Page 53 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood (Of Fae and Wolf Trilogy #2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Briar

T error locked me in place. I shook my head, trying to bring myself back to reality and the task at hand. It must be an illusion because Ember couldn’t be here.

But it sounded exactly like my sister.

My mouth was so dry I could no longer swallow. But that wasn’t what worried me in that moment. Every nerve in me tightened, and I couldn’t push the echo of her voice from my head.

Vyraetos had said that we might feel compelled to go running out of the circle in this trial. One way to lure me was to use the voice of someone important to me.

It was working. I wanted to bolt out of the circle and search for Ember.

The real dilemma was that I knew my sister. She’d already nearly died protecting me. I had no doubt that, if anyone could find a way to this realm, she’d be the one.

But she wasn’t here, right? Many-Greats had told her I was safe. He would do anything in his power to keep her from coming here.

Still...what if whoever was behind all this had gone through the portal and grabbed her to hurt me? That sounded like a sadistic thing they’d do, especially that asshole over the guards at the prison.

“Briar, please!” she whimpered. “If you’re out there, I need you.”

No. Ember wouldn’t ask me to come out there to help her in an environment like this. It had to be a trap.

“It’s Ryker.” She sobbed loudly. “He’s hurt. He rushed to attack the man who tried to kill you, but something dark swooped over him.”

My heart skipped, and my hackles rose. That was what had happened to the guy I’d just killed.

If Ember were truly here, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t help. I crouched and lunged onto the stretch of stone leading toward the mountain. I sniffed the air, searching for any hint of her scent to help me locate her faster.

My paws struck uneven stone as I cleared the circle, a jolt of heat running down my spine. Thank Fate that my wounds had healed, because that horrible shift could’ve done the opposite and ripped them apart.

I barreled up the mountain, focusing on my surroundings. If this was a trap, I wanted to be smart about it.

The terrain was worse than it had looked, the layers unsteady under my paws. Pillars of stone and boulders jutted out at odd angles, but just as many sat on sand or soil, likely unstable despite their size.

Slate cracked under my weight, and sand slid beneath it. My claws scraped for purchase as I dug in and climbed. I skirted a line of wet clay, ears twitching toward the trickling sounds of water.

“Ryker! Stay with me.” Ember’s voice was higher on the mountain, coming from the same direction as the water.

The red eyes in the fog turned in my direction. They blinked out, and the fog rolled toward me. Its slow, relentless pace quickened with each moment.

I tugged at the pack link. Ember, I’m almost there. The link was barely warm, as it had been ever since I got here, but then Ember’s voice cut over me, slicing into my very soul.

“Be careful, I’m trying to pull him somewhere to shield him from the fog.”

I forced myself to go faster as panic clawed at my throat and mind, threatening to undo me. I wasn’t sure how we were going to hide from the fog, but I couldn’t leave them out here to die.

Yet, I still couldn’t catch their scent, and her voice wasn’t getting closer.

The slope steepened, and I jumped from one jutting rock to the next. A stone gave out from under me. With a yelp, I slipped and dug in my claws to grip the edge of the newly formed crater.

I dangled, trying to find the energy to lift myself up. Even though I’d shifted, my wolf and I hadn’t eaten any protein in what felt like weeks.

A sob echoed around me.

I had to get myself out of this mess and help them.

I scrabbled my paws farther up on the stone, despite my screaming muscles, and managed to drag myself to safety.

The fog hissed behind me, moving faster than I’d expected.

My paws slipped again on a slick patch of shale, and I barely avoided tumbling back down the slope.

I righted myself more easily this time and linked, Are you two hidden yet?

There’s something in the fog, and it’s getting close. Get higher, and I’ll find you.”

Ember’s voice echoed again, weaker this time. “Briar, please…don’t let me down again .”

I froze, and reality smacked me in the snout.

Ember would never say that. I tugged once more at the pack link, realizing that nothing about it had changed at all.

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. This was a trick, and now I was far away from the circle, if it was even still there.

Bastards!

I pivoted on the next ledge and started down the slope, moving fast along the rock face.

The fog surged toward me, rolling thicker and faster. It had grown so much that it now surrounded the entire base of this side of the mountain and was oozing upward on the rock face.

