The door creaked open.
And in the slit of light, I saw eyes that weren’t human. A voice hissed out. “She did this to us.”
I frowned as I leaned away from the dank wall. “What? Who did this to you? What did they do to you?”
“She cursed us.”
Another curse? I wasn’t the only one then.
The wolf stepped into the dim light, and I realized it wasn’t fully shifted—its form twisted somewhere between man and beast. The skin around its mouth was stretched tight, veins crawling like black vines under the surface.
“She cursed us,” it repeated, voice warping around the growl in its throat. Spittle hit the floorboards between us.
My pulse pounded. “Who?”
The wolf’s lips peeled back in something that wasn’t quite a snarl, wasn’t quite a smile. “Magic stripped. Bones rotting fromthe inside. We were promised the curse would be lifted if we took care of a little problem for her.”
Who was she? Babette? Who cursed them?
“Who cursed you? What’s going on? I want to help. Please let me help you.” My voice pleaded on deaf ears. The half-wolf, half-man didn’t care about what I had to say.
They moved closer, and the ropes at my wrists cut deeper into my skin. “You’ll come quietly,” it said, “or we’ll drag you through the dirt.”
I waited as the creature got closer before I swung my legs out and attacked. I knew it was silly, but I wasn’t going to be useless. I was going to fight. I was going to win. No matter what happened, I would not die here, and I wasn’t going to let them use me for their plan either.
My heel connected with its ribs, and the creature let out a sharp, guttural sound—half-yelp, half-snarl. The impact sent it stumbling a step back, giving me just enough space to lunge forward, shoulder-first. The ropes bit cruelly into my wrists, but I kept going, shoving with every ounce of strength I had.
It recovered quickly, teeth snapping inches from my face, hot breath reeking of decay. I twisted, slamming my bound hands against the edge of the rotting wall. The damp wood splintered, but the ropes didn’t give.
The second wolf—one of the guards from outside—burst through the door, crowding the tiny shack with muscle and menace.
“Enough,” the first snarled.
I spat the hair from my face, chest heaving. “Come on then. Let’s see if you can drag me before I break your nose.”
The second wolf lunged, its claws catching my beanie and yanking it from my head. My hair spilled out, tangling in my face, but it didn’t matter—because just then, a shadow curled through the gap in the doorway.
It slithered up the wall, dark and alive, and the temperature in the room dropped. The wolves didn’t seem to notice, but it was enough for me. I knew those shadows. Rune was coming for me. He knew I was gone, and he wasn’t going to leave me to these beasts.
Hope bloomed within my chest. The second wolf reached back for my head and wrapped his half-clawed hands in my hair before he yanked me up closer to his face. He was closer to man than beast, unlike the other two seething in the corner.
“You would do well to remember we are in charge here. You can fight all you want to, but we know what your people are capable of, and it isn’t much.”
“You killed them,” I spat at him as I tried to yank free from the hold he had on my hair.
His face twisted into something I couldn’t quite pinpoint. “They died trying to help us.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“No more questions,” He bit out as he dragged me from the shack and into the dense swamp. The sound of cicadas, frogs, and crickets immediately met my ears, and I wondered if the shack was really as decrepit as it seemed or if it was spelled to appear that way.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the shadows followed us. They slinked along the ground, weaving between roots and low brush, never quite touching me. My captor didn’t notice—too focused on dragging me forward, my heels digging furrows in the wet earth. The air was thick, heavy, and every breath tasted of moss and mildew.
We pushed deeper into the swamp, moonlight filtering in fractured shards through the cypress canopy. I kept scanning the darkness, waiting for Rune to step out of it. But we only continued forward, and he was nowhere to be seen.
The other two wolves stalked behind us, their breathing ragged, their half-shifted faces flickering with something I couldn’t name.
“You’re making a mistake,” I hissed, stumbling over a root but catching myself before I went down. What could I do?
