by L Ward
“Are you hurt?”
Nath shook his head.
Evan sucked a brave breath and walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Nath turned, facing him head-on and Evan stopped in his tracks, staring. He was like a beautiful angel that fell from grace and reproduced with a monster from the dark side of the moon. His eyes, two vibrant jewels, stood out clearly like rings of light in the darkness: emerald and sapphire, dawn and dusk. His skin was so pale it held a tinge of winter blue and for a moment Evan suspected he may be low on oxygen. His hair was loose, flopping about his face, damp with sweat and shining with starlight. Evan’s eyes traveled down his body and what he saw devastated him. Nath’s hands, his beautiful, masculine hands, were curved into black talons. His bare feet, soot-smeared from earlier, had split, feet extended like two grotesque paws. He hugged himself a little as though he was ashamed.
“Jesus Christ,” Will gasped behind him.
“I don’t know what is happening to me, but there is little time left,” said Nath.
Evan swallowed. They’d lost track of time. He could’ve sworn they had at least an hour or so left until the moon’s rise, could’ve sworn they were further away from this, but here was Nathaniel, partially transformed and looking more devilish than a monster from folklore.
Silence.
Will moved closer, bathing him fully in the light. His eyes were dilated to pinpricks, ears sharp and elf-like and layered with fuzz. More platinum hair sprouted beneath his jaw as though his beard fluff had magicked itself out of his follicles, and his elbows protruded pointed and awkward.
He rested a hand on Nath’s arm and felt the lycanthropy beneath the surface, raging and threatening to burst forth.
Nath opened his mouth to say something when a clattering of heavy footfalls and voices at the far end of the room snatched his breath.
“They’ve fallen down!”
“Quickly, find them and get them in there. Undermouth is waiting.”
Nath whipped round, seized the enormous iron handles; magic sparked violently against his skin and died at once, the entire glow of the door dulled to nothingness beneath his monstrous touch. He wrenched them open, hinges creaking like elderly dragon bones, and they stepped inside, slamming them tightly behind them.
A stillness settled and Evan was at once transfixed by the light at the end of the room, a brilliant springtime blue and dusky silver stretching across a platform, radiating from a huge chunk of moonrock. He was mesmerised as Nath stepped forward and it grew brighter, lighting the entire room with a beatific glow.
“Nath—” said Will, but he didn’t stop.
He was halfway across the room when a voice came to them from the night.
“I was wondering when you would show your face, Nathaniel.”
Evan’s organs turned to stone; his breath stolen by horror.
Nath stopped walking, eyes wide and shoulder heaving. “You.”
Governor Undermouth rose from his throne and stepped into view. He was shorter than Evan expected, portly, dressed in floor-length black priest robes and standing before a throne of solid iron, tall and studded with the same moonrocks creating a pentagram of light. His face was podgy but heavily lined with a deep score between his bushy, greying eyebrows and thin, sneering lips. He’d aged since the last signal communication, but he was no less menacing. “My, my, am I glad to see Elijah’s little boy again. How are you, Nathaniel?”
Nath bared his teeth in a snarl, claw-like hands curling.
Undermouth smirked and moved closer to the moonrock. “I see you’ve brought your common bedmate and the Starstone boy. I’d ask you how your father is, but I don’t think you’ll be speaking to him face-to-face again.”
Will flinched. “He’s not my father.”
Undermouth’s eyebrows rose. “I thought you’d have been surprised to find out your father has been working for Artemis and myself. He’s a terribly good businessman, especially in the area of intellectual trade.”
Nath sucked a sharp breath and Undermouth’s beady, dark eyes flashed to him, glinting like shiny beetles. “He was the mole. Will was right, he is working with you! How long has this been going on?” he spat.
Undermouth’s laugh was saccharine and horrid. “Oh for some years, my boy, some years now. Why do you think every attempt to seal off my country has failed? Why were the rifts never closed until you personally managed it through sheer ridiculousness and violence? Sir Starstone has given me all the information I need in exchange for something he so deeply desires.”
