Page 21 of WitchCurse

The wolf crouched low, turning toward the forest as if it had heard something I hadn’t. Were the rest of the wolves close? I strained to listen for them, but heard nothing. Not even birds or bugs in the noisy dance of this world. The others?

I blinked repeatedly, trying to clear the spots. Breathing hard and trembling with the pulsing energy, I faintly heard something. Leaves on the wind, or more? The barest hint of movement, something headed our way. The wolf snarled, hunched and ready for a fight, staring out into the woods. He wouldn’t react that way to the pack, would he?

I half rolled to find my feet, shaky and unbalanced but towering over the tiny wolf in my half-mutated kitsune form. Not the pretty fire creature of legends, but a mashed-up monster of corruption. The wolf didn’t flinch or run away, but kept his gaze on the trees in the distance.

Not the fox or his mate, as I got a tiny brush of images from Nick back at the bakery, and a team they seemed to be assembling to find both Toby and me. Toby. The young wolf. I glanced down at him, finding him alert, and alarmed with ears back, teeth bared and waiting. What was he sensing that I wasn’t?

I blinked through more vision spots, gut churning with unease that I realized was more than the mix of magic now, but a warning of the nasty headed our way.

Something moved through the trees. I caught a glimpse of a dark slither that reminded me of a thousand Underhill monsters. But we weren’t in Underhill anymore, and that shifting through the trees was far larger than creatures of this world grew. Had the other courts brought one of the monsters with them? That seemed self-destructive and stupid.

The first of them slid through the trees to the edge of where we stood and I realized it wasn’t one large creature, but a dozen dark shadows fading into each other. Though they were wolf-like, there was little of this world in them, giant beasts with ice dripping down their sides, larger than the metal monsters called cars, and a blank gaze reflecting in their glowing red eyes.

TheHunt.

Not dead and destroyed as the fox’s alpha had hoped. Every single one of these beasts were as large as I was in my half-mutated form. Heads larger than the young wolf, and claws sharp enough to shear a giant tree in two with a single swipe. They spread out around us, giving no place to run even if I thought for a second I could leap free and over them.

I shoved the wolf behind me. It was me they wanted, the wolf nothing more than a victim of circumstance. Did Zephyr control theHunt? My mother had summoned them after I’d devoured half her court in retaliation. Centuries of proclaimed ties to the light made her the grand goddess of all of them, ending with her wolfing down the darkness to survive. She had turned the remaining members of her court to theHunt, and used them to collect and consume more fae, rebuilding her court from nightmares, death, and darkness.

These beasts were only partially fae, more wolves changed by fae magic? Were they from this territory? Would the fox not have noticed them missing? Not that it really mattered as I planned to eat them all anyway, the fae side of them at least. It glowed like sunshine and sweet cream, tempting me with everything I’d missed since the final end of Underhill.

I turned and snapped at the young wolf, encouraging him to run away, then leapt on top of the nearestHuntbeast, slamming my claws into it and ripping out the fae magic like it was the gooey center of an earthen realm candy bar. The hunger in me screaming ‘Finally!’ when the magic began to pool in my gut, chipping away at the ice. Eventually I’d run out of fae in this world, ones with enough of the magical essence to actually ease the hunger, and I would turn to the courts, or worse, the fox and his cub. Self-destruction was what kitsunes did best, the ultimate trick was always on ourselves.

The beast made no sound as it died, puppet ties severed as I drank it down, both the fae portion and the bits of this world. Another jumped on my back, claws digging in, followed by another, as if they could tear me apart while I fed on them. I bled and ached, but drank deep.

Three beasts fell beneath my claws, while I sucked them down, lights and energy pulsing through me like the electricity this world ran on. But it was the yelp of the wolf that made me turn and swipe at another, splitting it open and spilling out the magic. My gut screamed for it, but the wolf was writhing in pain. Bleeding red as all mortal things of this world did, a trickle of ice sprouted from the wound. Was that how they were creating theHuntin this world? Infecting them by bite? The wound didn’t look that deep.

I leapt to the wolf’s side and sniffed at the wound. Dark magic, almost a half spell? Structured wild magic. Impossible. Nick would understand this better than I. Could I could get the little wolf to him and still save them both?

Another monster leapt upon me and I slashed through them, feeding deeply, keeping myself over the fallen wolf as he writhed in pain. Twice, I tried to pull the corruption of magic from the wound, but it did little. And my diverted attention meant more attacks until I was bleeding gold over both of us. The first round of monsters were dead, energy pulsing in a whirl of chaos inside me, but more eyes appeared in the dark, stepping free from the woods as though killing oneHuntbeast spawned a dozen more.

