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Thus began the not-at-all-quick process of retracing my steps to get us out of the underground maze. At least the vine would guide us back. We walked in silence. I kept glancing around. A bad feeling fell over me like a dark cloud. When Dario complained his legs were tired—why walk when you can poof away all the time?—I lifted him into my arms and picked up the pace. I went from a fast walk to a jog to nearly a sprint, never losing sight of the vine.
But my bad feeling was confirmed when I turned a corner and the vine simply… ended.
It hadn’t snapped. A sickening pit opened in my stomach. If it had snapped, then the rest of it would be right behind, easy enough to follow. No, it had been pulled apart and redirected.
“Very good, life-giver. You found the imp.” The Moon Goddess’s voice echoed off the walls.
The ghost wolf rounded the corner, his jaw contorted into an unnatural canine smile.
I set Dario down and moved in front of him. The ghost’s grin grew wider.
“I never cared for imps. So fragile, so… worthless. Not like your—pardon,my—shifters.”
“Step aside,” I warned, trying to get through to the ghost shifter. “I’ve won.” Let his instincts tell him I was the stronger wolf and he should back down. But her grip on his psyche was absolute.
“You do have the imp,” the Moon Goddess agreed conversationally. The wolf took a shuddering step forward, his paws halting with each movement. “I never stood a chance at winning a challenge in your realm. However, you have notwon. The conditions say the imp must leave with you. As I said, they are so fragile… and if I kill it, then we have a stalemate.”
The wolf lunged. Any halting movement from before was gone. I could’ve dodged, but that would expose Dario. I summoned my magic, thorny vines ripping from the ground, but they passed straight through his glimmering body.
We collided. I hadn’t had a chance to shift. I kicked and punched, tried to focus enough to sprout a vine that would guide Dario away from the violence. The ghost wolf tore into my chest. I cried out as fiery pain erupted. He ripped out a piece of my flesh; I healed it in an instant. I shifted, turning into a wolf in a flash, and tackled the ghost wolf.
I ripped out his throat. It was bloody, but it was quick.
Part of me wanted to mourn as the wolf shimmered, disintegrating before me. Would it go back to its astral prison, or down to the pits? It deserved neither. It deserved peace, not to be used as a pawn in the games of a greedy goddess.
I shifted back, wiping a tear from my eye. I was used to violence. I would spill a lot of blood to keep my kingdom safe. But the wolf hadbeen innocent.
“Dario?” I called.
I found him a moment later, cowered behind a corner with my vine wrapped around him like a security blanket. A few moments of reassurances and I had him back in my arms, trying to find my way out. Without the vines to guide me, it would be several more hours. He’d had a long, frightful day, and I wanted to get him out of the maze.
The light dimmed, torches going out all around me. The only ones lit were the ones directly in front of me and down a path to the right. This time, I didn’t hesitate to follow. The trend continued; there was only one lit passage at every intersection. Eventually, I found the remains of my vine, but continued to follow the torches instead—I’d taken a rather circuitous route by the way the thread of greenery wove in and out of my path.
I led Dario all the way back to the hole, where I grew a fruit tree from the ground to carry us up, plucking a fresh peach for him to eat.
Phaidros and Cole were there, watching.
“We won,” I told Cole.
I wished I would have felt more celebratory. But if this was the easiest of the challenges, we were in trouble.
Chapter XXVI
The next challenge wouldtake place in the land of the living. Phaidros organized it to begin the very next day.
We met at Moon Rock the next morning.
Daphne had managed to unite two packs to our cause, the Wind-Bloods and the Fangs. She stood by Xander, and when Cole and I stepped through the portal, she rushed over to hug me. I breathed in her scent, as familiar as my own, and let myself hope.
On the other side, the Moon-Ghosts appeared. They looked on with hateful eyes, Sabine at the center. Jett was nowhere to be seen. The pack had seen better days. Losing their Alpha to his fanaticism had cost them. While Jett was still alive—for now—they lacked the leadership needed to survive.
I hated them. Gods, I hated them. But in that moment, I pitied them too.
I had been with the packs from the beginning. Had created the shifters from nothing. Seeing what they’d fallen to was an insult to everything I had worked towards. I wanted a better world for them. I’d told the mantle as much during my trials, and I would see it through.
The last to arrive was Phaidros, once again followed by the Moon Goddess’s chosen representative.
Jett.
