Our conversation tapered off as his eyes grew heavy. I smothered a grin when he snuggled against Isaac’s side for warmth and drifted off to sleep. When it came time to swap shifts, I didn’t have the heart to wake either of them. Instead, I fortified myself with one stick of the precious jerky and watched them sleep.
Chapter 5
“Sharpy,” a prim voice called near my ear. “Ahem. Sharpy.”
“Hmm?” I snuggled back into the warmth encasing my spine.
“The sun is up, the roads are clear, and my wounds are mended. I must be on my way.”
I squinted at the dinner-sized portion of bunny. “Oh. Hey.” I scanned the area, noting our packs and scattered supplies. Everything was accounted for except… Oh crap. I glanced over my shoulder and came nose to nose with Isaac. “What are you doing in my sleeping bag?”
His fingers, which he had tangled in my hair, eased free to caress my shoulder. His breath, I noticed, was suspiciously minty while mine tasted like last-night’s jerky. “It’s my bag, and you were cuddled against me when I woke.”
Groaning, I tried to locate my inner wolf for a stern scolding, but she was nowhere to be found. Traitor.
“Sorry about that.” I rolled away from him and stretched. “I can’t believe I fell asleep on watch.”
“I can.” Fabric rustled behind me, and Isaac stood. He had changed clothes and started breakfast. “You never woke me to take my shift. You’re not beta here, Dell. You don’t have to protect me. We’re partners. We split the responsibilities, and that includes watching each other’s backs.”
Stunned by the realization he had done all that and then climbed back into the sack for a cuddle, I didn’t have a ready answer for him.
“It’s in my nature to protect,” I groused. “I don’t think of you as weaker or lesser.”
After shaking a skillet over his modified stove eye, he glanced back at me. “But you consider me yours to protect?”
I snapped my teeth together so hard he must have heard them click. “You’re pack.”
He sprinkled what appeared to be pepper into the mixture. “Is that all I am?”
Leave it to Isaac to require schematics of our doomed courtship.
“No,” I admitted. “You’re also a pain in my butt.”
“Sharpy,” the small voice came again. “I am sorry to intrude, but I wanted to thank you for your protection last night, and for not eating me. Though I’m sure I would be quite delicious.”
Isaac blinked at that but set about plating our breakfast without comment.
“Well, seeing as how I’m not fae, I suppose there’s no harm in thanking me.” I grinned at him, careful to keep my lips closed. “You’re welcome. Happy hopping.”
“Oh, ah. I had not thought of that. Not fae. No. You’re right, of course.” He appeared to reach a conclusion. “However, I do owe you a debt. Is there anything you require?”
Clearly being indebted to a predator was flustering him, so I decided to absolve him on the spot. “We’re searching for the Halls of Summer. Can you point us in the right direction?”
“I would be delighted to show you the way.” His slender ears perked. “I pass it on my route home.”
An escort was better than I’d hoped for. “Wonderful. Hear that, Isaac? We’ve got ourselves a tour guide.”
Isaac offered me a plate overflowing with reconstituted scrambled eggs, then handed me a fork and a bottle of water. “We appreciate your help.”
Breakfast conversation segued into a discussion on the geography of the area. The púca, who lived in a burrow on the border between Summer and Spring, praised the wonders of Summer while warning us of the hidden dangers. As a very small animal, his fears were tenfold what ours might be, but the information was valuable nonetheless. He carried on, sharing gossip about the locals, instructing us on who we might consider friend or foe. He knew who was who and what was what and where was where. The tumble of chatter grew confusing to me, but Isaac soaked up the púca’s stories, and the meal ended with him parched for more.
Once again, Isaac summoned his monolithic hand to part the briars and allow us to pass through the thorny curtain unharmed. I inhaled deeply and made a sensory note of the area so we could spend the night on our return trip here as well. Together the three of us set out for the Halls. This time we stuck to the grass to avoid bumping into the locals.
“Smells of fur, it does,” came a rumbling voice from a dense thicket up ahead. “Think I’s found him, I did.”
