Fire Wolf

  Myah was far from done with this conversation, but Garrett was right. She had other concerns—like surviving—and this Osten seemed like her best bet.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m going to take you to Oren Kendrick; you’ll be safe with him.”

  “How far is he?” She hoped for a short journey but braced for a longer one.

  “Two, maybe three weeks, on foot, unless we can steal some horses. No matter what, we will need to keep ahead of the guard. Phillip will be fuming that he lost you outside the city. He was with the men following you across the fields, but I’m sure Lyulf scared him off. He has never been one to risk his own neck, but I don’t think he’s going to stop tracking you.”

  “Will we be able to stay ahead of them?”

  “Yes, if we keep moving. But if we run into any trouble, promise me that you will stay with Lyulf. No matter what. He will get you to Oren.”

  Myah released a shaky breath. “All right.”

  Garrett stood and brushed his bare hands on his pants as he rose, and then extended his left hand to her. “Ready?”

  Myah took a deep, shuddering breath. Once she was safe, with Garrett’s friends, she would sort out everything else, including how to find her family. She grasped his outstretched hand, wrapping her fingers with his. The thick scars on his hand were smooth where their skin met, and despite just touching the snow, he felt warm. The warmth radiated up her arm, and strangely, it made her feel safe.

  Myah allowed him to lead her southeast, Lyulf running ahead of them, but she could not help but look behind, in the direction of her home.

  ~EPILOGUE~

  The wind cut through the canyons, stirring up dust devils and sending the thistles rolling across the sagebrush- and juniper-dotted landscape. The sun hung low in the sky, turning the slot canyons into deep shades of red, purple, and orange.

  Oren Kendrick often stood atop of the roof of the ancient cliff city, watching the skies fade for another day. It was sometimes hard to reconcile the horrors he saw in the four kingdoms with the beauty of this desert world, but it existed. And today, he needed something to settle his heart.

  “Father,” Willow’s soft voice came from behind him.

  He took a deep breath, and turned, resting his hip against the half-wall. He scratched a hand through his short-cropped hair.

  “You’ve had word?”

  She nodded. Her long dreaded hair, tied back from her face with green leather ties, bobbed with the motion. With her thin face and deep-set brown eyes, she reminded Oren of Willow’s mother.

  “Nordlin has been taken, but the wards are still up. Our contacts believe Lord Edgar escaped with members of the Nordlin Guard.”

  “What of Garrett?” Oren asked.

  “Father?” Willow questioned. Her entire body had stiffened at the sound of his name.

  “What news of Garrett?” he repeated.

  Willow’s lips pressed into a frown. She hated Garrett, although Oren wondered if that had been because the older boy had garnered most of his attention as his ward.

  “No official word, but our contacts in Turris said that Queen Elysia is looking for him. There is a rumor he was captured by the Nordlin Guard when the city fell.”

  Oren nodded. “Get a message to the Nordlin Guard. If they have Garrett, I want to know about it.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  Oren took a deep breath, scarcely believing he was saying the words. “Put a bounty on his head.”

  Acknowledgments

  My imagination started living in the four kingdoms in 2008, when the first scene concepts sparked to life, but as a busy professional, I wasn’t able to write the first full draft until late 2013. My goal was to publish in early 2015, but my life had other plans. This project has been a decade in the making, and I could not have finally published Fire Wolf without support.

  To Jessica Napier, Sally Genter, Sally Treanor, Heath Melton, Heather Garrison, Elizabeth Smith, Jackie Izawa, and Sandy Yanick. Believe me when I tell you that if it weren’t for you eight, I wouldn’t have pushed forward with writing. Journalistic writing was easy for me, but diving into creative realms was tougher. You taught me how to look at characters, world-building, and storytelling. I have treasured your friendships and support through the years.

  To Alex Rosa and Miko Heller, thank you for all our café writing and letting me bounce ideas off you when I was writing the first full draft of the novel. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I would have gotten through that draft. It was a killer.

  To Ken Turk and Robert Radford, thank you for helping me get through the past year while I worked on rewrites. Your creative insights and punny comments were just what I needed to keep going. And thank you, Ken, for helping me proof the last draft and catch the strays and changes that didn’t get saved correctly.

  To Jackie Lewis and Adam Stewart, thank you for reading my draft and giving me your honest feedback from a reader’s perspective. I could not have figured how to fine-tune and fix those plot holes and soggy points without your feedback. And, I could not have made it through the last round of revisions without you letting me bounce ideas off you. Thank you, my friends, for believing in me.

  To my editor, Sharon Rosen, thank you for being my grammar ninja. It is impossible to edit your own writing, so I appreciate you helping me catch all the “ravens.”

  To Phill Juffs and Alethea Hall, thank you for your help with my author photo and your support. I love you guys!

  To anyone else I’m forgetting, because it is inevitable that I am, please know that without your support, I would have never reached this point. I am grateful.

  About the Author

  H. Danielle Crabtree is an author and freelance editor for independent authors.

  She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2004 with a professional journalism degree and worked in journalism as a writer and editor in Oregon and Arizona. She started freelancing as an editor in 2011.

  Her poetry has been published in several literary magazines and anthologies since 1998, and she wrote with the G10 Writers group. Her first book with the group was published in 2012.

  Dani lives in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley with her two dogs. Outside her career in health care and her passion for writing, she enjoys hiking, gardening, and training her Australian shepherd. She is also pursuing a master’s degree in public health at Oregon State University.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for reading Fire Wolf. If you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews are like gold to independent authors and they help other readers find their next read.

  Be sure to follow Dani on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and visit her website at www.hdaniellecrabtree.com for updates on future releases, including book two of the Fire & Reign series.