Liam Wolfe's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

Liam pushed the den door open. The iron came with the men, a wall of cold pressing through the trees. It hit his lungs like smoke. His spine bent. Fur pushed under his skin before he could count a breath. Luna stepped out behind him. "Match me," she said. But the iron was too close, and his shift lurched out of rhythm. He felt his hands curl into claws. His teeth ached. Somewhere in his chest the wolf turned, and it turned toward the nearest warm thing. That was Luna. He staggered a step away from her. "Stay back," he growled. It did not sound like his voice. Luna did not move back. She dropped to the dirt and pressed both palms flat. "Feel the roots," she said. "They run to the willow. Find my pull." Her voice stayed level, no soft edges to it. The roots hummed up through the stone under his feet. He grabbed for the rhythm and missed it. The iron drowned it out. Then a small light dropped between them. Luminara, the fairy who tended the blossom willow, hovered at his eye level. She had trained his breathing since the first hunter came. Her glow steadied. "Don't chase the pull," she said. "Chase me. In." He breathed in. "Hold." He held. The claws stopped growing. "Out with her roots." He breathed out. This time the root-hum caught his breath and carried it. Luna gathered. He drew in. Luna released. He let go. The two rhythms locked, the way they had against the iron shards on the floor. The fur sank. His hands opened back into hands. A shape slid from the dark between the trees. A sleek cat, black fur split by lines of blue fire, embers flickering along its back. One of the willow's creatures, cornered by the iron and running for the only safe place it knew. It pressed against Luna's leg and stared out at the men. The hunters came into the lantern light, iron pikes low. Liam stood in front of the cat and the witch and the fairy. He was still a man. He breathed with Luna, and the wolf answered when he called it, not before. He let the change come on his own count. Fur, teeth, weight, all at his order. He rose as the wolf and stayed himself inside it. Luna ripped her hands up. Roots burst from the ground and snared the lead hunter's legs. Liam moved with her pull, one beat behind, a single unit. The men saw the wolf that had chosen its moment. They broke and ran into the trees. Liam shifted back and knelt, breathing hard. The cat had not left Luna's side. "I held it," he said. "Under the iron. With you." Luna nodded once. Then Luminara's glow dimmed and pointed north. More iron moved out there, circling wide, coming for the willow itself.