Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 4) - Page 26

“Neve told us that you’d be able to show us to the Temple of Artemis?” Jaxson asked.

“Yep. Right this way,” she said cheerfully, heading down the path in the opposite direction than the one she’d come. “I’d give you a tour of the place if the moon was up, but it’s a bit dark, and I imagine you’re pressed for time.”

“Thank you so much, but the clocking is ticking,” I said regretfully. “The portal we came through, was that a well?”

“That’s the Minoan Fountain. It was one of the island’s public fountains, but long before that, it was a sacred spring that belonged to the nymphs.” She gave me a wink.

Was she a nymph? Her signature was unfamiliar and tasted like raw honey. She definitely wasn’t a sorceress or werewolf, or hell, a demon or vampire, for that matter.

Myrto led us down the weatherworn dirt path, her flashlight sweeping the way ahead. Like ghosts of the past, the ruins were pale and barely visible in the faint starlight. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret for not being able to see the place in its former glory, or even the light of day.

Suddenly, the hair on my neck stood on end, and I got the uncanny feeling of lightning about to strike, or of being watched.

I slowed my steps and scanned our surroundings. My attention settled on the outlines of a large building to our left. Broken columns and other pieces of architecture littered the interior, and a rectangular slab with a bull head was set on three supports.

Nothing moved in the ruins, but something wasn’t right.

Myrto must have noticed my gaze because she paused to flick her light toward the structure. “That’s a stoa. It doesn’t look like much now, but it was once a covered walkway with statues. Right beyond it is the Sanctuary of Apollo, where we’re headed.”

I glanced back at Jaxson and met his eyes. He gave me a subtle nod.

Something was up, and he knew it.

The air was almost heavy, and something about the old magic of the place started to shimmer and shift almost imperceptibly. Myrto drifted into conversation with the loremaster, but Jaxson and Sam both had their eyes fixed on the darkness.

One moment, all three of us stood there listening and searching for scents. Then a crunching and grating sound echoed from the distance, almost like stones being moved.

I stepped up beside Sam and Jaxson. “What is that?”

Jaxson’s nostrils flared, and then his body tensed. “Loremaster, Myrto, quiet—something’s headed our way.”

“What?” Myrto asked, glancing over her shoulders.

I felt a rising swell of dark energy rush over me.

The Dark God.

“I think we’re in trouble,” I whispered.

Before Jaxson could respond, two starlit shadows appeared at the junction in the path about a hundred yards ahead. My blood iced.

About the size and shape of lions, the feline creatures began to prowl toward us. Something was off about them. Their bodies were too sleek, and they moved with an unnatural gait.

Whatever they were, I had no doubt who’d sent them—the Dark Wolf God, to stop us from calling the Moon. But how had he known?

For a second, one paused, searching. The instant its soulless black eyes locked onto us, it bolted in our direction, and its partner was right on its heels.

I shouted a warning as adrenaline surged through my veins, and I instinctively shot forward with Jaxson and Sam to protect Myrto and the loremaster, who were about twenty paces ahead.

“Fates! What’s going on?” Myrto exclaimed.

The two beasts closed the distance in a flash.

Jaxson launched forward, colliding with the first in a crash of flesh and stone. As they skidded across the ground, the beast roared and kicked out with its hind leg, sending Jaxson flying back.

He landed on his feet with one hand on the ground as Sam hurtled into the second feline.

Her shoulder hit first, and she ricocheted with a horrifying crunch of bone and a pained grunt, as if she’d run into a brick wall. She practically had. The felines were made of stone, animated statues from a lost age. With a swift pounce and swipe, the stone lion rammed her into the low wall of the stoa.

Rage filled me, and I let the thrill of the hunt take over as I bounded over the crumbled wall.

The creature reared up to finish Sam.

With my adrenaline burning, I leapt forward and grasped its raised foreleg, using my momentum to pull it off balance.

I landed in the dirt, but it crashed into a broken column. Unfortunately, before I could even get up, it had righted itself. The thing prowled forward, its dark eyes focused entirely on me.

Then its head jerked unnaturally to the side, and it turned on Sam.

What the hell? Why wasn’t it coming after me?

“Hey!” I jumped to my feet and released a quick blast of shadows. It jerked its head back at me before turning its attention to Sam, who was now backed up against a low wall.

Realization dawned. The Dark God was controlling it like a marionette. He was going to kill my friends and leave me alive because he was planning to use me the same way—as his puppet.

Fucking bastard.

Tags: Veronica Douglas Magic Side: Wolf Bound Fantasy
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