Nath’s face contorted with rage; his sides heaved like beastly flanks. “He has all the money in the world, and he has a business empire, what could he possibly want that you could give him?”
Undermouth stared at him in bemusement. “I thought you would know by now, Nathaniel, you being the way you are and all.” He glanced at Evan and his blood ran cold. “Your father,” he said simply.
Confusion struck Evan in a tidal wave and he exchanged a confused, helpless look with Nath.
“I happen to own something, something that can give him all he desires and now he has led you directly to me, he will be thoroughly rewarded, and perhaps now King Artemis’s true power can be unveiled, Gerard won’t need to marry his worthless spawn to a foreign throne. We will allow him to choose his own when we dominate the magical world.”
“I won’t let you do any such thing,” Nath snarled, stepping closer.
Undermouth held up a palm and Nath was thrown back onto the stone floor.
Fists pounded the door and shouts from outside stole their attention. Undermouth smirked with amusement; he raised both palms and the doors flew open, guards and courtiers, monsters and magicals spilled in, surrounding the room, grinning viciously. “Child, there is not a thing you can do.”
“Why did you summon me here? Why if you hold such power at your disposal would you require my audience?” said Nath. “You have your weapon, why did you not just unleash it.”
“Silly boy, I called your bluff. I only had half my weapon, half of Artemis’s power, and now you’re here, brought here by your own pig-headedness and childish desire to avenge your worthless father, I hold all the pieces,” he continued, circling the moonrock. “You see this?”
Evan stared, he saw the light shining against Nath’s face, his shadow spread up the wall, fearsome and inhuman: werewolf.
“I told you I held the key to the monster to end all monsters, and now I have him in my grasp, it is but a matter of waiting.”
He glanced to Will, staring in open-mouthed astonishment. Nath looked equal parts furious and confused.
Nath lunged toward Undermouth but four guards moved faster, curses struck him from all sides and he slammed to the ground with a hiss and a bang.
Evan rushed toward him, an enormous weight struck him in the back as an ogre tackled him to the ground, flattening him beneath a gigantic fist.
“You stay!”
Undermouth laughed and guards seized Will by the arms, tugging them behind him and encasing them in a cursed vortex. He thrashed, spat and swore violently trying to summon fire, but it was extinguished like it was nothing, steam the only reminder it existed. “Pathetic. Truly pathetic, then again, that’s what happens when a trio of fledgling adults attempt such a feat.” He shook his head, tutting.
Bile rose in Evan’s throat. He’d never felt so angry. He watched Nath struggle against his captors, thrashing and shouting his curses. Use your magic, he willed desperately, forcing his own tendrils to wrap around the King’s body. Why the fuck wasn’t Nath using his powers? Then it hit him, what if he couldn’t? what if that rock was somehow intercepting Lunara’s light.
He watched helplessly as Undermouth strode across the room, touching his palm to a shard of crystal on the wall. There was a deep rumble and the glass ceiling drew back exposing the swirling night’s sky. The treble moons bore down, minutes away from the rise. Evan’s panic must have showed because Undermouth met his eyes with a menacing grin
.
“One minute until the full moons and I will have my monster. The moment they cast their cursed gazes upon this rock, Nathaniel will be under my control.”
“NO!” Evan shouted, fighting with all his strength. The creature was enormous and too powerful. He reached into its body, twisting its nerves and crippling its bowels. The ogre howled and struck him hard across the head. Blackness came in waves and his vision blurred, eyes full of water.
Nath roared with rage, slashing out his claws he dragged them down a warlock’s face. Blood spurted everywhere and the man let go. He used it as an opportunity and slashed again, cutting another. Curses struck him, but he refused to go down. Evan trained his magic on him, eating away the deadly powers.
“Get him under control!” Undermouth yelled, vein throbbing in his temple.
Guards came forward, but Nath resisted, snapping his jaws and blasting them with weakened holy light. They jumped back, stung and singed, their cursed bodies resisting the power of light.
“Silence!” Undermouth yelled.
