Page 29 of Quest of the Wolf

“Duncan?” I called again as I crept through the gap, the spray of the waterfall dampening my face. “Youarea prisoner, aren’t you?”

The beeping halted abruptly.

I paused, listening, but with the waterfall roaring down so close, I could only hear very loud noises. When I tried to illuminate the darkness ahead with my flashlight, all I could see was a narrow tunnel disappearing around a rock bend.

“Duncan?” I continued forward over bumpy, uneven ground. If he was here and awake, he ought to sense me approaching.

The beeping started again, startling me.

I slipped and banged my elbow on the rock wall, almost dropping my phone. High-pitched screeches sounded, followed by flapping. Alotof flapping. A swarm of bats flew at me, their bodies glowing green.

Wings brushed my head and shoulders, and I couldn’t keep from screaming. This time, Ididdrop my phone as I crouched low, covering my head with my arms.

More and more bats sailed past, flying out of the cave for the night. The bodies of more than half of them glowed. It wasn’t until they all exited through the gap behind the waterfall that I lowered my arms, my heart hammering against my rib cage.

“Whatisthis place?”

The bats had been magical, but I sensed more magic ahead. Again, this reminded me of the cave behind Mom’s cabin, some natural repository of power that had existed long before man—and werewolves—had entered the area.

Hand shaking after the scare, I took a deep breath and picked up my phone.

“Just bats,” I told myself. “Heading out to hunt.”

A thunderous grinding followed by aclanksounded. A roar came after and then a great wrenching noise.

“That’s no bat.”

The beeping intensified, trying to pierce my eardrums. It was a wonder the bats hadn’t left a lot sooner.

The roar sounded again.

Was that… Duncan? In his bipedfuris form?

The roars came from deeper in the cave. I hesitated to rush back. If he was being controlled by Abrams and had changed into that form, he could be a danger to me. When he’d shifted into a wolf or bipedfuris of his own accord, he had defended me, but when that control device was in play, it was a different story. Since neither Abrams nor Radomir was inherently magical, they could be back there, and I wouldn’t sense them. The device also had the ability to manipulate Duncan from afar.

A cry of pain made me jump. That also sounded like Duncan.

Reminded that I’d come to rescue him, I made myself continue forward. If he turned on me… Well, he’d given me the sword for exactly that reason. With silver a part of its magic-touched alloy, it had been made to fight werewolves.

Around another bend, the tunnel opened into a cavern with a hole in the center. My foot brushed something on the ground.

Expecting another magnet, I looked down. Itwasmetal, but it appeared to be a piece wrenched off a robot or other machine, not one of Duncan’s cylinders. More bits of metal littered the ground all around me. I spotted a couple of wheels as well, and…

“Is that a head?” I shined my light toward the edge of the hole.

It wasn’t a human head but a metal dog-shaped one, and magic emanated from it. In fact, faint hints of magic came from all the pieces on the ground. And Duncan…

Was he down in the hole? Had he fallen? I sensed him, so he was still alive, but I didn’t hear anything anymore, neither roars nor cries of pain.

When I eased closer to the edge of the hole, a pair of eyes on the metal head came into view. They glowed orange.

“I can’t believe I teased Jasmine about this area being haunted.” I skirted the head as I continued to the edge.

Haunted might not be the right word, but magic had doubtless been used to… I wasn’t sure what. Booby-trap this place? Had the robot-dog thing been a protector? Left to guard… what?

Splashes came from below. Maybe the hole was a cenote, though I hadn’t heard of them existing in this part of the world.

I peered over the edge into utter darkness. A grunt sounded, and the splashes stopped. I swung my phone downward, and the flashlight glinted on a pair of eyes.

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