Red and Her Wolf (Kingdom, #3)

“What?” Danika asked.

The red wolf vibrated, and then pounced so quickly Danika couldn’t follow his blur. He sailed through the air, mouth open and teeth inches from the huddled girl’s neck. Danika and Miriam finally found their senses, and pulled their wands out of their sleeves, hot pink power crackled upon its tip, ready to blast the red wolf into oblivion, when the black jumped on red’s back and sunk his teeth into the other wolf’s neck. The sound of a spine cracking blasted through the eerie hush and then the red wolf dropped like sack cloth to the packed dirt floor.

The black wolf breathed heavy, mad glowing eyes stared intently at the girl who still refused to look at him. Danika raised her wand.

“No!” Miriam cried, slapping the wand from Danika’s hands. The pink bolt of power arced into the air, shooting off the roof, and burning a black hole through the thatch. The scent of burnt grass was everywhere.

“What the bloody hell?” Danika yelled in bewilderment, turning wide frantic eyes toward the beast. Miriam had slapped her only source of power from her hands.

Black’s head jerked in their direction, his long pink tongue lolled out of his mouth as his ribcage flexed in and out. The red wolf wasn’t dead; a small whimper escaped his fanged jaws.

“WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE?” The voice could belong to no other. It cracked through the room with power, all the fine hairs on the nape of Danika’s neck stood on edge, then a blue blast of light poured through the room in a wave.

Everything paused. The wolves stopped breathing, the girl stopped whimpering, even the wind stopped breezing through the dank confines. Time itself held its breath.

Galeta the Blue--Head Mistress of Fairy, Inc. and Ruler of all Fae--appeared ghost-like within the blue radiance. “I felt the disturbance of my song, where is she? Where is the Girl!” she demanded, sharp fangs standing out in shockingly bold relief compared to the doll like innocence of her young face.

Her ghostly head turned, and a sharp gasp escaped, then glacial blue eyes locked first on Danika, then on Miriam. A sneer curled her tipped nose. “You!”

Miriam winced.

“I should have known you’d be here, you coward. You swine. What have you done?”

Danika flew before her friend. Galeta had never much cared for Miriam. Not since the day of the Summoning; the day all fairies were received by the oracle and told what their ultimate destiny would be. All knew Miriam’s kith descended from greatness. Every one of Cherry Blossom stock went on to rule the Kingdom as head Mistress. Every last one, that was, until the Oracle told Miriam she was destined to rule and Galeta was to be muse of the arts. Though Miriam had rejected her course, and chosen instead to be untethered and a free fairy, Galeta had never forgotten, or forgiven.

“She’s done no wrong,” Danika quickly asserted. “We were feeding the flowers when we came upon the scene. What is this, Galeta? What horrors have transpired this night?” Danika wrung her hands, still not sure what she’d witnessed. What had happened.

Galeta held her chin high, but the light of fury slowly dimmed. “The Heartsong’s been discovered.” She stared at the unmoving bundle draped in red on the floor. “What did you see?”

Danika barely had a moment to digest the news that the Heartsong did in fact exist. Not like she hadn’t already put the pieces together, but to hear Galeta admit it as truth was… shocking. “Like I said, we were too late, Mistress. We entered to find Jana already dead and the black,” she pointed to the large wolf, frozen, and staring at them with hollow gold eyes, “attacking the red.”

A green glow began to emanate from within the savaged remains of Jana’s broken body. Galeta pursed her lips, eyebrows raised. “We haven’t much time,” she said cryptically. “I need to access the black wolf’s mind.”

The moment she said it, the wolf’s limbs unlocked, he wuffed, shook his shaggy head and then growled.

“To me, wolf,” Galeta snapped her fingers. Though Galeta was not with them in form, her power was such that the wolf had no choice but to spring to her ghostly apparition, head bowed and breathing heavily under the influence of forced magic.

“Esmeralda,” Galeta cried over her shoulder, a moment later a second figure emerged from within the blue fog of light.

Esmeralda--fairy of justice and truth--was a lovely counterpoint to Galeta’s sharp cruelty. Fair of skin, with forest green eyes, she was the ideal representation of what most mortals believed the fae to be. “Yes, sister dear,” she said in a flute like voice.

“Enter the hut, discover the truth,” Galeta ordered.

“As you wish.” Esmeralda bowed her head.