Red and Her Wolf (Kingdom, #3)

Danika scoffed. “No, Miriam, I work alone. I’ve told you time and again I’ll not be needing the use of your boon…” Danika narrowed her eyes, a flash of red sailed past her vision. She stopped flying and gripped Miriam’s elbow. “Did you see that?” Danika whispered, heart pounding forcefully against her chest.

Miriam’s swirling lavender eyes scanned the valley below. Just at that moment, the last of the days light winked out like the pitiful flicker of candle glow. Kingdom was bathed in a sea of black and blue, making it hard to discern much of anything at the moment other than shadow and sound.

“See what?” Miriam’s brown and white speckled moth’s wings flitted slowly behind her back.

Danika frowned; sure she’d seen a flash of red. She licked her lips; rumor had it the Heartsong had been hidden here centuries ago. Unlimited power in the form of a beautiful girl, a conduit for any fairy, and power so tempting she’d had to be hidden. In the care of the only fairy known to be truly pure of heart: Jana the Green.

Or at least that’s what the tales said, but all within Kingdom knew never to believe such nonsense. Fairy tales rarely held a grain of truth to them, and if they did, it was stretched so thin as to be transparent.

Danika laughed. “I thought I saw-”

A surge of power rolled forcefully through Danika, she screamed as every limb locked in place, and she hurtled straight toward the ground. A loud buzz the only thing she heard as the ground rushed up to meet her face. Danika had only a moment to throw her arms in front of her, bracing for impact, when a strong pair of hands clamped onto her vest and halted her fall only inches from the ground.

The whites of Miriam’s eyes were large, and her breathing stilted and heavy. “Danika, what happened?”

Danika trembled, slow to regain feeling in her limbs. “My muscles. The power, t’was overwhelming…” the words died on her tongue as the flash of red brushed by mere yards to her right.

Miriam gasped, dropping Danika in her shock. Danika landed with a thud, air left her body on impact, and she glared at Miriam who was now visibly shaking.

“We must needs leave, Dani,” Miriam whimpered, and Danika might have asked why, had she not just seen for herself the cause of Miriam’s distress.

A large red wolf, stalked the maiden wearing the red hood. He padded on silent feet, moving like shadow behind her. The girl hummed, but this was not a relaxed song--more a nervous melody that vibrated through the woods haunting and eerie all at the same time.

Miriam landed beside Danika and yanked her to her feet. They were barely a foot tall, and well hidden behind a thick gooseberry shrub, but Miriam gulped and shivered as she pointed to the large beast. “The mark, Dani,” she hissed, “the beast wears her mark.”

The wolf’s ears twitched, and though he did not look their way, Danika knew he’d heard Mir.

Danika clamped her hand over Miriam’s mouth, urging her friend to silence. Then another wolf loped out from behind the woods and this one was bigger. A full hands length taller, the creature more resembled a hound of hell, than a wolf. Its black shaggy coat covered the muscular form like a bear’s pelt, lush and thick, gleaming like onyx in a flame. Its hackles were raised, and it too bore the mark.

A chain hung around its thick neck, with a small golden medallion embossed with a dragon in battle hung in plain sight. The mark was a sign of loyalty to Malvena the Black, the worst of all fairy kind--she’d turned her back on truth and light centuries ago, and though her reasons had at first been understandable (even honorable), they’d morphed and twisted into something dark and macabre.

Seeing the mark, knowing to whom they belonged, Danika knew the flash of red she’d seen had been very real. Malvena had one goal, find the Heartsong. All fairies scorned and mocked the black hearted fae, knowing her quest impossible. The Heartsong did not exist; she was a myth, a legend, nothing more.

The black wolf growled long and low, and birds shot from out tree branches into the air with a loud squawking cry.

Danika’s body still crackled with surging pockets of power, making her teeth clamp down hard.

“Come, Dani, we must leave,” Miriam tugged at Danika’s elbow. Danika hadn’t realized she’d begun walking toward the girl until Miriam stopped her.

Danika hugged her wand to her chest, frantic with an overwhelming need to go. Not to run away, but rather, to go to the girl.

“Dani,” Miriam groaned again, the whites of her eyes large in her face. Danika turned, ready to growl at Miriam to hush her mouth, but then Miriam started jerking. Her entire body shook, and a low moan vibrated from her chest.

The black wolf’s ears twitched, and Danika flicked her wand, casting a protective net around them to prevent any more sounds from reaching sensitive ears.

“Miriam,” she cried, grabbing her friend by the shoulders as she slumped to her knees on the ground.