He inches closer.
Behind him, I’m aware that Emlyn is on the ground. She’s struggling to get up, but she can’t. Nate is snarling at the wounded one on the ground, his eyes darting to Emlyn, but I see his reluctance to move. That one must not be out of the fight just yet.
I feel weaker and weaker by the moment. My magic is like any other muscle—I only have so much stamina, and it’s draining from me now. I feel physically exhausted. I might collapse to the ground.
The wolf in front of me exposes his teeth. He knows I’m at the end of my strength. He knows it’s only a matter of time now before he gets me.
And then…something happens.
At first, all I can think is that it’s an earthquake. The whole world is shaking. My knees buckle and I collapse to the ground, digging my fingers into the Earth to keep myself from falling off. It’s the perfect moment for the wolf to attack, of course, but he doesn’t—he’s shaken too, and is crouching low, hackles raised.
A seam in the world opens up. A crack.
I hear Emlyn shriek. I look up to see where she is—
She’s scurrying back on her hands and knees, away from the widening chasm.
Nate runs to her. He’s human now—I didn’t see him shift—and he scoops her up in his arms and backs away quickly.
The other two—-the wolves they were fighting—are gone. The one Nate killed is still there, lying on the ground a few yards away, seeming completely unperturbed by what’s happening, and that’s how I know for sure that he’s really dead.
The shaking stops.
My heart is still pounding.
“What was that?” I call over to Nate.
“Earthquake?”
“Maybe…where are the others?” We’ve both got eyes on the one live wolf who’s still with us. Neither of us is about to let him get away with anything.
Nate nods toward the chasm. “Down there.”
“Really?”
“Saw them fall.”
I approach the crack slowly. The wolf who was advancing on me a moment ago lets it happen. He’s slinking backward slowly. He’s clearly aware how the odds have shifted in the last few seconds.
I look down into the chasm.
There’s some sort of mist obscuring the bottom.
“I can’t see anything down there,” I tell Nate.
He eases Emlyn down slowly onto her feet. She’s holding onto his arm for balance, but she seems a little stronger, and I think she must be remembering the healing magic I taught her.
She looks over at the wolf who used to be her packmate.
“You should go,” she says quietly. “We don’t want to kill you. But that doesn’t mean we won’t do it.” And she looks meaningfully at the one lying dead on the ground.
He looks from her to Nate to me.
Then he spins around and runs off into the forest.
Nate approaches the chasm and looks down into it. “Damn,” he says. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “But I don’t think we’re dealing with an earthquake.”