Page 83 of Witchbane

“Dreams don’t hurt,” I whispered. And this all hurt. My head, my nose, my knees, my palms.

Too much. I should rest. Stop fighting. Let go. Everything was too much.

“It’s not too much,” I growled. They were mine, all the memories, good or bad. Even those wide eyes and that delicate touch. I’d barely gotten a glimpse and had questions. But the need was visceral. “Ari…” I whispered feeling that piece fall into place. A glowing orb of coalescing power, the remains of Underhill, stripped from me, and funneled into creation. My mate’s direction. That baby, a being of immense power, brimming, growing, learning, and tied to me as tightly as my mate. And where was my mate?

“You have to wake up,”Ari said.

The sound of fighting, beasts snarling, and flesh tearing suddenly welled up through the trees like I was right there. Only what came through the forest wasn’t my mate or even a handful of wolves. It was something giant, black, and tipped in ice, with teeth and claws dripping of drool and blood lust.

AHuntwolf, at least ten times larger, and I thought for a half second ofApa’s coloring and how it had begun to change as he’d been slowly taken over by Underhill. Would this have been him? No life in the gaze of those soulless eyes, just hunger, death, and rage. I recalled the stone creation again, a black dragon of terrifying power, and the face of a man. He’d been aware when that had happened. The expression on his face showed pain and horror, he hadn’t been lost to the dark, not like this wolf was. I realized I’d seen this monster before. As a child when Felix had first arrived to interrupt the trainingApahad been giving me.

A tidal wave of memories flowed back through me, a thousand things buried and forgotten. The years trying to control my other side, mishaps that ended up destroying sections of the woods and sending us further into hiding. Too much power for one this young, and not enough understanding of a man who’d been werewolf,witchbloodhimself, andwitchbane,as he’d taken control of them all, held the wolves at bay, terrified the fae, and kept a leash on the power of a kitsune.

The day was a vague memory, so I knew it had been pulled out of my subconscious somewhere. Specific things like time and place had long since vanished into the depths of the abyss of my memory. But smells remained: the woods, pine and maple, grass, dirt and wildflowers; the warmth of the sun on my fur; the sound of a gurgling stream nearby; home to me. Familiar.

A clarity began to take shape around me, like I was reliving them again, focusing on things that had long been erased from my memory. The fact that on this day I’d turned into something else for the first time. Not a fox, but something larger. Something that had frightenedApa. It had awakened a sleeping power within me, given rise to a monster. And I’d cried for a while, sad thatApawas afraid of me, but he’d held me and got me to play. In time I forgot the monster, let it ease back inside to sleep, yet I still felt an odd glowing warmth from it.

Then the shadow had appeared. Towering over me, snarling, dangerous, with soulless eyes. Felix.

An odd combination of wolf and human. He stood there as a man, but nothing about him felt human. More like a puppet controlled by the wolf, yet not a regular wolf. Even through the hazy bits of power, I could see ice wrapped through the core of him, almost like chains, though stronger and less subtle. Bonds perhaps.

Apaslid to a stop and growled, and I mimicked him, being the good little fox he’d trained me to be. Sometimes a big black wolf showed up to play, but mostly it wasApaand me.

“Oberon has been spewing lies for years now. You’re visiting other packs. On a diplomatic mission across the ocean. Only I find you here, playing games with a fae fox.” Felix flung his hand in my direction.

I snarled and bared my teeth at him.

Felix bared his human teeth and snarled back at me. I felt a wave of some supernatural energy sling off him, smacking me hard enough to throw me and roll me several feet. My yelp disappeared in the grumbling rage ofApaattacking Felix. One moment it was wolf on man, then next it was two wolves, larger than most ponies, battling with claws and fangs.

I darted back, rememberingApatelling me to make myself small and invisible. Sneak away from an attack if I could. My fangs and claws couldn’t tear a man in two. Not likeApaand this other wolf.

How real it felt to be nestled in the cradle of a bush, watching, terrified, yet fascinated, as I’d never seen anyone fightApabefore. The other wolf dwarfed him, looking almost awkwardly large. The dark gray in contrast toApa’swhite-spattered gray helped me track the fight.

