The Wolf's Heart

by Rain Oxford

  * * *

  Sigrid knew that she had very little time to live outside the castle, so she explored the world and only returned to the castle for a few days twice in the first three years. Although Gmork missed her terribly, he was happy that she was happy. Plus, he had Erica to distract him.

  When Sigrid did return for good, it was because she was too embarrassed to show her face to the public. No matter what Gmork tried, it failed to give her back her youth. “How could you bring me back knowing I would suffer like this?”

  Gmork had never heard the accusatory and cruel tone from his mother. Before the sleeping curse, both of his parents were loving and kind, albeit strict. After the curse, his father went mad with loneliness. It appeared his mother was going the same way. He knew it was because of her magic. His bloodline was very powerful and a bond in marriage was weaved into their magic.

  Sigrid grew crueler every day until no one in the castle could stand her except Gmork. Erica put the idea into his head that someone would hurt her, so he locked her in the tower where she was safe.

  * * *

  Erica had a bag packed and was rushing out the door to the carriage that was waiting for her outside. Gmork was right behind her, trying to convince her to stay. “We are so close to a breakthrough. Why do you have to leave now?”

  She stopped long enough to kiss him. “I have to go help my father. I will only be gone a month.”

  I looked at Merlin, who shook his head. “I do not like where this is going.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Gmork said. “I want to meet him.”

  She took his hands, “I look forward to the day you will, but now isn’t a good time. His work is dangerous and secret. Soon, though, he will be done and I’ll be all yours. Until then, will you wait for me?”

  “Of course.”

  She started to leave, then paused and pulled out a handkerchief. “Kiss this so that I can keep your love with me.”

  “No,” Merlin said quietly.

  I didn’t know what he was objecting to, but Gmork didn’t hear him. He kissed the cream-colored silk and then she was gone.

  A few days passed. Gmork was sitting at the dinner table when the door burst open and Nimue entered. She was furious. “I know what you did,” she said. When she stopped in front of him, he stood and opened his mouth to speak. She slapped him. “You took my memories.”

  That wasn’t the Nimue I knew.

  “I did it for your own good.”

  She slapped him again. “You did it for yourself! You thought you could make me love you!”

  “I wanted to give you the---”

  “Never! I will never love you! No matter what you do, you’re not enough. I deserve someone better, like Merlin!”

  “That’s why I---”

  “I hate you!”

  I could practically hear Gmork’s heart shattering. My wand appeared in my hand, but when I tried to make Nimue stop, my magic didn’t respond.

  “This is a memory, young sorcerer,” Merlin said, sounding no happier about this than I was.

  “How could she say that to him?”

  He shook his head, which I took to mean either he didn’t know, or the possibilities were too horrible to speak.

  Gmork reached out to brush her hair back, as he had done a thousand times before, but she smacked his hands away and pushed him. Unresisting, he fell back and tripped over his chair, hitting his head on the side of the table. “Don’t ever touch me again!” Nimue demanded.

  When she pulled a dagger out of a harness on her waist, Merlin grabbed my arm and pulled me away, instinctively protecting me. Gmork’s instinct was to protect himself; he held his hand out as if to push her back and said, “Létta!”

  Bright light flashed and Nimue shouted with pain. When the magic faded, it was ominously silent. Nimue was on the ground, not breathing.

  “No!” Gmork pulled her limp body into his arms and hugged her. Tears flowed down his cheeks. I wanted to look away, but I knew this wasn’t the end, because Nimue wasn’t dead.

  I wasn’t surprised when Erica appeared beside him and, using the same handkerchief she had him kiss before, wiped his tears. He looked up at her, more concerned about Nimue than Erica’s sudden appearance.

  “Can you save her?”

  “Save who?”

  Then Nimue vanished.

  “Where did she go?”

  “She was never here to begin with. You didn’t really think she would leave Merlin to see you, did you?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s the best part. You were so blinded by your desperate need for love that you couldn’t see the truth when it slapped you in the face. No one loves you, Gmork. You’re as welcome as the reaper. That is your curse as a necromancer; everything you do will lead to death and misery.” She pulled out a potion bottle and emptied the silver liquid inside into the handkerchief. “Don’t worry, though. Soon, you won’t feel any pain. Not emotional pain, anyway.”

  “What are you doing?”

  She waved her hand over the handkerchief and a cold blue light emerged. Before I could ask Merlin what it was, the light shot into Gmork’s chest. He gasped with pain and shivered violently. “With the kiss of innocent love and tears of a broken heart, I have frozen your heart. From now on, you are incapable of feeling love or joy. Only true love’s kiss can break the curse, and since the only two people you have ever loved will never reciprocate it, the curse will never be broken.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because you’re going to help me get revenge on the person I hate the most.”

  “Merlin.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why do you hate him so much?”

  “We were both born to help my father rule, but no matter what I did for my father, no matter how good and obedient a child I was, I was born to be sacrificed. Death is the greatest honor I can ever achieve in my father’s eyes. Merlin was the one he chose to rule by his side. For that, Merlin will pay dearly.”

