Page 116 of Broken Veil
As they fought, the females of the herd encircled the younger animals and ran back toward the forest, leaving the two battling animals behind as they protected their young.
Godrik held the bull off as the crows cackled from the branches and clouds of starlings whirled overhead.
There was snarling and bellowing, howls and barks.
“They’re not stopping,” Joshua said. “They will kill each other.”
The bull charged at Godrik with his head down, knocking him over and stomping his massive hoof on the wolf’s leg. But Godrik struck, twisting his body to clamp his jaws around the bull’s front leg, shaking his head until Carys heard an audible snap.
“No!” Naida cried.
The bison huffed and roared. It stumbled back, limping.
Then, just as suddenly as the bull had become aggressive, he stopped. The animal backed away from the wolf on the ground, shook his head and twitched his ears. Then a second later, he walked into the trees on unsteady legs to follow his herd into the forest.
Carys turned to Joshua to see the god holding up a hand and whispering something under his breath.
“What did you do?” Carys asked.
“A natural bison stampede I can’t do anything about,” Joshua said. “Sometimes the world works that way. But that bull was possessed.” He nodded at the crows, who cawed at them one more time before they flapped away. “And I do know a little bit about animals being possessed.”
Godrik lay on the ground, his leg at an odd angle and his side heaving as he struggled to breathe.
Naida ran to him. “Godrik!”
Cadell, Duncan, and Lachlan sped toward Carys.
“Are you safe?” Duncan wrapped her in his arms. “Christ, I was terrified.”
Joshua cocked his head at Duncan. “I know.”
Duncan blinked. “Oh. Right.”
Laura and Naida were kneeling by Godrik on the ground.
“He needs help!” Laura shouted. “There’s a lot of blood.”
“Godrik?” Naida was cradling the wolf’s head in her lap. She looked up at Joshua. “If he’s here in wolf form, there must be a gate nearby. Help me get him to the gate and I can heal him.”
“There is.” Joshua looked at Lachlan, Duncan, and Cadell. “You three, carry your friend. I’ll show you the way.”
“I can’t believeI found you.” Godrik’s shaggy silver and black hair seemed even darker in the pale light of the fae gate. “I heard Naida screaming, and I just ran. I don’t even know how I found the gate or why it let me through.”
Naida hadn’t even taken the time to get them out of the forest. The moment they’d crossed into the nighttime world of the Shadowlands, Joshua had disappeared, as had the sun, and the blue lights of the wisps were the only thing that illuminated the world around them.
“How are you feeling now?” Naida brushed Godrik’s hair off his forehead.
“Better.” His grey eyes were soft on her. “I went back to the gate in Alba. The moment we went through, I heard a pack of young wolves crying for help, but I never found them.”
“A trick.” Angus was back in his natural form, loping around the clearing in the dark forest and stretching his goat legs. “No doubt the dark fae wanted to draw you away.”
Naida sat on the ground, putting her back against a fallen log and sinking her hands into the forest soil.
Godrik nodded. “I wandered for hours and hours. By the time I returned to where I last remembered you, all of you were gone.” He looked at Naida. “And then I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
The ellyllon’s face was pale and drawn.
“She needs living water,” Godrik said. “And food.”
