Page 26 of Ember and Eclipse
He curled his lip in disgust. “Not quite. I am Lunae. A child of Selene, goddess of the moon. What hunted you was a mal or malwolf—wretched souls that were once Lunae but have forgotten all aspects of their humanity for one reason or another. They are inexplicably drawn to magic, hence why they are this far south.”
Rel wasn’t sure she understood the difference, but didn’t argue the point. “But you can turn into a wolf?” The conversation would seem outlandish at any other time, but with what she’d witnessed that night, it was hard to be cynical.
It explained everything. How he found her two years later, surrounded by the swamp and humid woods on all sides. How he escaped the enclosure and got to the Mark so fast. Even how he’d been able to get on her isle—a human couldn’t leap the distance between it and the land it was separated from, but a wolf could.
“I can shift my physical form into man or beast, but both are me. For the most part.”
There was no escaping him. He’dalwaysbe able to find her. Her body shook so violently that she wasn’t sure if her shivering was from being cold and wet or from the revelations. She leaned into his heat even as she hated him for it. For everything.
Between chattering teeth, she finally asked, “In the cottage, you said if I killed you, others would come for me. Though obviously a bluff, you meant your pack?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but something caught his attention, and he slowed to a halt. His head tilted, listening to something that she couldn’t hear. “Two are stalking us now,” he murmured. “If I have to fight, stay near me. If you try to run, I can’t protect you if one gives chase.”
“You’re only protecting me to collect a bounty.”
His hold on her tightened. “Better than not protecting you at all.” He veered suddenly, and moments later, they were out of the woods in the openness of the cliffside. But instead of traversing along the ledges, he descended at a pace that she was sure would send them both plunging to their deaths.
“What are you doing? The roads are flooded, and if they come for us, they’ll be coming from above.”
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you?!” Incredulity dripped from the question.
“Have your dinner knife ready, but for your sake, you should hope you don’t have to use it.”
Her shaking hand tightened around the hilt. “Why?”
“Because if they get by me, you don’t stand a chance.”
A remark was somewhere on her tongue when the sound of barreling beasts crashing through the tree line came from above them.
They reached the road, immediately entering a large puddle that Devdan easily maneuvered through. She scanned the cliffside and the road behind them for any sign of crimson eyes and moving shadows.
She couldn’t see them, but she couldhearthem. Stones fell plunking into the water up ahead, shaken loose with their descent.
They were open targets in the middle of this damn road.
Trust him? He just led us to our deaths.
Devdan halted abruptly. Before she could see why, he sat her down in the shallow pool of water, twisting her behind him with a low snarl.
Peering around him, it took her eyes far too long to make out the large, hunched shapes that cut their path off on the road.
“You can’t fight both alone, give me—”
But she cut herself off. He had shifted as seamlessly as shadow into shadow.
Unlike the creatures before her, Devdan appeared as an actual wolf—a very large one. His coat was a dark sheen with a patch of silver on the back of his neck. When he turned his head to look at her, his lunar gaze was recognizable, the same as it was in his human form. Rel released a heavy breath, relieved by the fact.
The other wolves came for them, loping into a sprint as they snapped at the air. Devdan stepped forward, and then he charged them.
There was no bracing herself for the clash. Though his wolf form was large, the mals were equally so. The one that almost killed her skidded away from their collision with a garbled howl that pierced the night.
The other malwolf lashed out, its dangerous claws scraping against Devdan’s back. When the injured one recovered, it shook itself out, sending water and mist flying everywhere.
With a snuffling sound, they lowered themselves into a creeping posture. They circled him, their eyes unblinking, faces twisted.
Devdan moved carefully, keeping them both in his sight. His elongated canines were exposed in a silent snarl as he waited for them to strike or give an opening.
