by C. L. Bright
He shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible.”
“Why so skeptical?”
“It seems more likely someone messed with the spell and caused the change,” he explained. “I know you aren’t implying that there was an imbalance because the practice of keeping familiars was wrong.”
I caught the warning in his voice and nearly cursed myself for being so careless. Arguing against widely held beliefs wasn’t the best way to avoid attracting attention.
“No, of course not. I suppose you’re right,” I agreed. “I’ve always wanted to meet a pixie.”
“Because they sound like adorable creatures?” he asked.
“That’s part of it,” I admitted. “I’ve heard they aren’t that way at all. I used to spend a lot of time trying to imagine what they’re like. I even drew pictures of what they might look like.”
“What did you come up with?”
“Mostly, I drew them as tiny people with butterfly wings,” I explained. “For a while, I imagined them as cats with wings. Wouldn’t it be amazing if more magical beings could work together rather than avoid each other? Think of all we could accomplish.”
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “You, Juliet, are a dreamer.”
“Hardly,” I replied with a snort.
“You are,” he argued. “It’s not a bad thing—not usually a bad thing, anyway. Serena can’t keep her feet grounded enough to follow the rules.”
“Why did she do it?” I asked. “She told me what happened, but she didn’t give many details.”
He stopped and met my gaze. “She believed it was the right thing to do. Serena has always acted on instinct without taking the time to consider the consequences. She’s an example of why deciding our life path based on our family doesn’t always work. Serena was never meant to be a hunter. Nicolas has always considered her a liability, and now he doesn’t trust her.”
“Is that why he used the truth spell on her yesterday? Does he do that often?”
“This is the fourth time he’s done that, and I doubt he’ll do it again since the rest of the family wasn’t thrilled with some of her honesty. My father finally stepped in.”
“Honesty can be hard to take. Did Serena start carrying the knife around after she was put on house arrest?”
He shook his head. “No, she’s carried the knife for years. Serena likes you, and I’m sure she’ll tell you more. If I tell you, she’ll feel hurt and embarrassed.”
“All right,” I agreed, though I didn’t expect to be around long enough for Serena to open up to me. “I don’t like your brother.”
He didn’t need to ask which brother I meant. I didn’t have a strong opinion on Ambrose, but he seemed okay for a warlock.
“Not many people like Nicolas,” Dante replied. “He’s always been needlessly cruel to those around him. I have an ugly scar on my thigh from when he stabbed me with a ceremonial dagger.”
“Were you fighting?” I asked.
“I was two,” he replied.
“How old was Nicolas?” I asked indignantly. I’d stopped walking, too angry to take another step.
What kind of person stabbed their own sibling?
I didn’t get along with my half-brother, but I still doubted Ellis knew what his mother had done—at least not before it was too late. He was still young and easily manipulated by his mother, but he wasn’t cruel.
“Nicolas was seven.”
“That’s horrible,” I replied. “He’s your brother.”
“You already know families don’t always stick up for each other,” he reminded me. “My father believes Nicolas’s ruthlessness makes him leadership material.”
“I take it your father believes in ruling by fear,” I remarked.
“He believes in ruling by any means necessary,” he stated. “Fear isn’t his first choice, unlike with Nicolas, but he’s willing to go that route when necessary.”
I was about to ask a question when I heard screams.
“Damnit!” Dante looked in the direction of the screams and then back at me as if not sure what to do. Finally, he spoke in an urgent tone. “Stay right here. I need to deal with this. Try to avoid talking to anyone.”
He didn’t wait for a response before turning and running toward the commotion.
“The Verdugo will deal with that rabid familiar,” someone said.
“Yes, he’ll kill the beast.”
So much for my pleasant stroll with Dante.
Chapter 12
I didn’t know what the shapeshifter had done to warrant a death sentence, but I suspected many forced to remain in one form would snap eventually. The longer we stayed in animal form, the more out of touch we became with the other side of our nature. We needed to be in both forms.
Thoughts of my safety forgotten, I hurried in the direction Dante had gone, not sure what I planned to do. It’s not as if I could win a fight against Dante and the others to rescue a shapeshifter. I also couldn’t stand by and let Dante execute a shapeshifter whose only crime was likely wanting freedom.
“Stay back!” Dante shouted to the spellcasters around him. “It will kill you if you make it feel even more trapped.”
The power in his voice stopped me in my tracks, and I watched as Dante slowly closed in on the giant wolf who’d escaped the nearby toppled cage. There was an awful lot of blood, some of it on the wolf. I didn’t know if he’d been injured or if the blood belonged to one or more of the Azureans.
With my strange connection to Dante’s magic, I felt his power flowing out of him. It didn’t feel hostile, and I got no sense that he was about to attack the wolf.
Around me, some were trying to get out of the area while others pushed closer to watch.
Dante didn’t take his eyes off of the wolf when he spoke to me. His voice sounded so calm that one would never guess he was facing a wolf in a killing mood. “Juliet, get the others away from here before someone else gets hurt. There’s no reason anyone has to die today.”