“Aye.” A second voice lifted. “That’s the one. The little blighter what stole from us.”
Leon’s tail shot up straight, and tiny balls rolled everywhere as he crapped himself.
“Gentlemen, please,” he begged the shadows. “I can explain.”
“Can you?” I growled at him. “What’s this all about?”
“I might have taken a small thing, trifling really, that didn’t belong to me.” Leon’s nose twitched a mile a minute. “I had no idea they would catch up so soon, or I would have warned you. I swear it.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. I bet. Where was this honesty last night? You blamed your injury on springing a trap. You claimed cats were hunting you and that’s why you required sanctuary.”
“Well, you see, you did smell a bit like a dog, so I thought if I blamed the cats…”
“You’re so full of crap.” I eyed the pile behind him. “Or you used to be.”
Isaac stepped up beside me, our shoulders brushing when he rolled his to loosen them. “We’ve got company.”
Before Leon could scamper off, I lifted him by the scruff of his neck.
From the dense foliage stomped two creatures with pasty white skin dressed in leather tunics with sheets of hammered metal aspiring to be armor attached over the top. Animal-skin kilts were tied at their hips, and thick leather straps hung with quivers and swords encircled their thicker waists. Tufts of red hair stuck up on the tops of their heads, and their eyes matched the blue-green of the pond where Isaac and I had refilled our water bottles.
“Gives I the rabbit, and I’s let you go.” The first one was taller, his teeth yellow and his lips fat. “I’s have no quarrel with you.”
“Look at its pink skin,” the second urged. “It smells gamey. I’s like to have a taste.”
Troll One shrugged, clearly unbothered by the idea. “It will be lunch soon,” he agreed with all practicality.
“Catch it,” Troll Two said, then pointed at Isaac. “Get that one too.”
“I catched it last time, I did.” Troll One snarled. “You tricked I into doing all the work. I’s always do all the work.”
While they devolved into a shoving match, Isaac caught my eye and gestured us back a few paces.
The air beside me rippled outward, and his skin turned gray from head to toe as the heavy stone plates of his natural armor slid into place. The straps on his supply pack grew with him. They must have been elastic. His granite jaw scraped to form words. “Shift,” he ordered me. “I don’t know how long I can hold this aspect. Get ready to run.”
“What about my pack?” We couldn’t afford to lose the supplies, let alone my clothes.
“Strap it on me.” Monoliths weren’t known for their dexterity. “There are clasps along the backside of yours and the front side of mine.”
“I’m going to set you down, and you’re going to stay put,” I warned Leon. “Twitch one whisker before I finish, and I will hunt you down and eat you. Then we’ll both know for sure if you were right about being delicious.”
“They’s moving,” Troll Two snapped. “Stop ’em before they gets away.”
Troll One hesitated, the internal debate over whether he was hungrier than he was pissed at having to do the work clear on his bulldog face.
I made use of their division and stripped down. Wadding my clothes in a ball, I stuffed the fabric into my pack. The silver catches I had dismissed on my pack as a design element made hooking our supplies together easy. It wasn’t lost on me t
hat mine did the same. He had given us a means of carrying supplies for each other, should one of us need to shift. That simple gesture showed me he viewed me as a partner, and I fought against the pleased tingles spreading through my chest.
“Fall back,” Isaac ordered as Troll Two came to a decision. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”
I loped a half-dozen long strides, carrying Leon with me, and then the trolls were on Isaac. His rock-encrusted fists made meaty sounds as they pulverized his targets.
Shivering, Leon hunched in on himself while I sat on the ground and let the change sweep over me. My shift wasn’t as seamless or as painless as Isaac’s. My bones snapped and muscles tore. A scream welled in my throat, but I swallowed it from habit. Joints shifted and golden fur sprouted over my body. I changed fast for a warg, but it was still a process. The wolf, eager for freedom after such a long confinement, ripped out of me in under ten minutes. A new personal record. One I hoped to never, ever beat.
“Sharpy,” Leon pleaded. “Do remember I am your friend.”
