by Bryna Butler
***
Keira was relieved to feel concrete below her feet this time. Her Dad, the mouse, scurried up her arm to sit on her shoulder. He had already begun healing. Colby was on his knees, too dizzy to stand, not more than three feet away. She could hear voices on the other side of the block wall in front of them.
“Let’s see if your guardian can protect you on my side of the barrier,” she heard.
They were back on the rooftop in Dubai, sometime before the time they left. Keira moved silently around the wall to see Gammen dragging a second Colby through the tear in space to the underground cavern, just as he had moments before. She looked down. Just around the corner, her body lay lifeless at the base of the roof access door. Her Dad was weeping over it.
“Bring the girl,” Gammen ordered.
Keira watched quietly as the Sect carried Brooke through the barrier. They didn’t carry her like a hostage. They carried her with respect and care. They carried the rolling office chair up high like it was a traveling throne. Why didn’t she see it before? She couldn’t help but feel completely naïve. However, she didn’t have time to dwell on that thought now. Her other self had awakened and August was rising to follow Gammen. She had to warn him about Brooke, rather Broo.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
Keira jerked around to see Brooke standing behind her. Her green eyes were blazing. She was cussing and pulling prehistoric fern leaves from her hair. Keira had forgotten about the ring. She had slipped it to Brooke for her rescue which meant that she still had it and Ann was targeting it just like the marks on Keira, August, and Colby.
“You know, your little tricks change nothing. I am still Empress and I have you and your Daddy to thank for that.” She tossed her ring at Keira’s head. “And you ruined my favorite ring!”
Keira caught it and turned her back on Broo. “Dad!” she yelled, but it was too late. The August from the past had already crossed the barrier into the underground cavern. She could see the left foot of her other self disappear into the tear. Keira turned back to Broo who was still fuming.
“What do you want?”
Broo stopped muttering curses under her breath. She stared eerily at Keira. “Don’t you know? I want everything,” Broo laughed. “And I’ll start with your gift.” She glanced down at Colby.
“Colby? You think Colby is a gift? No way! Have you even read the prophecy? You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re wrong like….”
“Stop babbling, stupid rat. You will address me as High Empress Gammen, Ruler of the Mogdoc Empire.”
She circled Keira, studying her with probing green eyes.
“You know, Keira, I never liked you, but I didn’t realize that it was because you were a plague-spreading trash eater.”
Broo laughed with a crazed hysteria, a talent that she had unmistakably inherited from her father. Keira felt the hairs on the back of her neck prick up, but she stood silent, waiting for her moment. Broo continued circling. “So, are you saying that he is not your charge, or, are you saying that he is not the human gift?” She gave Keira a moment to respond, but Keira lifted her chin and didn’t speak.
“From your silence, I’m guessing you mean that you really aren’t the prophesied, perfect one. Yeah, I don’t blame you. That really is very, very hard to believe. I mean, you, the prodigal hero, the guardian savior. Really, Keira, you aren’t fooling anyone.”
Colby could only read the last word ‘anyone’ from her lips, but nothing more. His ears were still ringing from the sonic boom of the last trip. He looked at them, desperately trying to regain his balance so that he could come to Keira’s aid. His normal clumsiness did not help his current situation.
Broo looked him up and down before continuing her lecture to Keira. ”No, I believe that you are lying to protect my little, Coco Bear.”
That was the last straw. Keira stepped in front of Broo so that her circling came to an abrupt halt. They were so close that their noses nearly touched. “He is not what you’re looking for and if you touch him…”
“If I touch him again, you mean?”
In a rage, Keira grabbed Broo’s neck and squeezed. She had never wished harm on another creature in all her life, that is, she had never until this moment. She shook Broo back and forth as she squeezed, flopping her head forward and back. She grasped Broo’s life in her hands. She could end it. She had the strength to end it right now. She could if she were that kind of person, but she wasn’t. In shock, she pulled back her hands and threw them in the air.
Before Keira could make another move or even say a word. Those menacing green eyes made her regret releasing her grip. “Remember with whom you are dealing,” Broo growled.
Broo’s voice was much lower than before. Surprised, Keira stepped back as Broo started to grow. Her black satin nightgown bulged and finally burst open in a fury of fur and muscle. Keira fell back from the force of the change as Broo sprang forward as a full werewolf.
Keira scrambled backwards to Colby. She pulled on his shirt screaming, “Colby! Get up! Dad!”
The mouse scampered across the top of the low wall, ushering the way to escape. Keira grabbed Colby up and pulled him, following her father toward the tear leading back to Brooke’s bedroom. The wolf snarled and lunged at them. She edged closer and closer, nipping at her heels. Keira threw Colby through the threshold. Colby and the mouse landed in the white bedroom, knocking over Nana and Ann in the process. As they fell to the floor the tear collapsed, but not before they heard the chilling howl of the wolf.
The threshold closed just as Keira bound into it. Instead of landing on the soft, white bedroom carpet, she crashed into the concrete half wall that protected the roof’s edge. Keira was trapped. Behind her was a fall to her death. In front of her was the wolf. Broo was bearing her teeth and growling, relishing her inevitable triumph.
“You can’t get him now. He’s protected and he knows what you really are,” Keira yelled as she edged along the wall.
The beast growled louder. The rooftop trembled. Keira covered her ears.
She braced herself against the short wall, her strength failing. The pain from her wounds started to set in. There was no Plan B. There was no way out. “What are you waiting for? Come and get me,” she screamed.
Broo pounced on her. Keira fell on her back under the brute force. The werewolf mauled her torso, ripping into her back with her claws. She bit down on Keira’s upper arm. Her incisors cut deep into the muscle. Pain shot through Keira’s entire body. She screamed out. The wolf licked her lips to savor the taste of the surprisingly sweet blood of the half guardian. Fighting to the end, Keira fisted her unhurt arm and punched the wolf in the jaw. It was not enough.
Broo lifted her majestic head and howled. However, the celebratory howl was cut short with a sudden yelp and whimper. Then, like a naughty puppy, the wolf was lifted up by the scruff of her neck.
Keira crawled out from where she had been pinned. She grabbed her injured arm. Blood poured from the bite wound. She could feel the wetness from the blood seeping from her back as well. She felt weak and lightheaded. She was losing blood and very close to passing out. As Keira fought back the darkness that tried to close her heavy eyes, she looked up. Broo had phased back into her human form.
Then she saw him. Keira’s mind was foggy from the attack, but she knew she wasn’t dreaming. “William?”
The hand that had gripped the scruff of the wolf’s neck now clutched Broo’s long, blonde human hair. She reached back, scratching her captor’s hands and screaming. “Don’t stop me, Brun. You will regret this,” Broo screeched in warning.
“You will not take her life. Not today. The empire is mine now. Keira is off limits.”
He lifted his hand, gracefully tore a rip in space and shoved his sister through.