The icy wolf tore a gash intoApa’sside that had me trying to stifle a cry of terror and worry. Blood splattered, red and bright. For a few secondsApapaused. The opening looked raw and pulsing. It should have healed. The few times I’d actually drawn blood during play, he had healed almost instantly. Only this time he didn’t. The exposed muscle, torn and bleeding, and beneath a glimpse of bone, seemed to throb, perhaps in time to his heart, pumping out his blood, but turning dark.

That made me inch forward, panicked as something latched onto him, drawing at the wound, staggering him, even while he still bled and turned to continue the fight. He’d been holding back, I realized. Hadn’t wanted to hurt Felix until that moment when the demon destroying his son had grabbed on to him.Apaseemed to grow a little, caution and defense turning to offense as he bulked with magic.

Not like the creature I’d briefly become. His beast was still a wolf, yet larger, white in color, and almost blazing with heat. His wound began to heal and all mercy left his eyes as he assessed the giant dark monster that still dwarfed him. The black, oozing thing that had attached to his side was still there, like a vine or a branch with thorns, digging in, even after the wounds closed and the blood stopped. It writhed and wriggled like a leech of some kind, and I longed to rush it, tear it away, butApa’sgaze fell to me for half a second giving me the barest shake of his head.

The wolf before us wasn’t wolf at all. Not really. The fur had sloughed off half his back, leaving the black skin looking more like tanned black leather than any normal wolf hide. The body was emaciated, bones outlined beneath stretched skin all the way up through his ribcage. And farther up, toward his head and face were the leeches, dark masses of something feeding on him.

Already dead, I thought, realizing there was no heartbeat in the monster before us, a lump of ice magic fueling the destruction of a puppet. DidApaknow? My pup hadn’t understood. Too complicated to make sense of all that madness. Only now, awakened to the memory, with my life falling back in place inside my head could I see it.

The fae had taken Felix, changed him into one of their toys, destroyed him from the inside out. Sent him to destroy me. OnlyApagot in the way. That pulsing worm digging into his side was the first claw they’d gotten into him, beginning his transformation.

I howled. Couldn’t help it. Wasn’t sure it had happened when I was a pup, but it was loud enough to turn Felix’s attention my way, which was allApaneeded.Apaleapt at Felix, throat in his sight, not willing to hold back, catching him hard and shaking him. The other wolf made a strangled sound. The movement slowed.Apatore at the other wolf, shaking it, trying to break its neck. I could feel the rage pouring out of him, growing like sharp weeds as the dark mass on his side expanded, digging into him.

I tried to soothe it with natural instincts, sending waves of calm outward. It came out like a blast of heat, fire even, scorching the ground around us, thawing part of Felix, and even slowing the tentacles of devouring power that had latched on toApa. For a minute everything froze. The wolves, the sounds of the stream far off, and even the air seemed to stop.

Then both wolves dropped to the ground.Apabreathing hard, the other wolf shaking and foaming at the mouth.Apawhined; the other wolf staggered to its feet, swaying, almost drunk. It peered into the brush where I hid, eyes finding me without trouble. There was nothing calm or safe in those eyes. He took an unsteady step in my direction. In that blood-spattered face, I saw madness, rage, and death. Whatever had been human in him was gone, leaving the blood-crazed wolf. The fire had restarted the human heart in him, but couldn’t redirect the monster.

Apagrowled again.

Another step.

Blackness began to ooze fromApa, pooling into another shape in between the wolf and me. It grew and grew, mass upon mass of liquid darkness built until it was something I couldn’t begin to comprehend. Not then with my little baby fox brain, and even not now, seeing it again. It was some sort of dragon, perhaps. Monster, my brain affirmed, having nothing else to compare it to. Now I thought more griffin perhaps, a mix of fox, lion, and bird, enormous, even larger than the giant white wolf, and pulsing with incredible power; I could hardly breathe.

I must have made a sound because it turned my way, and suddenly my world was terror. Any other thought was swallowed into the depths of absolute fear. My heart raced in my chest until I couldn’t breathe from the speed, my body refusing to react to my brain screaming “Run!”