Page 38 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
“I don’t want you to be controlled by anyone,” he said. “The idea that someone could get into your mind, could make you do things against your will...” The muscle in his jaw flickered as if the very thought pained him. “I can’t bear it.” He looked back at Ora. “This magic needs to be destroyed. We cannot use it. Not every Songkeeper is as trustworthy as the ones in our retinue.”
“The songs are already being used, Navin,” Ora stated calmly. “If Rasil teaches even one of his brethren to use the sacred songs and summon more monsters into existence, it would mean more sorcerers, too. And we both know it’s only a matter of time before Rasil uses the power of those songs again.”
“Which is why you need to use magic of your own.” I stepped between them again. “One that doesn’t summon more dark magic, only controls it.”
Navin’s eyes dropped to me. “Where does it end?”
“These questions would make you a good ruler,” I pointed out. Ora hummed in agreement. “It ends when the Golden Court is safe, when the humans of Damrienn no longer live in fear of Wolves. It ends when everyone is as free as I am right now, asking that you train this magic on me.”
I lifted on my toes and kissed him. He softened into my touch. “Not fair,” he murmured against my lips.
“You see?” I said. “I have a magic all my own. We all have our ways of controlling the other.”
He chuckled and then pulled me back in to kiss me again.
A twig snapped from behind me, and I whirled to the sound.
I spotted him instantly.
Icy dread curled in my gut at the sight of those eyes, that face, so similar to my own.
“Hector.”
My brother held my gaze for one second before he turned and ran.
“We’re under attack!” I screamed and three Silver Wolves came shooting through the forest.
I KNEW IT WAS MY FATHER AND UNCLES INSTANTLY, BEFORE Ieven had a chance to study them in their furs. I’d wondered when Nero would send them to find us. My family and I had unfinished business.
“Go warn the others,” I shouted, shoving Navin behind me.
“Ora, you go,” Navin called, moving to stand by my side again. He grabbed two knives, one from each of his boots and passed me one. I lifted my eyebrows, impressed. “I learned from the best,” he said with a wink, turning so we were back-to-back as my father and uncles circled us like vultures to a carcass.
I resisted the overwhelming urge to shift at the sight of them circling us. I wanted to be able to call out warnings and directions to Navin in the melee if needed.
Navin whistled out for his dragon, but Haestas had taken to hunting in the evenings and was probably too far away. We’d have to keep her closer now that we had this target on our back.
That was, assuming we had a second chance...
Ora shot through the forest back toward the library when Hector ran out of the woods, shifting into his Wolf form as he chased after them.
“No!” I screamed, my hand reaching out as if I could stop my brother.
With a barked command from my father, Hector paused and turned back to the clearing. I was equally relieved for Ora and terrified for Navin and me—four Wolves against the two of us—all of them warriors, all my family.
Hector stood stock-still, neither moving to my father’s aide nor turning away and I wondered if my father commanded his son to stand there and watch how real Wolves fought.Watch as I teach your sister a lesson—the memory of my father saying that phrase so many times flashed in rapid succession in my mind. More, I remembered all the times I was bade to watch as my father took out his aggression on Hector under the guise of “teaching.”
Countless years and training sessions in our youth until I had no more lessons to learn—apparently, they hadn’t stuck for either of my father’s children. I swore the same thought crossed Hector’s mind as his eyes flicked to me and widened, his fear a warning that made me whirl back to the Silver Wolf prowling closer.
As my eyes landed on him, my father shot forward, his powerful maw snapping around my forearm and yanking me down. I cried out in pain as I fell to the ground, swiping at him with my blade.
Fuck this.
I shifted, rolling and snapping at my father’s side.
“There’s my girl,” my father goaded, speaking into my mind.“I wondered if you even remembered how to be a Wolf, you filthy skin chaser.”
“I’m most certainly a Wolf, while you’re still Nero’s lapdog I see,” I snarled back.
