Willow
The pack dismantled camp in a matter of hours. I stood back for minute as Locke and Denzel pulled the last boards from their tent. Yvonne told me earlier that they were working under precaution. They didn't want anyone running across the camp while we were gone.
Everyone was planned to head into Zima. Even Xiang, who grinned in accomplishment when he insisted his coming along. Only to be shot down by Yvonne who told him he would stay with a witch friend.
"We can't have you fighting under your condition," she told him, pressing a light hand on his shoulder. "I promise, you would be of more use on the sideline then the war front."
We packed up bags of supplies and greater personal belongings, which were few. I'd discovered Kiley's unfinished book underneath her bed as we dismantled our tent this morning. Tears threatened, but I pushed them back.
I kept the book in my own bag as if Kiley herself came along on our journey.
"You have everything?" Ash asked, sidling up beside me.
I glanced over at him where he struggled shoving a sword in a makeshift sheath. "Where did you manage to get that?"
His bright eyes gazed up at me. "This? It belonged to the Black Knights. They left it behind."
Even the sound of their name sense a rise through me. "And the sheath?"
A singular corner of his lips quirked up. "I'm not all looks and charm, Willow. I have talents and abilities beyond what you imagine."
"Including weaving?" I raised an eyebrow. "You know what, I give up. I give up on trying to predict you. You have proven yourself to be far beyond the usual prince."
He reached for my waist, his hand wanting but gentle all the same. "Now, you haven't spent night with any other prince, have you? Because I'm fair game with a sword, but trust me when I say that I can take a man down in a single breath."
I slapped his hand away. "There's been no other. You very well know that. But as far as I'm concerned, just know that I'm a werewolf. No other girl could even be considered a problem."
"So I should never cross you?"
I smirked over at him. "She won't be the only one running for the hills."
He rolled his eyes and chuckled, a deep, toe-curling sound. "We're potentially going to war and you're over here threatening all my nonexistent lovers. Willow Stanek, you are a beautiful, strange being."
I put my hands on either side of his face and patted his cheeks playfully. "You're just saying that because you've seen me naked."
"No, I'm saying it because it's true," he whispered, his lips nearly on mine.
"Hey!" Locke called over. "You two love-birds! Cut it out and let's get moving!"
I pulled my hands from Ash's face as he said, "Someone's a little moody today."
I laced my fingers through his. "Believe me when I say that he has his reasons."
Ash and I distanced ourselves if only a foot and followed the rest of the group on the trek back to Zima. The winter tried it's hardest to bite into us, but we wouldn't budge. Not Ash in his human skin. Not the rest of us in our wolf beings.
We marched on to whatever waited before us.
***
I had only visited the actual inner-city of Zima once in my childhood. I was six and driven in a guarded carriage through the city as we paraded to Nodin for another advisory trip. We only traveled the better streets where we knew there'd be less evidence of magic and poverty and more so of the rich and societal.
Even then, I saw beyond the little world the King thrust Laurel and me into. He tried to shield us from something greater--something far beyond his power--if only for his own selfish game. He wanted to show us the great things in being king when reality proved a much disdainful way of life.
The street we walked through now was crowded by shopkeepers packing up for their own lunch break after he crowd had already drifted through. Few glanced at us, eyes knowledgeable of the fact that we weren't like them--wolves. But most ignored us in sight of scrambling for whatever leftover scraps they could find.
Yvonne glanced around a corner. "Here we are," she breathed. "Quick, hurry in. Hurry in."
We piled into the little entry way that passed as the foyer of a tiny apartment. A woman with gray hair stood in the doorway to the kitchen. She seemed like any other old woman at first glance. Then I noticed her eyes. One green. One brown.
"About time," she spoke, her voice staccato and not at all matching her run-down appearance. "I've been waiting for you all since dawn."
"The roads between Zima's outer woods and Zima's inner city grow longer each day," Raf told her. "We made our way in the amount of time possible."
The woman nodded. "Very well." Then her eyes gazed over the crowd, assessing us all right before they landed on me. "Ah, the latest of the Radkov girls. Oh, how you look so much like your mother. Though I dare say, you must have your father's eyes."
My blood froze. "You knew my parents?"
"Your mother though she mentioned your father numerous time. I knew just how in love she was by the way she spoke of him." Her eyebrows came together forming a deep crease. "I didn't hear from her for months. Then she came back to me. I barely recognized her by her new shiny hair and new well-made clothes. She told me what happened--that she'd been forced to marry the king. I invited her in for tea. The moment she removed her cloak, revealing her swollen belly, I knew." The woman took a step forward and grasped my hand. "You were bound for greatness just as your mother. Just as your father."
