Fenrir Moonscar's Arc

Chapter 4 of 8

The tusked beast carried them past the broken bridge and left them on wet stone. Grayson turned back the way they had come without a word. Fenrir stood on the far shore with the pup shivering against his chest. Frost walked ahead of him toward the drowned shrine, quick and silent. She kept one paw pressed to her belt as she moved. She had done that all across the water. Fenrir watched her hide it and knew he could not follow her into that ruin blind. The path led them into a cavern of blue ice. Icicles hung like teeth from the ceiling. The walls glowed pale and cold. Frost stopped at the center and turned. Her breath smoked. "The shrine is just beyond," she said. "Stay close." "No." Fenrir set the pup down behind him. "You've watched me since the hollow. You touch your belt every time the mark shows. I won't turn my back on that." He stepped closer, blocking the way out. "Empty it. Now." Her ears flattened. For a moment he thought she would fight. Then her shoulders dropped. She pulled two things from her belt and held them out on her open paw. The first was a silver pendant, bright and delicate, ringed with small colored stones. The second was a gold locket, old and dented, streaked with dried blood. Fenrir's fur rose. "Whose blood?" "The last one who came here." Frost's voice cracked. "The wolf who wore your mark. He was my brother." She opened the locket. Inside was a tiny crescent, scratched into the metal by hand. "He crossed to the shrine and something killed him. I found the locket on the shore. Nothing else." Fenrir stared at the blood. "And the pendant?" "His. He gave it to me before he left. I kept it to remember him." She closed her paw around both. "When I saw your chest in the hollow, I thought I was seeing him again. I followed you because I had to know. Did the mark lead him to his death, or did he throw his life away?" Her eyes shone. "I never meant you harm. I meant to reach the shrine and learn what took him." Fenrir's throat tightened. Her intensity made sense now. Grief, not malice. He reached out and closed her paw gently over the locket. "Then we go together," he said. "You watch my back. I'll watch yours." Frost nodded. She fastened the pendant around her neck where he could see it. The suspicion between them fell away like ice off a branch. The pup pressed against both their legs. Then Fenrir looked past her, deeper into the cavern. Beyond the far arch of ice, the drowned shrine waited in the dark. Frost's brother had walked in and never walked out. Now Fenrir knew the same thing had teeth. He picked up the pup and stepped toward it.