Liam Wolfe's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The iron ring wrapped the willow's roots. Luna knelt and pressed her hand to the ground. Her jaw tightened. "The roots are cold," she said. "The iron is choking them. I can barely feel the earth." Their whole plan had leaned on her pull guiding his shift. Now the hunters moved out of the trees, blades drawn. A small ball of light dropped from the willow's blossoms. Luminara, the fairy who kept the tree alive, hovered near Liam's ear. She had guided his breathing since the first night, long before Luna came. "The tree still breathes," she said. "Faint. But it breathes. Follow me, not the roots." A soft pink-and-white rabbit bolted from the grass. The wolf woke inside Liam and lunged for it. His shoulders surged first, tearing past any beat. This time Luna's magic could not reach through the iron to pull him back. The change ripped forward on its own. "Liam, breathe," Luna said. She raised her hands, but her fingers shook. The roots gave her nothing. "I can't hold you. The iron has me." His spine bowed. Fur climbed his neck. The wolf took his arms, then his chest. Luna reached for his shoulder and he snapped his teeth near her wrist. She fell back. His human thoughts thinned to almost nothing. Then the fairy's light pulsed close to his eyes. "In," Luminara said, small and steady. "With me. In." Liam had learned this before the roots. Before Luna. He grabbed the fairy's rhythm and breathed in on her count. He forced the shoulders to wait. One count. Two. The surge slowed. He dragged the change back onto the light's beat, not the earth's. Bone by bone, he found himself again inside the wolf. He rose full werewolf, but his eyes were his own. He turned from the rabbit. He turned from Luna. He faced the hunters. Luna stared. "You held," she said. "Without me." Liam charged the closest hunter and knocked the blade from his hand. Luna scrambled to her feet. She could not pull roots, but she snatched a fallen dagger and stood at his flank. Together they drove the hunters back into the trees. The rabbit crouched safe behind the willow's trunk. When the last hunter ran, Liam shifted down and knelt in the grass, chest heaving. Luminara settled on his knee. "The iron took your beat," the fairy said. "But you kept mine." Luna crossed to him. Her voice stayed flat, but her hand pressed his shoulder. "You don't need the roots to hold. You held alone." Liam looked at the iron ring still choking the tree. He had mastered the shift without her pull. But the willow was dying under the metal, and Luna's magic could not save it while the iron stayed. He had won the wolf and lost the tree. "We have to get the iron off," he said. "Before the willow dies."