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Groaning, he fell to his knees. “The stars,” he muttered. “They’re too bright.” He stared blankly at the cloudy sky. “No stars.”
“That’s because it’s daytime. They’re still there. We just can’t see them.”
Now that he was momentarily inert, I took the opportunity to retrieve my discarded weapons.
“What did you do to me?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.
“Nothing a warm bath, ibuprofen, and a cold beer won’t cure.”
His mouth twitched. “I prefer brandy.”
I tucked my throwing knife into my boot. “I’ll be honest. I don’t think your heart is in this, Brody. Might want to consider a career change. You should look at balloon animals. You’ve got the skills for it.”
Brody struggled to his feet and dusted off the snow. “I’m enjoying the company. Seems a shame to kill you too quickly.”
“Sounds like you need to socialize more. Maybe hanging out with asshats like Magnarella doesn’t suit you.”
“No,” Brody said. “It doesn’t.”
His tone prompted me to dig a little deeper. “It’s totally normal to dislike your boss. I’m sure I’d dislike mine if I had one.”
“Magnarella isn’t my boss.”
A heavy branch struck the side of my head. Brody was back in play. I had to hand it to the mage, he recovered more quickly than I anticipated. This was my first fight with anature mage, though. I was bound to make a few errors in judgment.
As I brought my sword around, it was met with a hard object that wasn’t there a second ago. I looked down to see that Brody had managed to fashion a shield out of moss and pinecones.
“I’m starting to feel envious of your abilities,” I admitted. “That rarely happens.”
“I’m feeling the same,” he said. “I still have no idea what you did to me.”
I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d inflicted him with temporary insanity. It revealed too much. “And if you kill me now, you’ll never know.”
My response seemed to intrigue him. “Magnarella only said you were dangerous. He didn’t say why.”
“Magnarella only cares that I ruined his game. This is petty revenge.”
“Yeah, I got that impression when he referred to you as ‘that thorn in my side.’” Brody rolled his shoulders. “Still, a debt is a debt.”
As the mage raised his hand, I heard a low growl from behind the bushes and caught sight of blurred movement out of the corner of my eye. Whatever it was, it was fast and headed straight for Brody.
Acting on instinct, I tackled the mage and pushed him to the ground. The creature sailed over us and landed gracefully on four massive paws. A giant white she-wolf turned her head to regard us. The glint in her eye was filled with such venom and hostility that I actually stopped breathing for a heartbeat, waiting to see what she would do next.
Brody remained motionless beside me.
Finally, the wolf seemed to decide that we were beneath her and continued her journey through the forest.
Brody and I sat side by side in a mound of snow. My butt was numb, but I was too mesmerized to move.
The nature mage was first to break the silence. “You could’ve let that thing kill me.”
“Yes. Lucky for you, I chose not to.”
He stared at me with a mixture of awe and disbelief. “I told you I intended to kill you. Did you forget that part?”
I tapped the side of my head. “Lodged that intel right here.”
“I don’t understand.”
