Page 32

“He knows what’s going on.” She answered, “Just shut up and follow him.” Dae looked like he wanted to argue, but she interjected. “He’s being useful, so how about you let him work before you judge my decision?”

Dae cursed under his breath, but he followed.

They continued to weave around cells until they reached the furthest from the bay. The wolf pounced on the side, his massive claws gouging deep into the earth.

Rowan peeked over the wall, and her breath caught in her throat.

Inside there was a pup, maybe two feet tall if it stood on its hind legs. She could hear the weakened beating of its heart, and for a mystic whose heartbeat was supposed to be twice as fast as a human’s, she knew it wasn’t a good sign. Despite being in such a weakened state, it was still conscious, laying on its side staring up at Rowan as she popped over the wall.

Another thing she noticed were the similarities between the giant wolf and the tiny one; the green eyes and the silver-white fur. The pup seemed to reach out for the matured wolf on the other side of the wall once it realized it was there.

Rowan dismissed the magic keeping the two apart, and she watched with bated breath as the wolf sniffed around the pup. His teeth struck at the air a second later and, curiously, a piece of silky cloth popped into existence. Rowan felt the cracking of the barrier, keeping the magical signature of the godly treasure hidden. It seemed to burn the wolf, and he whined, turning to her with eyes full of concern.

She landed on the ground beside him without thinking and she fell to her knees to examine the cloth.

Somehow, the article had gotten so tied up with the pup that there were knots everywhere, sentience riddle the fabric as it tried to wrap tighter around the fading wolf.

“Kaguya’s Robe.” Dae’s voice reached her from a distance, clearly still not trusting the wolves. Coward.

Rowan called forth a pair of gloves to cover her hands, raw from the heavy usage of magic, as she worked on the giant tangle that was the pup and the robe. Unlike Pan’s Flute, the robe didn’t carry a curse, but there was something undeniably menacing about it.

She recalled the tale of the bamboo cutter and the celestial moon princess. She supposed there might have been something malevolent as the princess returned to the moon after finding her true love, but her knowledge of Japanese mystic history wasn’t as well versed as Kin’s.

“If this were Kaguya’s robe, why would anger be associated with it?”

Dae’s answer sounded as if he enjoyed showing off his knowledge of things. “In some versions of the story, when Kaguya-hime returned to the moon, she left her robe with her earthly parents who fell ill with their grief over losing her. Perhaps the robe imbued their grief into dark energy. It’s happened before.”

Ah, so pain over loss.

A ballad from the Southern Elven Kingdom slid through Rowan’s mind. She’d heard her mother singing it when she thought she was alone a week after news of King Lauricio’s death reached them.

Rowan had never met the wispy black haired elf who was her maternal grandfather, but she’d caught glimpses of a picture her mother kept hidden behind a picture of her daughters in a pendant around her neck.

While Annabelle was unyielding and prickly when she had to talk about feelings, if one waited long enough, silence effectively turned the woman into mush.

The lyrics of a song her mother had once taught her from the Southern Elves that portrayed a story much like the moon princess’ and her parents filled her head.

Rowan hummed as she worked. She poured magic into the notes like she would a spell. The robe became still, and she sang as she worked the knots.

The pup’s whines calmed and soon it seemed to become putty in Rowan’s hands. Its tension hadn’t helped the situation.

It only took a few minutes to untangle the pup. Once it was free, the howling of the hundreds of wolves rattled her.

Rowan phased the robe away to join her collection.

The pup morphed into a girl with tight dark curls, emerald eyes and cinnamon brown skin that vibrated with life. She was also naked. Rowan held a hand out to summon a pink unicorn tee shirt from her bedroom and she quickly put it on the child, who giggled as her head and arms popped through their respective holes.

Rowan conducted a quick inspection over the girl looking for signs of burns or bruises, but wolves were the top healers of the world and the pup was undamaged.

Behind her, the grown wolf hadn’t shifted forms, but she could hear a voice rush through her head.

“Who are you?”

The voice was so low and menacing that it sent shivers down her spine. She turned and saw that he didn’t seem angry. Perhaps it was just in his nature to sound so rough.

“I am Rowan Dahl. Of RLK Magical Disaster Services.”

“Harris Knox.”