Page 11 of Kin of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #3)

11

Twilight settled in as we padded through the woods behind Mom’s home, heading toward a gully that would eventually lead into state land. Since I hadn’t grown up in the cabin, I didn’t know the area that well. I attempted to pull up a map on my phone to use alongside her sketch, but the poor reception made it take a long time to load.

“It’ll be hard to see if we continue in human form.” Duncan walked at my side as we navigated over logs and between ferns.

Apparently, Mom hadn’t visited her sacred cave often enough to wear a path in the earth.

“It’s hard to hold a map in wolf form,” I said.

“True.”

I slanted him a sidelong look. “Can you hold things while in the two-legged form?”

Duncan hadn’t gone into details on that, and I didn’t know if he’d chosen to become the bipedfuris at the potion factory, or if Lord Abrams pressing buttons on his control device had caused that to happen. Since I was incapable of turning into that, I had no idea how the magic decided whether it was time for a person to become a wolf or the classical two-legged werewolf from the old days.

“Yes, but the claws tend to shred paper, and I can’t fully grasp words—reading. For a lover of literature, that’s alarming. If I’m to change, I prefer to be a wolf.”

“Is that actually true or are you saying that because you think I find your lupine form less alarming?”

“My lupine form didn’t try to keep you from escaping that compound.” Duncan grimaced and swiped his fingers through the air to mimic clawed paws.

That hadn’t answered my question, but we had to focus on climbing down into the gully, rocks and earth slipping under our feet, and I didn’t press him. Water trickled along the bottom, gurgling as it meandered past mossy boulders and aged stumps. According to Mom’s drawing, we needed to follow the waterway until the sides of the gully grew rocky with steeper slopes. At that point, we would find a cave among the crags.

Near the bottom, Duncan stopped me with a light touch. He gazed upstream into the deepening gloom. It felt much later than the five p.m. that my phone reported, but we were nearing the winter solstice, and the days were short.

“I sense something in that direction.” Duncan pointed with his chin. “Multiple somethings, and… more.”

“More than somethings?”

“Quite.”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably not dangerous. Mom wouldn’t have sent me into a den of vipers.”

Duncan kept gazing into the gloom and didn’t comment.

“Vipers are in short supply in Western Washington anyway,” I said. “The worst we have are garter snakes.”

“There are other dangers.” After contemplating me briefly, he started removing his clothes.

“Do you want me to change too? ”

If he could sense the magic of the cave, we could probably find it without a map, but the calm evening didn’t have my skin pricking with the need to change. Unless a threat presented itself, I didn’t know if I could.

“Not unless you want to. I’ll lead.” Clothes removed and draped over a boulder, Duncan stepped to the side, the change sweeping over him.

In the dark, I couldn’t see much of his nudity—the physical attributes that my mom had praised—but that was fine. I hadn’t come out here to ogle anyone. My senses did perk with awareness as his power fluctuated along with his body, growing more lupine, more noticeable. He dropped to all fours as he became the wolf.

Though I hadn’t admitted it to him, I was relieved he hadn’t turned into the bipedfuris. It might have been because he’d lost control and attacked me in that form, but it might also have been because two-legged werewolves weren’t anything I’d grown up around. It was the stuff of legend, and, in this age, seemed closer to a monster than the noble wolf. I would have been uneasy walking beside him that way.

Duncan, the silhouette of his pointed ears just visible in the lingering daylight, looked at me, as if he knew my thoughts, then padded upstream. I hurried to catch up, resting a hand on his back, the cool lushness of his thick fur comforting. He was the wolf, nothing else. Nothing that was a danger to me.

Soon, I sensed what he had. Magic. Multiple kinds, as he’d said, though all coming from the same general area.

Some reminded me of artifacts but others felt like magical beings. Would this cave be guarded? Maybe it wouldn’t be as safe to visit as I’d assumed.

