He met me on a high hill overlooking a valley that danced in the light of two setting suns. He looked solemn and fair, and stepped up to me without a word. He folded my hand into his, and I felt suddenly stronger.
A faun with flowers in her hair and a silver bear wearing a rose-thorn crown held onto the cords tethering a huge hot air balloon to the earth. It was shaped like a painted egg and decorated like one, too, beautiful designs swirling blue and gold across the violet material. A basket was attached to the balloon and fire roared hot just beneath the fabric envelope.
“One last adventure, my lord Hal?”
He gave me a quick sharp smile and helped me climb into the balloon, then scrambled in after me. I looped my arm around his waist, holding him close.
The faun and the bear untied their cords and the balloon rose into the air, chasing the wind and the falling suns. The valley grew small beneath us. The sky grew large.
I wanted to say “I love you, stranger I met in a book—my white wolf. Tonight, I will free you.” The words echoed in my brain and I could almost taste them. But I didn’t speak, didn’t let them out. I just shut my eyes and listened to the sound of Hal’s breathing, warm and close at my ear.
I love you, stranger I met in a book.
We didn’t speak until the suns were gone and the stars were out, globes of radiant color that spun and flashed through the darkness.
I felt small and lost and empty. I didn’t want that moment to ever end.
“I will miss you, when you’ve gone,” said Hal quietly into my hair. “More than you can imagine.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
He glanced away, wordlessly folding my hand into his, and didn’t answer. He seemed older than I had ever seen him, weighed down with memory and sorrow and time.
“Hal.” Tell me the truth, I wanted to beg him. Please. There’s so little time left.
“I hope so. I hope—” He cut himself off and I dared to lift my free hand and touch his face, turning it once more to mine.
“Hope what?”
He swallowed, but did not pull away. His pulse beat quick and sharp in his throat beneath my fingertips. “I hope that you will not grow to hate me.”
I tried not to feel like my heart was breaking. I tried not to see that his was, too. “How could you even say that?”
“Thank you for trying to save me.”
And he bent his head and kissed me, soft and gentle and tangled in starlight. I kissed him back, despair unfolding inside of me, my hand wrapped around the packet of matches waiting in my pocket to free him, or destroy him, or maybe both.
THE WOLF WAS WAITING FOR me in the hall when I left the library, the print of Hal’s kiss still warm on my lips. I wanted to tell him that I knew his secret, that I was going to free him.
I love you, stranger I met in a book. I love you, Wolf who once was human.
“My Lady Echo,” he said, his voice slow and rough. “Will you walk with me in the garden? One last time?”
My heart pressed hard against my rib cage. There was maybe an hour left until midnight. No more. “I would be happy to.”
I followed him out to the garden and we rambled quietly through it, the stars gleaming cold over our heads, me bundled once more in the fur cloak. The wolf paced beside me and I lay one hand on his shoulder, trying to give him what comfort I could.
We sat behind the waterfall for nearly half an hour, the fire warm at our backs, and my hand went frequently to my pocket, checking that the matches were still there. I pondered telling him what I was planning to do, but what would that accomplish? There was a bond laid on him—he couldn’t talk about “her” in the house. And what if my attempt to tell him nullified everything? Or worse, what if he grew wild again and tried to stop me? No. It was better if he didn’t know.
“I will miss you, Echo Alkaev,” said the wolf, gruff and sad. “More than you can imagine. I am sorry. For everything.”
Tears swam before my eyes. “You won’t have to miss me, Wolf. I’m not going to let you go. Do you hear me? I’m not going to let you go.”
But he sighed and laid his head on my knee.
It was almost midnight. I wondered what would happen if we both stayed in the room behind the waterfall. If that would be enough to break the curse.
But the wolf rose wearily to his feet. “It is time, my lady.”
I nodded, and asked the house to bring us to the bedroom. A door appeared in the back of the cave, and we walked through it into the corridor just outside of my room.
It was strange, getting ready for bed for the last time. I dressed behind the screen, fumbling to transfer the matches from my skirt to the pocket in my nightgown. Snow fell soft outside the patch of window. I sent the screen away and crawled into bed. I blew out the lamp.
I heard the wolf crawl up beside me, his breaths uneven and quick, matching my heartbeat.
Did he know what I was planning to do? Would he stop me if he did?
“Good night, Wolf,” I whispered into the darkness.
“Good night, Echo,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I LISTENED TO HIM BREATHE BESIDE me, quieting my own breaths, trying to quiet my heart. The compass-watch ticked away the minutes against my breastbone and I waited, the packet of matches pressing sharp against my palm.
His breathing evened out, after a long, long while. I felt sure he was asleep, but still I waited, doubting my resolve.
At last, when the night was half spent and I couldn’t wait any longer, I reached quietly for the lamp on the bedside table.
I freed a match from the packet, and struck it. There was a flare of light and a smell of sulphur, and I lit the lamp with trembling hands, then shook the match out.
My heart was a tumult in my ears. I could barely breathe.
But I turned in the bed, and lifted the lamp to illuminate who lay beside me.
A little cry escaped my lips, and the hand holding the lamp shook.
It was Hal, lying there. He slept deeply, his face pressed into the pillow, his eyes shut tight. He looked different than he had in the books, lines in his face and threads of silver in his hair, but he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
I wanted to set down the lamp, crawl into his arms and fall asleep with my head tucked under his chin. But I didn’t, just watched him, the lamp quivering in my hand.
Hal shifted in his sleep, and the movement startled me. The lamp wavered, and, shining like a spot of amber, a drop of oil spilled onto his cheek.
For half an instant, nothing happened, and then Hal jerked awake, a cry of pain on his lips. His eyes roved wild around the room, and fixed in horror on my face.
“Echo,” he gasped, his voice high and hoarse. “Echo, what have you done?”
The room began to shake.
I dropped the lamp.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
FLAMES LEAPT UP FROM THE FALLEN lamp. The house shook. The world shook.
“Listen to me,” said Hal. “Listen to me. She’s coming, Echo. She’s coming to take me and you must leave this place. As fast as you can, do you hear me? Run. Run through the wood to your father’s house and don’t look back.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and I stared at him, shaking as violently as the house. “Hal, I thought—Hal—”
“Promise me. Echo, you have to promise me you’ll run, that you won’t try and find me. Not this time.”
The flames crawled higher, casting wild shadows on Hal’s face. Fear seared through me. “But what about you?” I cried over the noise of the house. “I wanted to save you!”
“You have.”
He clung to me as the house wheeled roaring around us, and then all at once a spot of snow touched my cheek and a coldness deep as death crept into my bones.
Hal released me. The house was gone—we stood in the snow below a high hill, the lamp somehow still beside us, spitting flames into the dark.
And then I realized we weren’t alone. Enormous black wolves were coming toward us, their eyes glowing red, their teeth flashing sharp in the firelight. Foam dripped from their mouths.
Hal’s eyes met mine. He stood in the snow in only his shirtsleeves, shuddering with cold.
I had chosen wrong.
I had betrayed him.
“The Wolf Queen has claimed me.” His words sounded hollow, his voice not quite his own. “She enchanted me.”