Page 10 of Moon Guardian
The storms were here, which meant I was going to be infected by the Plague if I didn’t find shelter.
But shelter meant hiding. It meant abandoning the rest of my family to their fate, giving up and letting the wolves win.
Fuck. That.
Another freezing drop ran down my back. Then another hit my arm as I stood rigid, accepting my fate. It might kill me, but I would complete my mission tonight to stop this from happening.
Instead of making me feel sick, or blur my vision as it should have, everything sharpened. My nostrils flared as all the miraculous scents of the forest hit me all at once.
Evergreen.
Pine.
Moss.
Sandalwood and spice…
The last scent had a distinct flavor to it, one that called to a part of my soul that shouldn’t exist.
It was as if my reaction to the Goddess magic had put it there.
A connection to a wolf in this forest.
Perhaps… the wolf that had killed Charlie?
An unpleasant chill ran up my spine, and not because of the freezing rain. Pulling my hoodie over my head, I backed away into the shadows and continued on my quest.
It didn’t matter what kind of games the gods wanted to play tonight. There was a ceremony creating a deadly magical storm and I was going to stop it, one way or another.
While I wasn’t the best tracker, I was definitely good athidingmy tracks. I moved into stealth, my motions becoming eerily silent as I moved from tree to tree. Even in the dim moonlight I had no trouble spotting stray branches on the forest floor to avoid, or crunchy leaves that I sidestepped with ease.
Something inside of me was changing. Good. I would use it against the wolves that hunted my kind down for sport before I succumbed to the poison. My death would have meaning.
When I couldn’t scent the wolf anymore, I broke into a run, silently speeding through the forest as I continued north.
My feet took me swiftly through the forest, dodging rays of moonlight as I kept to the darkness. I chose the path with puddles, hoping to hide my scent. Thanks to the storms, tiny rivers ran down the trees, providing me with ample options to run.
The icy rain splashed up my legs, sticking to my leather trousers and hopelessly infecting me to the point that I should have been paralyzed. Instead, it seemed to lighten me, giving me speed and energy as I wound my way through the trees.
When the canopy broke, I slowed, spotting glittering lights in the distance and massive towers that marked the city, framing a massive moonbeam that shot up into the sky.
No, not towers, I remembered. Stories from my Aunt Daliah had called themskyscrapers.
In any other life, it would have been beautiful. A sea of stars on land glittered before me, framed by the High Moon and a massive beam that parted the worst of the storms as the clouds swirled around an epicenter.
My destination.
Crouching, I kept to the tree line, but there weren’t many places for me to hide. Searching for any sign of guards or protection, I decided that the two posts above the gates would have lookouts, although they seemed dark. Maybe everyone left when it was time for the ceremony, assuming humans would be too stupid to travel through the storms, or dead if exposed.
I might have been stupid, but I most certainly wasn’t dead. Not yet.
When I reached the massive gates, I found the bars wide enough for a slim girl to slip through. Glancing behind me, I squeezed my way through the bars, sucking in my breath so that I could make it all the way to the other side.
Winding up on an open path of black stone, I’d never felt so exposed in all my life. Crouching again, my nostrils flared as I tried to catch any hint of danger. A strange energy hummed in the air and distant drumbeats accompanied by echoing howls told me that I was most assuredly not alone. While I had not yet been discovered, someone was out there in the forest and they’d be returning home.
Slinking into the city, I frowned at the hard rock underneath my feet. It grated against my soft shoes designed to be flexible in the forest, the tiny rocks unforgiving and unmoving against my slight weight. I couldn’t understand what magic had formed such unpleasant paths.
The buildings were intimidating, but they provided me shelter from prying eyes as I reached them, keeping my direction pinpointed to the blinding light shooting up from the center of the city.