  She vanished and Gmork collapsed.

  Sometime later, Gmork woke and retired to his bed chamber, but his eyes were different. Although they still glowed like green fire, they reflected the coldness in his heart.

  * * *

  Time skipped forward again to show him in Merlin’s cabin. When Nimue entered, she spotted Gmork and froze. It wasn’t with fear or anger but with surprise. In fact, her eyes lit up. “Gmork… what are you doing here?”

  Gmork’s eyes didn’t reflect the love they once did. “I have been cursed, and you are the only one who can break it.”

  “Oh. Tell me what I have to do. Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

  “Kiss me.”

  “How will that help?”

  “I need a kiss from true love.”

  She frowned. “I don’t love you.”

  “You do, you just forgot.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He sighed with impatience, then went to her and kissed her. There was no warmth in it, and I knew before he released her that the curse wasn’t broken. He frowned. “It did not work.”

  “I don’t love you,” she repeated as gently as she could.

  “You will. You will have to stay with me until you do.”

  “But you said I didn’t---”

  “Or I will kill Merlin.”

  She froze. “What? Why would you do that? He’s your friend.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “He’s immortal.”

  “I am a necromancer. I know his weakness and can destroy him.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Look into my eyes and tell me I am lying.”

  She did, and her eyes quickly dropped. “Your heart is so cold.”

  “And it will be until you break the curse, because you and Merlin are the reason I was cursed. You will come with me and only when you love me and break the curse will I let you go free. You will do this willingly.”

  After a moment, she nodded.
“Can I at least leave him a letter explaining why---”

  “No,” he interrupted. “I will write him the letter. You will be quiet and do as you are told.”

  That was when I knew the curse was unbreakable. Not even Nimue’s pure heart could break it, because although she could grow to love him again, he no longer loved her. Erica had destroyed Gmork in her effort to get revenge on Merlin.

  * * *

  I thought that was the end of the vision, but instead, time skipped forward again. Nimue was openly weeping on her bed as Gmork, in his wolf form, entered. His fur was still covered in blood from killing Quinn after his transformation. “You could have left with Merlin.”

  “It’s too late. I’ve caught your darkness. I don’t want Merlin to see me this way.”

  “I will never forgive you.” She didn’t answer. “Come with me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I told you to.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “You chose to do this to me. You chose to stay here. Now you will obey. You may still have magic, but that will not stop me. I can stay awake for much longer than you.”

  With a few sniffles, she climbed out of bed and followed him. “Since I can no longer take care of her myself, you will have to do it for me.”

  “Who?” she asked. Instead of answering, he stopped in front of Sigrid’s tower. Nimue was only confused for a moment when her eyes lit up. “You woke her?”

  Gmork nodded. After she got the key from Gmork’s room, she unlocked the doors and went inside. When she saw Sigrid, sitting alone and miserable, it was not horror that made her hesitate. “Is she in pain?”

  “No,” Gmork said.

  Nimue went to Sigrid and knelt in front of her, gently touching Sigrid’s cheek. “Hello. I’m Nimue. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Gmork expected Sigrid to strike or scream at Nimue, but instead, she took Nimue’s hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, as well. I have waited nearly three hundred years. I am so glad my son has you back in his life.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Sigrid patted her hand. “You will. I only hope I live long enough to see the curse broken.”

  Nimue looked to Gmork, confused as to which curse she was talking about, since there were plenty to choose from at this point. Gmork shrugged.

  * * *

  Once again, time moved forward. This time, they were in the sunlit garden next to the pond. Nimue sat beside Gmork while he rested, playing with a puff of black fur on his left ear. “Merlin doesn’t realize the curse is killing you, does he?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  “He need not know about the curse at all.”

  “You’re his friend. He would understand.”

  “He has not been my friend for a long time.”

  “The ice stopped spreading since I kissed you, though. That means it can be broken. I’m sure Merlin can help.”

  “As long as you are close, it does not spread. If I let you go to him, you would never return and then I would die.”

  “I wouldn’t let you die.”

  “Until you love me and break the curse, I do not believe you.”

  “I chose to stay with you when I had the chance to leave with Merlin. You should trust me.”

  He studied her for a moment. “Before the curse, I did, and you broke that trust. You fell in love with someone else. Now I will never trust you.”

  She hugged him and pressed her face against his neck. “I want to break your curse, but I don’t know how.”

  After a while of silence, he said, “I know.”

  Chapter 17

  I woke quickly on the hard stone floor. Merlin was already awake and the silence was awkward. “Should we pretend we didn’t---” I was interrupted as the door slammed open and Gmork stormed in.

  “You had no right to invade my mind like that!”

  Merlin didn’t get angry or loud, though. “You could have told me about the curse.”

  “Why would I have? I did not need your help. When I needed your friendship as a child, you turned your back on me. Why would I trust you now?”

