Page 40 of The Brightest Night

The area several meters in front of me shifted, a hulking form moving in the blizzard. I caught the flash of stunning blue eyes, and for a moment I thought it was Gabe, but no. The eyes were too far apart and around the height of where Gabe’s chest would be.

Ice flushed my veins, and the urge to run sent heat rushing through my limbs. I held my ground. Come on, arcana. Come the fuck on.

But nothing happened.

No warm buzz. No fist. No surge. Nothing.

The power was silent.

What the fuck?

The creature padded closer, and the blizzard parted as if to give it access. It was a huge, gray wulven beast with spines on its back and eyes like blue flame.

My lungs forgot how to function, my heart expanding in my chest, ready to burst.

It stopped several feet away, lips pulling back from its teeth in a silent growl.

I couldn’t tear my eyes off it. Our gazes locked, and pressure bloomed at the back of my skull. Not an invasion like with the elders, but more of a knocking. More of an invitation. I relaxed on instinct, and warmth spread up over my scalp. The vise around my lungs loosened.

The beast’s silent snarl dropped, and it lowered its head, breaking eye contact. A man stepped out from behind it, tall and broad, his hair thick and dark, eyes like flame.

My chest squeezed painfully. Naxon?

He moved closer, and the illusion faded. Not Naxon. But he looked so much like him that they might well have been brothers.

Oh…Oh fuck.

He looked down his nose at me. “I believe you’ve been looking for us.”

Chapter Twelve

The wolf’s name was Virna, and she gave me a ride all the way back to the feral camp. I lay on her back, gripping her fur, cocooned by her body heat as we whizzed over the snow, her large paws perfect for the terrain.

The feral followed on sledges made of metal and bone, pulled by smaller canine creatures.

Gabe and Kai sat among them, our supplies secured to one of the feral sledges. Romax, the leader of this troop, was one of Naxon’s brothers, which explained the uncanny resemblance. He’d been quick to accept our story, ushering us to move before the blizzard worsened.

“There will be time enough for talk at camp” was all he’d said before getting us moving.

I wasn’t sure how long we rode, but the sky was darkening by the time we slowed. I lifted my head up from Virna’s back, registering warmth and the soft hum of life. Voices, the crackle of flames, and the scent of roasting meat.

The camp hugged the side of a mountain and spilled onto a gorge. Lookout posts were planted on the mountainsides, the figures manning them small from this vantage point. Hulking feral males and huge wolves like Virna padded around the camp, which was dotted with fire pits, tents made of hide, and cabins made of wood. I spotted a few children running around wrapped up in furs, but the adults wore regular clothes as if the chill didn’t bother them as much.

It was warmer in camp, not warm enough to be so underdressed, but then, these were feral, and their physiology was different than mine.

Virna lowered her body, my cue to dismount. I slid off her mammoth frame. “Thank you.”

She inclined her head and then padded off to join Romax, who was talking to a couple of ferals from the camp. They looked my way and nodded.

I scanned the sledges, spotted Gabe and Kai, and hurried over. “You guys okay?”

“We are unharmed,” Gabe said with a frown. “They acted to subdue us only. It was almost as if they knew who we were.”

My scalp prickled. “Yeah, even before I told them we knew Naxon. Do you think the elders got word to them somehow?”

“I don’t know.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I crossed to Romax, and he broke off his conversation with his companions and turned to me. “How did you know to look for us? You didn’t say.”