What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

"Hold it right there," a man to my left said. "Did you think I would let you walk away with that?"

I slowly turned to see a man in full Imperial armor standing beside me, a firelance in one hand. It was General Teng. He sneered at me as though he knew I would be trouble. He pointed his weapon at me and threatened to light the fuse with a lit torch.

"Hand over the dagger, or I'll blow you to a million pieces. Your two lovers will barely find a single toe after I am done."

"Selene!" Daoming exclaimed as he caught sight of what his underling was up to. Alix froze as well and melted back into his human form. Both men stood there, in their muddy battle attire, smeared with blood, with horror on their faces as they contemplated my imminent demise.

"Drop the dagger," Alix yelled. "It isn't worth your life."

As General Teng held the fire closer to the fuse, I decided that Alix was right. He was a lunatic, and he was going to blow us all to smithereens.

I dropped the dagger. It landed in the mud with a thud.

"Good, now use your power to make me into a werewolf," General Teng ordered. "There is a mortality injured wolf at your feet. Give me his power. I am tired of this old, dying human body. I want to be all-powerful. I want immortality."

I glanced down at Zurui, who was barely stirring now. Although the blood continued to flow, he was still breathing.

"Stop it!" Daoming commanded. "Are you insane? You want to become one of them?"

"Why not?" General Teng yelled back, his old crusty beard swinging dangerously close to the lit fuse. "Why linger here as a frail old human waiting for one of my underlings to poison me so they can take my place? My ungrateful children have scattered across the continent with not one to look after me in my old age. I wish I were a creature of the forest, who lives forever, just like you, huli jing."

"I can't," I muttered and bared my useless mortal hands at him. "Look at me. I'm out of tricks. I used my last one to make Alix back into a wolf. Now, I don't even have the power to save myself."

General Teng's eyes were wild with fury now. This was not how he expected this encounter to go. He gestured wildly to the dagger, now sheathed in mud.

"Then use the power of the blade. It will give the user the power that they require the most. Turn me into a wolf, and I'll set you free to live your life with either of these two love-sick fools."

I slowly bent down and picked up the blade. Even encased in mud, it glowed like the gold dragons that decorated Daoming's armor. I turned it to the sun and raised my free hand to General Teng's chest. I didn't know if this would work. If it did, it would kill me.

Before starting the process, I heard a horrible wail, and then General Teng collapsed to his knees. General Teng's head slid cleanly off his neck before his body fell to the ground.

Daoming was standing above him, his chest heaving in rage.

"How dare you, you pitiful creature? How can you betray your own kind to join these monsters?"

Daoming looked up at me for just a second. I caught a hint of a relieved smile on his dirt-smeared face before the wind was knocked out of him.

Alix drove his claws through Daoming's chest as the Prince was preoccupied with the fate of the treasonous general. I didn't have time to think about my reaction. The scream came to my throat without thinking about the intent behind it.

"No! Julong!" I collapsed to knees beside the fallen Prince and covered the puncture wounds in his chest with my hand. He was bleeding out. There was nothing my tiny humans could do to keep the lifeblood inside his body.

"At . . .least . . .I . . .saved . . .you," Daoming gasped through the blood that was leaking from between his ashen lips. His hand found my face and left a smear of cold mud across my cheek.

"You wanted power beyond imagination. Yet you hated the creatures that brought you that power," I whispered to his closed eyes between my sobs. His lashes laid so beautifully on his cheek that I could hardly believe I was cradling a dead man. No, there must be another way. For all his flaws, I did love him in a way that he could never love me.

"If only I could make you see, Daoming. If only the Kings of Legend would grant me the power to show you. Perhaps then our two types of people could live together in peace."