Two tiny warlocks rushed forward wearing robes of scarlet, wide-eyed and terrified. “There has been another breech, Governor!” the woman said briskly. “Humans of the enchanted palace, and their dragonkin.”
Undermouth’s face twisted in anger and he whipped round, cloak billowing behind him. “Send the guards, the monsters and unleash the werewolves. It’ll be moments before the ritual is complete,” he said and lifted a scepter from his throne. He rose it above his head and it began to glow the same ethereal light as the moonrock.
Nath froze, thrashing forgotten and eyes on the scepter.
“Alik, mattah, hann’a, kratara,” Undermouth said slowly. “I harness the power of the moon, the demons and the monsters from Hell. I harness the darkness and vanquish the light. I condemn the light of the gods, the sun of the earth and the physics of the galaxy. I condemn them to His Majesty, King Nathaniel.”
Evan stared in horror as Nath’s body began to levitate. The guards backed away, shrinking to the edges of the room. The ogre holding him shrank back, whining like a wounded animal.
“I take this power and claim-eth my own. I claim the curse which the spawns of Artemis created within and I harness thy power in my hands,” he pointed the staff to Nathaniel.
Something changed. The sky darkened and the torches vanquished. Evan could hear his breathing, Will’s ragged pants and watch as Nath’s skin began to glow. The light from the moons fell on him and the time was nigh.
A scream tore through his body, echoing off the walls. Evan clamped his hands over his ears and watched in horror as Nath’s body rose higher, contorting, lengthening, fur sprouting beneath his clothes, tearing them to pieces as he transformed. The scar on his leg shone vividly through his platinum fur and the moons turned a murderous shade of blood.
Nath collapsed to the ground in a heavy mass of fur, rising slowly to his feet: a monster.
“Behold, the truest creation and monster to end all monsters: The Werewolf King. And with his power at my disposal and nobody to stop him, Artemis will claim his throne and the reign of warlocks shall begin.”
“NO!” Evan was surprised by his own voice. He rushed forward, blinded by panic and hatred.
Nath turned on him, his disturbingly human eyes blazing with hatred and bloodlust.
“Kill him,” said Undermouth.
He launched at Evan, full-bodied and snarling.
Evan careered back and spun, dodging the attack. Nath swung at him, claws striking his thigh and blood spurted down his leg. He felt nothing, no pain, no warmth of the blood, but in seconds Will was at his side brandishing his fists of fury. He shot a fireball at Nath, intentionally missing: a warning. The werewolf reared on his legs, teeth bared. He slammed into Will, sending him sprawling across the floor.
Screams bounced around the room and something far away rumbled, the sound of falling rocks crashing against the earth. The servants were gone, the guards too, all that remained was Undermouth, radiating power and laughing like a maniac, Will sprawled on the hard floor and Evan, backing away from the monster that was his husband.
“Finish this!”
Nath opened his jaws, rows of jagged teeth and canines longer than his fingers protruded dangerously, laced with the venomous saliva that could sire a new race of monsters. He launched himself at Evan again and this time Evan coated his body in magic, he felt the burn of his teeth cutting deep into it, a hair’s breadth from piercing his skin and converting him. The force slammed him to the ground and the air was momentarily snatched from his lungs.
“Nath! Stop! It’s me!” he cried, fist clenched under the powerful jaws, wrists burning with strain and magic bursting from every inch of his body, scattering light like a disco ball all about the room.
Nath thrashed, claws tearing crevices in the ground, kicking up stone. He eyed Evan with seething hatred and the lust for his human flesh. He couldn’t hold on much longer, Nath pressed down on him with all his weight, teeth millimeters from his face.
“Don’t try to put off the inevitable,” Undermouth laughed. “You will die tonight, healer, you and anyone else who gets in my way.”
He heard the werewolves outside call, the screams of the guards and a surge of what had to be dragon fire. It all became a blur of colour and sound and chaos in a world that was rapidly slipping before his eyes.
Something struck the werewolf’s back and his attention broke for a moment, turning to face Will. He was on his feet, shaking and bleeding from the head and in his hand he held a blazing rock. He threw it and it soared through the air like a comet, striking home on Nath’s haunch.