I swallowed thickly and looked down at the woman's unmoving hand. It lay wrinkled and her fingernails yellowed with age. But the ring was what held my attention. A ruby encrusted in silver. Just as the one my mother gave my sister.
"You're a witch," I breathed.
She smiled. "Well, of course, dear. I didn't pick such a dingy apartment for no reason. My name is Luisa. Your friends here and I have long been acquaintances."
"As well as my mother and you."
She nodded shortly. "Well, make yourselves at home everyone. You must rest for whatever lay ahead." She waved us on through the gap of a kitchen and into what I presumed to be the living area.
Locke immediately plopped down on the couch, sprawling his legs across it.
Raf whacked his legs. "Nonsense, Luisa. We're just here to finalize our strategy and to drop off one of our own. If you don't mind at least."
Xiang sat in the armchair. He'd tried throughout the day to put on a face and shows signs of strength, but I could tell by the bags under his eyes and the shaking of his bones that he sat utterly exhausted.
"No problem," Luisa quipped. "It's my duty to you all to let your into my home. With not having one to call your own...I owe a lot to your kind and those alike. Unlike some in our world, I don't believe there should be any separation, societal or political between kinds."
Yvonne took a singular step forward. "That's another reason we're her Luisa. We want to make it into the castle. We have right to believe that there's a greater force taking over and in possession of magic. We're so low on numbers these days, so we were wondering if your pull with other witches could--"
"Well, of course," she agreed. "You want help, so be it. My fellow witch accquaintances shall agree with my earlier statement. We owe you all."
Ash elbowed me in the ribs and leaned over to whisper in my ear, "Now, why can't we have minds like that on the throne."
I stared straight Luisa where she unnecessarily tended to us handing out blankets and warm cups of tea as I reminded Ash, "People with mouths like ours can't run a kingdom."
***
Ash kept by my side on the way to the castle. He continued glancing over at me, expression full of concern. I tried ignoring it, but I couldn't stand that look. Especially coming from him.
"Stop that," I commanded him.
His eyes shot to the path in front of us. "Stop what?
I rolled my eyes. "Staring at me like I'm a poor soul in desperate need of your pity." He winced. "You know I think nothing of the sort. You are quite possibly the strongest person I know. Not woman, but person. I'm just worried about what lays ahead."
"At the castle?"
He nodded shortly. "You truly believe the Black Knights are there or that they're bound to land soon, and I believe you. It's just that...we had one causality the last time, and we don't know how many they have in numbers. If they beat us. If they win'--"
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it a little too hard maybe. But anything to further waver his mind from such a dark place. "Don't you dare start thinking that. They won't win. We have the witches on our side. Luisa promised us that much."
"Yes," Ash sighed. "But will that be enough?"
I wanted to turn on him and give him a good beating. How dare he speak so pessimistically in the sight of war. But in the back of my mind, his words resonated with me. We might have had our pack and whatever witches decided to side with us, but the Black Knights had the advantage of mystery. Surely people at the castle had never heard of let alone witnessed such a force.
But a fire burned in my heart. I wanted to defend my sister. They couldn't take her, not now. I would only blame myself in the end. I wanted to defend my pack and all the thunder they had been forced to face over the years--being outcasted, living in the harsh wood with hunters about, and one of their own being taken.
I had to do this for my country--after leaving them to such a harsh ruled, I owed them this much.
***
We edged to the palace gates, our plan intact over our first move. The full moon loomed closer and closer ready to make its appearance as the sun set its final stage for the day. Through the night we would fight in our true form. It would be only my second time shifting, the first which still echoing hollowly in my stomach with the vague memory. .
"You'll be in control now," Raf had promised me. "You're senses will only be enhanced and your body in a different form. Your mind will still be your own, as long as you let it be."
We planned to take down the front guards first, they stood at the gates of the castle all high and mighty more rightfully protecting the inside from getting out than the outside from getting in.
"I got this," Locke breathed, jumping back and forth between each foot as if warming up for a match.
Ainsley rolled her eyes at him. They'd been chosen as the pair to come across the castle guards and ask for further direction through Zima. She reluctantly placed her arm through the crook of his and they nodded before making their way around the corner.
"Awkward," Ash whispered n my ear.
My eyes shot to him. "You have no idea."
