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They nodded and scampered off into the shadows as the two Wolves circled around the corner. They scanned the burning building up and down, looking for the perpetrator.
“I have an idea,” I whispered, looking over my shoulder at Hector. “You go around to the back door of that building.”
He looked at the towering inferno and back at me. “What?”
“Go to the back. Keep the door open and wait for my command,” I instructed.
“Oh Gods,” he muttered, checking the shadows before running across the muddy street.
I turned to Grae. “Do you trust me?”
He grabbed me around the waist and planted a fiery kiss on my lips. “Always.”
The moment his lips left mine, I let out a loud whistle that carried through the night. The two Wolves swiveled from the burning building.
I flashed a wicked grin. “Are you runts looking for us?” I taunted as they began darting toward us.
“Remember,” Grae said, a bit of worry in his voice. “I said I trust you—”
I almost laughed as I ducked left down the lane between the rundown buildings. Mud flew through the air as our boots squelched down the street. I slowed my pace, wanting them to keep us within sight. Turning right down the back of the building, I waited until I heard them behind us and then turned right again.
I led them in a wild circling chase around the far building and back toward the burning one, buying Hector enough time to reach the back and drawing the Wolves away from the fleeing humans.
As I raced toward the burning building, I sent up a prayer to the Moon Goddess and leapt across the crackling threshold. Grae stayed hot on my heels, following me into the blaze. The layout of the building was the same as the one across the street, two stairwells at either end of a long hallway. It looked like it had been some sort of mill before it had been abandoned. The bottom floor was filled with wooden tables and piles of scrap fabric that exploded into bright bursts of flame.
I dashed up the stairwell, choking on smoke as we climbed. My eyes stung as I blinked through the haze to see, sure enough, the two Silver Wolves had followed us inside.
They pulled their tunics up around their noses. One elbowed his comrade and pointed up to us at the top of the stairs as we bolted again, down the long hallway. I tipped over a flaming barrel behind us, slowing down the Wolves’s chase. Kicking over a table, Grae created a burning blockade as we reached the far stairs. The flames consumed the stairwell, far worse than in the front. Smoke scorched my lungs and I hesitated before I felt Grae’s hand on the small of my back. He shouted something, but I couldn’t hear it over the hissing cracks of the floorboards combusting beneath our feet.
I shielded my face with my hands, screwing my eyes shut as I forced my feet onward, racing down the stairs through the wall of flames to where I knew the open doorway led back out to fresh air. For a terrifying moment, I felt nothing but scorching heatand the roar of fire and then the cool, fresh air hit my face again. Grae tumbled into the mud beside me.
I fell to my knees screaming, “Now!”
Hector slammed the door behind us, moving a heavy rain barrel in front of the smoking door. Steam hissed along the wet wood.
A patch of fabric on my elbow still flamed and I smacked it, stamping out the fire. I looked at Grae’s soot-covered face, his hair white with ash. He doubled over coughing, his hands splayed in the mud. The panic gripped me so tightly I wasn’t sure if I was injured. My clothes seemed mostly intact. My hands were blackened with smoke. My lungs ached, but I was alive. I thanked the Gods for the rain and our drenched clothes. They had probably saved our lives.
The back door thudded, the boards creaking, but the rain barrel kept it from budging. Fists pounded wildly on the door, one last desperate attempt to break out of their fiery death, and then they ceased. I wondered if they would try for the front door. I knew, in my heart, they’d never make it.
I retched, heaving acid into the muck. My throat burned with smoke and bile. Grae spat into the mud, hacking up the smoke from his lungs.
“We killed them,” I wheezed, my words deep and scratchy. I felt the heavy cloak of shame, the inky dark of my choices, and I knew if I leaned into it just the slightest bit more, dark magic would be there staring back at me. I’d led those Wolves into that trap—a gruesome, painfully horrible trap—to save my friends, my kingdom, and myself... but I knew only the thinnest seam separated me from the darkness. A part of me thought to move toward it, to gain what it offered if it meant saving more of those I loved, but then Grae was near me, checking me for wounds, and that was all I needed to push away from the darkness, allowing myself to feel the punishing grief of my decision.
“Holy fucking Gods,” Hector said, collapsing into the mud beside us and burying his head in his hands. “I think we’ve just started a war.”
Thirty-Four
We gathered around the kitchen table, pulling up extra stools and crates to sit on. My body felt numb, weightless, as we stared vacantly at each other. The horror of what had just happened whispered across our expressions.
Mina passed Hector a glass of water, then signed, “Are you okay?”
“I don’t think any of us will ever be okay with what just happened.” Ora handed me a wet cloth and fell into the empty seat beside me. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t necessary.”
“If you shift?” Navin dabbed ointment on Sadie’s busted lip. “You’ll heal, right?”
“Yes.” She grimaced, swatting his hand away and snatching the vial. “At least faster than you.”
“Why don’t you all shift now?” Ora’s frown deepened, each person looking worse than the last.
