Page 22 of Kin of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #3)

22

After Augustus fell, the rest of my enemies fled, most limping and leaving blood on the floors. My awareness returned slowly, along with the knowledge that Duncan had been injured.

His magic faded before mine, leaving him naked and human on his back, his hand to his side, blood leaking through his fingers. I’d seen him injured a dozen times, and most wounds he shrugged off, trusting his regenerative werewolf magic to heal him. But something was different this time. I could see it in his stricken face, the uncharacteristic fear in his eyes.

I whined uncertainly, coming close to sniff his wound. That was when I detected it, something off, something mingling with the blood. I remembered the oily gleam on the sword.

What had coated it? Venom? Like from a rattlesnake? Or poison made by humans?

“My heart is flopping around in my chest like a dying fish,” Duncan whispered, touching my jaw. “Is he dead?”

Yes, Augustus was, but I couldn’t say that as a wolf. And I couldn’t help Duncan in this form.

Adrenaline still pumped through my veins, but I willed the magic to fade, for my humanity to return. I couldn’t remember what, but there was something I could do to help him as a human.

The magic disappeared, leaving me on my knees at Duncan’s side. His hand shifted from his wound to his heart. Right away, I remembered what I had that might help. I shoved myself to my feet, stepped over my cousin’s body, and delved into my jacket pockets, glad I’d cast that aside before changing. I’d thrown Bolin’s sphere, but most of the vials remained inside. I dug out one of the antidotes.

But would it do anything for this particular poison? As I knelt again by Duncan, I realized this had to be something different from the one Augustus had mixed into the chocolate. That had been slow-acting, designed to make it hard to pin down what caused a death. But this… This was killing Duncan quickly.

“Drink this,” I whispered, hoping it would somehow work anyway.

Fingers shaking with fear that it wouldn’t be enough, I lifted Duncan’s head and held the vial to his lips.

“Smells awful,” he whispered but didn’t object to me draining it into his mouth.

“All good medicine does.”

The potion slid down his throat, but the worried look in his eyes didn’t leave, the fear of impending death. I rested two fingers on his neck and felt his erratic pulse. With my own fear increasing, I grabbed another vial and spattered it over his wound, on the off chance that might help.

“Is that… hygienic?” Duncan whispered, managing a fleeting smile.

“No, but if you die, it won’t matter if it gets infected.”

“Comforting.”

I rested a hand on his abdomen, looking around for something more I could do. If Augustus kept poisoned swords in his house, might there be an antidote around? Could one of the vials in the medicine cabinet be the cure?

I rose, thinking to check and hope for labels, but Duncan caught my wrist.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

“I need to look for an antidote. I don’t think what I gave you was the right one for that poison.”

“I’ve lived almost my whole life alone,” Duncan said. “I’m realizing… very late… that I don’t want to die alone.”

His face was pale, his fingers blue-tinged. The erratic heartbeats weren’t pumping enough blood through his body.

With a lump in my throat, I whispered, “I don’t want you to die at all. I need to find something.”

“Uhm, Aunt Luna?” came Jasmine’s voice from the kitchen.

She held her phone, probably indicating she’d recorded at least some of the altercation, but that was the least of my worries at that moment.

“Is that… your case?” Jasmine pointed at the sofa table, at a silver glow coming from the top.

“Oh,” I blurted, reminded that it had started glowing during the fight.

No, more than that. The case had opened .

What had prompted that I didn’t know, but the translation of the words inscribed on the bottom came to mind: Straight from the source lies within protection from venom, poison, and the bite of the werewolf .

“I’m not leaving, just grabbing that,” I told Duncan so he would release my wrist. Even dying and in his mere human form, he was strong.

Maybe he saw the glow because he let go without questioning me further.

I lunged for the table. With the lid back, the case’s glow was so great that I couldn’t see what lay inside. Expecting it to zap the hell out of me, I reached in anyway. There was no time to hunt for my glove.

The metallic object inside was warm to the touch, but it didn’t zap me when I pulled it out. It did tingle against my palm, emanating magic that crackled in the air around me. Since it was the source of the glow, the case grew dark afterward, save for the reflection of light against its mother-of-pearl interior. The item itself felt like it had a handle and a top. With no idea how it worked, I knelt beside Duncan again.

“I’m going to…” I trailed off as the strong urge to set the item on Duncan’s chest came to me. Was it my idea or was the artifact suggesting it?

I didn’t know, but Duncan’s eyes had closed, his hand dropping from his chest to his side, and I worried he might already have passed. I rested the object on his chest, hoping it would somehow know what to do and have the power to save a life.

Silver light flashed, almost blinding me. Even as I squinted and looked away, I saw a dark silhouette in the brilliance. It was… mushroom-shaped? If so, I’d been grabbing a stem rather than a handle, but the metallic element promised it wasn’t some preserved fungal fossil from nature.

Despite its blinding effects, I kept it on Duncan’s chest. Power radiated up my arm but also flowed into his body via tendrils of magical energy that spread all over him. Like mycelium, I thought. If the artifact had been based on mushrooms, maybe that made sense.