We waited, the group of us remaining silent against the brick wall of an abandoned alleyway. The atmosphere changed in the midst of our mood. We all knew whatever lay ahead of us was indefinite. We may not make it past the castle gates or the next sunrise. Then Locke came running over, his eyes wild with something similar of bewilderment.
"The guards," he said, his voice a rush as if he stood out of breath. "They're gone. The castle's gates are open."
"What?" I choked out.
Never in my life had such a thing happened. The gates always seemed just to be another part of the wall that surrounded the castle. But this only proved further evidence that the Black Knights were among us, reigning their terror over the castle as we spoke.
Oh, how angry King Stanek would be.
"Let's go," Raf commanded, his Alpha tone appearing.
We jogged our way over the gates where sure enough they stood wide open--so casually, not a guard or Black Knight in sight. As if they wanted us to come across it, to notice the abandoned entryway and make our way to the force that waited inside.
And we abided.
The moon appeared above us, shining its brightest in full. An unfamiliar feeling ripped through my body--no, not unfamiliar. Different. It felt odd like the strange edge of a new blade cutting across the palm of my head drawing my blood if only for a second, all before it poured through me.
A force creeping its way out. .
No, not creeping out. But thriving inside.
Around me transformed my friends into wolves. Funny how the color of their coat perfectly coordinated to their beings. I could pick out and name each and every one. The harrowing gray of Raf, the russet beauty of Yvonne, Denzel as black as the knight itself, Fauve small and almost white, Locke's mangly blonde coat, and Ainsley a lighter almost yellow-tinted shade.
All while I somehow knew myself to be well-sized and a dark brown.
Ash took us all in with wide eyes. "Damn, but I've got to admit--I kind of wish I could do that."
Raf's commands were silent but known. He nodded towards the castle telling us to make our way through the front garden and into the building itself. We ran just as the wolves we were, the feeling so exhilarating unlike anything I could ever imagined.
Freely.
"That's alright!" Ash called after us. "I'll catch up!"
I wanted to laugh, but at least I could crack a smile. Or rather a wolfish grin.
The castle doors stood open as well, settling a pit of fear inside me. No, they couldn't have gotten to Laurel. Not yet.
I needed to save her. I needed to protect her, to prove that I loved her. To prove that I didn't run away because of her. I had to protect her from the rampaging Black Knights and all the bidding wants they reached for.
Locke made a sound that almost resembled a growl. He motioned toward the ballroom's doors. My ears perked up at the echo of whimpers behind them.
Go, Raf's eyes said.
Locke rammed his wolf body into the door along with the help of Denzel who probably could have successfully done the work himself.
The door burst off of its hinges bringing about a great stir from the audience behind it. Hundreds of witches sat tied up in chairs, their mouths gagged, and their wrists bound--somehow preventing them from using their magic because they seemed so helpless. Black Knights stood guarding them, weapons drawn for us.
"You all know the plan, right?" Ash asked of us.
But we didn't need to respond. We barged into the room, each destined for a Black Knight and took them as they were. My own swung his sword over my head time and time again, his motions becoming all too predictable. I could tell his training wasn't anywhere near the par required of the Black Knights who attacked the camp. He was weak, and I took him down with only a minor wound and surely what would be a nasty headache.
Ash fought behind me, his sword moving broadly until he brought his foot up into the Black Knight's face. The body fell in a matter of seconds just as the rest around us. We already took our step in the direction of conquering. We could beat them, I believed. I still believed.
Ash pulled at the binds of the witches, and we tried our best in helping.
I immediately noticed Hattie where she grasped Ash's hands in graciousness. Then she glanced over at me. "Willow, you little wolf. I should have known. Your mother spoke of your birth father so ambiguously. But I should have known all along just what you would grow to be."
Ash pulled her from her chair. "We need your help. The men who did this, they call themselves the Black Knights. We believe they're after the other princess."
Hattie froze, her face sallow. "Laurel. of course. They're after magic, am I right? And dear gods, does Laurel have it alright. Haven't seen something so wondrous since Nika's."
I swallowed deeply. So it was true. Laurel possessed the same magic as my mother, and by the way Hattie spoke, Laurel was more powerful than anyone could have ever presumed.
"We'll help," Hattie agreed, letting go of Ash's hands and holding hers out, palms up working something beyond my earlier believes. Back when I thought magic was just a curse granted to those unfortunate enough. Now I knew better.
She smiled as the witches around her did just the same. "We'll give them hell alright."
AN: Though this chapter couldn't be recalled as my best (computer probs, though..), lots of stuf happened that I hope you all enjoy!