Back to the car, I took in the fight and the waste of dead foliage beyond them. An idea struck me. With the icy arcana swimming through my body, I raised a hand and pointed it towards the soul-torn wolf. Wrapping it around the wolf, I pulled. It was easy to make sure I only grabbed the soul-torn wolf because Maddox ate up any arcana that slid his way.
The net of arcana encased the soul-torn wolf and tugged, sending my heart flying high with hope. Then the net snapped. I could almost feel the individual threads of arcana tearing, one by one. Each pang sent a tiny icicle of pain through my chest in recoil.
I hissed and clutched my chest. When I looked up, the soul-torn wolf’s attention was on me. Maddox snarled low in warning. He prowled between us to block the wolf’s path. I braced for the fight that was to come, but the soul-torn wolf didn’t leap.
Instead, he threw his head back and let out a lonely howl. My lips parted at the sorrowful sound bellowing out of the enemy shifter. It almost made me feel sorry for him. I had to remind myself that this was a person who had been systematically killing all across Upstate New York.
The soul-torn wolf turned and bounded away. For a moment, Maddox tensed. I thought he would go after him. I didn’t want Maddox to go, but I couldn’t give him commands without betraying his trust, and I didn’t want that between us.
Maddox turned back to me. His tail hung low, and his ears were pulled back. I would have thought that he was mad were it not for his big, worried eyes. Tired of standing on jelly legs, I dropped to my knees and buried my face in his fur.
I had no idea what’d just happened. While I understood that the soul-torn wolf’s ability to tear threads had thwarted my arcana, I wasn’t sure why he’d run off. The wolf had the upper hand with his ability to cancel arcana.
So, why run?