I hoped I wasn’t reading what I wanted into Dante’s words. It was always possible he wasn’t telling me he didn’t plan to kill the wolf, but it felt like a message to me. In the end, it didn’t matter since the wolf was less likely to get hurt without an audience inciting him.
The wolf’s gaze moved to me. He still looked poised to attack, but his curiosity about my presence gave him pause.
“How am I supposed to get them to leave?” I asked quietly.
“Order them to leave,” he replied. “You’re with me, so they’ll respect you as a member of the Verdugo family.”
I turned to face the crowd, hoping Dante was right. “Everyone needs to get out of this area now!”
“Who are you to tell us what to do?” demanded a witch who moved to stand toe-to-toe with me. She was about five inches taller than me with long blonde hair, pale skin, and soft blue eyes. “I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m Dante’s witch. My warlock is trying to do his job. If you get out of here, I’ll be able to help him. Or do you hope to get another Azurean injured so you can watch the show?”
They didn’t all simply disperse, but I won a few over, including the witch who’d challenged me.
“You heard the Verdugo’s witch!” she shouted at the others.
A warlock stepped forward. “The Verdugo and his witch know best how to handle the situation.”
Two others helped get the crowd out of the area. I didn’t think that gave us complete privacy, but it was an improvement.
I edged closer to Dante. “Don’t even think about telling me to leave so I won’t see what you do to this poor shapeshifter.”
“Can you talk to him and calm him down?” Dante asked me. “I’ll have no choice but to kill him if we can’t get the situation under control.”
“It depends on how long you’ve forced him to stay in animal form,” I replied.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Dante admitted. “He’s in the market, so he’s either newly captured, or he’s b
eing traded. Try to convince him that I won’t hurt him.”
I snorted as I saw the wolf’s eyes narrow on Dante. “He doesn’t believe you, and you don’t need me to help him understand you.”
“But you can understand him?” Dante asked quietly.
“Not exactly,” I replied. “I can sense his meaning based on his actions. He hasn’t attacked, so he’s curious about your intentions but still wary.”
The wolf’s focus shifted back to me, and I saw his other side peeking through his amber eyes. It was close to the surface, struggling to break free of the spell holding him in animal form.
“Promise you won’t let him be hurt,” I told Dante. “That’s the only way I can help you.”
“If you don’t help me, he may die,” Dante warned.
My eyes never left the wolf’s, and I sensed his meaning as clearly as if he were speaking to me. He was a powerful shapeshifter, likely near the top of the hierarchy.
“He’d rather die than be a slave,” I whispered. “This is so wrong.”
Dante remained quiet so long that I wondered if he planned to respond.
“Please, Dante.”
“Please, what?” he asked without looking at me. “What do you want me to do?”
“Release him,” I replied softly. “He’s too powerful to live like this.”
Dante let out a tired breath and nodded.
The wolf looked resigned. He knew there was nowhere to run. He hadn’t become so lost in his animal form that he couldn’t reason that he’d be recaptured anywhere within Azuredale. I doubted he believed I’d be able to convince Dante to release him, and he preferred death.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I felt the full gravity of his situation. Death was his only escape.
“Trust me, Juliet,” Dante murmured. “I’m doing this for you. Either that or because I’ve lost my mind.” His gaze met the wolf’s. “Don’t fight this.”
There was no time to ask for an explanation. Dante removed a black orb, a death spell, from his pocket before chanting quietly. “Lesto marietes diorgio.”
He tossed the orb, and the wolf dropped to the ground. A deafening silence filled the air for what seemed like several minutes but likely only lasted seconds.
After that, the Azureans emerged. Some complained that Dante had killed such a powerful familiar while several thanked him for keeping them safe. Still, others asked questions about me.
Dante ignored them all and slung the large wolf over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. “I still have work to do,” he announced.
The crowd made a path for us to walk through.
I shouldn’t feel angry with Dante for killing the wolf as I kept reminding myself. It’s not as if he could have gotten the other Azureans to release the shapeshifter. Death had been the only option, yet I still felt shocked after watching him kill the wolf.
The shock of what I’d witnessed started to wear off, and I heard it.
Shallow breathing and the faint beat of the wolf’s heart.
He wasn’t dead.
Chapter 13
Dante didn’t say a word to me as he walked toward a large building with several vehicles inside. He spoke briefly to someone before being directed to a truck. After loading the wolf into the back, he opened the passenger door for me, and once I was inside, he went around to the driver’s side.
“Where are we going?” I asked as he drove out of the market area.
“We dispose of all shapeshifter bodies in the same place,” he explained. “I have to go there to log the corpse.”
“But he’s not dead,” I stated.
“You’re making my life difficult,” Dante muttered.
I opened my mouth to fire off an angry retort before closing it and laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, looking genuinely confused.