The wolf whimpered beneath me, struggling to stay conscious at the bite of ice spreading through him. I kept yanking out pieces of the magic infection, peeling it back, but it returned every time I had to fight, until I was running out of usable strength. The energy from the fae not enough to overpower the chaos of the earthen magic swirling within.

Barely on my feet, bleeding and trembling with the need to shift again, though refusing to let it go, a familiar form stepped out of the trees. No glamour this time to hide the majestic width of his shoulders and height of his horns. His beauty had echoed through the courts in tales of epic lust. Not many saw underneath, to the true monster beneath the mask of righteous grace.

The pulsing energy of his fae magic made me throw myself at him. Devouring the fae was something I’d been known for, and the reason they’d locked me away in ice. I longed to sink my claws into him and pull out the gooey center of his magic as he had done to me so many times. Self-proclaimedKingof the fae, Zephyr, had stolen everything from me. Lifetimes I had dreamt of taking it all back.

My claws never reached him, a wall of invisible energy slamming me hard into the ground. The entire landscape seemed to shake with the violence of the blow. I couldn’t move, crushed to the ground like a bug as the last dredges of fae magic was sucked out of me, leaving only the intense swirl of this world’s magic. I gasped, unable to breathe, the ice carving through me as it intended to change me into one of theHuntbeasts as well.

Toby whimpered again. I snarled, and shoved back at the drain, willing to fight to the bitter end. My scion liked that wolf. There was little I could gift him, saving the pup had to be worth something.

Zephyr appeared above me, larger now as my form was stripped back to the human-like shell with each layer of magic peeled away. His disdain clear as he looked down at me, seeing all the rot of the broken thing I’d become. I turned to try to crawl away, hoping to reach Toby to protect him from this madness, but Zephyr raised his boot and stomped it down on the back of my head, smashing me into the mud. Lights and pain flickered through my mind moments before blackness completely devoured the last edges of strength remaining. I wondered briefly if the dragon would form and wished for that final win, only to find myself lost in the dark of dreamless unconsciousness.

CHAPTER8

Toby

Ibattled theHuntmonsters, tearing into them with a joy my wolf hadn’t shared since we’d been created. Like we were made for this. The change in Kiran had been my fault. Liam and Sebastian had been careful about the mix of magic they fed to him, not to keep him weak, but to keep him sane.

The blend Ari threw into the cake had been a little heavy-handed, and I realized now that Ari probably didn’t have the grasp on what a little bit was, since the child was all magic. Maybe the amount Ari had addedwasa small amount to the child. But to Kiran, long starved and a creature of mixed magic, likely too much.

I followed them out of the bakery, shifting seconds after Kiran’s change had begun, as seeing his panic, brought rise to my own. The wolf normally calm and cool, unbothered by the world around us, meant little until Kiran had become something else. His kitsune form was more cat-like, with fox tendencies around the shape of his face and flank, but the size he became, and the etched lines of rot overtaking his fur, had been unexpected. When he was human, I could see beyond his glamour, and even deeper to find a million etched lines of magic, all of which I thought was his. However, this change seemed to stretch those lines, and they dug into him, the rot forming around them, as though the lines were what was killing him. How could anyone have missed that before? Had he hidden it so deep?

Then he’d run, shedding ice and the scent of fear in his wake. Easy smells to follow, and I raced after him, keeping a distance in case he attacked as wounded animals often did. When he fell, I approached, hoping to bring him comfort, even as I stretched my senses toward the pack bonds to try to draw the alpha and omega to us. Would they be able to help? I knew Sebastian had tried, but Kiran’s panic, the overwhelming mix ofwrongmagic, forced his control to unravel.

My fault. A memory stirred, one deeply embedded in the boulder sitting in the center of my divide. A crack began to form, like those memories needed to be released. If I hadn’t been worried about Kiran, I would have tried to dig through them, even if it hurt. Sometimes we needed memories to function. My wolf was learning that with a lot of frustration.

The smell of death, rot, and cold, rose on the wind, not from Kiran’s change, but moving closer. I’d scented them before, the beasts from the other world, watched them slink through the trees. Kiran struggled to rise, the magic within him still a rage of chaos. Would the alpha arrive in time? I wasn’t certain Kiran had enough strength to fight. He shoved me beneath his massive bulk, leaping to tear into the first one, and the battle ensued. I followed his lead and gleefully tore into theHuntas I’d never been allowed to tear into the other wolves.