The wolf snapped her teeth closed on his ruff and lifted him in the air, giving him a little shake to shut him up before she trotted in close to Isaac. Hackles rising, she noted one troll was dead. The other soon would be if he didn’t stop charging Isaac. Contrary to popular belief, neither paper nor scissors beat rock.
Isaac downed the second troll and grimaced at the bloody stains on his hands. Noticing me, he gazed admiringly at the wolf, and she pranced closer, a whine lodged in her throat.
“I’m all right.” He stroked a single finger over her head with gentleness that swelled our heart. “Do you hear that?”
The ground beneath my paws vibrated. I tilted back my head, ignoring the bunny, and sniffed the air. Body odor and rancid blood. More trolls. I barked as best I could around my mouthful.
“More of them?” he rumbled. “How far to the Halls of Summer?”
“Not far,” Leon squeaked. “I can get you there, Master Stone.”
We didn’t get the chance to test Leon’s word. Seven more trolls thundered out onto the grassy plains with us. The shortest lumbered over to check the two dead trolls by poking them with his sword, which probably would have killed them if Isaac hadn’t finished them off first.
“It killed them,” the troll snarled. “They’s dead.”
The others roared their fury and circled their fallen comrades.
Isaac would be safe as long as he held his shape, but he had already warned he was losing his grip. The combination of stress, poor food options and exhaustion were wearing him down fast. I spat out the bunny and got ready to thoroughly embarrass myself. Giving up my wolf was out of the question. Shifting again so soon would leave me as weak as a kitten, a liability that might get him dead.
Sticking my tail straight in the air, I pranced a few steps then turned to see if the bunny understood. He blinked at me, nose gyrating, and flicked a worried look at Isaac. I growled at him and tried again. So my trot was more canine than equine, and my neigh sounded more like a woof, it was the best I could do.
“Are we…” Leon ventured, “…playing charades? Is that wise at a time like this?”
“Dell?” Isaac rumbled. “We don’t understand.”
I gave it one last try, rearing back on my hind legs and paddling the air with my front paws while emitting a nasally whinny that was part snarl.
“A horse!” Leon vibrated with excitement. “Am I right? Did I win?”
I bobbed my head in an exaggerated manner, and his beady eyes brightened.
“You wish me to change? I can but…” His tail wiggled. “I can’t carry Master Stone. He’s far too heavy.”
At that, I barked at Isaac. Isaac, used to taking orders from the wolf, let his stone armor subside. He staggered back on his own two feet, and I rushed over to lend him my strength. He fisted a hand in my fur and regained his balance as the trolls decided on a course of action.
“Charge,” the short one yelled.
Growling at the púca, I snapped my teeth to urge him to get a move on. He shifted forms in a fountain of white light, and a muscular horse with a glossy, black coat grew from where the bunny had sat. The feathering on his legs and feet called to mind those heart-melting beer commercials aired during the Super Bowl and made me thirsty. Stretching out one massive front leg, he knelt, like a gentleman, and that allowed a weakened Isaac to grip his mane and swing his leg over. His practiced ease made me wonder if he’d taken riding lessons at some point. That or having a brother who could also shift meant when he and Theo had played horsy as kids, one of them had been a literal horse.
I gave a yip of encouragement, and the horse snorted.
“Too right,” he said, voice a few octaves lower. “Away we go!”
The horse’s bulky build didn’t lend itself to racing, but Leon managed an admirable speed with a clopping grace the trolls couldn’t match. They too were hefty by design, and the addition of armor and weaponry slowed them down further. The wolf, thrilled to be on four legs and in control at last, bolted off after the horse. She ran in wide circles around them, scouting the area. We didn’t crisscross our path from last night, but we didn’t continue blazing the one from earlier either. The wolf supposed we had run west when we should have kept heading south. We beat a hasty retreat until the horse’s sides heaved, and Leon reduced his gallop to a slow trot. He led us to a pond with crystalline water, and he drank deep. Isaac took the opportunity to slide down and rest his, um, seat. Riding a horse that wide for that length of time without padding must have bruised his, well, pride.
