Alasdair followed suit to double check, giving the same verification. The rest of us knew we didn’t need to confirm what Cian saw. We were in the bellows of Morrigan’s magic, completely surrounded by all the creatures that had been turned to her side.
“One of us has to carry her, and the rest of us can guard her,” Cullen responded. Alasdair was already taking in the surroundings as well, tearing up over her condition. Knowing he would be better as a fighter, I gathered Briar in my arms before handing her off to Fergus.
While Fergus was strong, I knew he would do a better job at protecting her. We all wanted to protect her, but I knew he had a purist heart to do what needed to be done in order to save her. No one argued with my choice and shifted into our primal forms. Morrigan thought she had beaten us already, but we were coming for her now.
Even though it was day time outside, there was no light below from how the vines had grown over us. We all had our blades ready as we carried forward. At least our animal sides knew the direction to go. The smell of decay hadn’t settled, only getting stronger when we fell into the thorned forest because she had devoured it and ruined everything inside of it.
“Philip?” We all heard Briar call out to her former love in a whispering plea. Alasdair and I shared a look, wondering how close she came to death if she was seeing him.
A feral growl was heard to our left right before one sounded to our right. Getting ready, we all knew it was a pack of some kind when the rest of them joined. All the others began saying words to their plan that would protect Briar, but I knew my job already. I was the rear of our group. Readying ourselves to fight, we all herded around Fergus for him to keep Briar safe. It had only been a short time that we’d been walking, but it was enough for something to sniff us out.
Red glowing eyes surrounded us through the cracks of the vines, nearing closer with the sounds of disapproval. Once I saw the height mixed with the growl and seeing the glowering eyes, I knew were facing wolves. They once were a race of their own that communicated with us in their giant size. But after Morrigan’s magic caught them, they turned into savages like the primal ones on Earth. Just like the men of that world, we began hunting them down before they had us. Now serving the toxic queen, they slaughtered the people who still honored Faerie.
They didn’t attack us right away, but they moved around us as we kept pushing forward, tightening our circle around Fergus to not have a blindspot. As the rear person, I kept my back pressed against Fergus’s in order for him to guide me with the group, keeping my eyes peeled for when one decided to jump on our path.
It didn’t take long for one to jump out at me, so I let my fire free and burned it to a crisp as a warning to the rest of them. When it had jumped at me, I also stabbed it with my sword before using my ability on it. Either this one was an early jumper who wasn’t following his alpha, or there was a different plan in store for us. Cullen never stopped leading us down the path even as he heard what was happening from behind. Our code was to call for help if we needed it, but if we didn’t, we needed to keep moving. Righting myself, I took my place behind just as Briar began to moan.
Hearing that sound out of her mouth settled some of the tightness around my heart. We may have bonded with magic, but it went deeper than that because it involved our souls. She was ours to protect, even if we didn’t fully understand what we’re getting into when we decided to merge.
Attacks against her felt personal, making sure she made it before the rest of us ever did. Her new immortality wasn’t as strong as we had hoped, only freezing her age in time to match us.
Just when I dropped my guard a little bit, the rest of the wolves attacked. They all sprung out from the pockets of the vines when I wasn’t expecting it. Everyone else battled instantly and grunted in ways that told me it was hard to fight from the size of the wolves, but it was only a background noise for my own. Considering the white and gray colors they used to be, black had found them in ways that slinked as tendrils, spiraling out of their spines as smoke. Their eyes all turned to the toxic green shade of Morrigan’s magic, telling us she was watching through their eyes.
Glaring into the eyes of the one right in front of me, I didn’t hesitate to release my fire again as I burned over its eyes to keep her from seeing us. When the wolf began to howl pain, I charged forward a few steps and plunged my knife into the thick of its fur. With how tall he was, my hand only had to reach forward to stick it in the front part of his chest.
This was not how we expected this trip to go, but we knew we were running out of time with Morrigan’s eyes on us. She’d know we were coming her way. We only had one more small sliver of our land left to stay in before we made it to her mountain of death.
Once I contained my enemy, I looked over my shoulder to see the others in the heat of their battles. It was nice to see how we all still had the ability to fight side by side like we once did before Muir and Cian left us. My heart ached in Muir’s absence, knowing we were not the force we once had been.
The slight fondness faded the moment I was bulldozed by another wolf. It held me down, chomping at me with its feral teeth and pent-up aggression. My fingers had to let go of my sword in order to prevent it from eating me. Each of my hands latched onto a tooth on the top and bottom to keep it from clamping. It snarled and raged at me as its saliva oozed from the corners of its mouth. When it growled, some little splatters of spit hit me in the face.
Narrowing my eyes, I knew I had to think fast to find a way out of this one. Even with my strength being more, he had me pinned in a prime condition to kill.
21
Briar
Save them, the voice whispered through the emptiness of my mind that I was trapped in. Groaning, I wondered why because it sounded like Philip.The magic, Briar. Use the magic to save them.
“Philip?” I called out to him, feeling his warmth against me again. My soul felt the urge to pull with his in a way that would force my soul to separate from my body. I didn’t care because death with him was worth my immortality.
Be strong, for me, my light. Save them in my name. The voice and warmth left me as fast as it came, but it jarred me awake with a headache from hell. The throb was deep, letting me know I had taken a blow to my head during my fall. My mind was even conjuring Philip while lucid in my insanity. Oh, how my heart craved to be with him again.
Being against Fergus’s chest, I could smell his earthy scent that his people were blessed with. Each one of them had a scent with their affinity mirroring their elements.
Nestling my head into the crook of his neck, it felt like the habit I had with Philip when he’d carry me home after our late rendezvouses. It was the spot that made me feel safe when in the arms of another. Though, that safety didn’t last long when I heard the words of the others, peeking through my stare to see them surrounding me.
“Fergus, keep her safe,” Cullen whispered. Like always, he was in the front, leading the way. “No matter what happens, you get her out of here.”
“I will,” Fergus agreed instantly.
“We all see the eyes around us, right?” Cian sounded less than enthused to be where we were. From behind, we heard Bain fighting something before feeling the heat of his fiery breath. He had burned something, and its friends weren’t too happy with us for it.
No one said another thing when we were ambushed by a pack of wolves. My eyes widened in terror, knowing these weren’t like the ones I knew. Being four times bigger, they were like horses in height. They didn’t tower my men, but they would over me. All of them began to fight, keeping me in the center to not get hit.
When I tried to raise my head with a groan, Fergus tried to shush me to relax again. He moved me in his hold like I was a child being saved from a burning home. All the while, the others were acting as though I was the reason it would be okay to die. Finally looking around me, I took in the chaos of it all as they fought and had killed a handful of wolves already.
Skimming the blade on my hip, it spoke to me again, telling me to use it in their stead. The longer I let Áine’s magic speak to me, the more I understood the purpose of it. This blade wasn’t just a weapon intended for Morrigan, and I could sense its divine purpose now.