Turning hard on a bank of gravel, I kicked up a dust cloud behind me as I darted across a ridge.

The circle was hundreds of feet away. The fog lay between it and me, moving steadily closer. At least four sets of red eyes opened and shut.

A chill ran down my spine. Was this a single creature, or multiple?

I leaped again, determined to get higher than the fog. The well at the peak looked to be the highest point.

The sand under me slipped, sucking at my paws. I turned too fast and slid, skidding across the uneven terrain. My side hit stone, and I scrambled back up, breath wheezing. My legs stung and ached, but I kept moving.

If I couldn’t get back to the circle, I would either have to run and evade the fog, or I would have to get to the other side and finish the trial. Many-Greats had said to stay inside the circle until the end, and by that point, the rescue should be underway. Perhaps sooner.

Another scream tore through the air. “Briar, help me! Please! We’re going to die.” More voices rose up, screaming and howling. Voices of my family and packmates.

My blood chilled and my stomach twisted. I chanted internally, That isn’t Ember! That isn’t your pack. The voices aren’t real!

However, if I did want to see Ember again, I had to survive and get the hell out of here.

A whistle, like something flying through the air, barreled toward me. I ducked, huddling against the ground, as something long, thin, and dark landed in front of me and clanged against a chunk of granite.

Hot pain sliced across my left foreleg, and blood trickled down the limb. My eyes snapped to the left, and a deep growl rose in my chest.

Two figures in black stood on a dark slate ledge lower down on the mountain, just outside the thicker parts of the fog.

Gray, wisping magic spiraled around them as if they’d teleported in.

Their clothing was simple and well-fitted, complete with a glowing silver pendants hanging by silver chains.

One held a sword while the other held a bow.

The one with the bow lowered it, and the silver pendants around their necks glinted in the golden light from the orbs above.

“Give up now, bitch, and you’ll die fast,” Arrow Assassin shouted, his baritone echoing off the rocks. He plucked another arrow from his quiver and nocked it.

The second assassin charged in my direction, the sword gripped tightly in his hand. The tip of the blade had the same iridescent green coating as the first assassin’s dagger. “Coming for you, filth blood. Make this harder than it has to be, and you’ll suffer like you wouldn’t believe.”

The fog curled around them, but it parted as Sword Assassin jogged in my direction. The first assassin who had attacked me hadn’t been touched by the fog until the end—after I’d shattered his pendant.

Arrow Assassin laughed, and his bow creaked as he drew it taut.

“The folgan is almost all around the mountain now. No one can get away from it until that gong sounds. And before you got here, one of our associates made sure you wouldn’t have any of the tools.

You’re doomed, girl, so why don’t you just come here and make it easier on all of us? ”

Jumping onto another ledge, Sword Assassin’s boots slid half a step, but his pace remained steady. He adjusted his grip on the sword hilt and laughed.

I huffed. He had better balance than I’d hoped. Veering hard left, I ducked into a narrow run of broken stone, using the natural terrain as cover. Another arrow hissed through the air and skipped off a rock behind me.

I leaped across a chasm and landed on a sharply angled slab of stone. My claws clicked and slid as I forced myself upward.

A deep, wet clicking noise, like jaws opening and closing, sounded. Fog spilled over the ledge above me, bubbling and building. Three more pairs of eyes opened and then shut... and surged forward.

Shit! It was going to cut me off.

I refused to die, especially after surviving that prison for as long as I had.

To my left, the mountain terrain formed an island of rock with larger blocks of stone and natural pillars amid the sand and clay.

My heart lurched. I could use them for cover.

Maybe the folgan couldn’t cross the chasm because of all the empty space below it. If I could jump the fifteenish-foot narrowest section, I should be home free.

Summoning all my strength and ignoring the burning in my foreleg, I ran and leaped. I shot through the air and struck a boulder on the other side.

An arrow shot past me into the rock near my paw. The relative safety of the natural pillars was only a few feet away. The folgan, or whatever the hell it was, rolled down from the top left of the ledge at an angle and poured into the chasm surrounding the island. It wasn’t crossing.

Oh, thank Fate!

“NEEEE-iiih .” A terrified whine rose above the whipping wind. The agonized sound cut into me.