it.
“If Stolas’s wolf destroys the object,” Surai whispered, unable to look at Haven, “Stolas will die.”
Another ward snapped over them. For a moment, as the fading magick trekked across her skin, she couldn’t quite take in Surai’s full meaning. It was incomprehensible to Haven that Stolas could die.
He’d survived so much. Even death.
And then . . . a slice of fear cut through her chest.
Stolas could die.
Would die if she didn’t do something.
Everything fell away. Gone.
She was running toward the howls and explosions.
Propelled by a pulsing ache of terror that gnawed at her heart.
That grew more and more painful with every ward that slammed over her, broken.
She darted down the final corner to a room choked with dust and the bittersweet scent of severed magick. Voices called her name, but from so far away. A few Seraphian soldiers huddled in the shadows, watching her as she lunged past.
A yawning hole waited where the floor was supposed to be. She jumped without looking how far the drop was . . .
Legs kicking empty air, she glanced below and realized her mistake. The fall was three stories high.
She just had time to draw a cushion rune before she hit. The floor slammed into her, pain ricocheting through her bones as she rolled over her shoulder to break the impact.
Popping to her feet, she quickly assessed her body—unbroken—before searching the room for Stolas’s Shadow Wolf.
She didn’t have to look far. Through the cloud of pulverized stone and oily charcoal smoke from the shredded wards, a hulking form emerged. Her mind spun wildly as she tried to categorize the creature.
It was a wolf but not a wolf.
It possessed the same lupine body. Blocky head, long muzzle, sharp swiveling ears meant for catching even the smallest noises. And just like the wolves around Penryth’s forests, before they’d been hunted to near extinction, there was a savage beauty to the predator that reminded Haven of Stolas.
But that’s where the similarities ended.
True mortal wolves weren’t the size of wyverns.
They didn’t have fur so black it seemed to devour the light.
And they certainly didn’t possess muscles that rippled and bunched beneath the sleekest, most luxurious pelt she’d ever seen. Not shaggy like most wolves.
Soft. A fur hunters the realm over would pay any price for.
Then there were those luminous red eyes. Eyes now trained on her.
Eyes too ancient, too intelligent and knowing to come from an animal.
A spine-tingling snarl rumbled the room as the Shadow Wolf’s black lips curled back. Wicked incisors made for tearing flesh and cracking bone greeted her. Frothy foam and saliva hung from its teeth, and its gums were . . . bleeding.
She understood why as she flicked her gaze around the room. In the short amount of time the wolf had been inside, it had left a trail of chaos and destruction. Tearing indiscriminately at everything in its path. Chunks of stone formed countless piles. Debris was pulverized beyond recognition, a few jagged splinters of wood or shreds of fabric the only pieces left to hint at its origins.
Behind the creature rose wooden shelves packed with every manner of belonging. Urns and portraiture busts, books, lutes, tightly rolled wool rugs, even paintings. If she knew which object was the cursed item, perhaps she could possibly wrap a shield around it for protection.
Her stomach sank. There were hundreds of shelves. Even if she knew what to look for, she would never find it in time.
The only option was to distract the wolf until Stolas woke up.
Considering its predatory focus was already locked onto her, that wouldn’t be hard to do. Surviving, on the other hand, would prove infinitely challenging.
She smiled at the creature. “You’re not so bad, are you?”
An unearthly growl ripped from its slavering maw and stole her breath. Huge paws flexed, its onyx claws puncturing the stone floor.
“Stolas?”
It didn’t make a single noise as it leapt.
She had expected the wolf to attack, but still, the sight of such a powerful beast hurtling down on her was near paralyzing.
She dove. White-hot fire sliced across her shoulder.
Not fire. Claws.
Claws that jerked her around so violently her head snapped back. She crashed into a heap of rubble. Stars danced in and out of her vision. Air fled her lungs in the form of a grunt. She rolled and rolled, head glancing off stone. Teeth snapped in the air by her face.
Stolas! She flung his name out into their shared consciousness. Trying to spear into his mind. You’re having a nightmare, and I need you to