  “I should not have. I regretted it and I missed you, but I did not want to get involved with necromancy.”

  “I would have understood that if you told me! I would have done it when you were not around! Instead, you threw away years of friendship without a word. You think I’m the one with the frozen heart? I would never have done that to you.”

  “I know.”

  Merlin already regretted so much of his past. It wasn’t fair for Gmork to blame Merlin… even though he was right. Merlin did promise to return with no intention of following up on that. That was the last thing he said to Gmork before getting trapped in the cave for more than a hundred years. If Merlin did that to me, I wouldn’t have taken it so easily.

  “What did Nimue mean that you were dying?”

  Gmork gestured to his chest with his paw. I could barely make out that his skin was lighter than it should have been. “My fur hides it, but a patch of ice formed on my skin after Erica cursed me. It spread slowly until Nimue kissed me the second time.”

  “When she made you a wolf?”

  He nodded. “She must have felt something for me then.”

  “What kind of magic gets destroyed by a kiss?” I asked.

  Gmork ignored me. “At that point, it stopped spreading until she was kidnapped to be used against you. Then she was kidnapped to be used against you for a second time. You really are detrimental to her health. I was much better at protecting her than you were.”

  “What do you feel when she’s around?” I asked.

  Gmork thought about it for a moment and I didn’t expect him to answer. “Warmer. I feel things when she is around.”

  “What about now?”

  “Anything I feel now is residual effects from her presence.”

  “Then you do not feel guilty for what you are doing now?” Merlin asked.

  Gmork gaped. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “What is he doing?” I asked.

  “I know you, Gmork. I know when you are lying to me. I know when you are keeping something from me.” When Gmork didn’t say anything, Merlin answered me. “Erica told him to make sure we never achieved our goal.”

  “No,” Gmork said. “She told me to make sure you got the heart. Then she told me if I took it from you and killed you, she would break both curses over me and let me have Nimue.”

  “And you believed her?” I asked. “Even I know it’s a lie.”

  “I was not planning on it. I was foolish enough to fall for her tricks the first time. I will not do so for a second time. I did keep it in mind, though.”

  “To be honest, she’s one of the best liars I’ve ever met,” I said. “A large part of me knew that she was manipulating you, but a small part of me felt that she was too sincere. I wondered if Merlin and I had misjudged her somehow. Maybe I can help,” I said. “I’m a curse breaker.”

  “This type of curse is beyond your skills at this point, young sorcerer,” Merlin said.

  “I should at least try.”

  “No,” Gmork said. “I am a necromancer; I understand what the price is for magic.”

  “Erica is your enemy as much as mine, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Tell me how to free my magic so that we can both save Nimue.”

  Gmork thought deeply for a long moment before nodding.

  Merlin and I switched. Merlin started by carefully washing and drying himself. Once he found some silver paint and a brush, Gmork told him what sigils to write and where to paint them on himself. I wasn’t of much help, so Merlin had to write many of them on paper and gave it to Arrow to paint on his back. After Arrow left and the paint was dry, Merlin meditated. He was so good at it that the paint immediately started glowing white.

  And then I felt darkness come over me.

  * * *

  I was in an unfamiliar forest with Merlin standing in front o
f me. His eyes were glowing red. I knew running was pointless; he was much faster. However, his will was strong. “Merlin. It’s me, Ayden. You’re not a wolf. You’re a wise and kind wizard.”

  He growled.

  “You’re my friend. Please remember me and fight the curse.”

  I saw his right front leg twitch. I had seen it many times before and knew what it meant; he was about to charge. I ran as fast as I could. He was right behind me, nipping at me. He could have caught me, but he was toying with me instead. Unlike his normal teasing, this was cruel.

  I ran and he chased until I was completely out of breath and my sides and legs burned. When I tripped over a rock and slid to the ground, I didn’t bother trying to get up. Merlin was on me in an instant.

  * * *

  I woke filled with panic and fury. The wolf wanted to fight. Merlin was out of meditation and looked completely shocked and horrified. I couldn’t stop myself from growling at him. He reached out. “Ayden, I am---”

  I– the wolf, rather, lunged at him, but Gmork easily flattened me with a single paw. Instead of making the wolf want to fight more, he settled down and slipped into the back of my mind. Gmork let me go.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “That was not me. I tried to stop the wolf, but he would not listen to me. I have no idea why he would go after you.”

  “It is bound to be different for everyone,” Gmork said.

  “I’m sorry my wolf attacked when I woke.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for.”

  “But you still don’t have your magic, right?”

  “I will find a way to defeat him that does not risk your life.” When Merlin took his wolf form again, the paint remained on his skin under his fur so that he could finish the spell later.

  * * *

  Vactarus, Arrow, Gmork, Merlin, and I sat around the table. Vactarus, of course, wasn’t eating, but he seemed to have fun pretending to. I knew it was lonely for Vactarus since Sonya left.

  “Have you figured out the next step to get the heart yet?” Vactarus asked me.