Duncan paused, his head cocking as he looked upslope. The walls had steepened with great trees growing at the top. Their evergreen branches stretched over the gully, almost as if intentionally hiding this place from above. No satellites or helicopters would have a view down here.

A pair of red dots glowed from between two trees, and I twitched. Eyes.

I hadn’t turned on a flashlight, nor was any other illumination around, nothing that could have reflected off eyes to make them appear red. Those were truly glowing.

I remembered the night Duncan and I had battled dogs and wolves that someone—I suspected Augustus—had sent to attack us. Could my cousins be in the area?

For the first time, my skin heated, magic sweeping through my veins. The hint of a threat was stirring my blood, offering the ability to change.

Not certain if it was wise, I attempted to tamp down the magic. Since I was holding Mom’s map and wearing her medallion, I would prefer to remain in human form. A werewolf artifact should change with me, rather than disappearing into the ether like my clothes, but the possibility that I could lose a magical heirloom that had been handed down for generations scared me.

Duncan’s head turned toward another slope. Partway up, a different set of eyes looked toward us. When he focused on them, whatever animal possessed them darted off, the foliage rustling. A fox? Or would there be mongrel dogs out here? The animal hadn’t seemed large enough to be a wolf.

I folded the map and put it in my pocket. It was too dark to read anyway unless I pulled out my phone’s flashlight. Instead, I wrapped my hand around the medallion, willing it to guide me.

Silver light leaked out between my fingers, shining into the gloom and reflecting off the water of the stream. Power emanated from the medallion, warming my hand, and coursing through me, almost infusing me with even greater magic than was inherent in my blood. It reminded me of the witch’s locket that Duncan and I had found, but this had much more power. I had the urge to let my head fall back and soak it in.

I felt Duncan’s gaze upon me, and he shifted closer, his furry shoulder against me. Drawn to me? He’d said he was before, but it might have been the magic of the medallion that pulled him in, nothing about me.

But his eyes were locked to mine, not to the artifact. A flush of warmth swept through me that didn’t have anything to do with magic. For some reason, my mom’s words came to mind about him being an appropriate mate. She’d been too blunt, and far too interested in me having more children, but a part of me was glad she approved of Duncan. Because I wanted him. It hadn’t always been wise—maybe it still wasn’t wise—but I had all along.

I blew out a breath and looked away from Duncan’s steady gaze to focus on the way ahead. Maybe it was good that we were in different forms and wouldn’t be tempted by each other’s allure. Not unless he changed back or I took my wolf form.

“Maybe later,” I murmured.

Like moonlight, the medallion’s illumination cast the world in shades of light and dark instead of allowing one to see color, but I did notice something glowing blue near a tree stump. Mushrooms. They registered as very faintly magical to my senses.

Duncan pulled his gaze from me and continued forward. I stayed close to him.

So far, I didn’t get the feeling that the glowing-eyed animals were warning us to stay away, but would that change? I imagined a pack guarding the cave entrance.

When we reached the rockier area, the silver light beaming over mossy boulders, the ground and ferns strewn with damp fallen leaves, I felt stronger magic coming from the steep slope on the opposite side of the stream. It was almost a cliff, long tree roots dangling down from twenty feet above. A dark crack might have been a cave entrance .

Light on his paws, Duncan hopped over the stream and headed toward the cliff. A shadow moved on a boulder near it, and glowing red eyes stared at him. Something growled. It did sound like a fox.

He growled back, and it sprang away. It leaped up boulders to the top of the cliff, the silver light catching its bushy tail before it disappeared.

When Duncan reached the crack, he looked back at me. Waiting.

Was that the right spot? The entrance was only a few feet high and a couple of feet wide, barely enough for him to slip through as a wolf. I’d expected something larger and more grandiose. But I could sense more magic inside, so I didn’t hesitate to hop over the stream. I had to lower into a crouch, almost on my hands and knees, to squeeze through the crack after Duncan.