Light also flowed out of it and intensified around the wound in Duncan’s side. That gave me hope that it knew what it was doing, that it could help.

“Should I be recording this?” Jasmine asked uncertainly.

“Can you see anything but brilliant light?”

“Not really.”

“Let’s just wait and see what—” The light intensified like a solar flare—or a nuclear bomb detonating. It filled every nook in the room, if not the house, and probably blinded people on the other side of the lake.

Duncan gasped, his back arching. I put my hand back on his chest, fresh fear and distress filling me. What if the artifact killed him instead of healing him?

The light disappeared, leaving me blinking and struggling to see in the abrupt return to normal.

Duncan took another breath, this one less distressed, then another. After a moment, he blinked and opened his eyes. “Luna?”

My vision starting to recover, I looked down at him. The wound hadn’t healed entirely, but it had stopped bleeding and scabbed over, now looking like it was days instead of minutes old. In my human form, I couldn’t tell if it smelled of a foreign substance, but it looked better. Duncan looked better, color returning to his face.

“I’m here.” I patted his abdomen.

“Fondling my torso, yes.” He sounded agreeable—and much better than he had a couple of minutes ago.

“I put a strange glowing mushroom on it, so I thought you deserved a little fondling.”

“I usually do, but…” His brows rose as he dipped his chin to look at the artifact. “A mushroom?”

“Well, it’s mushroom- shaped . It’s obviously… something else. Not a key, though, I don’t think. Your dream of unlocking dragon-guarded treasure with it may go unfulfilled.”

“Did it… save my life?”

“Yeah. I think it nullified the poison and… more.” I waved to his quickly healing wound. “It has some powerful magic.”

“I’ll say.” Duncan’s hand drifted to his heart. “I was sure I was going to die.”

“I worried about that too.”

He turned his head left and right, looking around the room, his gaze lingering on Augustus’s body but only momentarily. He eyed the table and the case. I could still sense magic from it, but much greater magic emanated from the artifact on Duncan’s chest. The case had to be insulated, dulling magic so that its hidden treasure hadn’t been that noticeable. Had it been, I would have sensed it in the duct under my bedroom floor long before Duncan had come along with his magic detector. Even with my powers quashed by that potion, I wouldn’t have missed this thing.

“How did you open the box?” Duncan picked up the artifact.

It pulsed twice, and he hurried to set it on the floor. Even though it had saved his life, he wasn’t presuming it was friendly. I wouldn’t either.

“I…” I started to say that I didn’t know, but the timing of when the case had opened couldn’t have been a coincidence. “I think you did.”

Duncan touched his chest, eyebrows rising again.

“It was when you ran in here as the bipedfuris. The thing started glowing like a sun. I think that’s when the lid opened.”

“That’s surprising, especially given that inscription. It’s anti -werewolf, right? It shouldn’t respond to me in any way, to any werewolf.”

I held up a finger. “Actually, this may make sense. It could be the presence of a werewolf that releases the artifact. Presumably, whoever owns it might need it if one of our kind showed up, right? Like if you were to bite some innocent druid, the druid would need to promptly be healed before the lycanthrope magic could take hold in his or her blood.”

“So, you think it’s the presence of a threat that releases the lid? That’s interesting. Would any threat do?”

“Maybe any of the ones it’s supposed to protect against. Werewolf bites, venom, and poison.”

“Under that logic, waving a rattlesnake at the case might also cause the lid to open.” Duncan sat up and looked around, as if one might be lurking in the room so we could use it for a test.

“Rattlesnakes are hard to come by in western Washington.”

“Oh? I suppose they aren’t into the damp climate.”

“Nope. Even in eastern Washington, where it’s drier, you’re not going to find them in winter.”

“Are there any scorpions here?”

“Sorry, no. You’ll have to go to Arizona for those.”

“Are there no venomous beasties in the Seattle area?”

“No, it’s a venom-free paradise. That’s why we put up with the rain. I?—”

Baying came from outside the castle—or was that inside the castle?—and I stopped short. When the rest of my cousins had fled, I hadn’t expected them to return, but I remembered the glowing-eyed mongrels. My cousins might have stuck around and rounded them up, then waited until they sensed that the bipedfuris magic had faded, that Duncan and I were human again.

A bang sounded, the front door slamming open. The loud bays of the mongrels echoed through the castle halls.

I groaned. I hadn’t been seriously injured, not the way Duncan had, but the thought of fighting again was exhausting.

Duncan pushed himself to his feet. “You two, go out the back.”

“Not without you,” I said.

“I’ll buy you time to get away. Take the artifact and the case and get them out of here. They’re even more powerful—more important—than we thought.”

“You almost died two minutes ago. You can’t?—”

“I’m fine. My boat is tied up at the property line. You can take it and get away until it’s safe to come back.” Duncan grabbed the artifact, put it in the case, closed the lid, and handed it to me. His eyelids drooped as feral power radiated from him. “I’m feeling vigorous after that healing. I’ll keep them from chasing after you.”

“Why don’t we all go?” Jasmine suggested .