The wolf wended through the grass until she reached his side and swiped her tongue over his hand, all for a taste of him. Seasoned with salt as he was, she decided he tasted good enough to eat. Not that she would ever take a bite. That, she thought with a slyness usually reserved for felines, was my job.
“I need a breather,” he exhaled, knees wobbly. “Can we afford to take a break?”
She licked his cheek then darted off to check the perimeter. No fresh scents. No peculiar noises. Safe. For the moment. She loped back to his side and flopped down in the grass, inviting him to do the same. He did, sprawling out and patting the ground near his hip. Needing no further invitation, the wolf snuggled against him, resting her chin on his shoulder. He took the hint and scratched behind her ears until her eyes crossed. A dollop of jealousy had me gritting my teeth. Why couldn’t things be this effortless between us? He adored the wolf. She adored him. They were a regular mutual-adoration society.
“I’m wiped,” Leon boomed through his barrel chest. “Can I have a hop now?”
The wolf nosed Isaac, who laughed when she dissolved into licking his entire face with long swipes of her tongue.
“She says yes,” he interpreted for Leon. “Shift and take a break.” He ruffled my fur. “How about you, beautiful? Two legs or four?”
The wolf took his compliment as her due, and I let her bask in his praise. It made things so much easier to think of their relationship as separate from ours. Unsure where our mad dash had ended, I reined in the wolf and urged her a short distance away where we could thrash and moan in private. Sore and aching but back on two legs, I tugged on the clothes Isaac had tossed me then rejoined our small party.
“I don’t think Faerie likes me very much.” I massaged my nape. “It’s like the latent magic in the air is figuring me out and trying to lock me down into this shape.”
Going wolf had been hard, but adrenaline pushed me across the finish line. Switching back had been so much worse.
“Remember what Enzo was saying about witches requiring a patron to enter Faerie?”
A pang rocked me at the reminder of his absence. “Yeah.”
“Well, there’s more to it than that. Earthborn fae believe witches are no longer welcome in Faerie because they taint the land. I figured, based on the condition of Earth’s environment, fae worry humans would trash their world too.” Isaac rubbed his jaw. “Maybe it’s more litera
l. Maybe Faerie has its own immune system and treats witches—and other foreign magic—the way our bodies treat infections. It might be trying to block the symptoms, your shifting for example, to minimize the expenditure of foreign magics it may view as a virus.”
As far as theories hatched on the fly went, his wasn’t bad. Clearly, Enzo and I were having some sort of reaction to this place. Maybe this place was having one right back.
“That will make things complicated.” I exhaled slowly. “More complicated.”
Crouched low in the hopes we might forget him, Leon nibbled on a dandelion fluff. The leaves in his mouth bled red instead of milky white, and he cleaned his whiskers in a rhythm that suggested he was soothing himself.
“So are you going to explain why the trolls are after you?” I toed him with my boot. “You stole something? From who? And what is it?”
“It’s a ring, Sharpy. A magic ring.” His twitchy face grew more animated. “The wearer can touch fallen leaves or broken sticks and they turn…” his nose almost wriggled off his face, “…to cabbage.”
Once you got past the line-dancing mushrooms, a magic cabbage ring wasn’t that shocking.
“What would trolls want with it?” The ring seemed an odd choice for them. “Aren’t they carnivorous?”
“Yes. So you see, it was wasted on them.” He thumped his rear foot. “I doubt they know what it does at any rate. They spit-roasted the Earl of Leafgreen some months ago when he failed to pay his tithes to the king and took the ring—and his finger—with them. I doubt the earl paused in his screaming long enough to explain about sticks and cabbages.”
“Let me guess,” I said, seeing where this was headed. “They stole it, and that means it’s fair game for you since it doesn’t belong to them anyway?”
“Our people could use such a ring. Right now, we’re forced to live in Summer or Spring. A few brave souls live on the edge of Autumn, but this could allow us to expand our reach deeper into that territory or even into Winter.” He stood tall and patted his chest. “It would make any den mate who returned with it a hero.”
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