It would have been easier as a wolf, and I almost reconsidered, certain that with all the magic in the area and more coming from the medallion I could take that form. But I might forget what we sought then and be lured off by the desire to hunt.

Soon, the cave grew wider and taller, enough that I could stand fully, though the lumpy ground, the rocks slick with algae or who knew what, made doing so a challenge.

More glowing mushrooms grew in clumps, and patches of moss or some kind of similar vegetation also glowed, green instead of blue. They congregated near a pool that emanated magic of its own. The water was dark, though, with no hint of illumination, save that of my medallion reflecting off the surface. Something fuzzy carpeting the roof of the cave created a white glow up there. This whole place was magical.

Duncan padded forward and took a few licks from the pool.

“I’m not sure that’s a safe place for a drink,” I said.

Unlike the stream outside, the pool was still and might have been stagnant. Even if it was a spring with fresh water flowing in, all the glowing growth around it made me think of radiation. Then there was also the magic that welled within the pool.

When Duncan looked back at me, his eyes glowed red.

I swore and jumped back, alarm surging through me. Again, my blood heated my body with the promise that I could change if I needed to.

I swallowed. Did I need to? Duncan merely gazed at me. Other than his eyes, nothing about him changed, and, even as I watched, they faded back to their normal brown.

“Yeah,” I croaked. “Definitely don’t drink the water.”

His tongue lolled out, and his eyes crinkled with humor.

“Maybe that’s the reason the wildlife around here has red eyes.” I wondered if they were drawn to the pool over other sources of water. “Do you think it’s linked to the dogs and wolves that attacked us in town? Could Augustus know about this place? I’ve heard of some werewolves that can control other animals, though I wouldn’t have guessed my cousin had that talent. It’s more of a wise wolf kind of thing, a gift those with the power to heal and manipulate nature have. But maybe he knows about this place and learned to use it to his advantage.”

I imagined Augustus bottling some of that water to take and give to animals. Did it do more than turn their eyes red? Maybe it made them more susceptible to commands or other types of magic.

Duncan sniffed a mossy patch by the water, then looked at me again. With significance in his eyes? I wasn’t sure, but when I stepped closer, the medallion’s light playing over the moss, I noticed a couple of scuffed spots where chunks had been torn away, revealing dirt beneath. Because someone had been in here recently?

“My mom said something about cave paintings,” I said, reminded of why she’d sent me here. “And thought I might learn something more about the medallion and how to draw upon its power.”

Duncan sat on his haunches, as if to say he would wait patiently for me to figure things out.

“You’re a good companion.”

His tongue lolled out again as he lifted his snout. Obviously, his expression seemed to say.

Smiling, I held the medallion away from my chest and directed it toward the dirt and stone walls of the cave. Before the silver light shone onto them, they appeared bare, save for a few black squiggles that may have been made with a piece of charred wood. But when the medallion’s illumination beamed upon the stone, a number of outlines appeared. They were of paw prints, wolf paw prints. Of different sizes, they glowed back at me with the same moonlight-like illumination as the medallion.

The ceiling also glowed with paintings. Wolf heads looked down upon us from above. At the back of the cave, a pack of wolves chased a deer behind a boulder. It was the paw prints that called to me though, pulling my gaze back to them.

One of medium size—might that have been a match for my own foot, were I in my wolf form?—drew me, and I lifted a hand. Some certainty told me that this was what my mother had wanted me to see. Also, I sensed that touching it might give me answers.

I rounded the pool, careful not to step in the water, and climbed over the uneven ground, picking my way past rock formations that jutted upward to impede progress.

When I laid my hand over the paw, a startling surge of power rushed into me. It hurled me backward with the force of a hurricane gale.

Silver light flared so brightly that it blinded me. I flailed as power propelled my body through the air until it dropped me to the ground, my head clunking against a rock. The illumination brightened and brightened, its intensity overwhelming me, and I lost consciousness.