She’d no sooner said the words than the first glowing-eyed mongrel ran into view, claws clacking on the marble tiles. Barks and yips came from the hallway behind it, promising more on its heels. Its eyes locked on me.

“Go.” Duncan grabbed the fallen sword and stepped into the path of the guard dogs while waving me toward a door to the patio.

Hating the idea of leaving him, I wanted to stay, to grab a knife from the kitchen and help. But Jasmine was obeying Duncan, running out the door to the patio. She didn’t have a weapon. If there were more red-eyed guard dogs out there, she might need help.

“Just buy us a couple of seconds, and come right after,” I called to Duncan as I took the case and ran after Jasmine.

He grunted as an answer, swinging the sword to keep the dogs at bay. Red eyes flashed as they turned toward me. Whoever was left in charge must have told them to go after me specifically.

“Of course,” I muttered, running across the patio and into the yard.

As I trailed Jasmine down a path toward the water, I sensed Duncan’s aura fluctuate in the castle behind us. Was he turning into the bipedfuris again? Since I couldn’t change into a wolf two times close together, his ability to do so surprised me, but maybe he felt he would keep the dogs at bay more effectively in that form.

Jasmine reached the boat first, finding it among reeds near the destroyed dock, and pushed it into the water. It was an open motorboat, and I jumped in after her. Roars and barks came from the house as we floated into the lake. She started the motor and, with the experience of someone who’d done it before, navigated us out into the water.

“Let’s wait for him,” I said when we were twenty or thirty feet from shore, boards from the destroyed dock bumping against the hull of the boat .

Magic pricked at my skin. Familiar magic that I’d felt before. The last time it had whispered past me, Duncan had been pulled away, up to the north to those who wanted to use him once more.

A boom came from the house, and orange flashed behind the windows, blowing several out. Another of Duncan’s explosives? Did he have the wherewithal to detonate them while in the bipedfuris form? It was hard to imagine. Maybe one of my cousins had charged in with grenades.

“This is chaos,” Jasmine whispered, taking her phone out and recording, though we couldn’t see much of the fight from the lake. We could see fire burning inside the house now.

“Tell me about it. How much did you get recorded before?”

Wood snapped in the castle. A beam breaking and falling? I willed Duncan to come out, to leave the mongrels behind and join us.

“It’s mostly audio since my phone was in my pocket anytime someone was looking at me, but I got Augustus and some of the others talking about selling the artifacts.”

“Okay, good.”

Numbness crept into my limbs as the fact that I’d killed Augustus sank in. What would the rest of the pack think? Would they understand or swear vengeance on me? I hadn’t intended to kill him. I’d never wanted that.

In the castle, the barks and roars died down, leaving only the crackle of fires burning. Movement in the yard drew my eye. I expected one of the red-eyed guard dogs, but a furry figure on two legs loped across the lawn.

I lifted an arm, hoping to wave Duncan toward us, but he didn’t look in our direction. The magic that beckoned him whispered past me again, raising the hair on the back of my neck.

“Duncan!” I called as loudly as I dared. “Fight it! Stay here!”

His head didn’t turn in my direction. Drawn by his creator’s power, the bipedfuris leaped over hedges and the stone wall surrounding the property. Soon, he disappeared into the night.

I slumped down in the boat. No red-eyed animals ran out of the castle to attack us now that Duncan was gone. Maybe he’d taken care of them before letting himself be drawn away.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

“Where to?” Jasmine asked.

“Not far.” I waved to a neighbor’s dock. “I need to circle back and get my truck. Ideally before the firefighters and police and whoever else arrive.” Reminded that I was naked, I hurried to put my jacket on, checking my pockets for the truck keys.

“Okay.” Jasmine navigated the boat along the shoreline. “Is he, uhm, going to come back?”

“I don’t know.”

“At least you and I survived the night, and Augustus…” Jasmine looked toward the smoking mess of the castle. “Well, he won’t keep trying to kill you.”

“One small boon,” I murmured.

“I’ll show the footage to Lorenzo and the arbiter and everyone. Then they’ll know… Well, they’ll just know.”

We hadn’t gotten the detailed confession that I’d hoped for, but I thought what Augustus and Orazio had revealed would be enough. They’d been doing even more vile stuff than I’d realized, not only bullying the paranormal beings of the Seattle area but helping artifact thieves steal from their own people. Even if Augustus hadn’t been behind the attack at Mom’s cabin, he’d been colluding with those who had been. The elders would agree that his end had been warranted, and they might force his siblings out of the pack too.

I should have been happy, or at least relieved, but as I gazed off to the north, I felt like more uncertainties than certainties remained.

“Yes,” I said, aware of Jasmine watching me. Maybe she also felt uncertain and hoped for reassurance. “Thank you for your help.”

“You’re welcome. You’re a really badass wolf, you know.”

Badass was the last thing I felt in that moment, but I said another, “Thank you,” as we turned for a dock.

With weariness settling over my body, along with the pain and awareness of all my injuries, my only remaining goal for the night was to retrieve my truck and go home.