“I was about to tell you that you aren’t exactly making my life any easier, but you’re not the one who complicated my life. It might be even more complicated without you.”
“Thank you for trusting me,” he said as he spared me a glance.
“It’s not easy, but you’ve given me no reason to distrust you so far,” I replied. “Besides, it’s not like I had a lot of choices back there. The shapeshifter preferred death to captivity, and there was no way I could have rescued him.”
“Were you afraid I’d kill him?”
“When you told me to trust you, I did. That trust was tested when you used a death spell. Even when I thought you’d killed him, I figured it was the only way you could think to save him from a life of slavery.”
Dante grinned.
“How can you smile at a time like this?” I asked.
“I’ve lost my mind,” he replied.
We were both silent for a short time as Dante drove out of Azuredale.
“I always expected there would be more security at Azuredale,” I remarked. “You have a gate at the entrance, but there aren’t all that many guards.”
“There’s no reason for a lot of guards with the protection spells,” he explained. “I’m not sure the few we have are necessary. There hasn’t been an attack on Azuredale in my lifetime.”
“Not even by rebel shapeshifters?”
“They don’t want to come here,” he replied. “We have problems with rebels in other areas, but they’re smart enough to realize there are too many spellcasters to take on in Azuredale.”
“They attack the trading posts that have guards and protection spells all around them,” I pointed out. “That’s also risky.”
“They need more from the trading posts, and it’s still much safer,” he replied. “Have you been to one of the trading posts?”
“No, I was on my way there when I ended up in this mess. That would have been my first time.”
“Only about thirty Azureans work at each one. They’re armed with weapons and spells, but the rebels still have an easier time getting in and out of those areas if they just steal a few items. Thousands live in Azuredale, and we patrol the areas around the city. The rebels have never made it to the gates unless they’ve been captured.”
“That makes sense. What are we going to do with the wolf?”
“First, we need to log the corpse,” he explained. “And don’t correct me about him being dead.”
I nodded. “After you log the wolf as a corpse, then what?”
“Then I take him up to dispose of the body,” he replied. “That part will be trickier.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.
“Don’t question anything I say, and try to avoid talking to anyone.”
“All right,” I agreed. “I’m not very good at keeping questions to myself.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I noticed.”
“My dad always said I’m the most curious kitten he’s ever known.”
“Is that what you turn into?” he asked. “Are you some fierce jungle cat in your animal form?”
I released a startled bark of laughter. “Fierce jungle cat? Hardly. I’m a small black cat. Did you think the rulers in shapeshifter communities all turn into powerful animals?”
“It would make sense,” he replied. “You have to protect your people.”
“We’re a lot like a monarchy. I was born next in line to lead,” I explained. “Sometimes, my father even refers to me as a princess, but we haven’t used those titles since long before I was born.”
“So, you’ll make all the rules when you’re in charge?”
“Not completely. A council is voted in, and the leader is expected to run any big decisions by them. I would have final say, but there tend to be problems when the council has less say. The council will likely be enough to prevent my stepmother from killing my father to make my younger brother the leader now. They would find it very suspicious if my father died so soon after my stepmother claimed I was killed. I’m more worried she might try to kill him later. Hopefully, I’ll be back there before then.”
We lapsed into silen
ce for several minutes before Dante finally spoke. “I still don’t know if I’m going to be able to help you get a new bracelet. It might be possible to get word to your family at one of the trading posts, but first, I’d need an excuse to go there.”
“You could say you’re showing me the trading post,” I suggested.
“And then, what do we do if someone working with your stepmother recognizes you?” he asked.
“I suppose it’s too much to hope I’d run into someone who wants to help me,” I said with a sigh. “It could happen, but I’m just as likely to run into one of the traitors. I have no way of knowing who I can trust.”
“Do you think your father will send shapeshifters out to hunt down the rebels your stepmother claims killed you?”
“It’s not likely,” I replied. “We don’t venture out of our safe area except to trade and occasionally hunt. My father’s job is to keep our people safe, not seek revenge. Besides, I’m sure my stepmother came up with some story about me doing something stupid and getting myself killed.”
“And you think he’ll believe that? I don’t know you well, but you don’t strike me as stupid, though you do seem naïve when it comes to rebels.”
I wanted to argue that I wasn’t naïve, but he was right. This was my first time away from the Heathergate Refuge, my first time talking to spellcasters and meeting a rebel shapeshifter. I knew a lot about spellcasters, but no one I knew at home had ever met a rebel shapeshifter.
“I don’t know too much about the rebels,” I agreed. “My father always said it could be viewed as a violation of our truce with the spellcasters if we helped them in any way. He said we couldn’t risk our safety by getting involved with their problems and that we should just avoid them.”
“That’s smart. Do you agree with your father?”
“No,” I admitted. “It seems unfair that decisions made over a hundred years ago are still impacting the lives of all rebels. Your kind hunts them, and my kind refuses to help them.”
“They’re still at war with us, and none have made any effort to change that,” Dante pointed out.