The monster left Evan and went straight for Will, fortunately he was stronger than Evan and they wrestled. Will was barely able to keep the jaws from piercing his chest, his sides and his throat as Nath snapped and thrashed, gashing open his arms and bruising his ribs.
Evan rolled and with one sharp thrust he coated Will in magic, his body burned from the inside, exhausted and distressed. He couldn’t fight the lycanthropy, that was one thing he couldn’t do. It was draining him to the point he felt tinges of darkness creeping in.
Nath thrashed, biting through the bonds. Will managed to throw him off but he whirled again and slammed him into the ground. He snarled again as Will struck him across the face with a burning fist, singeing his fur and blistering his nose.
“Forget that waste of skin, kill the Consort!” Undermouth roared, waving the scepter.
As if dragged by another force, Nath swung off of Will and rounded on Evan. This time he was unprepared and slammed to the ground, hitting his head so hard he almost blacked out. Tears stung his eyes and the back of his throat. This wasn’t how he wanted to die; this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. He glimpsed Will lying a few feet away, bleeding and gasping for breath. He was trying to drag himself towards them.
Time was almost up and Evan’s light was going out, he used the last surge of his strength to pin Nath’s face away, ignoring the claws raking his skin, splitting his magic and trashing his armour to nothing. “Nath!” he cried helplessly. “It’s me. It’s Evan.” Why the fuck was he doing this? What could it possibly achieve in this situation? Strong jaws bore down on him, razor-sharp teeth inches from his face and coming closer. He had to try something- anything- if he was going to die anyway, at least it would be by Nath’s hand, not Undermouth’s.
A shadow passed the sky, large and a jet of light struck one of the high towers. He could pay it no mind as he met Nath’s ferocious gaze.
“Remember that day in the orchard where we tasted the apples? When we went to see the aspen for the first time? I do, and I remember weeks later when you broke into my rooms and asked me to marry you like a loon,” said Evan, voice strained as he fought for his life. Just a few more seconds, he had to try. He met the blood-lusted gaze. “I know you’re in there, Nath, and if you’re gonna kill me at least do it knowing I love and forgive you. May the gods have mercy on our souls.” The te
nsion in his arms snapped like a rubber band and he closed his eyes waiting for the jaws to fall. Second passed, and… seconds continued to pass. He dared open his eyes. There werewolf was above him, claws either side of his face, jaws inches away but no longer threatening to tear his soul from his body. He met its gaze in stunned confusion but he didn’t see the monster that moments ago wanted to end his life, he saw his husband.
Nath recoiled as though struck, staring at Evan with puppy-dog eyes.
He laughed, as much from shock as anything else. But they couldn’t remain like this forever, Undermouth’s jeers continued, his laughter bouncing off the walls, and suddenly it all hit him. They could use this. “Nath?” He said softly.
His husband’s eyes met his own, swimming with emotion; something close to pleading but distant enough to convey a message. He turned his jaw toward Undermouth and the silence between them spoke a thousand words. Slowly, Nath bent his head and sank his teeth into Evan’s trousers, the armour plating them tore beneath this fangs and he let out vicious snarls and hawking barks, it sounded like he was savaging him. Evan sucked in a breath and howled to the moons. He was in no pain at all and lay very still, shouting and crying with pain that never came.
Undermouth was cheering Nath on, practically jumping for joy at the sounds. “Bring him to an end!”
Nath snapped, a vicious sound, and Evan fell silent, watching. They met eyes once more and Nath nuzzled beneath his neck, it was something akin to apology and affection, trust and adoration. Without warning he sank his teeth into his own thigh, blood coated his muzzle and he turned his great hulking mass and stalked around the rubble, hair raised on his back.
“All hail King Artemis I and his most loyal creation,” Undermouth sneered.
Evan shifted, crawling across the stone to peer carefully around the rubble. Nath was approaching Undermouth like the good pet he thought he was. Ten feet from them, Will lay, fighting consciousness and trying to push himself to his hands and knees to see, a trail of blood ran down his forehead, staining his clothes.