Page 99 of Contested Crown

A troll lumbered over, sitting heavily on the roots. It grunted something, its voice a low growl.

“Yes, we would know as well.” The dryad blinked at me, her face becoming increasingly clear as she spoke, tendrils of hair now carved on her massive trunk. “What is this threat you speak of?”

“There’s a new drug which is destroying wolves and pack dynamics. They call it Thorn.” I thought back to all I had seen of it. The overly aggressive wolves at the wedding, the two wolves who had attacked me for no reason at the McDonald’s. “It will tear werewolf society apart if it is allowed to proliferate.”

“Human drugs do not concern us,” the swarm of fairies said. “They do not affect our kind.”

“No.” I looked around the circle. “But something is killing your people, isn’t it?”

“I see no harm in telling him,” the dryad said. “The elder of the Bartlett forest claims we can rely on the prince.”

I remembered how the dryads who had visited House Bartlett seemed to speak without talking, communicating through their roots or something in the air. This dryad seemed to be in communication with the one from the Bartlett forest now.

For a moment, I wanted to ask her about the wolves the dryads had taken with them. Were the children all right? Had they survived whatever was attacking the Bartlett forest?

No. I was Emperor Wolf now. Even if I was only claiming the mantle so that we could get answers about whatever Declan and Leon were up to, I had still claimed it. When I was Emperor Wolf, I could check on the pups myself, verify that the situation was good, that they continued to be there by choice.

The troll grumbled, and the gargoyle cut in. “I have heard that House Bartlett killed several of my kind. Yet you, Emperor Wolf, showed mercy.”

“One of your kind helped us when we were also imprisoned,” I said. “We were happy to free it in exchange for its help.”

“Then I am also unopposed,” the gargoyle said.

“And you?” The dryad turned to the fairies, who swirled around each other faster and faster until they began whipping up a wind.

The fairies stilled. “Let him know. Let us see what this werewolf emperor will do with the information.”

“Yes,” the dryad said, turning to us. “Our kind are being killed. The mage houses in the city have done something to the ley lines. We do not know what, but our kind exists only because of magic. If you poison the water you drink, how long will your body survive? It is this way with our kind and the magic that flows through the city.”

“Allof the mage houses?” Cade asked.

“We do not pay attention to what your kind claims or does not. We have lived here, lived in peace with the mage houses for years. And now…” The fairies trailed off, completely stilling.

“Now, if it continues, we will have war.” The gargoyle’s words were final, a boulder rolling to a stop after crushing a town.

“Can you tell me where it’s worst in the city?” I asked.

“We will show you,” the fairies said. “Come.”

“Thank you for answering our questions,” I said, bowing my head just low enough to be respectful, the way I would for a fellow alpha.

“We will see how long you maintain your crown, Emperor Wolf. We will see if you can make good on the promise in your questions,” the dryad said.

I wet my lips, about to answer, about to tap dance my way out of the pact that had been in my questions. By asking about the deaths, it was implicit that I was going to do something about them.

Before I could say anything, her face was gone, her trunk faded back to the normal ridges and grooves carved into it by time. The troll stood, its heavy steps shaking the ground.

As it approached, I tensed, ready for another fight, but instead, it bent low, extending out a hand.

“He wants to see your ring,” the fairies said helpfully.

“Oh.” Hesitantly, I put my own hand in his palm, and he turned it so that he could see the signet on my right ring finger.

The troll dropped my hand, grunting to the fairies, and stomped off into the trees.

“He says that it is filled with the magic of your kind.” The fairies ducked low, circling around my hand. “He also says it is a treasure he would pay highly for the pleasure of eating. Come.”

They whirled away, hundreds of sparkling lights leading us through the Zoo back to the path along the riverbank. Cade and I pushed through the hole in the fence as the fairies swirled around each other, turning together and then apart, spiraling into color shifts of green and yellow.