Page 75 of Faerie Trials

She sighed. “Whatever.”

That’s when the wolf shifter showed up.

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Worse than the harpy, I knew at once, bolting to my feet at the commotion to my left. The lumbering halfling form crashed through the trees and sent one of the smaller oaks tumbling to the ground. I had to give Coral credit. She didn’t scream, didn’t panic. She stood to attention with her spine straight and her focus on the warrior form.

Why did he suddenly look larger to me?

Huge paws were clenched at his sides and darkness surrounded him. Muscles bulged, more than I remembered, and he looked mad enough to tear a body into pieces.

In fact he already had.

The shifter saw both of us and raised his head, opening his jaws and roaring. The sound shook the tree limbs.

Coral and I didn’t move. We stood there until he cut off, the echoes of the roar reverberating around us. She stared at him, her cheeks white with shock. She didn’t have a chance to speak before the shifter was in motion.

I didn’t pause. I didn’t stop to think about what to do.

The shifter burst through the fire on a growl, his fur lit by the embers, and the force of his magic, his scent, tore at me like a tornado. Wild and furious.

I screamed and Coral echoed it, finally releasing the fear she’d held inside. With all of my strength I grabbed her at the last instant and jerked her out of the way. A second too late, the shifter slammed his paw down where she’d just been sitting.

Then I launched myself at his throat.

He swatted me aside, landing a hit to my ribs hard enough to shatter them, and howled again, his enormous jaw unhinging until all I saw were his fangs.

He’d gone mad.

The shifter’s eyes glowed when he looked at me, the gold overtaken by white and I saw nothing in them outside of pure rage. He burst into motion, a raging tempest of fury, doubling his effort to reach me. I dodged out of the way and grabbed his fur on his way past, jerking him off his feet with everything in me.

Don’t let him get to Coral.

That was the point of this, wasn’t it?

“You are not going to take me down,” I ground out, keeping hold of him. “Sorry.”

“What do we do?” I heard Coral’s screech somewhere in the distance and when I glanced over, the desperation on her face nearly broke me. She’d been ready to do battle with the harpy, but a shifter was a different story. This wasn’t her world. None of this should be happening to her.

Except it was. Because of me.

“I’ll call for help!” she continued.

I didn’t have a chance to see her work. The whole of my attention focused on keeping the shifter away from her. Keeping him distracted so he wouldn’t attack her.

“It’s not working. The spell isn’t working!” The one the judges had agreed on for when students got into trouble.

We’d seen the signal flares multiple times during the day and I’d had to listen to Coral laugh about the weaklings who couldn’t hack their way through the third Trial. I wondered how she felt about being the one to use it now. Or, well,notuse it.

“He must have blocked us using a spell of his own,” I told her.

The shifter crouched on all fours next to me, those wicked eyes boring into mine. If I couldn’t keep him distracted, then I’d need her to—

“Run! Coral, run and get help.”

Magic swirled around me as I tried to keep the shifter contained and give Coral the chance to escape. She leaped up and dashed into the dark woods like her life depended on her speed.

It did.

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