad noise in one of its throats.
"If I look, I'll find them," Maia huffed, and set off tentatively across the clearing. Holes were collapsed in the ground everywhere, and the whole place smelled of ozone and metal—magic. Black poisonous sap dripped from the trees,wrongnesshitting Maia’s senses. This couldn't have all been her doing. Azrail's earth magic was at fault, too. She saw it in trees twisted around each other, their roots snarled around—
"Fuck! Kheir," she rasped, racing to the tangled roots and grabbing at them, wrenching with all her weight. "The roots will break," she said, filling her words with snaresong, but nothing happened. She must have been delusional before.
The wolf—she was going to have to name him if he kept following her around—made a low sound and bumped her with two of his heads. Maia narrowed her eyes, her heart beating so fast she feared it would erupt from her body.
"You can get him out?" she demanded, running her fingers over Kheir's face—the only visible part of him. The rest was wrapped in black-dripping roots, crushing him. His face was ashen, nothing like the healthy bronze tone he'd been this morning, and shadows ringed his eyes.
"I've got you, my prince," she promised, heaving at the roots again.
The wolf placed a paw on the thickest section of root and Maia shuddered when it withered, like all the moisture had been sucked out of it. Or all the life. This time when Maia threw her weight into it, it snapped, brittle and weak. With the wolf’s help, she pulled Kheir out from under the tree. She sang a hasty lullaby, diving into his mind and praying she still found a spark of life there.
You have to wake up, my prince,she murmured, using her own voice as she planted the thought instead of disguising it as one of his own thoughts.You have to come back to me.
Power and sharp metal thorns—no, those were arrowheads—filled his mind a second before his eyes snapped open and his hands came up, grabbing her biceps in a shaky grip.
I'm here,she promised on a song.
Kheir shuddered and tilted forward, resting his clammy forehead against hers. She slowly, carefully, retreated from his mind, stroking a mental hand over the sharp arrows that formed a shield against his enemies but not his mate.
"We couldn't stop them," he rasped. "When you screamed, the wolves went insane."
"Uh," Maia replied, running her fingers through his hair, picking out clumps of mud. "I think the wolves like me? Because the Iron Dove's their queen?"
