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Until I came along and tamed one. More or less.
Patting Boo’s thick neck, I worked my fingers through his tough, matted fur. Gigloams were supposed to have lustrous, mossy-green coats. Boo’s was dull and looked more like aged seaweed. Death had amplified his characteristics in a way that made him seem more gruesome, more fiendish than he really was. The bone helm that protruded over his skull had yellowed and cracked in places, and themoon etched onto it was at three-quarters; his stag-like antlers were jagged and sharp, as if they’d been snapped in half. At first glance, his muddy-red eyes appeared soulless. But that was far, far from the truth.
Snorting, my Kitska beast shoved his nose into my shoulder, and I stumbled to the side.
“What?” I asked, swatting him gently.
He sank to his haunches with a heavy thud, and the ground trembled. Shaking his head vigorously up and down, he grunted as the tops of his antlers tore through the low-hanging branches.
“That doesn’t help me,” I said, unable to keep my lips from tipping upward.
His gaze wandered to the open clearing where Jax and Effie played. Jax had a way to go before fully growing into his dragon-like body but was large enough to withstand a playful blow from Boo in case it packed too much…oomph. His gleaming red scales, trimmed in gold, were near impenetrable—even for Boo’s claws.
Maybe not his teeth, though. I gave my creature a sidelong glance, debating whether or not to encourage him to join in on the games, when a heinous, earsplitting cry shook the trees on the other side of the clearing. Everything around us fell silent. The assassins in the field went stock-still, and their beasts huddled close as they targeted an indistinct spot in the darkened wood. Even the wind died, save an eerie whisper of air that stank of death and decay. Boo stiffened, his thick hackles standing on end, and he peeled back his maw in a menacing growl. After a moment, he slowly got to his feet and began summoning moonlight between his antlers.
“Hold on.” I grabbed his snout and pulled his head downward. The three-quarter moon could allow him to manifest a dangerous amount of power. “There’s no need to blast one of your brethren into oblivion. Come on.”
Without hesitation, he sank to one knee, and I climbed atophis back. The moment I was situated, he barreled forward across the clearing, just as Calem and Ozias called forth shadows from the depths of the forest. In the time it took me to breathe, they’d turned those wispy tendrils into glittering blades as real and as solid as the earth beneath my feet. It was the type of control every assassin trained to achieve.
“Wait!” I shouted, urging Boo forward. He came to an abrupt halt when we reached the group, and I slid off his back to stride toward my own newfound brethren. “It’s probably just confused. Let me take care of it.”
“Did you call it? Is it one of yours?” Calem looked back and forth between Boo and me, and while he let his hand fall lax by his side, the blades he’d summoned remained suspended in the air by his waist. His muted-red eyes were ringed in mercury, and that dangerous hue widened a fraction. One wrong move, and Calem would shift into a monstrous beast that rivaled even the undead creatures in the Kitska Forest. His condition was a by-product of almost dying and subsequently being saved by a legendary feline, and it was incredibly hard to control.
“No,” I said. Another hair-raising call shook the treetops.
Ozias turned to the small group of members they’d been training. “Get inside. Someone tell Kost.” They nodded in unison as they eagerly raced back to the manor, faint shadows clinging to their heels.
Irritation flickered to life in my gut. “It’s fine. There’s no need to involve him.”
“He’s our guild master. There’s every reason to involve him.” Calem beckoned to Effie, and she circled above his head once before perching on his shoulder. Jax, too, moved in close. At a moment’s notice, he’d be able to summon a wall of lava rock that could act as a barrier to protect us from whatever monster was rampaging in the wood.
“It’s just a Kitska beast. I can handle it.” I strode forward, gait stiff, and Boo followed. A breath later, Calem let out an exasperated sigh, and he and Ozias fell in line behind me with their own very-much-alive beasts.
“How can we help?” Ozias asked as we neared the tree line.
“I don’t know yet. I…” A deafening howl cut me off, followed by a cascading series of harrowing screeches. Not one, but three, creatures emerged from the dark. They were the size of large wolves with humped backs and bony, protruding spines that ended in arrowhead tails. Their bat-like heads riveted at odd angles, and whiskers sprung from their pointed ears and trailed the length of their body like thin fingers.
“What in the actual fuck are those?” Calem pulled Effie off his shoulder and settled her on Jax’s back before crouching into his heels. The blades hovering about his waist quivered.
One beast snarled in answer, and it took a few predatory steps forward. The tufted, gray fur covering its body shifted to black alligator hide along its legs, and massive talons left canyons in the soft grass beneath its feet.
“Mizobats.” At least they had been before death and the Kitska Forest had twisted them and made them untamable for any normal Charmer. A chill settled deep in my bones. “No one make any sudden movements.”
Even Boo heeded my warning, his breath no more than a shallow exhale against my neck. The Mizobats chittered among each other, their back-and-forth resembling that of insect mandibles clicking together. They sniffed the air in unison. With milky eyes, they were almost entirely blind; but their sense of smell and otherworldly hearing—coupled with their tentacle whiskers that could feel even the slightest shift in the wind—made them adept hunters.
“Gaige?” Ozias’s lips barely parted, but the sound of hisquestion might as well have been a bullhorn to the Mizobats. Their ears flicked to attention. One by one, they peeled back their lips in a menacing snarl.
Edging forward, I drew their focus to me. “Easy, there.” Shadows began to gather near my fingertips. The slithering tendrils wrapped my wrists and snaked through the air in the direction of the Kitska beasts. My newfound power would never put a living creature at ease, but the undead monsters of the forest were much more familiar with the dark.
At least that was the case with Boo and a handful of others I’d encountered.
“We’re not going to hurt you.” I inched even closer, and I presented the back of my hand to the nearest Mizobat. “You’re safe.”
The leader slowly brought its scrunched nose to my knuckles. The Mizobat inhaled deeply, savoring my scent for a few seconds before exhaling. A moment passed as I let it assess me—assess all of us—without moving. I couldn’t see Ozias or Calem behind me, but death had heightened my senses to a degree that was almost unbearable. I could hear their erratic heartbeats, their shallow breaths.
Muscles loosening, the other Mizobats approached me and gave me a good sniff.
“See?” I rotated my palm up. Shadows knit together in a small sphere that hovered for a moment before collapsing and dispersing through my fingers. “We’re the same.”
